Pentecost – C1

Pentecost – C1

Years C
Acts 2:1-21 or Genesis 11:1-9

Trying to take control in order to be on top leads inevitably to confusion. Take a look at any political process, even dictatorial ones, and it becomes apparent that common interest soon loses out to partisanship. We can claim we are after the same goal and even use the same words to describe it, but when the day ends we are suspicious of the others for wanting to succeed so desperately. We know our suspicions are well-founded because, given half-a-chance, we would be glad to take the lead among equals.

We don't need to have G*D enter the picture to deliberately set folks at odds with themselves, they do plenty well all by themselves.

The real trick is to keep a focus on our differences that might be mobilized in the same direction. When our differences can be brought to bear on a subject we are able to make better decisions than when we are assuming we are all on the same page only to find we are not.

The value of Pentecostal language is its appreciation of the different languages and the perspectives they bring to the table. To try to tell someone else what is so very important to you when they obviously speak differently, is to better pare down to the most important what we have experienced.

What, then, is so important that you would be willing to learn a new language to be able to share it? Or is it only important enough for you to repeat it and repeat it in your own personal language with no concern whether or not it is heard?

= = = = = = =

god and adam and eve
talked each evening
there was agreement
understanding
and yet
a babelsnake
was able to confuse
them about one another

farsi english and swahili
yuwaalaraay hindi and aymaran
blue white-collared and monied
child teen and adult
and yet
a babelfish
enlightens our differences
with a gift of a new brainwave

[Never mind that Douglas Adams claims, "Meanwhile, the poor Babel fish, by effectively removing all barriers between communications, has caused more and bloodier wars than anything else in existence."]