Full service can be viewed HERE. Sermon begins at 44:45.
Day of Pentecost
June 5, 2022
Acts 2:1-21
Genesis 11:1-9
INTRODUCTION
Happy birthday, Church! That’s what Christians sometimes call this day of Pentecost, because it is the day that we remember how the Spirit wooshed into those gathered, igniting and empowering them, and from there the people were sent out to proclaim the good news. On that day, 3000 people were baptized, and the Church only grew from there!
This was not, however the beginning of the Spirit. We have been hearing about the Spirit from day 1, how it moved over the waters at creation. The Spirit shows up in the Psalms many times. The Spirit moves throughout the prophets, causes Mary to conceive, and rests on Jesus at his baptism. And, Jesus told his disciples shortly before his crucifixion, “[The Father] will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever. This is the Spirit of truth.” Ta-da! Today’s the big day!
Throughout scripture the Spirit has many jobs – advocate, comforter, inspiration, teacher, bringer of peace. Today in Acts we even see the Spirit as something of an agitator, stirring up a ruckus! But we also see the Spirit as the enabler of community. In our first reading, we’ll hear the story of the Tower of Babel, which ends with people’s languages getting all mixed up. Yet in Acts, with the Spirit’s help, the diverse people find they can understand one another once again. In our divided world, this is good news! As you listen, discover the ways the Spirit is bringing us into community with one another. Let’s listen.
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Grace to you and peace from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
Debie Thomas immigrated from India to America as an infant, but her parents insisted they speak their native tongue, Malayalam (ma-LAY-uh-lum), at home. She grew up bi-lingual. Still, there was an understanding that while “we” (brown Indian people) might cross into “their” (white Americans) language and culture, “the linguistic traffic would never flow in the opposite direction.” In fact, most Americans had never even heard of Malayalam.
But when Debie was about 10 years old, her aunt and uncle brought over a young woman named Sarah – blond haired, blue eyed, mid-30s. Her uncle explained that Sarah had spent her childhood years in India, and had often visited the South Indian state where Debie’s family had lived. The family was shocked when Sarah then opened her mouth and began speaking to them in their native tongue! Debie writes, “Sarah told us her story in careful but convincing Malayalam… [She] moved to South India after college, and immersed herself in the language and culture. ‘It was very hard,’ she admitted. ‘Learning the script, forming such new sounds – annoying people with my mistakes. But I’m so glad I did.’ Over dinner, she went on to explain how much her … immersion had changed her. ‘I didn’t realize before how limited my own perceptions were. My ideas about humor, about art, about God. I didn’t know how many things were unsayable in a single language.’” ["Words on Fire" from Journey With Jesus blog, https://www.journeywithjesus.net/essays/959-words-on-fire, accessed June 2, 2022]
Language is a fascinating thing, isn’t it? Even within a single language, there is so much nuance and potential lack of clarity. After my friend Victoria left last weekend, Michael and I were marveling at what an intentional and extraordinary communicator she is, seeking just the right words to express herself, and taking time to ask questions before jumping to assumptions in dense conversations. In one conversation Victoria and I had, we were talking about our deepest held values, and the first value she mentioned for herself was, “communication.” It shows! I strive to be like that, and yet how many arguments do I find myself in where, partway through, I realize that our disagreement is centered around a word for which we don’t share a common understanding! And so we’re just talking right past each other. Especially words that get thrown around in vitriolic, politically-fueled conversations – words like “liberal” and “conservative,” “woke,” “cancel culture” and “racism,” “pro-life” and “pro-choice,” “gun-safety” – even for the word so foundational as “freedom,” we don’t seem to share a common understanding! We assume we share an understanding of these hot-button words, and condemn the other based on that assumption. No wonder we can’t see eye-to-eye on the most pressing issues of our day!
