John 15: 26-27; Acts 2:1-21

The many languages of the Spirit

There is a story I once shared with you of an old fashioned lady who wanted to spend a few days camping in Florida. She was, however, very concerned about the proximity of the toilet which she prudishly referred to as the B.C,  or Bathroom Commode.  So she wrote:”does the campground have its own B.C.?” There was a problem,: the campground director did not know what she meant.  After consulting with other campers about this, he still couldn’t figure it out. Finally he concluded she must be talking about the Baptist Church.  So he wrote the following reply:’ Dear Madam, I regret very much the delay in answering your letter, but I now take pleasure in informing you that B.C. is located nine miles north of the camp site and is capable of seating 250 people at one time.  I admit is quite a distance away of you are in the habit of going regularly but no doubt you will be pleased to know that a great number of people take their lunches along, and make a day of it. They leave early and stay late.  My wife and I last went six years ago. It may interest you to know that right now that a supper is planned to fundraise for more seats.  I would like to say that it pains me very much not to be able to go more regularly, but it is surely not of lack of desire on my part…It seems to be more of an effort at my age, especially when it’s cold….If you decide to come to the campground, perhaps I could go with you the first time ..to ..sit with you…and introduce you to all the other folks…This is really a friendly community.”

Friends, this is not a very likely scenario in miscommunication.  But things like this happen all the time.   A lot of are funny, some of them are tragic.  Nevertheless as a human species we are moving to a common language, one or another form of the English language unless the government of China can persuade the world to do otherwise.  The rest we will be able to do with facial expressions and emoticons and the kind of energy we bring to a conversation.  And those types of communication are very important.

Something happened the other day about ten days ago. A reporter went on a boat on the Andaman Sea to look for Rohingya refugees, a Muslim minority from Burma. He found them but his radio report was unique.  Unlike most journalistic reports about refugees when we hear the challenges of the situation described or see refugees arriving on shore, this report started with the audio footage of people wailing, adults and children starving in the middle of the tropical sea.  It was the human soundtrack of misery and distress.  That is why it was so unnerving.  Sometimes when we see people so different looking from us, we can’t identify a hundred percent, but this was a sound we could connect with on a visceral level.

Dear friends, as the world moves toward a common language, it is harder and harder to find a cultural language we share.  As David Letterman goes off the air, we see the end of an era in talk shows where the host was able to connect with a humor everyone understood or could relate to. But that is changing: we are going from full belly laughs to smiles.  We acknowledge humor more than we laugh about it.  We are aware than many topics are cruel and insensitive and non-inclusive.  This is good.  What isn’t good is that we are less and less understanding the private language each of us have, the language of the soul, which is at the heart of it a spiritual language. It is a language that involves our deepest memories which remind us of the person we have become.  So as we take a moment to remember those we lost since last Memorial Day, it is that private language we tap into, for only you know what the persons you remember meant to you.

In the Gospel of John Jesus promises the arrival of the Advocate, the Comforter, the Holy Spirit.  This is the day that we honor out of the Holy Spirit.  In Acts the Spirit makes the people able to communicate in the language of others, as the veil of miscommunication is lifted. You and I sit in church and we understand the words that are being said, but the language of our soul, the spiritual language may be different.  It may be that the message you hear in the prayers, the songs and the sermon are not a language that is familiar to you, are introducing you to a world you do not fully know.   So, friends, we are her e today to assure you that Holy Spirit speaks in endless ways, that the Holy Spirit knows your language and speaks your language.  If it didn’t, you might not be called to be here in these pews today.  This Holy Spirit does what the Spirit will and cannot be controlled by anyone.  The Bible is clear about that.  It is also not owned by any one person or any group.  Friends, you may not feel you know the language of this Spirit, but be assure that the Spirit knows yours. Thanks be to God.