What do you have to say for yourself?

Acts 2: 1-21, NT page 119 When the day of Pentecost had come they were all together in one place. And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit, and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability. Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven living in Jerusalem. And at this sound the crowd gathered and was bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in the native language of each. 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 language 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.” But Peter, standing with the eleven, raised his voice and addressed them, “Men of Judea and all you who live in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and listen to what I say. Indeed, these are not drunk, as you suppose, for it is only nine o’clock in the morning. No, this is what was spoken through the prophet Joel: ‘In the last days it will be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams. Even upon my slaves, both men and women, in those days I will pour out my Spirit; and they shall prophesy. And I will show portents in the heaven above and signs on the earth below, blood and fire and smoky mist. The sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon to blood, before the coming of the Lord’s great and glorious day. Then everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.’ Sermon These words form the prophet Joel that Peter quotes describe the last days – those days that so many fear – a time of reckoning and judgement – days not so unlike last Thursday for last Thursday was report card day. In the school system that I grew up in report cards were mailed home, but here I’ve learned that all parents were given the chance to come by the school to pick their child’s report card up, before he had the chance to hide it and then claim that it must have gotten lost in the mail. All across Maury County I imagine that fathers and mothers were looking down their nose at their children, pointing to grades that should have been higher, saying those words that every child hates to hear, “What do you have to say for yourself?” Now maybe not every parent says those exact words. I imagine that I will simply because those were the words that my parents said to me, and I heard them more than once. My mother notices that the pie that was supposed to be for dinner that evening when guests were coming over has a slice cut out of it. My father finds a scratch on his car after he told me not to take it out of the driveway. My little brother goes into the kitchen crying with a knot on his head. All three scenarios inspired the same reaction out of my parents: “Joe! What do you have to say for yourself?” There are times in life when a response is required – where your silence allows another person’s interpretation of events to guarantee your condemnation. But how difficult it is to speak. How difficult it is to find the words – but how impossible it is for anyone to see the truth if you stay silent. And that’s the thing about so many events in life. They don’t really know what’s going on until they hear what you have to say. Today, in addition to being Pentecost, today is the day when our Confirmation Class, young people who were raised in this church, will stand before you to speak for themselves, to say what it is that they believe, and how true it is that we don’t really know them until we’ve heard them speak. One Sunday morning Elijah Hedrick and I were waiting to see if any of his other Confirmation classmates were going to show up. It was the Sunday after Thanksgiving or something like that, so with the rest of his class out of town I suggested that Elijah go down to Fellowship Hall early and have a chance at the donuts before anyone else gets there. I assumed he didn’t have any interest in a private Confirmation tutoring session with his pastor, so I asked him: “What do you say Elijah, would you like to skip the lesson and go get a donut?” But Elijah said, “I think we better go ahead with the lesson. This is Confirmation. This is serious.” So you see, we can assume, be we don’t really know until we’ve heard him speak. I had a similar experience at a wedding. The wedding was held in a beautiful setting – the Botanical Gardens in Athens, Georgia. The wedding was for the daughter of two of my favorite members of Good Shepherd Presbyterian Church, but the mother of the groom was running late. The wedding was scheduled to start at 4:00, but she had just called her son to tell him that she wouldn’t be there until 5:30. The father of the bride, his name is George and he was my Clerk of Session. It was his job, as it is the job of our Clerk of Session, Mark Bridges, to keep meetings at the church moving quickly and effectively so George was used to things happening on time. When George got the news about the mother of the groom running an hour and a half late he looked like a man about to have a heart attack. I was worried his head was about to explode so I kept my distance from him, and that meant I was watching when he walked right up to his daughter, held her in his arms and said, “Don’t worry. This is going to be fine. All that matters is that you love him and he loves you. This wedding will happen at whatever time it needs to.” “What do you have to say for yourself?” the crowd was asking – but no one really knew until he spoke. The funeral is like that. The power of words is as clear at a funeral as it is anyplace else, probably more. Some people think that the preacher’s job is to say some nice words about the deceased, to make a joke or two to lighten the mood, but that’s not it. The preacher’s job is to speak, to testify to the truth – he must come to the grave armed for a battle waged by words – for death is there fighting to rule the day. Death has a sermon all his own you see. Death is the end, he says – the grave is a black hole that swallows up life into nothing – and death preaches this sermon from the darkness of the grave and when he is done he looks up to the preacher taunting, “What do you have to say for yourself?” It’s a fine question, and the faithful of every generation are asked it in one way or another – what do you have to say for yourself, for it seemed to them that either he was crazy or drunk – maybe both. That’s what the Apostle Peter was up against, and in answer to their questions this is what he said, “Men of Judea and all you who live in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and listen to what I say. Indeed, these are not drunk, as you suppose, for it is only nine o’clock in the morning. No, this is what was spoken through the prophet Joel: ‘In the last days it will be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams. Even upon my slaves, both men and women, in those days I will pour out my Spirit; and they shall prophesy.’ Today you will hear five young men and women speak for themselves as well. You will hear from Kyle – whose fiery red hair is no match for his fiery mind and his fiery spirit. You will hear from Hannah – whose grace as an athlete is complimented by her kindness and her smile. You will hear from Branham – who is brave enough to stare you in the eye and to hear what you have to say. You will hear from Farrar – who minces no words and who knows who she is in the eyes of God. And you will hear from Elijah – who takes his faith seriously. As a church we will ask them, “What do you have to say for yourself?” And as young men and women of faith, they will speak for themselves. Thanks be to God. Amen.