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? Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabs—in our own languages we hear them speaking about God’s deeds of power.’ All were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, ‘What does this mean?’ But others sneered and said, ‘They are filled with new wine.’ Acts 2:7-13

It has been almost ten years since I preached in a church. Well, we visit churches in Florida every two years or so. I usually preach a sermon but mostly focused on our work here. It has been a while since I walked up those tiny stairs leading to a pulpit and addressed a congregation on a feast day like today; Pentecost Sunday. I accepted an invitation to preach two weeks ago. Now, I am miserable. I am not sure what I am going to say. I have to face a group of people who do not look anything like the homeless children and teens. For starters, the place will be clean; no trash and litter lying around. No one will sniffing paint thinner or smoking. Everyone will be sober, at least we hope. It is going to be a completely different congregation for me. I feel a little lost. I kept staring at the text above, hoping something would pop up. I am drawing a blank. Maybe I made a mistake accepting the invitation. It is too late now. I have to say something. I think I will start with Jesus. After all, He is the One who links the people of my street church with this congregation of well-dressed people.

Jesus said that you cannot put new wine into old wineskins. It is interesting that the scoffers on the day of the Holy Spirit said that the disciples were filled with new wine. They were right. New Wine was being poured out into the world. Unfortunately, the scoffers in their arrogance were more interested in humiliating the disciples instead of asking the right question. I think that this is often the problem. They were satisfied with their superficial reading of the situation instead of seeking true understanding. Fortunately, there were people who were sensitive to what God was doing. They were amazed that Galileans were speaking in foreign languages. For some reason, people from this region did not garner much respect from the general public in Jesus’ time. Nevertheless, they were the perfect candidates for the Holy Spirit. It was important on this special day that no one doubt the power of the Holy Spirit in action. The first miracle of Pentecost was the speaking of languages of all the peoples present there. This is of uttermost importance. It changed everything for the disciples. It changed how they understood God’s Truth in this world. They were right in asking the question; what does this mean?

A language is not just words joined together in a grammatical order. It is a treasury and library of traditions, concepts and beliefs of each culture. The disciples of Jesus were Jewish. They believed that God can only be addressed in their liturgical language which was Hebrew. It was not because they believed their language was superior. Many of them knew Greek. They were aware of its sophisticated philosophy and literature. However, they were convinced that God chose Hebrew as the language to transmit His Truth to the world. It contain the symbols and concepts necessary to comprehend the Truth about God. However, in an instance, all this changed when God’s Spirit gave people the miraculous capacity to speak and proclaim God’s praise in all the languages of the world. The sacred was no longer a property of one language. It is present in different traditions and cultures. Every people group have within them the capacity to receive and express the Truth within the context of their own cultural experience. In other words, God was no longer the exclusive right of one nation or people but His Truth is universally present everywhere. Consequently, Jesus is not just the Messiah of the Jewish people but Jesus is the Messiah of all peoples in the world. This radically changed the way the disciples understood the person of Jesus. It changed how they treated people from different religious traditions or nationalities. It broke down the walls which separated people. They did not go to other peoples to debate or convince them that Jesus was the Messiah. They went searching for the Messiah revealed in other traditions. It was not necessary for the world to become Jewish to receive Jesus. They just have to discover that Jesus is present where they are spiritually as a people.

Jesus prepared the disciples beforehand for the ministry of the Holy Spirit. He said that the Spirit will reveal the truth about Him. Consequently, the Spirit led them into the world where they discovered the true nature of Jesus. Despite this, there was still the temptation to restrict Jesus to a certain tradition and culture. In the New Testament, this struggle was obvious. It is still present today. Each group wants to present a Messiah created according to their own image. However, the voice of the Holy Spirit beckons us to come and meet and rediscover the true Jesus. He is not hiding from anyone. He is always present in an active way. The problem is that we do not ask the right questions in order to find Him. Many times, we are impressed with the dismay and chaos around us. Many times, we imposed our version of the Truth instead of listening to what the other has to say about their lives and spiritual encounter with God.

We ran into Alex a couple of days ago. Some of you may remember him. Some might have written to him. Alex was a severely neglected child who displayed autistic like behavior when we first met him. However, it was not autism. Alex was so neglected that he did not know how to react or respond to another human being. Well, he is no longer a child now. We have known him for almost nine years. He is going to turn twenty soon. He came up to us and gave us a hug. This is something new. He even said that he missed us a lot. He still sleeps in the streets but has found a job as an informal night watch person. They hardly pay him anything. In fact, they are exploiting him. In spite of this, Alex likes the fact that he does not need to beg anymore. He reminded us that his birthday is around the corner. For several years now, Alex always wants to spend his birthday with us. He always wants us to take him somewhere and on many occasions, this did not work out. Once it rained heavily. On another occasion we were away. The reality is that we only spent one birthday with him but we always made sure that he had something for his birthday. He always asked for the same thing, a notebook, despite the fact that he is illiterate. He likes to ask people to write his notebook. He also likes people to know that we gave it to him. Alex has given us a special place in his heart. However, it was not always like this. He used to ignore us whenever we saw him. Sometimes he would not say anything when we spoke to him. Initially we thought that he was rude. Thankfully the Holy Spirit taught us how to speak his language.

On one occasion Alex stopped us and asked if he could draw with us. He really wanted to share an experience with us. It was a time when he rode a horse. The orphanage where he stayed briefly organized an excursion to a ranch. He had never seen a horse till then. It was a special moment for him. His face was full of life when he shared that moment with us. It was not about the horse. Alex’s life has been a sequence of tragic loss. All his memories of his family were ones of sadness but the experience with the horse made him realize that there are moments of hope and love too. We listened to him. It was a precious moment for us as well. He spoke eloquently and the Holy Spirit gave us understanding that in his simple words he was sharing something sacred with us.

Alex is a different person now. He has changed. He is able to say that he likes us. He is able to express love. He is a new creature. He wanted to get our number so that we can arrange to meet him on his birthday which is in a few months time. Alex has no concept of time. Nevertheless, he has a strong concept of Love and it started with a horse. Thankfully, the Holy Spirit opened our eyes to see that the Love of God in this simple encounter that this young man had with an animal. It was the bridge that Alex needed to be connected with us. We did not discover any deep theological thought with Alex neither did we discover new doctrines about Jesus. We just encounter the living Jesus whenever we are together with him. This alone suffices to make us feel that life is indeed rich and beautiful.

This is what it means.