6-6-19 - The Word Got Out

(You can listen to this reflection here. Sunday's reading is here.)

I have always struggled with French. I studied it for much of my childhood, as we often lived in Francophone countries. My German was solid, Italian came easily, but not French. And then once in Brussels I was at a party, and after a pretty strong drink I was amazed to hear myself having a reasonably fluent conversation in French! Must have been the spirits.

It fascinates me that the primary phenomenon at that first Pentecost was the supernatural ability to speak in languages the speaker had never learned. More common manifestations of the Spirit are things like tears, speaking in tongues, sensing messages from God to convey to the community (prophecy), or even something that happened at many churches in the late 20th century, waves of holy laughter seizing the whole congregation. (Yes, the Holy Spirit can be wacky…) But what happened that first time was the ability to communicate across barriers of ethnicity and language.

All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability. Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven living in Jerusalem. And at this sound the crowd gathered and was bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in the native language of each.

God wants his word to get out. We know Jesus as the Word of God who got out, out and about, and then sent his Spirit to go where no human being could go: directly into the hearts and minds of other human beings. Yet even when we are filled with the Spirit, we don’t fully understand God-speak. We can’t, in this life. But the closer we come to God, the more we do understand her language.

It is as true in our human relationships. No person can fully understand another – our emotional languages are unique, even if we share a common tongue. But as two people draw closer to each other, they begin to be able to read the cues and pick up the signs, even mentally translate words sometimes. We learn to understand each other, if never fully.

Our mission is to be translators of God’s Word to the people around us, many of whom have never learned God-speak. That means we need to know God’s Word, and be willing to speak about how that Word has been spoken into our lives. Mostly it means we need ask to be filled with the Spirit, who does the translating for us.

God's Word can get out, as we’re willing to hear it, and then speak it. We’ll be amazed at the languages we become fluent in once we let the Spirit do the talking through us.

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