What Language Do You Speak?

Recently my daughter and I were headed to Chipotle for dinner and she randomly asked me what kind of music I like. I was honestly quite shocked because we always listen to the latest movie soundtrack that we watched. So it only took me a second to grab my phone and pull up a song. One of my favorite bands to this day is Collective Soul. I have loved listening to their music since their first album “Shine” that came out in 1993 all the way to their most recent album that came out last year. Since she asked me about my favorite music I have been listening to them again, so when I started reading the text about Pentecost I immediately started thinking about a a song by them called “You Speak My Language”.

The song doesn’t have a lot of lyrics but the first verse talks about going around the whole world and not being able to find anyone who speaks the singers language. The second verse echos the same idea only this time instead of going around the world the singer talks about how even in his own hometown no one understands what they are trying to say. They even ask for it to be written down and they still don’t understand. They just don’t understand what he is trying to say. The chorus, however, does talk about how you, you speak my language. There is this person who just happens to know what the singer is saying. When I listen to this song, I don’t think this person is saying that no one understands the actual language they speak like English or Spanish, etc. but that this person has a style or a set of vocabulary that no one seems to understand except maybe that one person. Perhaps it’s more than one person but it doesn’t seem to be a lot of people.

But in our scripture from Acts today the apostles do get the ability to speak in different languages. They, as Aramaic speakers, are able to have people are Parthians, Medes, Elamites, Mesopotamia, Judea, Cappadocia, Pontus, Asia, Phrygia, Pamphylia, Egypt, Libya, Rome, Cretans, and Arabs understand them. What an incredible miracle to be able to just stand up and speak and have everyone hear you in the language that they know. It reminds me of Star Wars or Star Trek and the universal translators they have in their universes. With the ability to be able to speak in any language that was needed, Peter is able to preach to all of those listening. Even though I already stated that it must have been incredibly helpful and powerful to be able to speak in, essentially, any language in the world, that is not the real power and the real miracle at work here. I mean, our family just got back from a Trip to California and while riding on It’s a Small World and hearing the song in multiple languages is great and wonderful, it’s not life changing, so again, there is more to this acts text than just the actual languages being spoken.

Because, as I said at the beginning, the issue the singer has in the song isn’t that no one understands the language the singer speaks, it’s the message the singer is trying to convey that people don’t understand. So while the singer and the other people in the hometown might all speak English the message the singer is trying to get across isn’t being understood. That’s why it always says at the end of each verse that they walk away not understanding what he’s trying to say. I’m sure we all know that depending on what area we work in or used to work in, we speak in what we call certain languages even though we all speak English. For example, my dad and brother are both engineers, different kinds of engineers, but when they start talking math formulas I grab a beer and walk away because I don’t speak that language. And pastors and church leaders have a certain language that we can use, which is something I have always sworn off for the most part becuase most people don’t speak that language. Even us as Christians have our own langauge we use: salvation, grace, sin, redeemer, sacristy, narthex, communion, mass, etc. We have our own language that we speak and there are times when people have no idea what we are talking about just like I do when my brother and my dad start talking the engineering language.

So while people were impressed at Pentecost that the apostles could speak in other actual languages of the world, what actually affected them was what was being said. I would say that Peter’s speech was a language that was filled with the Spirit and filled with the love of God as found in Christ Jesus. That was the language that spoke to and touched the hearts and the minds of those who were listening that Pentecost.

That is the same kind of language that Paul talks about in Galatians. The language that we speak as Christians should be filled with the Spirit that was given to us which is the same Spirit that was given to the apostles at Pentecost. And when we put aside the language of the world and speak the language of the world then we not only speak the language of the Spirit but we live out the language of the spirit. The way Paul describes that language is by using the metaphor of fruit. So the language, the fruit, of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. These are the things that God speaks to us and through us, and because they are from God there is no law or no limit to them.

Imagine with me if we all went out into the world, filled with the Spirit, as we are, and we just spoke our everyday lives in this language. A way of living and speaking that always promoted joy and love to people. A language that spoke peace to the world and to our hometown. What if we were gentle with each other and were good to each other. Maybe at first we would go around our hometown and our world and people might not understand the language we speak, they might shrug and go ‘what did he say’? But I also believe that the more we use this language with ourselves, with each other, and with the whole world, the more this language will be less foreign. The more we use this language the more people might understand it. The more they understand it the more they might be open to learning this language. After all, on it’s most basic level it isn’t a very hard language to learn.

Imagine some more with me when suddenly, like in the song you get excited because there is someone you meet who suddenly gets the language you are using. They get that God loves them. They get that the Spirit lives inside of them. They know who created them and that they have always been a child of God. Imagine using a language that tells every face you meet that they matter, that they are worthwhile, that they are cared for, they are loved and have been loved by God when they were formed in their mother’s womb.

So let’s live by the Spirit, let’s use the language of the Spirit, let’s ignite the world with an ancient language that speaks of love and acceptance, a language that makes sure everyone knows that they are one in the family of God. Then one day we can all excitedly claim that not just you, but that the whole world speaks my language, the language of God which speaks of love for all people. Amen.