Shut up!Sit Tight and study!

Jack Levison: Pentecost for the Rest of Us

Rule #3: Sit Tight and Study

After Jesus' followers had waited and prayed, Pentecost broke loose. "Amazed and astonished," spectators asked, "How is it that ... in our own languages we hear them speaking about God's praiseworthy acts" (Acts 2:8-11).

God's praiseworthy acts is shorthand for God's participation in Israel's history. In the Torah, Moses encouraged the Israelites to "acknowledge God's praiseworthy acts, God's mighty hand and God's outstretched arm" (Deuteronomy 11:2). One of Israel's poets urges:

"Sing to God, sing praises to God; 
tell of all God's praiseworthy acts" (Psalm 105:1-2).

Strip off the spectacular, and you'll see something going on in that Upper Room ahead of Pentecost. With all the talk of tongues and fire and drunks at 9 a.m., we tend to miss this part: Jesus' people studied the Jewish Bible, the Christian Old Testament.

When Pentecost breaks loose, the content is clear and crisp even if the dialects are puzzling. Jesus' followers recite God's praiseworthy acts -- the warp and woof of Israel's Scripture. For all the emphasis in the story of Pentecost on the rush of a violent wind, for all the focus on speaking in other tongues, for all the talk of drunken disciples, for all of this, what remains when the dust settles is a group of undistinguished followers of Jesus who know and recite God's