WHAT LANGUAGE IS THE SPIRIT TEACHING US?

     Today in the Christian calendar is the day we acknowledge that, in spite of our brokenness, with God all things are possible.

     Most of you remember the story in Genesis of the Tower of Babel. Arrogant human beings decided to build a tower all the way up to heaven and make for themselves an eternal name. Although the story setting is at the dawn of time, it probably came to knowledge during the captivity of the People of God in the ancient superpower of Babel (hence the name). The Babylonians were great builders, especially of the terraced buildings known as Ziggurats, giving rise to the Hanging Gardens, one of the seven ancient wonders of the world.

     Just imagine that you have been carried away from your home in chains to a foreign place, leaving behind most of your family dead. And you live in a country where you do not understand the predominant language of these arrogant conquerors. And finally after great difficulty you begin to learn a little of the history and culture of the area and you hear this story of a great tower, so consistent with your conquerors. And you see a tower that was never completed. And you hear the explanation that it displeased the gods and the gods mixed up the languages so that people could not finish it.

     And of course, if you have been a captive in Babylon, your context was not “the gods” but the God, and you remember it; serves them right. But you wonder: will there ever be a time when the peoples of the world will be reunited in their ability to communicate with each other.

     And our scripture today gives the answer: with the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost. People will be reconnected as they learn of God’s great saving work in Jesus Christ.

     Did you notice anything strange about that big list of nationalities of people who were present and understood what was being said? Yes, there were Jews and Romans and various kinds of Greek speakers. But Parthians and Medes and Elamites? Those people were long gone, their heritage swallowed up in defeat. Their language dead.

     How many of you studied Latin at one time or another? Do you remember the song: Latin’s a dead language, dead as it can be. First it killed the Romans, now it’s killing me. Well the Parthians and Medes and Elamites were dead and their languages were dead. Yet they are reported as present on Pentecost Day, the day of the great out powering of the Holy Spirit that reverses the curse of Babel. No one is left out, even those who are long gone.

     Do you know who over the course of years has been responsible for preserving a record of the native languages of various peoples all over the world? The church…through the missionaries who disbursed to preach the gospel and translate the Bible into native tongues. It’s a continuation of the experience of Pentecost which we celebrate on this day.

     But language has so many sub-groups. There is Spanish, but some speak Latin American Spanish and some speak Castilian Spanish. There is high German and low German. (I once knew a couple that had immigrated to America in the 1930’s. He spoke low German, she spoke high German. Even after 40 years of marriage they had all sorts of communication problems.)

     And each sub-grouping of languages has implications of economic class and heritage and values. The way I pronounce a vowel may put me in a lower class and make me less employable.

     What has all of this to do with Pentecost?

     First, the Pentecost is an on-going project. The Holy Spirit may have given diverse people the ability to understand the Aramaic of the church leaders on the first Pentecost, but the Spirit is always giving people the will and the ability to communicate.

     In my previous church I encountered a man named Jose from Peru. He was a single man in his late 30s, working as a pot washer in a restaurant, speaking about as much English as I speak Spanish. He came to church because he believed that people would talk with him and be patient with him as he struggled to learn English. And he was right. That’s the Pentecost work of the Holy Spirit. We got him a Spanish version of the hymnal. He would sing with two hymnals in his hand: one the English words he was vocalizing with the congregation, the other to tell him what it meant. (Santo, santo, santo.)

     So Pentecost is an on-going project, but secondly, it is a welcoming project. All of the diverse peoples heard the gospel in their own tongue. Think for a moment what the opposite would be: we have this wonderful news and you can know it if you first learn our language. Pentecost tells us that people have to hear the gospel in their own language (or sub-language), because that is how it is welcomed into their hearts.

     There is a lot of sound a fury today about protecting English as the official language of the United States. I’m not so sure that the language of Shakespeare and the KJV and the Declaration of Independence needs protection but some do. I’m much more worried about we English speakers to do English than what others do. (I’m still hearing people say “hopefully”.)

     If the issue is about teaching English to kids in school, most teachers I know believe in an intentional but fast track leading to emersion in English.
But it seems to me that the hidden issue about English as the official language is whether we need to make the strangers and new comers in our midst welcome, and the Bible is very clear that we do. And the Holy Spirit knew that: that’s why people first heard the gospel in their own language.

     And that’s why the church was born. Because the Holy Spirit would not let language and culture barriers get in the way.

     There are some today who say that congregations can only grow when people are all similar. When people look about the same, and have economic lives about the same and educations about the same. And express their faith about the same, singing religious versions of soft rock songs from the 70s.

     I believe that the Holy Spirit so loved the diversity of Pentecost that the Spirit embraces all sorts of conditions of people, the rich and the poor, the foolish and the wise, Mozartians and Springsteinians, and all manner in between.

     I believe that every day is Pentecost, and that the Holy Spirit is constantly calling us to do things in worship that welcome Peruvians, and things to do in mission that welcome children, and things to do in fellowship that welcome the poorest of the poor, and things to do in stewardship that say to the Donald Trumps of the world: you’re welcome.

     So who have you welcomed lately? What neighbor, what cousin, what friend, what business associate? Whose life style language do you speak? So that when you take a walk in the neighborhood, it’s Pentecost. And when you gather around the family celebration table, it’s Pentecost. And when you go to work, it’s Pentecost. And when you go to the library, it’s Pentecost.

     Because there are people out there in this wilderness of American culture who are a long way from any kind of spiritual home. And you speak their language.