Adult Object Lesson: Pentecost
Why concentrate on diversity?
It’s Pentecost!
Part of the Pentecost story that we gloss over is the list of hometowns of those who heard the commotion that followed the descent of the Holy Spirit like tongues of fire.
The eleven were meeting privately when the Holy Spirit struck. But things changed very quickly.
Jerusalem was crowded with Jews celebrating the ancient Jewish holiday of Pentecost. Pentecost was a harvest festival. This particular Pentecost would surely have been charged with excitement at the recent two months of gossip, which included the crucifixion of Jesus and the many reported sightings of the risen Lord.
There was a new account. Jesus had recently disappeared into the heavens.
Now, perhaps, things would settle down.
What was that noise?
People came running. They encountered a lot of people speaking strangely but they heard the din in their own languages.
They heard. They understood. Their understanding led to bewilderment.
Then comes the list of foreign regions and our modern ears turn off. The reader may stumble over the names. We graciously jump ahead, mentally putting the lector out of misery.
All the confusion is to fulfill a prophecy.
It is an inclusive prophecy.
Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. Everyone.
It’s high time we work at it!
Today’s object is the list of foreign places in the reading from Acts 2:1-21.
Read the list (vv. 9-11) and have your congregation repeat the names after you. They may think you are giving them a lesson in pronunciation.
When you reach the end of the biblical list extend the list to include neighborhoods your congregation will recognize and needs to serve. Continue the list just as if your local neighborhoods were listed in the Bible. Have them continue to echo the names of the local neighborhoods or groups of people—the ones they know how to pronounce!