I remember the first time I heard a different language. In the United States, as in Venezuela, there are areas where the majority of the people are native Americans, that is, Indians. When I was about six or seven years old, my grandfather drove a mail delivery truck to and from the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota.
One day, my grandfather said to me, "Son, come with me in my truck to the Indian reservation." Of course, I replied, "Yes, grandfather, for sure!"
I heard the people talking on the streets of the Indian town. Their words made sense to them, but not to me. So I was scared.
In the history of the human race, often when one tribe or race has its own language, those who do not speak that language become scared and angry, and the result is hate and war. Nevertheless, there are hundreds of languages in the world and for centuries they have kept multiplying. For example, Latin, the language of the ancient Romans, is the language from which Spanish is derived, but also French, Portuguese and Italian. Furthermore, sometimes we refer to Spanish as "Castilian." Why? Because there are other languages spoken in Spain itself, There is Castilian, known in other countries as Spanish, but also Catalan and Galician.
And in Venezuela, every region has its own way of speaking Spanish. The people in Barquisimeto, Maracaibo, Caracas, Monagas, all have their distinct dialects.
Why do we have this situation? Would it not be better for everyone if all the nations had one language? In the book of Genesis, chapter 11, we read that in the beginning the whole world indeed had one tongue and everyone used the same words. So it was easy for them to work together and accomplish great things. Sadly, humans abused this advantage and said, "As one race, one people, there are no limits to what we can do. God is above us in the heavens, but that does not matter. We will build a tower to storm heaven.
That is why God confused the tongues of men as a punishment for their pride and also to protect future generations from their own sinful nature. No one has been able to establish an empire over all the earth to dominate forever, because the human race has been divided into different nationalities and ethnic groups.
However, in today's text, we find a reversal of what happened at the tower of Babel. It is the story of Pentecost and the origin of the holy Christian church. "Pentecost" means 50 and for the Jews it was an important religious festival that took place 50 days after the Passover. Primarily it was a day of thanksgiving for the wheat and barley crops.
That is why Jerusalem, the holy city of the Jews, was full of pilgrims from all parts of the Roman Empire. Some were Jews by birth, others were converts, but all spoke their own language, that of their region they called home.
Amid the crowds in Jerusalem, all of the believers in Jesus Christ, less than 200 total, were gathered in one place. It also was 50 days after Christ's resurrection and 10 days after His ascension. His disciples awaited "the Counselor, the Holy Spirit" that our Lord had promised in today's Gospel reading (John 14:23-31).
At that moment, God acted and changed human history again. First, everyone heard a sound like a mighty wind and after that, there appeared cloven tongues of what looked like flames above the heads of the disciples. At that moment, the Holy Spirit came and transformed the small group into the holy church, the Body of Christ in this world.
And the sign of God's will, of the work that He entrusted to the church, was this: All heard the apostles preaching the Gospel in their own language. That is to say, under the Law, the righteous judgement of God was to confuse the languages and divide and disperse the nations.
But the work of the church is to proclaim the Gospel, the message of salvation in Jesus Christ to all nations. How? By forcing everyone to learn one language? No, to preach the Word of God to everyone in their own language in order to gather God's sheep from every tribe and nation into Christ's sheepfold, which is the church.
The miracle of Pentecost means the Holy Spirit is active in the preach of the Word, no matter what language the preacher speaks. So the great work of the church includes the translation of the Bible, the written Word of God, into every language in the world. This work is not done, for there still people-groups who do not have the Bible in their mother tongue. But, thanks be to God, with the help of the Holy Spirit, the work continues.
Today the Holy Spirit manifests His power in the preaching of the Word and the administration of the sacraments in a variety of languages. All believe and worship God, by the action of the same Spirit, in the language of their hearts. We are one in Christ and one in the Spirit. This is the tower of Babel turned upside-down. Amen.
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