Genesis 11:1-9 and Acts 2:1-21
When it comes to certain Christian holidays I can be a traditionalist. Advent, Christmas, Lent, Easter, and Pentecost are those holidays which I hold closely to how my faith has been formed. If you've followed this blog for the almost 2 years I've been writing it you will see how a few of those other Christian holidays have an affect on me, for now I'd like to stay on the theme of Pentecost. Pentecost is, to me anyway, a time when we celebrate the first known unification of the Christian Church.
The lectionary asks us to choose between the Genesis and Acts passages. I really don't know how we can do that since the one only makes sense with the other. The Genesis passage has humankind being separated by language through an act of God. In our continued reading of the Old Testament we see how different ideologies, cultures, societies, and the like are formed because of the non-understanding of one another.
The Acts passage has people with different languages, ideologies, cultures and the like coming together in one room and being unified through an act of God. In my opinion this solidifies how through Christ and the Holy Spirit the laws of the Old Testament are no longer valid. It shows to me that God's true intent is for us to be one people, under one love; the love of God.
Our differences are to be celebrated, not used as a way to divide. It was never God's purpose to divide humankind. The story of Babel was not meant to highlight our differences, but a way to acknowledge that those differences exist as well as a way for an ancient culture to explain how those differences came to be. It's through the words and actions of humankind that the differences we all have were made to be something which defines us.
As a Christian we should find the words and actions to celebrate and hold in unity the differences which make us the people we are. We are all unified through one Spirit for that exact purpose, so is the lesson of Pentecost.
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