​Learning a new language

Emmanuel Episcopal Church, Greenwood, Virginia
The Day of Pentecost
May 31, 2020
The Rev. John Taliaferro Thomas
 
The parish I once served in Atlanta, Georgia was very large.  We held four services each Sunday.  The early one was Rite One Eucharist, a favorite of those who favored Elizabethan language and a particularly penitential tone.  The next service was a family friendly Eucharist, with creative children’s sermons and lots of action.  The next service was Rite II Choral Eucharist with traditional anthems and an immense and professionally trained choir.  The last service was done completely in Spanish as we had a Spanish priest on staff and a substantial Hispanic population.  We were a wildly diverse crossroads kind of parish: black and white, gay and straight, homeless and well to do, day laborers, Fortune 500 executives, and some local civic and educational leaders.  While the whole operation was a bit chaotic, and hard to manage, the place gave me a wide view the amazing diversity in the unity of common worship.
 
When the Spanish priest, Isaias Rodriguez, went on vacation, he asked me to lead services for a few weeks.  I resisted because I speak absolutely no Spanish.  He told me that did not matter.  He would tape the liturgy and give it to me to listen and learn.  He was such a great guy, and that congregation was so faithful, how could I say no? To help me, he assigned a 12 year-old young woman to be my guide and interpreter when needed.
 
From what I could tell, it went pretty well.  I got stuck a few times, but they all chimed in to keep me going.  I knew enough of the rhythm of the liturgy to understand what I was saying, mostly.  When I preached, I would speak a few lines, and my interpreter would summarize in Spanish.  Afterward, they all greeted me warmly and spoke to me in Spanish, assuming that I understood.  I nodded and smiled.  It seemed to work.
 
The best part of the whole thing was the luncheon we shared after worship.  It was well into the afternoon and we were all starving.  We had tamales and tacos, carefully crafted mole and green chili sauces, fresh salads, and fruit juices.  Our young children were folded into the community, and we made lots of friends sharing only the common language of faith.  That was plenty enough.
 
I remember that experience especially on Pentecost, this day when we hear the wildness of the Holy Spirit coming among the gathered disciples and many others.  And there is this holy chaos of people speaking in their own languages, yet in that space they all understand one another.  This is a crucial event in the formation of the Church, but even more so for us to hear and remember right now, in our current situation.
 
Peter, who is normally clueless, steps up to make sense of the event.  He reminds them of an old prophecy from the time of Joel.  He remembers an ancient teaching that the Spirit will be set free and poured out.  Young people will prophesy and see visions. Old folks will dream dreams and everyone who calls upon the name of the God shall be saved.  That is what is happening.  The great diversity of those present experience the power and presence of God, and it is the gift that keeps on giving.  It drives them to be united across differences.  Some call this the birthday of the Church.
 
People of God, we need some Pentecost right now.  I am not talking about speaking in tongues or calling down fire, though that would be interesting.  What we need is a fresh vision, a more righteous dream, and the salvation that comers from coming together in the name of God.
 
We need this because what we are doing, and who we are becoming, is not working.  With each passing day, the only constant seems to be further and deeper division.   The controlling cultural and political narrative focuses on blaming others, suspecting the worst, and stoking fear of whoever the other is.  Those who perpetuate such a narrative are not leaders, they are combatants, and we need no more of that.
 
Even though we are restricted in body, we are not limited in Spirit.  To claim God’s healing and restoration we need to travel in our minds to wide variety of places and spaces all of God’s people inhabit.  We need to understand -- more than we need to be understood.  We need to develop a new language that does not distinguish between an ‘us’ and a ‘them.’  We need to pull ourselves up to the table of our common humanity to come together.
 
As Mark Twain said way back in 1869, such “travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime.”
 
To care for each other, to belong to one another, to honor the dignity of every human is not weak or fragile; it is the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  Freedom is not doing what we please.  Freedom is becoming one in Christ Jesus.  That is the Truth that sets us free.
 
We will not realize the vision, the dream, or the salvation we seek in accepting the world as it is right now.  We will not undo what has taken years to instill and establish without challenging our very own well-worn assumptions, starting the change we seek in our own hearts and minds.  Whatever we have to do receive and act in the Spirit that is God is worth whatever it takes. The Church is not closed.  With Holy Spirit power, the Church is deployed.  And our world needs the Church’s reconciling dream vision and mission more than ever, so “then, everyone who calls on the Lord shall be saved.”