Pentecost: The Spirit of Many Languages, Sexual Orientations and Gender Identities/Expressions

Scriptural Basis

Acts 2:1-13 (NRSV)

When the day of Pentecost had come, the disciples were all together in one place. And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability.

Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven living in Jerusalem. And at this sound the crowd gathered and was bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in the native language of each. Amazed and astonished, they asked, "Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? And how is it that we hear, each of us, in our own native language? Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabs-- in our own languages we hear them speaking about God's deeds of power." All were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, "What does this mean?" But others sneered and said, "They are filled with new wine."

Blog Reflection

According to the account of Acts, when the Holy Spirit came upon those first apostles they spoke the saving mysteries of God in many languages.  People who heard them thought they were drunk.  Yet those who thought the apostles were intoxicated recognized it was too early in the day.  Something had happened to the apostles.  Suddenly they were not afraid to speak the truth about God's transforming grace in the person of Jesus.  They found a new energy to do things that they did not think they could do previously.

In Bishop Gene Robinson's book "In the Eye of the Storm" he writes about the Holy Spirit.

"It's that part of God that refuses to be contained in the little boxes we create for God to live in, safely confined to the careful boundaries we set for God's Spirit.  The problem is--and the miracle is--God just won't stay put.  And God won't let you and me stay put, content to believe in what we've always assumed.  Change isn't just something to be wished on our enemies--but something God requires of us as well." Pages 9,10).

In many ways languages spoken, heard and written tend to unsettle us.  When someone talks with an accent unlike our own it makes us listen a bit more to what someone is saying. We often have to ask for a clarification.  Learning how another person communicates tends to stretch out our understanding of others around us. Even when we would rather be left alone in our cozy way of doing things.

Many Christians through the centuries have interpreted the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost as that defining moment when Christianity became the religion to rule all other religions.  So was born the movement that led to institutionalization of doctrines, dogmas, moral statements and decisions that would for centuries define the laws and ways in which people were suppose to think, behave, love and exist.

These very philosophies have led to the movement against individuals who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, questioning or queer.  A movement that has and continues to be destructive to LGBT people, families, couples and those who love and support us.  Based on what the account of Pentecost suggests, any form or discrimination or marginalization is against the very nature of the Mother, God the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit represents the feminine nature of God's nature and being.  She nurtures us to grown in God's grace.  The Spirit is the Advocate of justice, inclusion and seeking to enter into every nature, culture, religion, sexual orientation and/or gender identity/expression so to call humankind to the understanding that we are all one people though we are many.  What affects one group of people in another part of the world, affects all  humanity.  When one world religion comes under heavy scrutiny as the Muslims have over this past year, every religion is open to the possibility of chastisement.   When LGBT individuals do not have our equal rights to marry, be employed, granted citizenship through immigration and face the violence of Uganda's "kill the gays" bill, it is not long before any person of any gender or sexual orientation can be scapegoated or be the subject of  a severe witch hunt.  If there is anything that seriously grieves the Holy Spirit at the core of her heart, it is indifference and exploitation.

Out in Scripture gives us some more to think on this Pentecost Sunday.

Acts 2:1-21 recounts the amazing day of Pentecost. The gift of this text to marginal communities is the phrase in verse 11: “We hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues!”  This is not simply a statement about the intolerance of people who don’t want to learn another’s language.  Rather the statement recognizes that we all want to know the wonders of God in our own culture and context – whether we are foreign nationals in the U.S. or LGBT people in heterosexual-dominant situations.

In the passage, the Spirit lights upon a particular people in the upper room, but is not confined to that closed-door experience. Those who have had a fiery, blustery experience with God, that shakes their very foundations, must share it with others.  They must also be pleased that God translates their experience into a language that works for those who also want to know God’s wonders in their lives.

In response to people who wanted to understand the spilling out of the upper room and the strange testimony, Peter stands up and says it fulfills God’s promise to pour out God’s spirit on all peoples (verses 14-21). This outpouring allows those who align themselves with Jesus (those who call upon God’s name), experience a saving presence.
 
The experience of the Holy Spirit always enlarges our mission far beyond anything we might earlier have envisioned.  And always calls us to include people within our mission who we might earlier have regarded as "not quite worthy" of God's grace.  But, in God's eyes, no person can ever be not worthy.  The Spirit includes everyone!

Eric Law in the May/June 2004 issue of The Other Side magazine asserted that the “miracle of the tongue” is only half the miracle of Pentecost.  There is also the “miracle of the ear” and that both the speaking and the listening are needed to make Pentecost happen.  For a true community animated by the Holy Spirit to exist we must be about listening as well as speaking.  We need to take the time not only to tell our stories of what it is like to be LGBT and Christian, to tell stories of what it is like to be an ally, but we need also to take the time and create space to listen to others stories.  In addition to talking across our differences, we need to listen across our differences.

This Pentecost falls on the date of a particular anniversary that makes it so appropriate to call our attention to.  44 years ago today, the Supreme Court legalized interracial marriage in all 50 states. In a statement made just a few years ago before her death, Mildred Loving passed the torch to the next fight, saying "I believe all Americans, no matter their race, no matter their sex, no matter their sexual orientation, should have that same freedom to marry. That's what Loving, and loving, are all about."

Love is a language that God has given all of God's people to be able to experience and express.  Different people speak the language of love in different ways. LGBT people express love through same sex or bisexual orientation, transgender people can be of either sexual orientation and express their love through whatever their gender identity or expression is.  The language of physical, romantic and emotional love for someone special is a gift of God the Holy Spirit.  That gift should be respected, treasured and protected by all individuals and the laws of our nation.  That gift should also be recognized by the entire Christian Church for what it is.  There should not be any ex-gay group or anti-equality group with the name Christian on it, that seeks to ban marriage equality, encourage bullying in America's public or private school systems, or to insist on heterosexism as an appropriate way of life.   


May the Holy Spirit lead us all into better days so that all people may be embraced, cherished and guarded.  May the Spirit guide the entire Christian Church to be more inclusive, less power driven and much more about justice and equality for all people.


Prayers

Almighty God, on this day you opened the way of eternal life to every race and nation by the promised gift of your Holy Spirit: Shed abroad this gift throughout the world by the preaching of the Gospel, that it may reach to the ends of the earth; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. (Prayer for Pentecost, Book of Common Prayer, page 227).

May the Gifts of the Holy Spirit
bring fire to the earth
so that the presence of God
may be seen
in a new light,
in new places,
in new ways.

May our own hearts
burst into flame
so that no obstacle,
no matter how great,
ever obstructs the message
of the God within each of us.

May we come to trust
the Word of God in our heart,
to speak it with courage,
to follow it faithfully
and to fan it to flame in others.

May the Jesus
who filled women
with his Holy Spirit
fill the world and the church
with new respect
for women's power and presence.

Give me, Great God,
a sense of the Breath of Spirit
within me as I . . .
(State the intention
in your own life at this time
for which you are praying.)

Amen.

(Prayer of Sr. Joan Chittester, OSB, the Wild Reed).