What Language Will You Learn? - The Rev. Philip DeVaul

Sermons from the Episcopal Church of the Redeemer

All of a sudden, the disciples are speaking. All the disciples, by the way. Their first language is probably Hebrew or Aramaic, which is a dialect of Hebrew. And instead of speaking the Gospel in their own language, they're now speaking the language in whatever language, the people around them speak. The first thing the Holy Spirit does to make people church, is turn them outward and give them a language to speak love to others in whatever way they will understand. Please notice that the Holy Spirit does not make it so everyone else in the room understands the disciples when they speak in their native language. It is historically culturally the custom of a lot of churches to try to make the world look more like us and speak more like us and learn our language. But in the story we have today, the birth of the church happens when the people who love God are turned outward and learn how to speak other people's language. This is a super Supreme act of vulnerability, by the way, learning to speak someone else's language. Have you ever tried to learn another language? READ THE SERMON TRANSCRIPT