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DIAKONIA BIBLE STUDY #2
Shaken by the Wind of God’s Empowering, Equipping Spirit
Acts 2, Genesis 11; Romans 8
[note to translator—during the session itself, I may omit some of this if time is getting short. It sounds like the right time length when I practice, but with a crowd the pace may slow down. If you want to contact me at all, my e-mail is ]
Good morning! I trust you had a good Sunday free-time experience and a restful evening and are ready to resume our work together. Friday we focused on the calming, creating wind of God as a source of hope and courage for our ministries in these often terribly chaotic times. This morning, we turn our attention to the empowering, equipping wind of God shaking us out of our comfort zones and sending us forth in ever new ways to look beyond ourselves at the shape of our ministries in our time and places. We begin with the well-known story of the birth of the church at Pentecost.
The continuation of the Apostle Luke’s account of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection, the Book of Acts begins in Jerusalem where the 11 disciples have gathered to pick a successor for Judas as they await the outpouring of the Holy Spirit promised by Jesus prior to his ascension.
Politically, Jerusalem was under the control of the Roman Empire and its local henchmen. Imperial Rome was not a kind ruler. On the contrary, its military might imposed an artificial unity on conquered peoples in the name of “peace” that masked the violence, injustice, and periodic terror of Roman rule. Our story begins as faithful Jews from a wide geographical expanse gather in Jerusalem 50 days after Passoverfor the Pentecost celebration of the ingathering of the first fruits of harvest. One of three times a year when Jews from all over the Roman world gatherin Jerusalem, the pilgrims and Jewish residents of the city come together to thank God for all of God’s goodness to them. Despite Rome’s onerous presence, then, the city is filled with faithful Jews who share a common faith in Israel’s God, but who are different from each other in so many other ways. Our text begins as the festival is concluding.
Acts 2:1-3 “And when the day of Pentecost was coming to its close, they all were together in one place. And suddenly there was a noise from heaven like a violent wind rushing by and it filled the house where they were sitting, and there appeared divided tongues, as if of fire, and a tongue rested on each one.”
While the crowds fill the streets, the disciplesare together inside a house, walled away from the din and smells and rushing around of the crowds outside. Suddenly, the quiet of this comfortable place is interrupted by the noise of a violent wind rushing by—a wind so strong that it makes the winds that make Chicago the Windy City--winds which you may have experienced at times this week--seem incredibly calm. This is not the gentle, hovering wind of Genesis 1, but a forceful blast filling the house, disrupting everyone and everything it touches.
With it come tongues—the organs of speech—tongues as if of fire resting on the heads of the disciples. The imagery is powerful. In Genesis 1, God birthed creation by speaking it into being; in Acts 2 the presence of the tongues foreshadows the speaking in many languages that will herald the birth of the church.
The phrase “as of fire” reminds us of the variety of settings inwhich fire appears in the Old Testament. In Exodus 3, for example, Moses encounters a bush that burns and burns but doesn’t burn out, a sign to him of God’s holy presence and God’s commitment to lead the Israelites safely through whatever fiery tribulations their journeys may take them. Similarly, in Daniel 3,God protects Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the fiery furnace to which Nebuchadnezzar had consigned them by stationing an angel in the furnace with them. And one more example: the profound promise of Isaiah 43:2: “Whenever you walk through the fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you.” God’s holy presence, God’s protection in times of trial, God’s perpetual promise—all reflected in the image of fire—and in our text signified by the tongues like fire accompanying the rushing wind. The text continues:
Acts 2:4 “All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages as the Spirit gave them utterance.”
Can you envision what it might have been like to be caught in this wind, to inhale the in-dwelling Spirit, the wind that changes everything for the disciples, propeling them out of their comfort zones into adventures they never would have never believed could happen? Can you see the tongues as of fire on their heads, and hear their voicessuddenly speaking in languages unknown to the disciples, but known to the multitudes of pilgrims gathered in Jerusalem that day? What an amazing sight: tongues like of fire on the disciples’ heads signifying God’s holy presence, God’s protection in times of trial, God’s perpetual promise even as the disciples’ physical tongues speak that which normally would be impossible.
We are not told the disciples’ initial reaction to this interruption of their quiet day, to what is happening within and through them, but we are told the reaction of the crowds who hear them. It is one of chaos and confusion.
