Eastertide
May 13, 2016

Scripture Reading: Acts 2:1-21

Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven living in Jerusalem. And at this sound the crowd gathered and was bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in the native language of each. Amazed and astonished, they asked, ‘Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? And how is it that we hear, each of us, in our own native language? –Acts 2:5-8

How often do we hear what we want to hear? Some politicians, or at least someone on their staff, become very skilled at saying what they think people want to hear rather than the reality that they face. We think we want the truth but often we do not. It is the reason I prick my ears to hear more clearly the latest and greatest way to keep weight off while not having to exercise. What is being pushed might even be dangerous but I listen anyway. This also applies to cross cultural communication. Our understanding of the world is carefully drawn from our values and culture.

Jesus understood this phenomenon well and that is why he taught in parables to help his disciples understand by giving them a different perspective from which to comprehend their world. He quotes from Isaiah when he explains this to those same disciples.

And he said, ‘Go and say to this people:
“Keep listening, but do not comprehend;
keep looking, but do not understand.” (Isaiah 6:9)

The scripture above from Acts tells us that at Pentecost the disciples begin to get it: And how is it that we hear, each of us, in our own native language? The Holy Spirit brings this gift of understanding.

We desperately need that gift in our world today as we deal with differing life styles and ways of being and try to parse from them what is of God and what is not. We are not called to judge things differing that is Jesus’ job; we are called to understand such diversity so that we can love appropriately as ambassadors of Christ.

Prayer: Come Holy Spirit open our hearts and minds to see the ways our love can heal a broken world and give us the courage to love without judging. Amen.

All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized 
Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council 
of Churches of Christ in the United States of American. Used by permission. All rights 
reserved.