The language of the Holy Spirit

Sermon for Pentecost Sunday, 2021, delivered at St. Paul's Episcopal Church, Louisville, KY.

Based on the texts of John 15:26-27; 16:4b-15 and Acts 2:1-21.

 May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable to you O Lord, my strength and my redeemer.

The story of Pentecost has been one of my favorites for years, starting when I was learning a foreign language in high school. Once I learned how to express myself in a second language, I found an appreciation for the power of the Holy Spirit as it acted on the disciples, letting them connect and communicate with many others around them, in their own language. Now, to be clear, Luke is not writing about speaking in tongues as Paul does in his first letter to the church in Corinth. Paul’s mention is about an ecstatic language that God understands, and occurs when someone is full of the Spirit. Luke writes in Acts about tongues of fire that appeared above each of the disciples, a sign of the presence of the Holy Spirit that allowed them to speak in other human languages. The distinction is important because it clarifies who is being spoken to and how the Holy Spirit is acting on us. And through it, we have a lot to say to each other and to God.

I would have loved to have been there with the disciples on the day that the Holy Spirit, the Advocate that Jesus spoke about in the Gospel reading today. I would have loved to have seen that power as it gave the disciples the ability to speak other languages, but I would have also enjoyed hearing all of them being spoken. You see, I have a thing for languages; I love them and I love learning a new way to think and speak about myself, speak to others, and to hear the world. Languages are not just about learning new words or new sounds or a new alphabet. They are about communicating different concepts and ideas with others. For instance, there isn’t an English equivalent of the wonderful French word ennui that describes a listless, purposeless boredom. The best that we can do is describe what the word means. There’s not an easy way to talk about warm weather in French; there isn’t an exact French word for “warm,” so the weather in France is either hot or cold or cool. Spring and early Fall get short shrift. And languages aren’t always what we think of, like English or Spanish. We speak a liturgical language here during worship, which is different from the medical language we use to talk about our health, which is different from the language of love that we speak to those we hold in our hearts. There are so many ways in which we can share our thoughts and emotions, some of which we don’t have the vocabulary to express.

When the Spirit calls us to speak, we often start with a greeting: hello, buenos dias, bonjour, Guten Tag, добрий день, buon giorno, konichiwa gozaimasu. What follows are words that share what is in our immediate thought or memory, or what we need or want. There is another language, though, one of the heart and soul that we have to listen for beyond the spoken words. That language can be heard when people say “What did I do to deserve the problems I have?” or “I know that Jesus is here, and he’s been looking after me,” or  “I don’t want to be a burden,” or “I’m ready to cross the river,” or “I can’t breathe.” These are words that express something from the heart and soul, cries of guilt, gratitude, shame, acceptance, and fear. We have to listen carefully, differently, to hear what the hearts and souls of others are saying and to rely on the Spirit within us to translate that language of the heart into the language of our head. The language of the heart is harder to listen for, but we are all capable of learning it and speaking it.

Jesus knew that language of the heart and soul, because it was the language that he spoke to everyone around him. Peter and the other disciples often misunderstood what Jesus was saying because they heard the words that he spoke. They didn’t understand what his heart and soul, the very heart and soul of God, was saying to them. But, even if they didn’t understand it, they experienced the power of that language as they stood next to him and when he spoke to them. It was an experience as powerful as the Holy Spirit descending on them on Pentecost as tongues of fire, because Jesus was full and overflowing with the Holy Spirit, and filled the people around him. I think they started to understand Jesus’ language of the heart on the day they themselves were moved to speak in other languages.

In the story of Pentecost, Luke is not just telling us about how we can communicate through the power of the Holy Spirit within us, he is also telling us about how Jesus’ words were spread around the world. In those first days of the Christian Church, knowledge of Jesus, who he was, and what he brought to us was spread by word of mouth, person to person. Those words were spoken as part of a relationship of love with every person as a child of God, even if those relationships lasted for only a few minutes in passing, or a few hours of fellowship. It was how the Good News of Jesus spread among people who didn’t speak Greek or Aramaic or Latin, or other languages and their many dialects. More importantly is the message that the Good News can be understood in any language, making it a truly universal message of hope and salvation. The universality of that message is what continues to connect us today, across continents, oceans, cultures, and nations. The presence of the Holy Spirit and what it leads us to say to each other is timeless and without boundaries.

What we have always said to each other and to God is spoken in the language of the head, heart, and soul. We can close the loop, if you will, of hearing God speak to us through others and responding as God moves us, using the words we have been given. Whatever words are used, it can be us speaking heart to heart, soul to soul, God speaking and hearing through us. The power of the Holy Spirit for the disciples on the day of Pentecost, and the power of the Holy Spirit for us today is to be able to listen as others listen, to speak as others speak, and to hear as others hear. That does not mean that we have to give up our own language, our own way of expressing ourselves. We can speak more than one language, ours and theirs, without sacrificing anything because it is the Holy Spirit giving us the power to speak their language. That is the gift to us, and that was what happened to the disciples when they started speaking other languages. Our conversations with God occur in a language that we understand and makes sense to us. We don’t use a language that we don’t understand. So, when we see and experience the world as others describe it in their language, we can truly bring them the Good News in a way that they can understand. It is then that we can share the love of God that fills us and will lead to peace in our homes, in our communities, in our nation, and in the world. Let us carry that message out into the world, making ourselves understood.