Have you ever had an experience where everyone around you was speaking a different language from your own? Maybe you traveled to a different country where a language other than your own was what most people spoke. Or, maybe you were in an aisle at the grocery store, and you happened upon a conversation in another language. How did you feel? Did you feel self-conscious as you realized you couldn’t understand the other people? Did you know a little bit of the language they were using, so you found yourself trying to do some translation in your mind? Did it feel a little bit like everyone around you knew something you didn’t know? It can be tremendously difficult to get around when you do not know the language everyone else is speaking. And, even if you do know some of the language, if you are not comfortable speaking with native speakers, you can feel a bit like a preschooler trying to have a conversation with a highly educated adult. It’s exhausting. 

I took German for a number of years in middle school, high school, and college. I even won an award for being the top foreign language student in our region. And yet, when I tried to help a young, German couple make change at the restaurant where I was working, I suddenly realized I didn’t have the first clue how to speak to a native German speaker. I fumbled and floundered. Eventually, I helped them, but it was embarrassing, awkward, and I quickly learned how little German I actually knew. It was like there was a wall between me and the people I was trying to help. It felt like I was at the Tower of Babel, and I could see how different everyone else was from myself. Even though we were all just people, there was something separating us. Even if it wasn’t because you were surrounded by people speaking other languages, I am guessing everyone here has had at least one experience where we realized we were different from everyone else around us. It can be terribly frustrating when you want to connect with someone and you can’t.

Our lives are filled with “Tower of Babel” moments – times where we feel so divided from the people around us in so many ways that togetherness seems impossible. We read the promises in the Bible that God will bring us back together, that someday we will all gather in worship despite our vast differences, but we have a hard time imagining it. We read that “at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, in heaven and on earth and under the earth and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father,” but we look around and wonder if it’s really possible that God could bring all of humanity back together again.

In the Old Testament, we find all kinds of rules and regulations that the people were expected to keep. There were laws that regulated who was considered clean and who was considered unclean. There were certain things that the people of Israel had to do to distinguish themselves from their non-Hebrew neighbors. One of the clearest things that separated the people of Israel from their neighbors was that Hebrew men were circumcised. They were called the “circumcision” and it was something that God called Abraham to do as part of God’s covenant with Abraham and his offspring. This sign of God’s promise–this “covenant” sign–was something that separated the men of Israel from the men of other nations.

In the Temple, there were sections set aside for various groups of people. There was a place for the priests to gather, a separate place for the men of Israel, yet another separate place for the women of Israel, and lastly a place for the Gentiles–a place for anyone who wanted to worship the God of Israel but was not a Hebrew by birth. On the one hand, the religion of the people of Israel was very inclusive because there was a place for everyone. On the other hand, there were clear dividing walls, clear places where people had to stand based on what people group they were part of and whether they were male or female. Even in worship, the people were divided.

Our passage from Acts 2 takes place in Jerusalem. We are told by Luke in verse 5 that “there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven living in Jerusalem.” It seems that people had gathered in Jerusalem because of their faith in the God of Israel. They had come to Jerusalem for Pentecost, which was one of the three pilgrim festivals for the Jews. They were called pilgrim festivals because devout Jews were called to travel to Jerusalem to celebrate these festivals. Three times a year, devout Jewish worshipers from all the surrounding nations would travel to worship God. This particular festival was Pentecost–which literally means “the feast of weeks” because it takes place 50 days after Passover. Devout worshipers from all over the middle eastern world would have gathered to celebrate the giving of the law, and to read the book of Ruth. So, as you can imagine, life in Jerusalem was a bit chaotic, crowded, and confusing with people of all different customs, cultures, and languages gathered in the same city for worship.

I wonder if it felt like a “Tower of Babel” moment, as everywhere you turned there would be people speaking in a language you couldn’t understand. Verses 9-11 of our passage for this morning even list all of the countries represented by the people in Jerusalem for Pentecost–places like Mesopotamia, Judea, Asia, Crete, Libya, and many other countries. There must have been a hustle and bustle and flurry of confused activity with so many people from so many places all gathered in Jerusalem. When Jeff and I lived in Holland, Michigan, we experienced something like this on a smaller scale. Every year, at the beginning of May, people would come from all over the country–and even all across the world–to see the tulips in bloom. During those Tulip Time days, it was hard to find a place to park, common to run into people who were lost or didn’t know where they were going, and to hear many languages and observe many cultural practices. It was chaotic, and it was beautiful.

Into the busyness and chaos of Pentecost in Jerusalem, the Holy Spirit descends like divided tongues of fire. The Spirit rested on the disciples, and they began to tell the good news to all those around them. Something happened as the disciples spoke, and something happened as the gathered people listened. Suddenly, the crowds could hear the good news of Jesus in their own languages. They were bewildered, as the book of Acts says, because they could understand the words of these men from Galilee. The crowds had become so accustomed to not understanding those around them because of the diversity in Jerusalem that it was astonishing when they could understand. The Spirit spoke to each of them, in their uniqueness and diversity, in a language they could understand so that all of them might hear and know. God had made a way for them to be united.

I remember having the privilege of standing in a small church in southern Mexico with the few men who were left in the village of Acteal. Many of their brothers, fathers, and friends had been arrested for a terrible crime they did not commit. The men spoke in a Mayan language–Tzotzil– and I could not have understood them without an interpreter. They spoke of their fear when the people came and massacred their friends and family. They talked about the heartache of watching the innocent men in their village arrested and taken away for this crime. They talked about the difficulty they had in figuring out not only why God had allowed this to happen, but also that justice still had not been done after so many years. They had petitioned over and over for the release of their loved ones, but they faced roadblocks from the government and from militia groups. 

A member of our group asked if we could pray for them. Different members of our group prayed, and our instructor translated our prayers. I remember suddenly feeling warmth come over my body. Tears started flowing down my face. I looked up and my eyes met the eyes of one of the village men. He also had tears in his eyes. His lips formed a small smile, and in that moment, all of the things that divided me from him were gone. I cannot explain it in any other way except to say that it was if a small Pentecost happened right there in that church. All of the obstacles, all of the dividing walls, were gone in an instant through the power of the Holy Spirit.

On this Pentecost Sunday, we celebrate the diversity of the world we live in–that God has created human beings to speak diverse languages, have unique cultures, and to have different gifts and talents. We also seek unity in the God who created us all. We never know who God will call to be part of our body here, or who we might be called to connect with in the world. What we do know is that the holy church God is bringing together “is not confined, bound, or limited to a certain place or to certain people…though still joined and united in heart and will, in one and the same Spirit, by the power of faith,” as it says in a beautiful document called The Belgic Confession.

Today we celebrate that even though the laws of the Old Testament only applied to a certain group of people in a certain way, God’s Word and Spirit are for all of us. To paraphrase an old commercial–this Spirit is for you. All of you. All of us. It isn’t just for some, not just for the people who have done enough good, or those with a decent upbringing, or those who never made the big mistakes. The prophet Jeremiah saw a vision of this bringing together of all people when he wrote: “I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. No longer shall they teach one another, or say to each other, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, says the Lord; for I will forgive their iniquity, and remember their sin no more.”

What stands between us and other people around us? What dividing walls exist? Rather than being held captive to those divisions, let’s commit to pray that the Holy Spirit–the one who unites us all–will remove our barriers and allow our witness to bear fruit in the lives of others. Rather than being held captive by the chaos of the Tower of Babal, let’s seek the unity of Pentecost through God’s help. May God take our fears, our separations, and our divisions away so that all might see and know the goodness and love of God. Amen.