by the Rev. Craig Lemming, Associate Rector
Sermon for Pentecost on YouTube
In the name of The Holy Spirit who saturates everything in eternal diversity. Amen.
Have you ever paused to notice how many aspects of your life are saturated with the cultures of “every nation under heaven?” When you do, you may find yourself as amazed and perplexed as those who experienced that first miracle of Pentecost. Every race and nation under heaven are already deeply involved in our everyday lives. I’d like you to help me take a quick multicultural audit of my own life last week. Can you count up the number of cultures and languages that saturated my week? Ready? I wake up and start my day with Audio Divina – I wake up listening to and praying with sacred music. If you read my article in the E-Vangelist you know that J.S. Bach’s Magnificat has been on repeat lately.[1] Mary’s Aramaic song, based on Hannah’s Hebrew canticle, translated into Greek in Luke’s Gospel, was translated into Latin by Saint Jerome, set to music by the German J.S. Bach, and the recording I love is by a Belgian Choir and French baroque orchestra. All of those languages and cultures took place while I was still in bed! I got up and put on my beautiful djellaba – a luxurious kaftan that Marjorie and Lisa brought back for me from Morrocco. I’ve been cat-sitting for my dear Scottish friend Shelagh, and Shelagh has the world’s best collection of tea! Assam, Darjeeling, and Ceylon teas from India and Sri Lanka and Oolongs from China and Taiwan. I drink these delicious teas in Shelagh’s fabulous mugs that have Scottish words on them like “crabbit,” “numpty,” and “scunnerd.” Shelagh will have correct my Scottish Gaelic pronunciations. I was running late, so I had a little leftover Thai green curry and rice and took a slice of leftover pizza with me on the road. These leftovers were from my brother’s recent visit. Cold Pizza Lucé of reimagined Italian origins travels very well. In our family’s group chat we used the Afrikaans word “padkos.” Padkos is what South African colored people call the food we pack for our house guests when they leave in the morning for a road trip. My brother’s “padkos” pizza for his business road trip in Wisconsin went with him in his Japanese rental car parked opposite the Mexican taco truck near the African-American Life Juices on Lexington Parkway. That meeting I was running to was St. John’s Thursday Book Group where we discussed the wisdom of the Tibetan Dalai Lama and the Xhosa Motswana Archbishop Desmond Tutu. After chatting to our beloved Guatemalans Antonieta and Darlene, Jered and I met over a lovely Vietnamese lunch. Then I met with the St. Paul Pride faith community organizers and we rejoiced at the ever-expanding lexicon of words to describe all the multiplicities of genders and sexual orientations. In the car on my way home from work I listened to African-American soprano Leontyne Price and Spanish tenor Placido Domingo singing an Italian opera duet by Verdi based on Shakespeare’s English tragedy Othello. Later, my Ukrainian friend texted me in excitement about a new season of our favorite, trashy Australian drama on Netflix. It’s too trashy to name – we have a reputation to uphold at St. John’s! Before bed, Duolingo reminded me to do my daily French lesson. My bedtime prayers included “Ishe Komborera Africa” the Shona prayer – “God Bless Africa” offered to God as an immigrant grateful to be in this land of the Dakota, Ojibwe, and Ho-Chunk. How many cultures and languages did you count up? Probably dozens from this glimpse into my little life. I encourage you to do the same. What languages and cultures saturate your daily life? Who made your shoes? Who picked your coffee beans? What are the untold origins of the music you love?
Racist, xenophobic, Christian Nationalism will fail. God loves diversity. God creates and adores multiplicities. Today’s lesson from Genesis teaches us that God loves the magnificent beauty of countless languages and nations and cultures whom God scatters abroad over the face of all the earth. The story of the Tower of Babel shows us God’s sense of humor when faced with the hubris of selfish, monolithic, monolingual monoculture. God creates a delightful confusion of diverse languages and cultures interacting and intersecting thereby deepening and broadening mutual appreciation for our differences. God does not like monoliths. God does not like bland and tasteless monocultures. God loves to mix all the flavors and colors and aromas that make the biodiversity of our shared ecosystem immune to the sin of exclusivity. Variety truly is the spice of eternal life. As we pray in today’s Collect, on this Day of Pentecost, God opened the way of eternal life to every race and nation by Christ’s promised gift of the Holy Spirit. In today’s Gospel, Jesus says, This is the Spirit of Truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees the Holy Spirit nor knows The Holy Spirit. You know the Spirit of Truth, because the Spirit of Truth abides with you and The Spirit of Truth will be in you. The Holy Spirit will teach us everything, and remind us of all that Jesus has said to us.
Racist, xenophobic, Christian nationalists are steeped in fear. Fear of God’s amazing and perplexing differences. They are afraid of the Holy Spirit’s uncontrollable and eternal power of diversification. God’s extravagant proliferation of differences will never cease. The most holy, glorious, and undivided Trinity’s diversity continually creates, redeems, and sustains differences. Racist, xenophobic, Christian nationalists prefer fear-based scoffing at these sacred differences. Scoffing that goes back to those who try to dismiss the miracle of Pentecost by accusing that multicultural and multilingual assembly of drunkenness.
There is no need to be afraid of God’s diversity. Every person, culture, language, and race is made in the image of the Triune God’s eternal diversity in unity and unity in diversity. As Our Lord Jesus Christ teaches and commands us to love one another and to love our differing neighbors as ourselves, when we practice Christ’s love, The Spirit of Truth comforts us. The Holy Spirit is the Comforter.
When I asked our staff what the people of God needed to hear in today’s sermon, St. John’s Media Coordinator Ebby Watkins asked: How do we access the Holy Spirit’s comfort in this time of cruel comfortlessness? This Sermon is my attempt to honor Ebby’s question. The word “comfort” comes from the late Latin word “Confortare” which means “to strengthen greatly.” On this Day of Pentecost God strengthens us greatly by gifting us with multiplicities of difference. Today we remember that the followers of Jesus were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak and to be heard in a multiplicity of languages as the Spirit gave them ability. Today every race and nation under heaven heard God’s Word of Truth and Love in their own native language. We must continue to speak God’s eternal Word of Truth in a multiplicity of love languages. We participate in this miracle of Pentecost by proclaiming God’s Love of all peoples and languages and cultures under heaven. God’s Holy Spirit strengthens us greatly. She comforts us when we take multicultural audits of our lives and grow in reverence and gratitude for God’s ever-expanding diversity. Every aspect of our existence is already saturated with God’s diversity. When we are faced with the fear, hatred, and ignorance of racist, xenophobic, Christian nationalism, remember, Jesus says: “Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not be afraid.” Continue to welcome, love, and celebrate all of God’s peoples and languages. God’s variety is the spice of life. May we all be comforted by, saturated with, and strengthened in God’s eternal and sacred diversity. Amen.
[1] https://stjohnsstpaul.org/e-vangelist/fill-this-world-with-good-things/