Acts 2:5-13 “Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven living in Jerusalem. And at this sound the crowd gathered and was confused, because each person heard the disciples speaking in the person’s native language. Amazed and astonished, they asked, “Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? And how is it that we hear, each one of us, in our own native language? Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabs—in our languages we hear them speaking about God’s deeds of power.” All were amazed and perplexed, saying one to another, “What does this mean?” But others sneered and said, “They are filled with new wine.”
There is a lot to unpack in these few verses. Hearing the noise of all those languages being spoken, a crowd gathers. Their initial reaction to this outpouring of the Holy Spirit is mass confusion, first because each person hears in their own language despite the cacophony of voices simultaneously speaking different languages and secondly because of the reputation of the speakers. Galilee was a rural area north of Jerusalem with a predominantly peasant population. The question “are not these men Galileans?” reflects the stereotype of Galileans as uneducated, simple, and backward. In this country, the colloquial term for that populace would be “hick.” I imagine each of you has a word in your language for this stereotype as well.
Through the speaking of the disciples, each ethnic group gathered in Jerusalem hears in its own language the Gospel proclamation of God’s deeds of power. On that Pentecost day, the playing field—so uneven within the societal structures of the Roman Empire—was totally level. Each person heard the same Gospel but in their own language.
When God spoke creation into being in Genesis 1, no contrary voices were heard. When the Spirit, speaking through the disciples, speaks the church into being in Acts, the response is divided. The text says that all who heard were amazed and perplexed as they asked “what does this mean?” But not everyone in the crowd is open to pondering the possibility that what is happening is something totally new, something with potential to push them out of their comfort zones into a different future than they had ever envisioned for themselves or for the world.On the contrary, a segment of the crowd dismisses the whole event by sneeringly asserting that the disciples are acting strange becausethey are drunk on wine.
Before we move to Peter’s reply to the question “what does this mean?,”it is helpful to pause a bit and look briefly at another story that in some intriguing ways serves as a backdrop to Acts 2. Interpreters long have noted a relationship between Acts 2 and the Genesis 11 story of the Tower of Babel. In both texts, diversity of languages plays a crucial role. In both texts, God’s action causes confusion which propels people out of their comfort zones into new, unknown and often nerve-wracking adventures among people and places they never dreamt they would go.
Genesis 11:1-9 “Now the whole earth had one language and the same words. And as they migrated from the east, they came upon a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there. And they said to one another, “Come, let us make bricks, and burn them thoroughly.” And they had brick for stone and bitumen for mortar. Then they said, “Come, let us build for ourselves a city, and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves; otherwise we shall be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.” The Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which mortals had built. And the Lord said, “Look, they are one people, and they have all one language; and this is only the beginning of what they will do; nothing that they propose to do now will be impossible for them. Come, let us go down, and confuse their language there, so that they will not understand one another’s speech.” So the Lord scattered them abroad from there over the face of all the earth, and they left off building the city. Therefore it was called Babel, because there the Lord confused the language of all the earth; and from there the Lord scattered them abroad over the face of the earth.”
Often, the diversity of languages and cultures with which the story ends is understood as a punishment for the sin of building the tower. According to this interpretation, God desires that all people be a unified whole with everyone essentially alike. When this desire gets thwarted by prideful humanity building the tower reaching into the heavens, God punishes humanity by dividing the peoples of the earth into different ethnic groups spread throughout the world. According to this interpretation, Acts 2 reverses the Tower of Babel account by re-establishing the unity of humanity that God desires.
This interpretation is one way to understand the story. But another way of reading Genesis 11 suggests a different interpretation—one with significant implications for the relationship between Genesis 11 and Acts 2 and for the shape of our ministries as well.
Genesis 11 begins with the inhabitants of the earth in a very comfortable, safe place. Their unified language makes it possible for them to control their environment, to work hard together and build a great city with its tower reaching into the heavens. If the humans can scale the heavens, they can reach God’s abode. If they can accomplish this, they can consider themselves gods. Their unity allows them to believe that they can control the universe. In many ways, the unified control they claim will reverberate millennia later in the controlled “unity” Rome tries to impose upon its conquered territories.
