June 5, 2022 - Pentecost
St. John’s United Church of Christ, Union, Illinois
Acts 2:1-13[1]
Jesus had left
them, ascended into heaven, and was seen no more. But he had promised another
Advocate, the Holy Spirit, would be with them. They stayed together, supporting
one another, trying to determine how to carry on this Jesus movement. And so it
was that “When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one
place.”[2]
On that festival day, celebrating the giving of the Torah to Moses on Mount
Saini, they experienced the giving of God’s Holy Spirit to humanity.
Words are
inadequate for what they experienced: the rush of a violent wind, tongues of
fire, the presence of God in the very air they breathed. The words they spoke
were in many languages. Here, in the crossroads of the ancient near-east,
people from near and far understood the word of God in the voices of the
spirited disciples.
Who was there?
The text says they were all together, so most likely the entire community of Christians,
around 120 people. The eleven, surely, but also the other men and women who
were faithful followers. And there were the “devout Jews from every nation
under heaven living in Jerusalem.”[3]
There may haver been pilgrims attending the festival, but most had emigrated
there from other areas of the Roman Empire. All likely spoke Greek, the
language of commerce in that time, but also the native languages of their
homelands.
As the
Christians tell of the deeds of God’s power, they do not speak in “spiritual
languages” that can only be interpreted by those with a special gift. Rather,
they speak in the languages of the immigrants, the languages of the people subject
to the Romans. The beginning of the Church is a sign to all parts of the earth
in the languages of all of the people.
God’s Word
transcends all human barriers – language, understanding, race, nationality –
and there are other passages which encourage us to imagine God’s Word moving
through all of creation. The Psalms, poetry and symbolism that they are, often
give life to the mountains and the seas, and voice to the birds of the air, the
beasts of the land, and the swarms in the sea. God’s Word is spoken in every
language, not just those spoken by humans. And all creation responds.
One writer, James
McTyre, reflects on this imagery:
God’s
voice came through a great wind. Listen. Can you hear it now? Listen to the
sounds of the wind. Listen to the beating wings of birds. Listen to the
rustling trees. Listen to the creaks and groans of building floors. Listen to
the pops of expanding woodwork as your house breathes in the warmth of summer.
Listen to mountain streams carving their way down a hillside. Listen to still
lakes wrapped in morning mist. Listen to the gravel beneath your car wheels.
Listen.
Too often I tune
out the sounds of nature, or find them overawed by the noises of people and
machines. Other times, I may pause with passive admiration to notice the smell
of lilacs or the colors of the sunset. There have been times when I was able to
listen, to see, and to immerse myself in the natural world. You see, it is one
thing to go outside. It is quite another to attempt to be in harmony with the
voices of creation. But it can be done.
To hear God’s
Word being spoken in languages other than English in the New Revised Standard
Version is like learning a new way to communicate. Learning to communicate is
hard. Learning to communicate in another language, or another culture, is hard.
Learning takes time, focus, and sometimes immersion in the world of what you’re
learning. Listening, really listening, takes work. That’s why it doesn’t come
easily. That’s why we don’t often really hear.
One of the
gifts of Pentecost, however, is that we also get to speak of God’s deeds of
power. We get to communicate what we know of God’s love, hope, and peace. And
we don’t always have to use our mouths. We communicate with our actions, the
way we respond to others, the way we interact with the world. The way we say
hello to our neighbors, or to strangers walking by, communicates something not
only about us, but also about God who speaks through us. The way we tend to the
world around us, and care for the living things we encounter, speaks of our
connection to the Holy.
We are translators
of God’s Word that we hear, and that comes to us through all the elements of creation.
Translation is an act of humility, of care and respect for the words that are
said, but also for the listener. To speak a language unknown to us can take
years of disciplined practice. Fluency requires nuance and mental agility. It
helps that we already know many ways to communicate love, hope, and peace.
It is worth the
effort to learn a new way to communicate. It took effort on the part of the
disciples to convince people that they were not drunk, but truly sharing the
Word. It took patience on behalf of the listeners to discern the truth in the
words they spoke. But at the end of that day three-thousand persons were added.
“They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the
breaking of bread and the prayers.”[4]
On this
Pentecost day, we pray that our translation may be pleasing to God. And we ask God’s
Holy Spirit to help us to speak, and to listen, in all the languages we can
discover, in solidarity with all of our neighbors and with all of creation, the
love of God we know in Jesus Christ.
Amen.
