WEBVTT

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 May grace and mercy and peace be yours from

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 God our Father from the his ascended Son

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 and from the promised Holy Spirit. Amen.

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 First a word of thanks and appreciation

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 and even of joy and gratitude for the

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 welcome back to the Concordia Seminary campus from

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 and to the class of 1982.

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 We didn't Worship in this chapel and it's a

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 joy to be here. And we thank you for

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 your kindness in welcoming us back to a

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 home that was ours in the late 70s and

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 the early 80s. The second thing is though my

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 name was fourth in line in the alphabet in the

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 class of 82. They didn't volunteer people

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 to preach based on the letter of the alphabet

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 and I would have tried to get near the end back

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 then preaching to my peers and my

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 professors, but well, here

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 we are.

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 People God dearly loves

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 what language do you speak?

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 We have a custom at Crown of Life down in San

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 Antonio Texas that in our Festival worship for

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 Pentecost when Acts 2 is read

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 as it was minutes ago. A number of people are standing

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 in different aisles ready to

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 add their voices when the Lay reader comes to verses 17

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 and 21. Three days ago

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 Crown of Life members spoke heart languages and

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 learned languages in our divine Services. Farshad

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 Rose Tommy spoke Farsi.

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 Irene Uttangana spoke Kinyarwanda.

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Awill de Sierra and Juan Trevino spoke

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 Spanish. Marilyn Jarvis spoke polish. Arthur

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 Peck spoke Norwegia Wen Tao and

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 Yulin Pan spoke Mandarin. Ann Shadle spoke

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 Romanian. Manfred and Maria Shiler spoke

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 German. Pepita Quinnies spoke Takalog. Chad

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 Bird spoke Hebrew. Allison Ingram spoke

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 Latin. Eric and Lana Fatigue spoke

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 Georgian. Gad Cabaruka and Jim Willis spoke French.

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 Susan Conrad spoke a Nigerian dialect. Lizzie Palm

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 spoke Korean. Sandra Hood spoke Italian. Mark

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 Yoder spoke Kimamba. Max Speight

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 spoke Swedish. Susan Tonder and Paul Engelhard

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 spoke Russian and Amanda Grant signed that

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 portion of scripture in ASL.

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 What language do you speak?

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 For the record when I was 11 years old, I was

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 almost fluent in pig latin. But from

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 our class of 1982 Vance

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 Becker and his wife both speak

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 Swahili. Tim Saleska

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 reads and understands Aramaic. Dennis

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 Bower out in Lame Deer, Montana

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 speaks a couple of Native American dialects and

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 Steve morphett preaches in Spanish

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 down in the Rio, Grande Valley.

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 And all of us who were assembled on this campus back in

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 the fall of 1978 had already studied some Hebrew

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 and Greek or learned it in boot camp,

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 which is why some of you are here this summer.

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 Something new and spectacular happened

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 in Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost the

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 confusing dividing Babble of

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 Genesis 11 was superseded by

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 the unifying cacophony of the Apostles.

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 By Holy ruach by Holy pneuma by

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 Holy wind blowing by Holy Fire

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 and by Holy breath speaking of

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 languages never studied languages far

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 beyond the skill set of simple Galilean

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 fishermen of a zealot of

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 a tax collector of two sons of thunder.

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 And here is the stunned response not just

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 to that multilingual Miracle but to

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 the common but uncommon message we hear

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 them telling in our own tongues the

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 mighty works of God.

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 Tom Magalea to though

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 God's Mighty works his great

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 Deeds.

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 No.

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 Not creation though let there be

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 had powerful effect. Not the Earth

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 washing flood not The Exodus

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 with the plagues and the Passover blood and

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 the parting of the Red Sea and the miraculous Mana.

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 Not Elijah's confrontation on the

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 Carmel Ridge. Not Jonah's Escape. Not David

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 slingshot. Not Solomon's Temple. Not

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 Isaiah's Vision. Not the three unburned

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 men in the furnace. Not Daniel's

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 rescue from the Lion's.

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 But this

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 that God in Christ has reconciled
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 the world to himself. That the

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 similar sinless Lamb of God is nailed to

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 the cross as both substitute and sacrifice. That

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 Jesus bursts from the tomb made empty

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 made powerless to give us

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 new and never ending life. That he

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 is given the name above every name and

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 reigns at the Father's right hand even as

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 he the King of Kings and the Lord of lords intercedes

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 for his church until his

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 glorious return.

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 What language do you speak?

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 It doesn't matter.

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 For Christ who loosed the muddled tongue

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 of the deaf and mute who freed the

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 blasphemous tongue of the man demon possessed who

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 received hosanna's from the joyous tongues

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 of palm waving children. Who cried

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 out it is finished with a parched tongue

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 at Golgotha. Who spoke peace

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 be with you to his stuned disciples

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 in the upper room on Easter evening.

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 Who promised I Am With You Always to

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 the worried Apostles on Galilee's high

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 mountain and who sent the promise Spirit

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 to give clarity to the those timid tongues

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 making the apostles sent

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 ones from Jerusalem to Judea to

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 Samaria and to the ends of the Earth.

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 This same Lord looses our

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 tongues to tell the mighty

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 works of God from Virginia to Alaska from

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 Florida to Arizona from Texas to Minnesota

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 from Ukraine to Brazil

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 from Kenya to Cambodia.

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 This is the language we speak. The

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 language we must speak. Truth

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 from and of God's word

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 to those confused by Satan's lies

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 and the world's compromises.

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 Hope to the dry bones of those doubting that

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 God can possibly value them because

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 they have failed in so many ways. Love perfect

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 and pure love to those

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 who call themselves unlovely and

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 unlovable because of shame.

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 Freedom and forgiveness to a

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 prisoner

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 when you speak the benediction through the wired glass

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 and using a telephone.

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 Peace to a family grieving the

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 way too soon and sudden death

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 of a child at an elementary school in

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 Uvalde or the way to brutal

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 death of a mother or wife to

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 pancreatic cancer.

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 We don't speak of our Mighty works though.
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 we are privileged and blessed to be

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 given beautiful beautiful feet to speak

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 the good news to weary sinners.

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 But we speak of God's Mighty Works

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 in whatever language and in

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 whatever place we are the voices of

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 our crucified ascended and

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 returning Lord.

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 For our voices echo the

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 voice of Jesus Christ.

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 Calling,

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 loving,

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 absolving,

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 welcoming,

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 teaching,

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 feeding and blessing.

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 In the name of the Father and of the Son and of

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 the Holy Spirit. Amen.