Lakeside Community Presbyterian Church

I’m not sure if many of you know a little-known translation of the New Testament entitled The Cotton Patch Gospel by Clarence Jordan. Clarence Jordan was the founder of Koinonia Farm located in Georgia, a place that sought to seek racial reconciliation through this farming community during the civil rights movement which eventually influenced the start of Habitat for Humanity.

Jordan wanted to recast the stories of Jesus and the letters of the New Testament into the language and culture of the mid-twentieth-century South. He wanted to have the good news of the Gospel in the language and tongue of his time so that the readers would be participants in the faith, not merely spectators.

Here is what he wrote about Pentecost and the birth of the church that we find in Acts 2:

“When Thanksgiving Day arrived, they were all gathered in one place. Then all of a sudden there came from the sky a rumbling like a tornado, and it filled the whole house where they were gathered. And they saw forked flames as from a fire, and it stayed in contact with each one of them. Everybody was bursting with Holy Spirit and started talking in whatever different languages that the spirit directed.

Now at that time there were a lot of delegates gathered in Atlanta, religious people from countries all over the world. So when they heard this great noise, they all came running together. And then they heard these folks talking to each one of them in their own native tongue, and were they excited! Amazed and astounded no end, they said, “Look, aren’t all these speakers Americans? Then how is it that each of us is hearing it in his own native tongue – French, Spanish, German, Portuguese, Chinese, Russian, Italian, Greek, Turkish, Burmese, Hebrew, Swedish, Afrikaans, Hindi – in our own languages we are hearing them tell of God’s mighty doings.” Everybody was dumbfounded and puzzled, saying one to another, “What’s the meaning of this?” But others sneered, “They’re tanked up on white lightning.”

There is more to his translation that helps to make the birth of the church come alive. Let me encourage you to go and find a copy of this translation and let it help you see the writings in the New Testament in a new way.

As we come to church this Sunday, when the church celebrates the birth of the church and the sending of the Holy Spirit indwelling and empowering the people of God, my hope is that God’s indwelling Spirit might empower you to be a participant in His Kingdom work and not just a spectator. The Spirit’s indwelling is empowering all of us to participate in God’s work right here in Lakeside and East County. So go, be empowered by the Spirit and make a difference in your neighborhood.