Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

Across the Pastor’s Desk by Henry Burt

This Sunday begins the season of Pentecost.

In Acts 2 we read of the disciples gathered in Jerusalem, whereupon “tongues of fire which spread out and touched each person” caused them to speak many different languages.

The Jewish onlookers, those who came from many different regions of the Middle East and beyond, were amazed that the disciples — who only knew their native region of Galilee — spoke in global dialects.

I had this sort of amazement driving through the Bavarian province of Germany a few years ago on a trip with my dad. We stopped to fill up on gas at a little station in the middle of nowhere.

My dad went in to ask the attendant if he should pay with his credit card or with cash. This young man, who probably never traveled much beyond his rural Bavarian villager, replied in perfect English, “Either’s fine.”

It’s not only the context that makes Pentecost so profound, but it is also the message that the Holy Spirit empowers the disciples to speak in a variety of languages.

As the text reads, the onlookers “hear them speaking in [their] own languages about the great things that God has done.”

As Christians, we seek to communicate in our words and in our actions the love of God. In our own community of Albert Lea, we lay claim to a large Hispanic community and a large Karen community. Each of them have their own worshiping congregations — I’d encourage you to check them out!

As someone who has had the privilege of traveling to the likes of St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican and Notre Dame in Paris, I have worshiped among people who speak in tongues different than mine.

A few months ago, I even attended the ordination service of a fellow Lutheran pastor from Sudan, which, although it was in a familiar sanctuary in a nearby town, mostly included songs and liturgy in his native Nuer language.

Even when I had no idea what words I was fudging as I tried to keep up with the bolded words in the bulletin, I could be sure that what lied behind them was a message of God’s love.

I certainly know that when my Latino neighbor, or my Karen neighbor, or my French neighbor, or my Sudanese neighbor shakes my hand as they greet me with a message of “peace be with you,” we are gesturing in a universal language.

Many say that music is a universal language, especially with its rhythms that have the power to touch the soul of any listener — regardless of their language.

And so I leave you with a verse from an old favorite, “Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing:”

“Teach me some melodious sonnet, sung by flaming tongues above.

Praise the mount, I’m fixed upon it, mount of thy redeeming love.”

Henry Burt is the associate pastor at Grace Lutheran Church in Albert Lea.