Readings:
Sermon:
And how is it that we hear each of us in our own native language?
Words from the Acts of the Apostles, chapter 2 - the reading that introduces our worship on this Pentecost Sunday. It's a little like some kind of Google Translate, this idea that everyone present can hear exactly as they need to hear; everyone hears in their own language. Of course, these days we're really used to that. If you just look at international conferences many of the people attending have different languages and, through translators and headsets, and of course now with the AI, we're able to translate things fairly quickly.
But we shouldn't perhaps get too hung up on the language itself because whilst it is especially important to hear the word of God in in our own language, there's also something about the experience of God’s Word as well.
Earlier this month the diocesan prayer diary introduced us to visio davina, or divine seeing. It seems to me that listening intently and with devotion is in itself another prayerful encounter with God which goes beyond the words themselves.
I was brought up in North Wales and so attended a Church in Wales parish church for most of my teenage years. And then I went through to ordination in the Church in Wales and my curacy was in Colwyn Bay. I was ordained in Saint Asaph Cathedral in a bilingual service and while all the Church in Wales is bilingual, in some areas of course more Welsh is spoken than in others.
Colwyn Bay had three churches in the parish, one of which was a Welsh speaking church. And in all churches, at any civic services or important services, Welsh was used alongside English quite naturally - not repeating things but some bits would be in one language and other bits in another. The order of service booklets or the books we used were bilingual, so when there was an English text there was a Welsh translation, and when there was a Welsh text there was an English translation. Those who wanted to could follow in the language of their choice, but it was also the case that many of us would take our eyes away from the booklet or service leaflet and just simply listen to the language - even though perhaps we couldn't understand it.
The beauty of the language and the way in which it was proclaimed as the Word of God aloud in worship was enough to make me realise that this was what it means to be the Body of Christ.
There's something wonderful about listening to someone else speaking in their own language, singing in their own language, and it doesn't matter if we don't understand the words because what we experience is something of the joy, the passion, the emotion, the intensity of someone being themselves made in the image of God. We are taken up into God's presence just simply by experiencing something which is not immediately obvious and which causes us to wonder and to learn - and to see something of the Divine.
The world currently feels very divided in all sorts of ways and the language of division is ever present in much of our media – and there is something about the challenge of other languages which is a peculiarity of divisive politics. But experiencing language as a gift of diverse beauty draws us closer to each other so that we can see that in our great differences we are all made in the image of God. The feast of Pentecost encourages us to call on the Holy Spirit to enlighten us, to fill us, and to broaden our hearts and minds so that when we hear a different language, or see a different culture, or perhaps even out of our comfort zone, then we are not in a place of fear or anxiety but rather we are drawing near to a greater understanding, and a deeper relationship with the God who delights in all that he has made.
Questions:
- What are the fears or anxieties we ask the Holy Spirit to give us strength, comfort, and love to overcome?
- In what ways do we feel different from others, and how can we thank God for being individually, wonderfully, and fearfully made?