By Demi Prentiss, reprinted from Living God’s Mission.
All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability. — Acts 2.4
Pentecost was not, as some say, “the undoing of Babel” —
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
now we all speak the same language!
No, it was the opposite: the blessing of Babel.
We learn one another’s languages.
We embrace diversity, and learn to listen to each other,
to see from another’s perspective,
to give voice to a life other than our own,
to make central a language that’s not our own,
to communicate grace that’s not on our own terms.
We acknowledge the differences in our lives,
honor one another’s various home places and cultures,
and cross over the boundaries of comfort and familiarity.
On that Pentecost day I don’t imagine they were eloquent.
They spoke in halting Phrygian, mangled Mesopotamian.
It probably took some back-and-forth, some double-checking.
It required not just proclaiming but listening, relating,
and patience on the part of the hearers,
and courage and humility on the part of the speakers —
willingness to be beginners, to risk, to appear foolish,
to forgo the safety of being in the dominant group.
Pray for such humility and courage, to risk for the sake of love,
to be foolish for the sake of relating,
to let other people’s reality be real.
In such loving, the Holy Spirit will speak, loud and clear.
We’re barely past Pentecost and already we’re tempted to put those tongues of fire back in the box until next year. “Not yet,” we’re inclined to say. Then Brian McLaren reminds us:
The good news is that the Spirit is already here, living and active – and has been since the dawn of creation. Our challenge – as we pray “Come, Holy Spirit, come” – is not to persuade the Spirit to be present. May we pray to be born anew, so that we may see the reign of God. Allow us to see through God’s eyes to perceive the Spirit at work everywhere around us.
Brian D. McLaren, We Make the Road by Walking: A Year-Long Quest for Spiritual Formation, Reorientation, and Activation (New York: Jericho Books, 2014), 203, 205.
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