By Richard Vinson
“Find your voice” is advice sometimes given to novice writers who are trying too hard. Student writers sometimes want to sound like the sources they read, or like other successful writers, and the resulting essays sound stilted.
Sometimes, what works is to ask the student to talk about her story or essay: “Just tell me what you want to say, as if you were talking to a friend who’s interested in what you are doing, but doesn’t know all about it.” You let the student talk, you might ask a prompting sort of question, and often the student finally relaxes, and then you say, “Yes! That’s it! Write it like that!”
These Pentecost preachers, inflamed and empowered by the Spirit, were actually not all novices. The 120 or so members of that group had mostly been with Jesus since he began his ministry in Galilee. According to Luke 10, 70 of them had been preaching and ministering in Jesus’ name throughout the villages between Galilee and Jerusalem. But nowhere in Luke do we have a record of what these disciples sounded like in the field. Luke reserves the spotlight in the Gospel for Jesus, as we might expect.
So here, on this day, they break loose with the fire of the Spirit of God in their hearts and voices. They preach, telling anyone who will listen about the mighty acts of God done in their lives and in their community.
The miracle of how all the hearers can understand, “each of us in our own native language,” might mean that these Galileans all are empowered to speak other languages, or might mean that for each listener, the Holy Spirit provided a translation.
However it happened, the important thing is that on that day, the church found its voice.
- Tell your story in your own way. Tell others about what God has done in your life. When you find your voice, who knows what impact you will have?
- Why do you think it was important for this miracle of languages to happen in the early life of the church? What sorts of things do we do now that are analogous to what happened at Pentecost?
- What do you think is symbolized by the “tongues like fire” resting on each of the believers? What other details did you notice in today’s reading?
Prayer: O Spirit, fill us. O Spirit, give us a voice, and through us help others to know the good news of Jesus. Amen.
