Happy Pentecost! This is the day we celebrate God’s sending of the Holy Spirit and the day we celebrate the birthday of the Church. Because with the coming of the Holy Spirit, the Church became empowered to carry on the work of Jesus Christ in the world today — we became both empowered — and compelled — to be the hands, feet, eyes, heart, and voice of Jesus Christ. We became empowered, and compelled, to preach the good news of his life, death, and resurrection. We became empowered — and compelled — to carry on his ministry of healing the sick, feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, welcoming the stranger, speaking out against injustice, and striving to reconcile all in unity with each other and with God.
But to better understand what today is about, we need to first look backwards. Back to the 11th chapter of the Book of Genesis, the very first book in the Bible. There we read, “Now the whole world had one language and the same words…Then they said, ‘Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves’…The Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which mortals had built and said ‘Look, they have all one language, and this is only the beginning of what they will do…Come let us go down and confuse their language there, so that they will not understand one another’s speech.’ So the Lord scattered them abroad from there over the face of all the earth, and they left off building the city. Therefore it was called Babel, because there the Lord confused the language of all earth; and from there the Lord scattered them abroad over the face of the earth.”
“Babel” means “Gate of God,” but a similar Hebrew word “Balal” means “to confuse.” God comes across somewhat capricious and seems a tad bit jealous in this account, so maybe it’s more helpful to think of the story of the Tower of Babel as an origin story about the differences in languages and peoples around the world.
But no matter how we think of the Tower of Babel story, today’s story is certainly a reversal of that division and confusion. Suddenly, filled with the power of the Holy Spirit, the disciples are able to speak in ways that others can understand them and, through the power of that same Spirit, divisions are erased and people are brought together. God’s Holy Spirit is the great unifier, connecting us all together. We may choose to ignore this call to unity, but it is clear in today’s story from the Acts of the Apostles that unity is what God desires for us.
For some of us it may be hard to get beyond the fantastical imagery — tongues of fire, giant whooshing wind, the disciples miraculously speaking in foreign languages. I know for many years I felt I must be a deficient Christian because I had never experienced that kind of conversion. No sudden uprooting of who I had been, no dramatic change into a new reality. And, I have to confess, if I had found myself suddenly speaking in tongues, as I know that many Christians have had that kind of a conversion experience, I have to confess I would have been just a wee bit freaked out. No, my own conversion experience was more of the gradual awakening sort — coming to recognize God’s presence in all aspects of my life, returning to someone who had always been there but whom I was now seeing in a different way. Not the remote, judgmental God I had grown up with but rather the God-with-us, the God of love and compassion, the God I came to know through Jesus Christ, the God who is now directly available to all of us through the constant presence available to all of us through the Holy Spirit.
So if you find the imagery in today’s lesson from Acts overwhelming, consider these things: God had to act in a powerful way to kick-start the church. We don’t know exactly what happened on that first Pentecost, but something mighty and powerful and, dare I say it?, robust certainly did. Because what started with just a minimum of fourteen people (the 11 eleven remaining disciples and the three women who first saw the risen Christ) exploded into the fastest growing religion in the first century — and all that without radio, television, or the internet. So yes, something powerful and life-changing definitely did happen.
But here’s something else: the disciples were reported to suddenly be speaking in the native languages of all the foreign visitors in Jerusalem. If we were to achieve that today we would have to divide up amongst us 6,909 languages! That’s how many the Linguistic Society has catalogued. I was amazed as I searched for online translations of today’s reading just how many I encountered, and that’s seems to have just scratched the surface.
So if it’s not about a common language, what is the message of Pentecost that comes home to us today? Earlier I said that one of the most important aspects of the Holy Spirit is the spirit of unity. It is that aspect of God which draws and binds us together. “Draw us in the Spirit’s tether,” we heard our choir sing last week, “for when humbly in thy name, two or three are met together, thou are in the midst of them. Alleluia, alleluia.”
Understanding each other’s languages certainly draws us together, but understanding and embracing each other’s experiences does so perhaps even more. Really listening to one another, without judgment, without classification, without imposing our own agenda, without thinking what we’re going to say next, but really listening with our whole heart and soul and being — that draws us together perhaps even more powerfully. Or, as Debie Thomas wrote in a powerful essay called “Words on Fire”:
“It is no small thing that the Holy Spirit loosened tongues to break down barriers on the birthday of the Church. In the face of difference, God compelled his people to engage. From Day One, the call was to press in, linger, listen, and speak.”
“Because here’s the thing: no matter how passionately I disagree with your opinions and beliefs, I cannot disagree with your experience. Once I have learned to hear and speak your story in the words that matter most to you, then I have stakes I never had before. I can no longer flourish at your expense. I can no longer make you my Other. I can no longer abandon you.”
God’s Holy Spirit, sent on this day, compels us to press in, linger, truly listen to each other, and only then speak.
Today we are welcoming two new members into this community founded on this day about 2,000 years ago. We are also celebrating with two others who have completed our Early Communion class, who have learned more about what it means to be part of “the Spirit’s tether.” Lazarro and Ja’im, we welcome you today to this community called into being by God’s Holy Spirit. In a few minutes you will take vows — which we will take again along with you — which will give you your life’s roadmap on how to pattern your life after the life of Jesus Christ. And Carolina and Cole, you will receive the bread and the wine of Holy Communion, that reminder that Jesus Christ continues to be with us, not just on special days like today, but every day of our lives. To the four of you, I say welcome! And come share with us in the on-going ministry of Christ, the ministry with which we are empowered everyday by God’s Holy Spirit. AMEN.