[Jesus said:] "The Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My Name, He will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you. Peace I leave with you. My peace I give to you, not as the world gives do I give it to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid" (ESV).

Do you have trouble sifting the facts from all the baffling, babbling, contradictory voices that come at us? Next Sunday is Pentecost. Jesus has something to say to you, and Jesus doesn't babble.

Back in Genesis 11, God confused the language of the people at the Tower of Babel. That's where we get the words "babble," "babbling," and "babbler." Dissension, disunity, confusion, conflict—even the inability to understand each other's languages—are all the result of sin and its punishment.

But Jesus came to de-babble Babel. His promise to send the Holy Spirit to teach us the truth of God’s Word was fulfilled on Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit enabled the disciples to speak in many languages so that all understood.

Jesus' Word to you is this: "Peace I leave with you. My peace I give to you, not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid."

--thoughts from next Sunday’s sermon, submitted by the Rev. Ken Johnson, Pastor of Zion and Our Savior’s Lutheran Churches of Avon and Springfield, South Dakota