June 5, 2022

Genesis 11:1-9 * Ps 104: 24-34, 35b * Acts 2:1-21 * John 14:8-17

“I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh” God declares in our reading from Acts 2 (v17) – such a radical statement clearly telling us that God’s Spirit is already everywhere! In the front cover image of our leaflet today, there’s a different translation of this verse, with God saying: “I will pour out my Spirit on ALL people.” Wow, imagine that -- it’s not ‘just us’ Christians, but rather God’s Holy Spirit is poured out upon ALL in every land and culture. Or even ‘all flesh’ as we heard today – no wonder I often feel God’s love and joy and peace and grace coming to me through my Dear Doggie Darling!

This year Pentecost Sunday coincides with World Environment Day, and the Rev Dr Rachel Mash from South Africa, from the Anglican Communion Environmental Network (ACEN), has written some great reflections on the ways in which our Pentecost readings pertain to our urgent contemporary environmental concerns. Here are some excerpts from her reflections:

What do [we] learn from Pentecost about how to take up this challenge?

From separated – to united: One of the signs of the spirit is that they were one, they came together regularly to meet and they weren’t hiding away, lonely and stressed in their own corner. Day by day they spent time together in the temple, they broke bread. People have different angles on caring for creation, some are passionate about preserving animals or birds, others care passionately about the fact that people don’t have access to clean water. Some are fighting climate change; others are plastic warriors. We need to come together, support each other and carry the mission out. We need to work with those of different faiths and those who have no faith. Join networks, work with others, link up on social media. Transformative change doesn’t take place when individuals, change, it takes place when networked individuals change.

From Selfish to generous: Peter to protect himself said’ I do not know this man’ now we read all … who believed were together and had all things in common, they would sell their possessions and goods and distribute the proceeds to all as any had need. No one had need amongst them. Climate change and environmental degradation have at their root greed. That we can take more and more from the earth, consume more and more, destroy more and more. In order to protect the planet we need to aspire to a simpler lifestyle … to live more simply so that others may simply live. The wealthier nations that have benefitted from fossil fuel-based development over decades need to provide funding to assist developing nations leapfrog to renewable energy.

From Sorrowful to joyful: From the sadness and despondency of losing their beloved Jesus, they were now so joyful people thought they were drunk at nine o’clock in the morning! To care for creation is a joyous thing, we connect again with nature, spend time in nature, growing good things in God’s earth, seeing beauty where there was none before. … Let our work be based on love for God and love for God’s creation. … You will not protect what you do not love! So in our Mission to renew this Earth, the only Earth we have, let us be filled with these marks of the Spirit - be courageous, have a purpose, become united, be generous and be full of joy.
https://www.greenanglicans.org/.../05/Pentecost-2022.pdf...

I especially love that last section from this Pentecost & Environment message – Be Joyful! It’s so easy to become extremely discouraged about the state of the earth, especially with the heinous evils of war added to our environmental concerns.

Today we also heard the Genesis 11 reading about the Tower of Babel since the traditional approach was that Pentecost reverses Babel and that sin divides while love unites. However, a closer look asks us to go deeper. To be honest I’ve often wondered about God’s position in the Tower of Babel story. Why does God dislike the fact that the people are ‘one’ or unified and that they all have one language (v6)? Often this text is understood as God criticizing the height and hubris of their tall tower reaching towards heaven; but then in verse 7 God says: “Come, let us go down, and confuse their language there, so that they will not understand one another’s speech.” As I wondered about this over the years – why God does not seem to want people to all have the same language – I’ve thought of two things: the Internet and the diversity in Creation.

Since the advent of the Internet about thirty years ago, many had hoped that this global interconnection network would lead to greater world harmony since we could now see more clearly into each other’s lives, and communicate freely across the world. Instead, we seem to have greater divisions among humanity than ever before! What happened? It’s all very complex I’m sure, but among the many ‘minefields’ of the Internet is that people with nefarious intentions could now more easily connect with each other and be empowered to act. Another probably unforeseen minefield is that people who thought they had a lot in common, like Christians for example, discovered that instead they had a phenomenal range and breadth of interpretations and ideas as to what Christianity means, and how it should function in the modern world. So, while the Internet did lead to some greater interconnections and affinities amongst people, it also lionized huge chasms of difference, sad to say.

Is it a bad thing then, for us to ‘speak the same language’ like the language of internet interconnections? Well, God’s creation is incredibly diverse, right? The diversity found in nature is beyond comprehension. Consider the small example of leaves. Any half-hour walk along many of our paths shows us an immense range of shapes, sizes, colours and textures of leaves. The diversity of plants, animals, fish, trees, lakes and other things in nature – shows us clearly that the Creator prefers diversity. Diversity is not the opposite of unity – God’s abundant love holds all diversity in unity.

This diversity is also honoured in our Pentecost story from Acts Two. It’s NOT that the people now all understood the same language, but rather that they heard the early Jesus followers speaking their own native languages (v8). I was at Butchart Gardens recently and appreciated hearing different languages around me – such a lovely sound amidst the diversity of flowers. Let’s end with Malcolm Guite’s Pentecost sonnet:

Today we feel the wind beneath our wings,
Today the hidden fountain flows and plays,
Today the church draws breath at last and sings,
As every flame becomes a tongue of praise.
This is the feast of Fire, Air and Water,
Poured out and breathed and kindled into Earth.
The earth herself awakens to her maker,
Translated out of death and into birth.
The right words come today in their right order
And every word spells freedom and release.
Today the gospel crosses every border,
All tongues are loosened by the Prince of Peace.
Today the lost are found in his translation,
Whose mother-tongue is love, in every nation.
Amen!