- Acts of the Apostles 2: 1-21
As a major feast in the Jewish liturgical calendar, Pentecost was celebrated fifty days after Passover in thanksgiving for the covenant given by God to God’s people through Moses. Luke’s narrative places the friends and followers of Jesus in Jerusalem in the heady days after his resurrection and ascension for this major Jewish feast. In venerable, scriptural tradition, the tell-tale signs of God-at-work appear– rushing, violent winds and “tongues of fire….,” the same signs of God’s presence in and for the world as Moses experienced. Luke makes clear that this is the sign that it is the Holy Spirit who has empowered them to speak in every known human language, addressing directly devout Jews gathered in the Holy City from the world-wide diaspora. The crowds are stunned that these hick “Galilean” folk are fluent in so many languages. “All are amazed and perplexed,” some are dismissive. Peter steps forward from the “eleven” to speak to the crowds. He announces that they are witnessing the fulfillment of the prophecy of Joel: “I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh.” And to radicalize the word “all,” he specifically mentions “slaves” and “women” in the same breath as men!
- OR Genesis 11: 1-9
In primeval days, “the whole earth had one language and the same words.” This uniformity gave humankind a sense of control, which resulted in a grand project– to build a tower with its “top in the heavens.” This project “will make a name for ourselves.” But the Lord intervenes directly. The Lord “came down,” saw the tower, and concluded, “this is only the beginning of what they will do.” “So the Lord scattered them abroad from there over the face of the earth….” The project was abandoned and it came to be called “Babel, because [there] the Lord confused the languages of the earth….”
- Psalm 104: 25-35,37
Robert Alter notes of Psalm 104, specifically starting at verse 25: “this poem reads distinctly like a poetic free improvisation on themes from the creation story of the beginning of Genesis..,” but now from the human perspective, not God’s. (The Book of Psalms, p. 367) The same spirit that move over creation at the very beginning sustains every creature. “Let me sing to the Lord while I live/let my hymn to my God while I breathe.”
- Romans 8: 14-17
In his forceful but sometimes disjointed letter to the church in Rome, Paul expands on the radical habit of Christians to address God as “Abba,” because that is what Jesus had taught. “All who are led by the Spirit are children of God,” Paul writes unequivocally. That same “Spirit bearing witness with our spirit” affirms for us that we are “children of God,” which automatically makes us “heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ– in fact, we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him.”
- John 14: 8-17, (25-27)
John’s narrative packs many crucial claims into this long monologue by Jesus (13:31- 16:33) at a last meal with his disciples. A response to an inquiry from Philip is the opportunity for Jesus to make some of his most remarkable claims. “Lord, show us the father,” Philip requests. Jesus responds, “the words that I say to you I do not speak on my own, but the Father who dwells in me does his works.” “…[T]he works themselves” speak for themselves! Unexpectedly, Jesus focuses his remarks on all who follow him and says shockingly, “the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these….” Without pausing for the hearer/reader to catch her breath in response to that astounding claim, Jesus goes even further in John’s narrative. Jesus will guarantee that anything they ask in his name, “I will do it.” A major theme in this long monologue returns when Jesus assures them that “if you love me, you will keep my commandments.” Going further still, Jesus says he will request the Father to send the “Paraclete” as a steady “Advocate” “to be with you forever.” Do not be surprised when others do not recognize the Spirit at work. “You know him because he abides with you, and he will be in you.” This Spirit/Advocate will become your teacher by constantly reminding you of everything I have taught you; this assurance should give you a “peace” that keeps fear at bay.
Human language accomplishes more and less than was once accepted in the Western assumptions. The work of Ferdinand de Saussure, especially in his posthumously published Course in General Linguistics (1916) insisted that each human language was a “social contract'” that was operative due to conventional usage; Ludwig Wittgenstein, in his utterly unique method, explored the true power of human language to get things done; Jacques Derrida, over a brilliant lifetime scholarly career, elaborated his notion of “deconstruction,” in which he explored both the limits and the limitless possibilities of human language. Many times in various writings, Derrida recalled the story of the Tower of Babel directly or indirectly. John Caputo summarizes Derrida’s exploration this way:
“Deconstruction throws a scar into our discourse, questions too all prestige towers of the towers of reference, of all self-importance of ‘meaning,’ but without simply destroying meaning and reference themselves. Deconstruction creates a salutary distrust in the power of language to do what it says it is doing, along with providing an account of how language accomplishes what it does manage to do. But all of this, it cannot be repeated too often, takes place with the idea of keeping things open to something new.” (The Prayers and Tears of Jacques Derrida, p. 15)
Human languages accomplishes more and less than was once accepted in the West. It does not provide a total, complete and static description and control over existence that was once assumed; it does enable human beings to do powerful things, for good and for ill. This insight chastens our hubris; it also increases the personal responsibility for what we do with language.
The readings and gospel on this climatic Sunday of the Great Fifty Days of Easter (year C) include a cautionary tale about human vanity with God’s direct intervention to prohibit ever again any human attempt to organize/conquer creation by human language, establishing forever the limits of human language. Yet, in John’s gospel, Jesus makes a promissory reassurance that the “words” he leaves behind are from the Father and, with the continuing assistance of the Holy Spirit, will continue to teach and accomplish through us even more than he did! Jesus’ exact words in John’s narrative are: “the words that I say to you I do not speak on my own, but the Father who dwells in me does his works;” “the one who believes in me will do the [same] works that I do;” “and, in fact, will do greater works.” In Luke’s Acts of the Apostles we are given an illustration of the impact of those claims when the unexceptional followers of Jesus dare to repeat “the eloquent words” before indifferent or hostile crowds they had heard from him. The authenticity of these words is fulfilled in their deeds which followed for all to see, i.e. deeds of justice, love and mercy. The exponential power of these words is that they can be repeated, spread by anyone and everyone; God’s spirit is poured out on “all flesh!” We are authorized by Jesus to repeat and riff on these words. This is the way of keeping “things open to something new,” and, thereby, accomplishing even more than he did, as he promised