In years past, we, like many other parishes around the country, have sometimes read the first lesson that describes the apostles at Pentecost proclaiming the Gospel in many languages, by having several people read the passage in foreign languages, either all at once or one at a time. We certainly could do it here again at any time, as many of you are fluent in various languages. However, I’ve given pause to this idea because the point of this episode reported in the Book of Acts, isn’t that the disciples spoke in many languages, but that everyone who wished to, even distant visitors and foreigners, heard the Gospel clearly in their own language. The emphasis was on everyone hearing and understanding the Gospel, not one’s proficiency in proclaiming the Gospel in another tongue.
For Christians, the particular language is not really important. What is important is the clarity and force of the message. Christianity never had an official or Holy language. Jesus spoke Aramaic, the everyday language of his people at that time. The Bible for the Jewish people was in Greek, having been translated from Hebrew nearly two centuries before. Greek was the universal language of the Roman Empire. The Jews who lived outside Palestine, from Egypt to Italy easily numbered well over 3 million, while those who lived in Palestine likely numbered no more than 2.5 million. The Gospels and earliest Christian writings were written in Greek, too, although some of their written sources may have had earlier Aramaic antecedents. Later, of course, the common language for the Bible of Christians in the western half of the old Roman Empire became Latin. Anglicanism was part of the great reform movement that along with the printing press made the scriptures more accessible to great numbers of people and in their own language. Our Prayer Book was developed on the overriding principle that the language of our common prayers and worship together should be clear and understandable with nothing hidden or withheld.
In His teaching, Jesus didn’t use philosophical categories and definitions tied to a certain school of thought. You didn’t need advanced study to understand what Jesus taught. Jesus used common, everyday stories about a farmer and seed or about the misfortunes of a traveler who fell among thieves or how leaven worked in baking bread. They were situations that could easily be identified in practically all cultures around the globe and are as applicable now as they were two thousand years ago. Even today in our high tech world, you really don’t need to know a lot about particular cultural practices of first century Palestine before the power of Jesus’ parables catch you.
The Jewish festival of Pentecost, coming fifty days after Passover and concluding the Passover season, was celebrated in Jesus’ time as a thanksgiving festival for the giving of the Law to the tribes of Israel at Mount Sinai. It likely attracted as many as 100,000 pilgrims from all over the Mediterranean who came to the Temple in Jerusalem to celebrate. It was a holiday that commemorated the bonding together of twelve tribes and the common experience their ancestors had in being led by Moses through the Red Sea out of slavery in Egypt, and then gathered at the foot of Mount Sinai to receive the great document that would govern their norms and community life ever since. Pentecost was the celebration of the fusion of a common history with a people’s present and future. From Mount Sinai on, the tribes and their many descendants came to understand that they had much more in common than their individual tribal customs and petty rivalries.
That is one of the great themes of our Christian celebration of Pentecost, too. As people incorporated into one body called the church, but from many different cultures far and wide, we are gathered and bound together by the good news and vocabulary that are made understandable to all. It is not for people of faith to insist others learn our language; it is for us to become observant in God working in the lives of others and to be translators of the good news into the language of others. Again the larger meaning of the Pentecost experience described in the Book of Acts involves a radical expansion of Jesus’ message. People who had absolutely no knowledge of Jesus, but who were open and receptive, didn’t hear a lot of undecipherable words, strange sounds or nonsense; they heard the Gospel, each in their own language. Salvation was clearly preached to all.
Now I don’t know about all cultures, but birthdays seem to unite people, be they young and old. You can sing happy birthday and have cake and candles with a five year old or a ninety-five year old, and both can enjoy it without a lot of explaining. You don’t have to change the words or tune of the song. You just sing it. That is what we will do at the social time after this service. We will sing happy birthday to the church, the body which is called to bring us together and witness to the common humanity that is much stronger and lasting, and more important than our separate differences and distinctions. None of us will need the musical score and we all know the words, so there won’t be a rehearsal. We don’t need one. So this morning, we will just light the candles and with thanksgiving, sing happy birthday to the church.
And I offer this to you in the name of the Living God, Amen.
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