Acts 2:13 others joked, “They’re drunk on cheap wine.” (The Message Bible)
Fifty days after Easter we in the church celebrate Pentecost. We call it that because the events that occurred in Acts chapter 2 happened during the Jewish festival called Pentecost, a harvest celebration fifty days after Passover. Acts 2 describes the coming of the Holy Spirit to the apostles in a special way and so it is sometimes thought of as the birthday of the church. There was a sound like a mighty wind and something like tongues of fire on the group as they spoke in such a way that all those within earshot heard them in their own language. It must have been a pretty chaotic scene and the verse above expresses one reaction to it. We, too, live in a world of many voices which can seem just as chaotic; voices of friends, voices in the media, voices of family; political voices, moral voices, religious voices. Everybody seems to have a take on what life is all about and how you should live yours. They can’t all be right and much of it seems to be aimed at getting your money or your vote or your admiration. It is tempting to call them all crazy, call them drunk with whatever, and retreat into some sort of private sanctuary. I know I have a cynical side that wants shut out all the noise. But, every now and then, God speaks in the midst of the din. How to sort out God from among all the messages is challenging to say the least, but if you don’t believe in the possibility that God can and might speak then there is not much chance you will hear him no matter what he says. The folks who didn’t dismiss the disciples as being drunk were asking themselves and each other “what’s going on here?” Maybe that’s a starting place. What voices are you hearing this week? Any chance God is in one of them? What is going on here?
Logan Memorial Presbyterian Church 