May 27, 2007 ( David Hyer)
Pentecost Sunday

Scripture texts: Genesis 11: 1-9; Acts 2: 1-21

Acts 2

The Holy Spirit Comes at Pentecost. When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues[a] as the Spirit enabled them.

Now there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven. When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment, because each one heard them speaking in his own language. Utterly amazed, they asked: "Are not all these men who are speaking Galileans? Then how is it that each of us hears them in his own native language? Parthians, Medes and Elamites; residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya near Cyrene; visitors from Rome (both Jews and converts to Judaism); Cretans and Arabs-we hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues!" Amazed and perplexed, they asked one another, "What does this mean?"

Some, however, made fun of them and said, "They have had too much wine.[b]"  Peter Addresses the Crowd. Then Peter stood up with the Eleven, raised his voice and addressed the crowd: "Fellow Jews and all of you who live in Jerusalem, let me explain this to you; listen carefully to what I say. These men are not drunk, as you suppose. It's only nine in the morning! No, this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel:
" 'In the last days, God says,
I will pour out my Spirit on all people.
Your sons and daughters will prophesy,
your young men will see visions,
your old men will dream dreams.
Even on my servants, both men and women,
I will pour out my Spirit in those days,
and they will prophesy.
I will show wonders in the heaven above
and signs on the earth below,
blood and fire and billows of smoke.
The sun will be turned to darkness
and the moon to blood
before the coming of the great and glorious day of the Lord.
And everyone who calls
on the name of the Lord will be saved.'[c]

Genesis II

The Tower of Babel

Now the whole world had one language and a common speech. As men moved eastward, [a] they found a plain in Shinar [b] and settled there.

They said to each other, "Come, let's make bricks and bake them thoroughly." They used brick instead of stone, and tar for mortar. Then they said, "Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves and not be scattered over the face of the whole earth."

But the LORD came down to see the city and the tower that the men were building. The LORD said, "If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other."

So the LORD scattered them from there over all the earth, and they stopped building the city. That is why it was called Babel [c] —because there the LORD confused the language of the whole world. From there the LORD scattered them over the face of the whole earth.
From Shem to Abram

This is the account of Shem.
Two years after the flood, when Shem was 100 years old, he became the father [d] of Arphaxad. And after he became the father of Arphaxad, Shem lived 500 years and had other sons and daughters.

When Arphaxad had lived 35 years, he became the father of Shelah. And after he became the father of Shelah, Arphaxad lived 403 years and had other sons and daughters. [e]

When Shelah had lived 30 years, he became the father of Eber. And after he became the father of Eber, Shelah lived 403 years and had other sons and daughters.

When Eber had lived 34 years, he became the father of Peleg. And after he became the father of Peleg, Eber lived 430 years and had other sons and daughters.

When Peleg had lived 30 years, he became the father of Reu. 19 And after he became the father of Reu, Peleg lived 209 years and had other sons and daughters.

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What does it say that our sound system would fail on this Pentecost Sunday? This is the Sunday when the lectionary texts speak of babbling and forked tongues aflame, resting on the heads of the disciples. It makes good Calvinists very nervous.

Perhaps, then, it is the ghosts of Presbyterians past making sure things don’t get too out of hand today. Reminding us it’s OK to be filled with the spirit, just as long as it’s decent and orderly.

Pentecost Sunday is also one of those Sundays that might leave some of you wondering if the pastor was drunk. Others of you, however, having been bored by the service might have wished the pastor had been drunk.
Regardless, the texts today beg out attentiveness to our language, and its relationship to our faith.

In 1951, linguist Richard Pittman (1915-1998) produced a mimeographed list of the known languages of the world. His “Ethnologue” identified 46 languages. Today’s 15th edition of “Ethnologue” documents almost 8,000 known languages, including 103 previously undocumented since 2000.
Genesis speaks of the people having one language of the same words. We’ve moved from one language and the same words to 8,000 and counting.

Yet even we who use the same words don’t always feel we share the same language.

Someone reminded me of that famous quote by George Bernard Shaw:
“America and England are two countries divided by one language.”
Even here in America, there are two kinds of speakers -- those who say “Ya’ll” and those who say “You all.”

George Carlin is one of the most irreverent if not our best commentators on language and speech. In his latest book, Carlin describes himself this way:

“I’m a modern man,
digital and smoke-free;
a man for the millennium.

“A diversified, multi-cultured,
post-modern deconstructionist;
politically, anatomically and ecologically incorrect.

