Being Heard

I’ve been thinking about Johnny Cash this week. It’s one of those funny free associations that my mind seems prone to. Can anyone else think of a possible connection between Johnny Cash and Pentecost? Johnny Cash's wife died just recently, of course, so I’m sure he was a bit more prominent in my awareness than he might otherwise have been. Imagine his gravely drawl:

"Love is a burning thing. And it makes a fiery ring.
Bound by wild desire, I fell into a ring a fire.
I went down, down, down, and the flames went higher.
And it burns, burns, burns, that ring of fire, that ring of fire."

"Ring of Fire" is one of Johnny Cash’s most famous songs. He sang it with his wife, June Carter Cash. It is a love song; it is a great celebration of the joy and power of love. Pentecost is about fire, too. Although as Acts tells the story, there was nothing metaphorical or poetic about the flames of Pentecost. And while Johnny Cash may sing of falling with joyful abandon into a ring of fire, how many of us, I wonder, would have abandoned ourselves to the dancing flames of Pentecost? Yet surely the flames of Pentecost are flames of love, dancing with the joyful love of God’s presence, bearing the awesome power of God’s spirit. Pentecost is a great celebration of the joy and power of love.  Of God's love.

Over the centuries, the church has come to describe the flames of Pentecost as God’s gift of the Holy Spirit to the church. And with that gift, the church was born. Scholars will point out that the church truly began in the life and ministry of Jesus, but the Day of Pentecost is often called the birthday of the church. The church was born amid the "burning ring of fire" of God’s love.

Acts tells the Pentecost story. The disciples were huddled together inside somewhere in Jerusalem, probably in fear and uncertainty. That seems to have been their most common state, at least before Pentecost. And then suddenly they heard a sound like that of a raging hurricane, and tongues of fire appeared among them. A single tongue of fire rested upon each individual. The Scripture is quite specific. A flame rested on each individual. No one, it seems, was excluded or exempt from the Spirit’s fire. And in that fire was the Spirit’s gift, the ability to speak in other languages. And the disciples spoke! And all of those foreigners in Jerusalem—those Parthians, Medes, Elamites, residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome… All of those people from throughout virtually the whole known world at the time… All were astonished because they heard themselves being addressed in their native languages.

Some of you may know the custom in many churches of reading the Scriptures in foreign languages on the Day of Pentecost. It’s a fun tradition, but, if you think about it, it completely misses the real point of Pentecost. The point of Pentecost isn’t that the disciples spoke in foreign languages; the point is that they were heard in the native languages of foreigners. Pentecost isn’t about speaking in incomprehensible languages; it is about hearing in a comprehensible language. The visitors, the foreigners, heard and understood. The gift of the Holy Spirit was to enable the disciples to be heard by people who would not otherwise have been able to hear or understand. The whole point of the church’s birth was to make it possible for the stories of God’s great deeds to be heard by the entire world.

The primary role then of us who are the church today isn’t to just sit and listen to God’s word, although we must start there, of course. Nor is speaking the word our ultimate purpose either, no matter how many languages we may speak. All of us in the church are called to be heard. To make ourselves heard. The Pentecost story revolves around those foreign visitors to Jerusalem and the fact that they heard and were affected by the disciples’ words. All of our activities as Christians are means to the end of affecting others…  Making ourselves heard so that the whole world may know of God’s great deeds.

Mary Ann Perry and I were talking a few days ago about how teachers are used to being in situations where they need to make themselves heard. Which is one reason teachers make good lay readers. Think about it. Teachers must make themselves heard. Whether they are just keeping order or imparting knowledge or both, teachers find a way to be heard. Making yourself heard can be a lot bigger challenge than just speaking. Making yourself heard means finding a way to ensure that the person with whom you are trying to communicate actually hears, takes in, what you are saying. Sometimes volume is the key. There isn’t much point in talking about God’s mighty deeds if you’re not talking loud enough to be heard.

But any good teacher will tell you that being heard involves more than just volume. For a teacher to be heard by her or his students means speaking in a language the students understand (the Pentecost story again), whether or not that language is the teacher’s native or favored tongue. Sometimes the first step in teaching, in making sure that someone hears your message, is actively recruiting students. Surely if the lesson is a valuable one, it is worth taking it to those students who may not want or may not know how to come to class on their own. And making yourself heard also means, of course, presenting your message or your lesson in a way that is relevant and engaging and somehow meaningful within the student’s life. Otherwise, you may talk, but you will not be heard.

The parallel for us as Christians is obvious. We are to be the teachers of the gospel to a world that does not know and often does not seek its message. That is why the church was born, to make sure the Gospel is heard in this sinful and broken word. That this is the Holy Spirit’s purpose for the church is clear in Acts, and it’s certainly implied in the reading from First Corinthians, too. Paul's letter to the Corinthians describes the rich and diverse ways in which the gift of the Holy Spirit is manifest in different individuals for the common good. The point of the gift of the Spirit is for the common good. Not the individual good, the common good.  And in the Gospel, Jesus says, "As the Father has sent me, so I send you."

The role and responsibility of a Christian is to make sure the Gospel is heard by others. This point is simple, straightforward, unarguable. And yet this represents a major change in perspective for most of us. Think again about the analogy with teaching. If we are to be teachers who must make ourselves heard, who are committed to teaching, we must be continuously conscious of our students. The primary focus of our Christian life is on someone other than ourselves. Being a Christian is making sure someone else hears us, as we live and proclaim the Gospel. We have to always be thinking about that other person, who he is, what she needs, what language he speaks, how to present the Gospel in a way that is powerful or meaningful for her.

With this perspective the goal of worship then is not just to be a good experience for us in and of itself (although that is a good thing), but the goal of worship is to strengthen and empower us for our lives in the world, so that we may make ourselves heard by our actions as well as our words. Actions are sometimes heard more loudly than words. And if our goal is to convey the Gospel (not just hear it), making worship engaging for visitors becomes a primary concern. And with a focus on others, our Bible study and work on individual spiritual growth serve not only to enrich our own spiritual lives (although, again, that is a good thing), but perhaps more importantly, serve as "continuing education" to make us better teachers. And all of our decisions and activities as a parish should be evaluated in terms of whether they will help the Gospel be heard be people outside our walls.

On that first Christian Pentecost each and every Christian who was there was given the power and the language to be heard by someone else. The Spirit has given us the same ability, now it is up to us to make ourselves heard, so that the mighty deeds of God may be known throughout the world.

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