5-26-20 - What's Your Language?

You can listen to this reflection here.

It always amuses me that the reading from Acts about Pentecost – which details how a bunch of Galilean fisherman were suddenly able to speak languages they had never learned – contains so many unpronounceable words:

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. Amazed and astonished, they asked, “Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? And how is it that we hear, each of us, in our own native language? Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabs—in our own languages we hear them speaking about God’s deeds of power."

We can almost understand what it must have been like to hear these foreign languages coming out of the mouths of Jesus’ followers. But was the miracle in the speaking or the hearing? Were the apostles speaking those languages, or did the hearers suddenly understand Aramaic as though it was their own tongue? Who knows. The effect was the same. People heard the Good News about “God’s deeds of power” in their own language and could choose for themselves if they wanted to follow the Way of Jesus. Luke tells us that 3,000 were baptized that day. And we’re off!

In what language do the people around you need to hear the Good News? Perhaps we first need to answer this: to whom do you feel called to share the Good News of God’s love? We're not always comfortable sharing our spiritual selves with friends and family. It might be acquaintances or clients or co-workers, or people hanging out in a park. It could be your kids’ friends who populate your kitchen, or that person at the dry cleaners who looks so sad all the time. It might even be someone at church who understands the rituals and not the love they're meant to express.

Each one with whom we might talk about “God’s deeds of power” has a language in which they are most comfortable. “Church talk” and Christian jargon are foreign tongues to many who lack context to comprehend even words like “hymn” and “scripture” and “gospel,” not to mention cultural idioms like “Good Samaritan” or “walking on water.” What universal terms convey love and grace and acceptance and healing from shame, addiction and dis-ease, mental and physical? What languages do you hear around you?

A spiritual exercise for today: Get settled and centered in God’s presence, however you best do that. Ask, “Is there someone you want me to tell about your power and love?” Wait and see what names or faces come up. If one does, ask, “What language must I speak to reach that person?” It’ll come.

Jesus promised that his followers would have the words they need to share the Good News. The words that are given to you will emerge from your own stories of how you have experienced God’s deeds of power and love. If you don’t feel you have… there’s another prayer.

And if you know you have – don’t you know someone who would like to hear that story?

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