Our story today from Genesis can offer a framework for this. The story of the Tower of Babel is from what we call the Bible’s Primeval History: the first 11 chapters of Genesis. It’s a series of origin stories. Babel, of course, is a story about the origin of different language and cultural diversity. On first read, it can sound very much like God’s decision to confuse the languages and scatter the people abroad was a punishment for the people’s pride. Like, “They’re getting too big for their britches, so I will thwart their efforts by making it impossible to communicate effectively!” But I dunno, that doesn’t sound much like a God of love, nor a God who later prays for his disciples, on the eve of his crucifixion, “I pray that they would be one.”
I think the real issue God is dealing with in this story is that the people wanted uniformity, and God instead pushes them toward diversity. Uniformity gets us nowhere; diversity is what causes us to grow, and what brings richness to our lives! And look around – our God is a God who values and celebrates diversity! Just look at the variety of butterflies, ice cream flavors, and smells in the world. Look at the creative minds that have given us everything from indoor plumbing to the Sistine Chapel, from Pride and Prejudice to space travel. The diversity attributed to Babel is not a penalty – it is what allows people to see that God is much vaster than a single mind, language, or culture can grasp. And this is a very good thing! It keeps our humility in check, and reminds us just how mysterious our God is. God cannot be contained by a human mind. You see diversity of language and culture is not a problem to be solved. Diversity is not a penalty; it is a value.
Unless… unless we allow it to divide our communities. We’re all too familiar with this! Just like those who were building the Silo of Babel, a place where they could relish in their sameness, we still find ourselves drawn toward expecting others to be, think and act like us, at least in the ways we deem most important. Even churches and other communities that fancy themselves to be “accepting and welcoming of all!” too often mean, “We accept and welcome everyone… except those who aren’t as open-minded as we are!” I have a friend who says of himself, “I’m not a bigot, except about people who are bigoted!” I admire his self-awareness!
Enter the Holy Spirit on that Day of Pentecost. We sometimes talk about Pentecost as a reversal of Babel. “God scrambled the languages at Babel,” we say, “and at Pentecost, everyone could once again understand each other.” But that’s not quite right. Pentecost does not reverse or undo the diversity of those gathered. The text doesn’t say, “The crowd was bewildered because each was speaking the same language.” It says they were bewildered “because each one heard them speaking in the native tongue of each.” They were not amazed by sameness. They were amazed that, even in their diversity, they could communicate and understand one another, as the Spirit gave them ability.
You see, diversity is not a barrier for the Spirit. And so, in a Spirit-filled gathering, diversity is also not a barrier to community. As people of the Spirit, we are not only equipped for community, but also sent to create it, through the proclamation of the good news of Jesus Christ. Peter hops right up and starts preaching, and people are baptized. The rest of the book of Acts recounts the ways Jesus’ followers listened to the urgings of the Spirit, proclaiming a message of life and salvation. By that same Spirit, churches are planted and begin to grow around the region and then to the ends of the world. Along the way, these proclaimers of Christ are met with all manner of diversity – people of different languages and cultures, an Ethiopian eunuch, uncircumcised Gentiles like Cornelius, women like Lydia and Dorcas, murderous Pharisees like Saul. And while these disparate peoples all came to find unity around the cross of Christ, they did not give up the beautiful diversity that God had made possible.
The Early Church was richer for it, and so are we today. Within our congregation, we have a lot of homogeneity. But we also have a beautiful diversity – age, background, political beliefs, hopes and dreams, hobbies, sexual or gender identity, education, skills. I count this as a great gift. Even though it can also be a real pain, our differences give us a greater sense of the vastness of God. I pray that we will find ever more ways to embrace diversity here, to hear other voices, to understand other cultures and life experiences, trusting all along that the Spirit gives us ability to gather as one body of Christ, washed and welcomed, fed and forgiven, and absolutely beloved by our mysterious God.
Let us pray… God of variety and diversity and mystery, you have marvelously made us, each unique. Help us to see the diversity around us as an opportunity to see and to celebrate your vastness. And into our difference, send your Spirit of truth, that we might seek always to understand one another. In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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