Day 4

Readings and Thoughts for Ash Wednesday, February 6, 2008

Acts 2:14-36 Peter Addresses the Crowd

“I have a dream…”

“Four score and seven years ago…”

“Ask not what you can do for your country…”

We travel through the experiences of life, some remarkable, some mundane, and we may or may not make sense of all we are experiencing as it rushes past us. But occasionally, someone will stand up and make a speech that seems to capture a moment in time or a movement in history. We remember these speeches for generations. They become icons for us – verbal images that define our time or our identity. Sometimes we remember the words exactly as they were used in that moment; other times it is the image, the truth, that remains and the precise words of the speaker become fuzzy over time.

On the day of Pentecost, after the Holy Spirit gave the miraculous gift of speech, Peter stood up and made such a statement. We don’t know, we will never know, how accurately Luke recalled his exact words, but we know that the picture Luke paints for us of this moment in history is an accurate one. Peter’s speech addresses us as much as it addresses the crowd on that day.

The first miracle of this speech? That Peter is the one giving it! Peter is not literate, he is a Galilean fisherman. And just forty days ago Peter couldn’t be made to profess his faith in Jesus even to a single serving girl near a charcoal fire – and yet here he is, addressing a vast international throng and proclaiming the Gospel of Jesus Christ in such powerful terms that thousands will become Christians that very day. Truly this is God’s work, because Peter never could have accomplished this on his own.

Notice how Peter uses scripture to tell the story of Jesus. He tells of the Holy Spirit as it was described by the prophet Joel. He describes the Lordship of Jesus Christ as prophesied by King David. But Peter didn’t have time to run do a little Bible study before he began speaking, did he? He could use scripture so effectively because the words of scripture were already inside him – he had learned and memorized these words long before the day of Pentecost. Whenever the faithful make the effort to learn the scriptures, even if they don’t seem relevant at the time we study them, God finds opportunities to draw those holy words back out into the world through our mouths. We cannot proclaim what we have not ingested. God cannot draw upon what was never there in the first place.

Maybe, like Peter, you are an unlikely speech maker. Probably you will never be asked to actually give a speech about Jesus. But every Christian is called to witness; called to be available to share the story of Jesus Christ. Our willingness to soak up God’s word privately will have everything to do with how the Holy Spirit can inspire us to reach others publicly.

How much scripture have you memorized? Have you ever had a time when a memorized word (scripture or otherwise) came back at an unexpected moment to help or inspire you?