“I’ve been uplinked and downloaded,
I’ve been inputted and outsourced.
I know the upside of downsizing,

“I’m a high-tech low-life.
A cutting-edge, state-of-the-art,
bi-coastal multi-tasker,
and I can give you a gigabyte in a nanosecond.

“I’m a new-wave, but I’m old-school;
and my inner child is outward-bound.

“I’m a hot-wire, heat-seeking,
warm-hearted cool customer;
voice-activated and biodegradable.” (1)

It’s amazing how much precision we can use to say nothing at all.
Euphemisms, Carlin says, have one thing in common: “They obscure meaning rather than enhance it; they shade the truth rather than enlighten it.” (1)

Carlin can be an evangelical atheist. He is equally harsh about religion and the truths it sometimes obscures, rather than lovingly enlightens.

It’s a hard task, putting faith to words, putting our relationship with God on paper or in speech. Seeing through a glass darkly is sometimes the best we can hope for.

Even given the same language and trying to use the same words, our language and differences seem more curse than gift. The Bible has been translated into around 3,000 languages and dialects. This is less than half of the number of languages listed in the “Ethnologue,” but enough to include those languages used in 90 percent of communication by the world’s population. What a wonderful yet difficult picture that paints. It’s a hard task translating the Bible.

There’s this wonderful story I was told in seminary about missionaries traveling to a remote tropic island. The island was so remote the gospel had not reached its shores so it was not translated into the native language.
On this island, the primary source of food was a cousin of the yam. There was a yam in every shape and form. There were even yam fries and yam patties for grilling. They even fermented yams for a kind of yam beer.
The natives did not, however, have any concept of bread. The whole ideal of a loaf of bread was foreign to their culture.

So when the missionaries attempted to translate the meaning of communion into their native tongue they found that was no equivalent for the bread and the wine. After some thought, the best the missionaries could do was say, “This is the yam of Christ, sliced for you.”

The selection of lectionary texts today aren’t by accident. There is a long tradition in paring the Tower of Babel with the Story of Pentecost and the birth of the church.

One reading would see Pentecost as the spirit filled resolution to the chaos sown in Genesis. Another might read these stories as a way of explaining the multitude of languages. Some might find a political indictment of Babylon.

Still other savvy theologians might read social criticism here and find an argument against empire and critique of urban development.
Bill Falco and any other city officials, who might be here this morning, please note that I am not taking that tack today.

I think the truth of these texts today isn’t to be found in language of history or science of politics or even miracle. The truth of these tests today is given to us in that difficult language of faith.

I think this wild story of flaming tongues and the cranky and ancient story of prehistory construction shows us a glimpse into the wide and diverse heart of God.

It is a glimpse of the heart of a God whose desire is for relationship with us. It is a relationship found neither in the unanimity of language and opinion nor in the homogeneity of culture or thought.

Beyond the tale of punishment by God scattering the people is a claim that God doesn’t seek a word of human centered self-reliance, but a creation headed towards a covenantal interdependence. God desires that we rely upon God first and only for our identity rather than look to our own language, power or might.

In the sending of the spirit, we see again that we know we do not have to reach to heaven for Godliness. In Christ’s humanity and in the spirit’s continued care, God has reached to us, and in that we are to find our unity.
A glimpse that God’s desire for humanity and creation is to be centered on God’s creating redeeming love rather than our broken and battered attempts to replace God with ourselves.

At Pentecost, we see an image of church -- a community that is fully of “diversity without division, unity without uniformity.” (2)
The gift of the spirit to the church does not diminish the richness of culture and diversity represented in the crowd gathered in Jerusalem. It points, rather, to the wideness of God’s love, the wideness of grace in action.
It’s of importance to note that the spirit brings not only tongues of flame but the miracle for each to hear the good news in his or her own language.
God’s desire for us as community isn’t to lose our differences, but to find unity in Christ rather than in our own self-reliance.

If the gift of spirit at Pentecost is the church, the challenge of the spirit at Pentecost is to define the church with a big C, with a Big Christ rather than a big ego that dictates how me must look, dress or talk. Rather than build towers to heaven, we are called to builds bridges to our neighbors around us and even those far away.

On this birthday of the church let us celebrate the great diversity of faith that is Christianity. Let us remember that that calling in our church’s mission statement.

Friends, our hearts are united in Christ. Thanks be to God our heads don’t have to be.

Amen.

(1) Carlin, George. (2004). When Will Jesus Bring the Pork Chops. New York City: Hyperion.

(2) Clendenin, Dan. (2007, May 21). Beyond Babel: Pentecost Sunday. http://www.journeywithjesus.net/Essays/20070521JJ.shtml.