Pentecost Devotion: A Tinkle of Joy
“The sorrow of repentance is meant to give way to a smile.”
Author: Mark A. Paustian
It may be to my father’s deep dismay, but it makes the list of “My 10 favorite sermons Dad ever preached.” It’s his famous Pentecost 1974, “Tinkle of Joy” sermon. It went something like this: “We love Christmas and can’t wait for the day to arrive. Easter has a joy all it’s own. But how many of us wake up on the morning of Pentecost with a tinkle of joy?”
You’ll agree, that’s a particularly interesting choice of words! He has never quite lived it down. Later, when he heard from his children what he had said, and how we five benign critics in the back row interpreted, no one laughed louder than he. Pentecost has never been quite the same.
Dad’s Joy And here’s something you maybe did not know: “Jonah swallowed the whale . . . or rather . . . the whale was swallowed by Jonah . . . uh . . . vice versa.” Hours later it was his mumbled “vice versa” that he found particularly 
amusing. Ever wonder what goes through a preacher’s mind at that time? He gave us the running commentary at dinner: “. . . and so, try as I might, I just could NOT get that whale out of Jonah’s mouth.”
Again, I remember there being a “sound of great rejoicing” around the pot roast that day, entirely at my father’s expense. No one enjoyed playfully embellishing these “great moments in preaching” more than he. And if you’ll pardon me, at holding the truth of God sacred and finding humor in just about everything else, he’s still number one with me.
God’s Joy So don’t misunderstand. The truths of God are no laughing matter. But we are. That’s what he taught me. Also, the sorrow of repentance is meant to give way to a smile.
Erma Bombeck had a point when, after watching a mother give her son a belt for “grinning” in church, she observed: “I wanted to grab this child with the tear-stained face close to me and tell him about my God. The happy God. The smiling God. Foolish woman, I thought. If he couldn’t smile in church, where was there left to go?” (At Wits End!)
Where indeed? The gospel calls us to have joy–exceeding great joy–at God’s expense. It cost him. It cost the sending, sacrificing, and raising-to-life of his Son, so that in a world in tears we could “laugh to the measure we have faith” (Martin Luther). While Christ received only God’s infinite favor, we were utterly condemned because of our sins . . . no . . . vice versa! That “vice versa” holds all the joy in the world.
The month of May remembers with a smile Jesus’ ascension, the work of our salvation being, in an unmumbled word, “finished.” May recalls disciples staring at the sky like tourists in Manhattan. May remembers tongues of flame dancing on their heads. May calls to mind 3,000 souls who put their faith in Jesus and came to know the “smiling God who washes your sins away,” all in a single afternoon. Laugh at him? God forbid. Laugh near him? With him? Yes, yes, yes. . . to the measure of your faith. “Our mouths were filled with laughter, our tongues with songs of joy. Then it was said among the nations, ‘The Lord has done great things for them’ ” (Psalm 126:2).
So, this Pentecost, as the sun rises on another birthday for this costly miracle known as the Christian Church, may it bring you a wave of peace, a stirring of love, and a . . . you know.
Prayer: Beacon of Hope
Dear Heavenly Father, Open the hearts to your Word in our homeland so that America may remain in the blessings we have been blessed with so many years, so we may also remain a beacon of hope for so many. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
(LWMS: My Mission Prayer)
Hymn: I Love to Tell the Story
I love to tell the story of unseen things above,
Of Jesus and his glory, of Jesus and his love,
I love to tell the story because I know it’s true;
It satisfies my longings as nothing else can do.
I love to tell the story; ’twill be my theme in glory
To tell the old, old story of Jesus and his love.
I love to tell the story, for those who know it best
Seem hungering and thirsting to hear it like the rest.
And when in scenes of glory I sing the new, new song,
‘Twill be the old, old story that I have loved so long.
I love to tell the story; ’twill be my theme in glory
To tell the old, old story of Jesus and his love.
