The Word of Life brings change
Norah Summers
April 30, 2017
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Acts 2: 11-14
both Jews and Gentiles converted to Judaism, and some of us are from Crete and Arabia—yet all of us hear them speaking in our own languages about the great things that God has done!” 12 Amazed and confused, they kept asking each other, “What does this mean?”
13 But others made fun of the believers, saying, “These people are drunk!”
Peter's Message
14 Then Peter stood up with the other eleven apostles and in a loud voice began to speak to the crowd:
36-41
36 “All the people of Israel, then, are to know for sure that this Jesus, whom you crucified, is the one that God has made Lord and Messiah!”
37 When the people heard this, they were deeply troubled and said to Peter and the other apostles, “What shall we do, brothers?”
38 Peter said to them, “Each one of you must turn away from your sins and be baptised in the name of Jesus Christ, so that your sins will be forgiven; and you will receive God's gift, the Holy Spirit. 39 For God's promise was made to you and your children, and to all who are far away—all whom the Lord our God calls to himself.”
40 Peter made his appeal to them and with many other words he urged them, saying, “Save yourselves from the punishment coming on this wicked people!” 41 Many of them believed his message and were baptised, and about three thousand people were added to the group that day.
Sometimes a word leaps out at you.
Four times over Easter-tide this verse came before me –
simply, directly, powerfully.
So it is woven into the themes and thoughts for this week.
Jesus said to her “Mary”. (John 20 16)
“All of us hear them speaking in our own languages”.
It’s like the Tower of Babel story in reverse,
the confusion and din rewound,
so that the message comes through
loud and clear.
Loud and clear to me.
Loud and clear to each individual.
Loud and clear to each situation.
I am fascinated by language,
and languages -
by how an infant learns
English, or Urdu, or Swahili,
Welsh, or signing, or Greek,
Gaelic, or Hebrew, or Tamil,
or even two at once in a mixed household,
and by how people can learn another language later,
more difficult because the baggage of the first one is already there.
We learn by hearing,
by imitating,
by making connections.
So we are enabled to communicate,
bridge the gap,
understand another person,
change our perspective,
grasp a new situation.
And sometimes
it only takes one single word to change everything.
Jesus said to her, “Mary”.
Lord, speak to me,
out of the Babel of life.
The language doesn’t matter.
Just my name will do.
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