Back to Genesis 11: Looking down from the heavens, God sees and—noting that this kind of unity is not a good thing—God acts. Speaking to the heavenly council—probably what today we would call angels—God decides to confuse humanity’s language so that various groups can no longer understand each other. This action complete, God scatters humanityin their multiple, distinct ethnic groups throughout the earth.
According to this reading of Genesis 11, a unity in which everyone essentially is alike is not a goal to be desired; on the contrary, the controlled unity within the uneven power structures that it generates is an obstacle that must be overcome. God’s response—dividing humanity into multiple expressions, each with its own language and traditions—is a gift, not a punishment. Only in diversity of expressions can the many shapes and colors of human potential be realized. Only in diversity can the unique gifts of every person and each ethnic group come to full fruition.
According to this reading of Genesis 11, rather than reversing the Tower of Babel story, Acts 2 completes it as each of the multiple expressions of humanity is able to hear the good news of God’s deeds of power in their own languages. There is only one Gospel. The value of unity in the Gospel is not denied, but is situated within the context of multiple expressions of the Good News adaptable to each particular ethnic group addressed.
Unity in diversity—a theme that permeates much of contemporary Christian thought and many of our diaconates as well. It is a value that we treasure, a practice we try to embody. At the same time, genuine Pentecost unity in diversity—unity in the Gospel in which no one person or group is privileged, in which each person has an equal seat at the table—is often more a dream to be realized than a present reality to be celebrated. Why? Becausegenuine Gospel unity in diversity assumes a level playing field where every voice is equally heard and valued. Our historical realities, social structures, and material conditions, however, have created and continue to sustain a terribly uneven field.
Recently, a friend asked me why the Diakonia presentations can be heard only in English or German. I replied that most all of the attendees will have some fluency in one of these languages. While this is true and while it certainly would be impossible simultaneously to translate each presentation into the primary language of each person here, the reality remains that some of us will have a much easier time understanding what is being said than others will. Historically, English and German were languages of missionaries to parts of Africa, Asia, Central and South America. They also were languages of the colonizers who imposed their own controlled unity upon the lands they illegally occupied, violating the dignity and rights of the colonized, much as the builders of the tower of Babel sought to violate the dignity and rights of God by breeching the boundary the Creator had set between the heavens and earth.
All of us share, in different ways, in this heritage of colonization. Those among us whose ancestors were among the colonized know full well that the playing field was and typically remains uneven. Those among us whose ancestors were among the colonizers, unaware of the privileges that whiteness of skin historically and structurally has conferred, often remain unable to see that for the playing field to be truly even so that there can be genuine unity in diversity, we need to first do our own work of repentance and repair. Only after we do that work can the playing field potentially become even and each diverse group among us affirmed in its uniqueness and given the equal place each deserves. Pentecost work is hard work.
While I was preparing this study, I received word that one of my deaconess sisters, Geri Plato, had died after a long illness. Geri, who was consecrated in 1958, was the first African American to join the community of which I am a part—the Valparaiso Lutheran Deaconess community.Geri grew up in the United States during the era of segregation when African Americans were kept “separate” from white Americans through a variety of insidious laws and customs. During her college years at Valparaiso University—about 60 miles east of here—stores could and did refuse to accept Geri’s business because of her skin color. But Geri persevered and eventually became one of the matriarchs of our overwhelmingly white deaconess community. Our communitylong has prioritized unity in diversity as one of our highest values. Yet, situated as we are in the United States of America, a nation plagued by structural racism since its founding, only last summer did we white sisters begin seriously to grapple together with the reality of white privilege and its ongoing impact on us and on those among whom we serve. As African American sistersgently have tried to tell us for decades, the playing field is not even. By ignoring or denying this crucial factor, we who are white inadvertently perpetuate the very oppressive structures we want to challenge in our commitment to unity in diversity. Again, Pentecost work is hard work.
How about you where you live and serve? What are the issues with which you struggle in your work for unity in diversity? Be it through racial, economic, political, or religious structures, injustice exists whenever uneven playing fields continue to privilege some at the expense of others. And this, I suggest, needs to be a crucial component in our interpretation of biblical texts in these days of increasing global disparities in wealth and resources, of hostilities toward immigrants,and of nationalistic fervor promoting violent rhetoric against individuals and groups different from the dominant group in any particular society.