Speaking (and hearing) in tongues
Imagine you are sitting in a quiet room when suddenly the door blows open, you feel this heat on your forehead as if a tongue of fire was resting on it, your friends who you were sitting with you begin to speak in other languages, some then begin to interpret what the other is saying, the scene is chaotic, yet for some reason the scene is not scary, it’s peculiar, but for some reason there is an excitement to it, and empowerment to it, it feels uplifting, as if the presence of God was in that very place. My friends, this is what we are here to celebrate on this day, the reason for the red paraments and the candles, the red stoles and red necklace around my neck, we are here to celebrate the day of Pentecost. The presence of God in this place. And I must say the presence of God is very much here in this community. We are all here to cerebrate what God is doing in this place. And there is much to celebrate.
When I served Grace United Methodist Church on N. Charles Street in Baltimore City, I remember teaching confirmation and being touched by the lives of five individuals. I am reminded of this as normally this would be the day that we would recognize our confirmands in the church. Yet as I reminisce, I remember how I traveled with those confirmands at Grace Church. We journeyed together for six weeks. We shared meals together, read scripture together, prayed together, they learned about John Wesley’s Prevenient, Justifying, and Sanctifying grace, they learned about the Wesleyan Quadrilateral, they learned of both scripture and tradition, they pondered the balance of reason and experience and they celebrated the presence of the Holy Spirit in their own lives.
One evening we had a lesson on this very thing, the presence of the Holy Spirit, and we all gathered together in a circle, and we each held a simple candle while listening to a quiet song, and we held that candle for several minutes taking time to reflect and think about God’s spirit in our lives, afterwards as another simple reminder, we breathed on the back of our hands as a way to think about God being present in various ways, wind and fire. But more importantly I told them that they can do this at any time as a reminder that God is always with them. God has a creative way of in-breaking into their lives. God has a way of in breaking into all of our lives. For it does not matter if we are present here together in this place or miles apart, we are always connected to God through the power and the presence of the Holy Spirit. God’s presence through the Spirit is such a dear thing. This mysterious and special gift that has been given to us. It’s an assurance, an empowerment, a motivation, that drives us closer to our God, and blesses us with the promise that God is always with us. No matter where we are in our life’s journey on this day, remember that soft wind, remember that burning fire, and remember that God will be with you and God will be with me.
It is written in the scripture that the Spirit came in three forms, in wind, in fire, and in tongues or language.
The gift of communication, other languages, other tongues. I know “tongues” is something many of us don’t really understand, or maybe even see much use for, why would God wish for us to speak in other languages? Why would God want us to communicate in this spontaneous and unnatural way? This may make us feel uncomfortable, or for some of us, we may TAKE COMFORT in this gift of tongues. But as I read about the day of Pentecost, foreshadowed in the Gospel assigned for this day and other accounts from scripture, meditated on it, prayed on it, I began to work through the meaning of this gift of tongues. And suddenly this frenzied and glorious scene began to take on a new meaning. The question that was raised in my mind was: what does it mean to communicate to others that we may see as foreign to us? What does it mean to truly speak and hear the language of what others are saying, or hearing the messages in which they are attempting to convey?
And what do we do with it?
A litany of questions come to mind when wrestling with this text:
Could it be that it is our own human limitations that are pushing this story merely into the realm of the spoken word, or the native language, or the foreign tongue?
Are there not other ways in which we could be listening and proclaiming at the same time the message that has been given to each of us from Christ?
What about sitting with the broken, and listening to their tongue, standing with the misguided and helping them with grace and kindness into the loving presence of God?
To hear and I mean truly hear the tongue, the voice of the scorned, the hurt, the marginalized, the sick, the abused, the addicted, the sad, the lonely, the forlorn, the dying?
Is it not our gift to be able to sit and hear the story of others, and to tell them ours, to share the voice of Jesus to them, to show the power of the Spirit to them, and to share the love of God with them?
Are we not invited to tell others what our Christian experience means to us, and how it forms our view of the world around us.
Are we not invited to use our gifted tongue to speak to our friends, our family, our boss, our co-worker, the person in line at the bank, the person bagging our groceries, or preparing our meals, the person fixing our cars or our homes, or even the stranger on the street,
Is it not our duty and our honor to share the message of Jesus that we hold in OUR HEARTS to others in their LANGUAGE as we go about living what limited time we have on this earth.
Or maybe use no language at all. How does this say, “I love you, and I care about you.”
I leave you to ponder this powerful text and I invite you into further conversation around this text. But ultimately during this celebratory week as we find ourselves in a place of waiting, similar to those disciples so long ago, I invite you to feel the power of the Holy Spirit around us, and remember (blow on your hand) the Spirit continues to be with you and be with me.