Tuesday 21 April 2020
... in our own languages we hear them speaking about God’s deeds of power (v. 11)
Psalm: Psalm 27
Background
Chapter two of Luke’s Gospel tells the story of the birth of Jesus. Chapter two of Acts – Luke's second volume – tells the story of the arrival of the Holy Spirit. Jesus came as flesh and blood. The Holy Spirit came as wind and fire.
The first gift of the Spirit was to enable the apostles to speak in tongues. Some Christians today can speak in a spiritual language that is not one of the many native languages and dialects spoken around the world. Saint Paul writes about this in chapter 14 of his first letter to the Corinthians.
The apostles at Pentecost (originally a Jewish festival celebrated fifty days after Passover) were enabled by the Holy Spirit to speak in the varied mother tongues of the cosmopolitan population of Jerusalem. All of them were able to hear about God’s deeds of power in their own language.
I am a linguist myself. I have a degree in Russian. However, when I went to serve in Russia as a mission partner, I still needed to have some one-to-one tuition in order to learn the vocabulary I would need in my ministry there. Church language – such as prevenient grace – was not covered in my university course!
The same challenge applies to all of us. How can we communicate the nature of our faith to people in our local community who are not familiar with our church language? How can we tell the story of God in words that they will understand? Metaphors like 'wind' and 'fire' are probably more helpful to people than 'Holy Spirit' – at least as a starting point.
The Methodist Church in Britain is enriched by the various fellowship groups that offer pastoral support and opportunities to worship in their own style and language for our sisters and brothers whose roots are in another part of the world. If you have never been to one of these gathering, I encourage you to go. You may not understand what is being sung or said, but you will nevertheless know that the Holy Spirit is present and active!
To Ponder:
- How can we communicate the nature of our faith to people in our local community who are not familiar with our church language?
- What words have been used in church which you did not understand?