Of Babel and Pentecost

Tomorrow we celebrate Pentecost Sunday, the founding of the church universal through the sending of the Holy Spirit. My sermon's headed a different direction because I'm using the Old Testament text instead of the New; however, I had some thoughts come together this morning and didn't want to lose them.

OK - so I'm a procrastinator and waited until the last minute to try to pull together something audio on the speaking of multiple languages on that first Pentecost Sunday. So my computer skills leave something to be desired (and perhaps my equipment, as well, but we'll never know because I don't have the skills to figure it out! *chuckle*). I am reasonably good at tracking down what I'm looking for on the net, however. Therefore, I've spent several hours last night and this morning trying to track down wav files to download and cobble together into a audio-collage of languages speaking the Lord's Prayer. HA! Well, I can find them, but the ones I want are either not downloadable or too expensive for a 15 second burst on one Sunday morning.

Then it struck me - why doesn't there exist a Pentecost rendering of the Lord's Prayer? Why are we afraid to consider the possibility that Christ speaks to us in a multitude of languages?

On that first Pentecost, the dumbfounded disciples spilled from that upper room and wandered into the streets speaking languages they knew they didn't know, and the crowds were equally dumbfounded. That annually-mangled list of names in Acts was probably just a smattering of the languages spoken on that day.

If you wander back into Genesis for a bit, you run across the story of the building of the Tower of Babel. Humanity decided to build for the skies. While I have a bit of a theological problem with God desiring divisiveness and confusion, the tale is as good a story as any for the reason there are so many languages floating around. Anywyay, the communication situation now is problemmatic, because Jane's family can't understand Joe's family, who are really perplexed by the words coming out of the mouths of John's family, and so on.

We're off and running, and language continues to tangle us up until this very day (and probably long into the future!). Even when we're speaking English, there's British English, Australian English, Deep South English, California English, New England English, ..... well, you get the picture.

Then along comes Pentecost. I guess it's only been about five years ago or so that I began to realize the importance of Pentecost, a special day of the church we Protestants seem to downplay. I initially reveled in the day because it's one of the few Sundays in the church year when one can wear red! I love green (it's my favorite color), but let's get real! Out of 52 weeks, there are 11 weeks of white, 10 weeks of purple, and 1 (count them! ONE!) week of red. So I cheat. I carry Pentecost over a few weeks instead of dragging around in ubiquitous green all summer.

However, I digress.

Pentecost is more than an excuse to wear red for a while. It's a birthday celebration! And the nature of that birthday goes back to that tower of Babel story. When the disciples received the Holy Spirit, and the visitors from other countries heard the Good News in their own languages and believed, God didn't erase the translation difficulties in perpetuity. Instead of wiping the slate clean and allowing all who believe to speak the exact same language, God transcends the language barrier.

It seems to me that God revels in the majesty and possibility of diversity. Sure, we humans haven't gotten the hang of that possibility. I've been wandering through some religious discussions online and continue to be amazed at the number of people who want everyone to walk in lockstep with their understanding of the faith. If God had wanted that to happen, it could have easily been contrived at any point throughout history. Yet God calls us to decide for ourselves, gives us the free will to accept or reject or to just plain mull over for however long we need, and to seek out our own pathways in life.

For me, that has become the celebration in Pentecost: God is able to accomplish so much in spite of our babble and confusion. And among the followers of Jesus were now: Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, ... French, Russians, Koreans, Choctaws, Cherokees, Mexicans, Vietnamese, Germans, South Africans, Maoris, Malawis, Egyptians, Palestinians, Deep Southerners, New Englanders, African Americans, ... old, young, middle-aged, the disabled, male and female (regardless of sexual orientation), red state conservatives, blue state liberals, ... and the list continues to grow, for I believe God deeply loves all of creation, and I refuse to put God in that proverbial box to limit who will be accepted into the glory of God's love.