Interpreters Needed
Acts 2:1-21
by Jim Westmoreland
The church celebrates this Sunday as Pentecost Sunday, the birthday of the church and the giving of the Holy Spirit. To the Jews who were crowded into Jerusalem Pentecost was the second of three pilgrimage festivals where they came to the temple in Jerusalem. It came after seven weeks from the Day of Passover. The next day, the fiftieth day, is the Day of Pentecost. It was called The Festival of Weeks, or Shavu'ot in Hebrew. It was a celebration of the giving of the Law (the ten commandments). Jewish teachers emphasize that they celebrate the giving of the Law, not receiving it, because we are constantly in the process of receiving the Torah.
Each year, we look at this text from Acts 2, and we remember an event that almost seems foreign to us, the giving of the Holy Spirit. This year, I was taken by a article from Homiletics magazine(1) on the role that Peter played that day and that we play everyday as an interpreter to others of the work of the Holy Spirit.
So, let us begin with a question: What has 25 moving parts and speaks with 20 tongues? Answer: The European Union.
In May of 2005, the European Union expanded its membership to include 25 countries, up from the 15 that already belonged. That means that there are now some 455 million people living under the collective government of the EU, and that makes it possible for the EU to rival the United States in political and economic clout.
This is a good thing, to be sure, but the 20 different languages spoken in those 25 countries get in the way of even more being accomplished. To avoid offending any one of them, the EU operates and transacts business in all 20 of the official languages of those countries. In 2005, required translation services cost the EU nearly $1.6 billion.
But money is not the half of it. Greater still is the problem of getting all this translating done in a timely fashion. A lot of the decisions agreed upon by the EU members are slow to be put into place because of translation delays. Recent delayed roll-outs have included laws intended to help developing countries import pharmaceuticals, rules regarding patenting inventions, safeguards for the world financial system and stipulations about required quarterly reporting from European companies.
Those delays are not only because of the volume of material to be translated, but also because of the lack of skilled translators. And because communication must go in both directions for all 20 languages, that means there are 380 possible two-language combinations. There just are not enough translators to accommodate all of those combinations all of the time.(2)
Likewise, when you consider all of the language groups and the communication hurdles that were present in Jerusalem on that day of Pentecost 2,000 years ago, it is remarkable that enough about Jesus got through to the crowd that 3,000 people became followers of Jesus on the spot.
The reading from Acts sounds like it could be the roll call at a general session of the European Union: "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 …." And there were no trilingual translators standing by ... none except the Holy Spirit. The wonder of it all rumbled through the crowd: "Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? And how is it that we hear, each of us, in our own native language?"
So, the first public miracle that Pentecost day was instant translation. Translation alone, however, was not sufficient, for the text tells us, "All were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, 'What does this mean?'" Thus, the miracle of translating the words from the Galilean tongue into the many languages spoken by the hearers enabled the crowd to comprehend the words of the disciples, but not to discern what those words meant.
The European Union has discovered this same problem. That's why they search for language specialists who can not only translate words, but can also interpret their meaning. A translator can go from a word in one language to a word in another, but an interpreter also knows the cultures of the two language groups. This applies to all translations of scripture, too. There is not a mechanical one-to-one procedure. One must hear the meaning, make choices about word usage, context and nuance. Interpretation is present in every translation.
On that first Christian Pentecost, Peter was the interpreter who answered the crowd's question about the meaning of the translation. He addressed the people and told them about Jesus and about salvation. In other words, the communication miracle of Pentecost happened because the Holy Spirit translated and Peter interpreted.(3)
Has it ever occurred to you that both translation and interpretation are still necessary to the spread of Christianity? Translation is the work of putting the faith into plain language for people to understand, i.e., "What does the text say?" Not, "What does the text mean?" but "What does it say?" Lots of books, Web sites, Christian education classes and sermons do that. They explain what the Christian story is, what we believe, how to read the Bible, what is expected in the way of behavior and so forth. And often, the Holy Spirit is involved in that work.
But there is still the need for interpreters. That's because there are always people who say, "Look, I understand what Christianity teaches, but so what? Why should I buy into it?" Interpreters are people like you who are convinced about the great value of Christ in your life, and can therefore answer the "What does the text mean?" question from personal experience.
This doesn't demand that you are especially eloquent or have a convincing speech ready. It doesn't mean you have a degree in Christian apologetics or narrative evangelism. But it does mean you are willing, when asked, to speak about our own experience of Christ. One of the most powerful interpretation methods is simply stating your own experience and telling why your contact with Christ has made a difference. It is being sensitive to your own faith experiences as you try to give your life to Christ each day. For example:
• "I can no longer be comfortable with my prejudices."
• "I have real peace that stays with me, even when everything is
going wrong."
• "I am less judgmental and more able to forgive."
• "I never knew a time when I was not a Christian, but I'm
convinced it enlarges my spirit."
• "I know a joy and contentment in my life I never knew
before."
• "My natural inclination is to think only of myself. But because
of Christ, I can no longer ignore the needs of others."
• "The guilt I lived with has been taken away."
• "It has put a song in my heart."
• "I cannot sin in peace."
• "Christ has given my life a purpose."
None of this interpreting guarantees the conversion of those who hear it, but statements about what commitment to Christ means to you personally has a greater impact than the best-written Sunday school lesson or the most articulate sermon that explains the faith. That's because nobody can deny your personal experience. Realistically, all they can do is say that they have never had a similar one, and when they do, you can encourage them to give Christ a try and see for themselves.(4)
In the 19th century, British biologist Thomas Huxley was widely known for his brilliance and his scientific writings, but also for his agnosticism. Sometime, toward the end of his life, he attended a house party at a country estate. When Sunday came, most of the other guests prepared to go to church, but not Huxley. Perhaps, only because he wanted some company, he approached another guest, a man known for his solid and simple Christian faith. Huxley proposed that instead of going to church, the man stay home with him and explain why he was Christian.
The man protested, "But you could demolish my arguments in an instant. I'm not clever enough to argue with you."
When Huxley assured the man that he had no intention of arguing, however, the man agreed. He stayed and told Huxley in simple terms what his faith meant to him.
When the man had finished, Huxley said, "I would give my right hand if only I could believe that."(5)
We are surrounded by people who know about God, about the church, about the Bible. What they need is an interpreter, someone who can share their experience of what it means. This is where all of our faith stories are crucially important. It is where we have come to experience the presence of Christ in our lives and can share with others our story of what that means to us and how that has made a difference. Not only did the Spirit come at Pentecost, it empowered the followers of Jesus to be interpreters of the Good News. Interpreters are still needed, and God calls each one of us to be one! Amen.
Century Christian Church, June 4, 2006 - Sermon by Jim Westmoreland
www.centurychristian.org
1. "The Interpreter," Homiletics Magazine, May-June, Volume 18, No. 3, p. 43-45.
2. Ibid, p. 43.
3. Ibid.
4. Ibid, p. 44.
5. Ibid.