Arabella C. Hankey 1834-1911
Motherhood…God’s Idea
Adam named his wife Eve, because she would become the mother of all the living. Genesis 3:20
God also said to Abraham, “As for Sarai your wife, you are no longer to call her Sarai; her name will be Sarah. I will bless her and will surely give you a son by her. I will bless her so that she will be the mother of nations; kings of peoples will come from her.” Genesis 17:15-16
“Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the LORD your God is giving you. Exodus 20:12
For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. Psalm 139:13 From birth I was cast upon you; from my mother’s womb you have been my God. Psalm 22:10 Yet you brought me out of the womb; you made me trust in you even at my mother’s breast. Psalm 22:9
In a loud voice she exclaimed: “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the child you will bear! But why am I so favored, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? As soon as the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy. Luke 1:42-44
When Jesus saw his mother there, and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to his mother, “Dear woman, here is your son,” and to the disciple, “Here is your mother.” From that time on, this disciple took her into his home. John 19:26-27
I have been reminded of your sincere faith, which first lived in your grandmother Lois and in your mother Eunice and, I am persuaded, now lives in you also. 2 Timothy 1:5
Happy Mother’s Day!
Woman of Faith: A reason for hope
An English-as-a-second language tutor gets an opportunity to share the message of Jesus with a seven-year-old.
I am a tutor for children who speak English as their second language. One of my students is a Vietnamese boy in second grade. Minh is seven years old. Our regular routine of chatting casually at the beginning of our tutoring sessions proved to be a perfect opportunity to share Jesus one day.
I have a fully illustrated children’s Bible story book sitting on a table. Across from the table, I have a picture of Jesus praying in the Garden of Gethsemane and a wooden cross near the picture. One day after Minh had arrived, we were catching up on the usual items for discussion. The 2010 earthquake in Haiti had occurred just the week before, and Minh talked about the pictures he had seen. We talked about the earthquake and the people that died. Minh said, “I don’t want to die. That scares me. Why do these bad things happen?”
I asked him, “Can I tell you what I know about death and what happens after you die?”
Minh was ready to listen, and so I told him about how Jesus’ death means new life in heaven with God, where there is no more suffering. Minh began to ask many questions, and so I opened the Bible story book and started with creation, Adam and Eve, and how sin came into the world.
Minh and I looked at the picture together, and I told him how Adam and Eve fell into sin. But in the picture, the shadow of a cross falls across Adam and Eve. I pointed out that shadow. Pointing to the wooden cross in the room, Minh said, “It is like that one on the wall.”
We talked more about what the cross meant and how Jesus had done nothing wrong yet he took all the bad things we have ever done or will do and suffered the punishment that we deserve, giving his perfect life in exchange. We looked at pictures of the crucifixion and then of Easter morning and the empty tomb. I told him how death could not keep Jesus in the tomb and that on the third day he was alive again. Minh said, “Oh, he is powerful just like his Father. He was able to just come alive on his own.”
We continued to turn the pages of the book and came upon Jesus’ ascension into heaven and Pentecost. Then Minh asked a most profound question in the most casual of tones: “So do you think he is going to come back someday?”
I answered, “Yes, Minh, he is coming again. He promised he would, and he will create a new heaven and earth for us. There won’t be floods and earthquakes and unhappiness anymore.”
As our tutoring session drew to a close, I picked up the Bible story book and asked Minh if he would like to have it. He nodded and said yes. I told him I wanted him to have it but that we would need to talk to his father about whether or not he could keep it at home. Minh’s parents have a Buddhist background. I stammered when I was trying to explain why he needed to have his father’s permission, “We need to make sure it is okay with your dad if you keep the book because . . . because . . .” Then Minh filled in the blank: “Because he doesn’t know him.”
I knew at that moment that Minh did know him.
Sara Doyle is a member at Shepherd of the Valley, Westminster, Colorado.
