Ancient Truth | Modern Sound

Today is Pentecost Sunday, the birthday of the church.  Although the church was born in Jerusalem and was in the earliest days pretty much a Jewish sect God’s actions at Pentecost show clearly where He was leading his church. 

⁵Now there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven. ⁶When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment, because each one heard them speaking in his own language. ⁷Utterly amazed, they asked: “Are not all these men who are speaking Galileans? ⁸Then how is it that each of us hears them in his own native language? ⁹Parthians, Medes and Elamites; residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, ¹⁰Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya near Cyrene; visitors from Rome ¹¹ (both Jews and converts to Judaism); Cretans and Arabs-we hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues!” ¹²Amazed and perplexed, they asked one another, “What does this mean?”

There are times when you read the bible when you read a question like that and you just want to slap the guy.  Dude, how stupid are you if you cant get the point of God talking to everyone in their own language.  The point is - the door is open to everyone. 

So it was on Pentecost Sunday I find myself in church sitting next to a Nigerian family and worshipping alongside Indians, Tamils, Indonesians, Americans, other Africans, Dutch, several English, and another Scot.   We sang songs that we all knew, read from familiar scriptures, and said the Lord’s prayer.  When we greeted each other there were the immediate differences (Nigerians dress well to go to church, often in bright traditional robes, a colorful spectacle) but there was also the peace that comes from shaking the hand of a man you have never met yet somehow you know.  That is what it means to be a Christian, it means knowing the essence of another human being and knowing that human essence is grounded in being a created child of God our Father. 

This week President Obama nominated Sonia Sotomayor as his choice for the supreme court of the United States.  Much of the talk centered around a quote made by Judge Sotomayor some time ago about the richness of the experience of a Latino woman when compared with others.  There is no doubt a story to tell in that woman’s journey.  Justice Thomas has a similar story and it is eloquently told in his biography “My Grandfather’s Son”.  These are two great American stories but to emphasise them goes against the notion that God teaches us at Pentecost and I think ultimately makes for a poor supreme court justice. 

Pentecost was a time when God got to the heart of the matter and overcame our individual stories and dealt with us in essence.  God said, I don’t care if you are Cretan or and Arab, I am going to deal with you just the same way.  I will demand of you the same and the rewards of heaven will be open to all too. 

I can’t help thinking that bringing our differences to the centre and making them the definition of our humanity makes for bad law and poor judges.  Better instead to behave like God at Pentecost and demand the same from all and let all have access to the riches of grace.