Pentecost Sunday
United in Christ Lutheran Church,
Lewisburg, PA
The Rev. Dr. Leah D. Schade, PhD
Text: Acts 2
When is the last time you encountered someone who spoke a
different language from you? It happened
to me just this past week. It was my
turn to work the concession stand at my son’s baseball game. Two other people were there. One was Nick who was working the grill. The other was Maria, who spoke with a
Hispanic accent. The two of them had
worked together before and had a teasing rapport between them. He would pronounce her name with an
exaggerated accent, or sing her name with the notes of West Side Story’s “Maria.”
And she would laugh and tease him right back. At one point she called him loco, which means “crazy.” He said, “I’m just a little crazy. How do you say that in Spanish.” I offered:
“Locito?” Maria turned and looked at me with wide
eyes. “Hablas Espanol?” Do you
speak Spanish? I said, “Un poco, un poco.” Just a little. I had taken Spanish in high school and
college and remembered just a little from those days.
The rest of the evening we tossed around different words,
Spanish and English. Nick would ask, “How
do you say French Fries in Spanish?” I
said “Fritas?” Maria corrected me: papas
fritas. Fried potatoes. I learned that Maria was from the Dominican
Republic and how she came to be in our country with her three boys. Even though my son and hers were on different
teams, we cheered for them. Whether they hit the ball, struck out, caught the
pop fly or missed the ball, they heard us cheering for them in English and
Spanish.
I can just imagine how it must have felt for the pilgrims
gathered in Jerusalem for the Jewish festival of Shavuot, commemorating the
giving of the Law on Sinai to the people of Israel, each of them speaking their
own foreign language and coming into the city hearing this cacophony of
languages. It must have been very
disconcerting for them, the way it must have been for Maria and her family when
they first came to America. Coming
through the airport hearing not just English, but so many other languages, not
knowing where to go or what to do, until they found someone who spoke un poco, just a little Spanish to help
them find their way.
Imagine being one of those pilgrims coming to Jerusalem
where the official language would have been Hebrew or Aramaic, and with all
those foreigners, it would have been very confusing. But then they saw a gathering of people with
tongues of fire over their heads, and a wind blowing all around them. They couldn’t figure out what is going on
until they heard one of those men speaking their language and their ears perked
up. And they listened to the disciple
talk about Jesus, Jesus, Jesu Criste,
and the love of God. What a wonderful
feeling it must have been to go from being discombobulated in this foreign land
to hearing someone who spoke their language.
I had an interesting discussion with a friend of mine this
week about the ongoing debate in this country on whether immigrants wanting
citizenship should be required to know the English language. There are good arguments on both sides of the
issue. Some say we should respect the
culture and language of the immigrant and let them speak their own
language. Others say that because
English is the official language, they should be required to demonstrate a
basic level of proficiency before being granted citizenship so that they can
function as citizens in this country. I
don’t claim to have proficiency in that area of government policy, nor do I
have an answer to that ongoing debate. But
here is what I do know: in God’s
neighborhood there is no language requirement.
The miracle of Pentecost is not that the Holy Spirit enabled everyone to
speak one official language, but that the disciples were given the ability to
speak in a language other than their own.
They were able to make a connection with someone with whom they would
never have made a connection otherwise.
We have so many different languages in our world today. There are approximately 6900 languages—nearly
7000 ways to proclaim God’s love in this world!
These are all ways that we can be proclaiming God’s love for people in a
language other than our own. And where
did all these languages come from?
Remember the story of the Tower of Babel in Genesis Chapter 11, how
humanity had become so proud and arrogant that they tried to build a tower up
to the heavens. And they all spoke one language. Apparently there is something about having
one language that leads a nation to feel superior, to lose their sense of
humility before God, so much so that God confused the language of that
civilization and scattered them across the face of the earth.
Isn’t it interesting that apparently God thinks it’s a good
thing that there are different languages among human beings?
Have you ever tried to learn another language, taken a
course in school or online? It is quite
a humbling experience. You feel awkward
and silly when you try to say these words that feel so different on your
tongue. If you’ve ever encountered
someone who speaks a language other than your own and you make the effort to
try to communicate with them, it takes a certain level of humility and
humbleness to put your security in your language aside and say, I want to try
to talk to you and listen to you on your terms.
I want to learn how they say things, how they put their thoughts
together, how they experience the world and how they express themselves. When you learn how another person speaks, you
start to learn how they think; you open your mind to another way of viewing the
world. It takes a lot of effort, but
when you humble yourself and try to learn un
poco, just a little of another language, it tells the other person, I honor
who you are. I honor who you are as a
Child of God. And I honor God by trying
to learn un poco, just a little of
your language.
When Peter talks to that crowd of 3000 gathered on the day
of Pentecost, he quotes the prophet Joel in saying, “Your young people will see
visions and your elders will dream dreams,” as an indication that the Holy
Spirit has come upon the people. This
week I posed the question on Facebook if anyone has had any dreams or visions
for our church. Kathy Guffey shared
with me a dream she had a few weeks ago.
She was in our church on a Sunday morning, and the sanctuary was packed
with people. The pews were so full that
people had to stand in the aisles. In
her dream, it wasn’t a special occasion like a funeral or a wedding or a
holiday. It was just a normal Sunday
morning. But she said she looked around
with her jaw dropped, just amazed that so many people were at church.
As a pastor, I got very excited that maybe the day is coming
when this dream becomes reality. But as
I was reading this text from Acts, it reminded me that if God were to bless our
church with that kind of Pentecost moment, it would mean that there would be people
in this sanctuary who look different than us, have a different skin color,
speak a different language. When that time comes in our church, it will mean
that things are changing and I will have to converse with someone who comes
from a different family than I do, or a different country than I do. I began to ask myself, are we as a church
ready for that vision to become a reality in this congregation?
I’d like you to ask yourself that same question this coming
week: Are we ready for the Holy Spirit
to come into our church and ask us to be welcoming in a new way? I’ve often thought that if churches really
want to grow, they should determine what is the language—other than English—that
is most commonly spoken in the community.
And then offer classes for their members to learn that language, so that
they can, like the disciples at Pentecost, be able to speak in la lengua de Dios, the language of
God.
There is something about la
lengua de Dios that translates into all other languages. Don’t be surprised if, in the coming weeks
and months, you start to encounter people who want to know God, who are seeking
Jesus, who want to encounter the Holy Spirit, and come to you, perhaps
completely by surprise, and ask, in essence, Hables la lengua de Dios? Do
you speak the language of God? And if
that happens, you’ll be able to say un
poco, just a little.
That’s all it takes – a little flame, a little courage, a little
spark of welcomeness, a little bit of humility, a little breath of the Holy
Spirit, and a little heart open to the greatness of God who has a vision of God’s
entire neighborhood filling our churches in love to speak la lengua de Dios. Amen.
