Language

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What a wildly wonderful world, God!
You made it all, with Wisdom at your side,
made earth overflow with your wonderful creations.
-Psalm 104:24 (The Message paraphrase) 

In one 24-hour period this week, I found myself in prayer spaces led in two different languages, neither of which I understood. 

During our Sunday gathering, we celebrated a baby dedication, where we blessed a new child whose parents are in our community, and together we committed to being a source of God's love and care as she grows with us. Her grandfather was also in attendance to honor her, and he led us in a prayer in his native language of Portuguese. It was beautiful. 

And then this morning I had a Zoom meeting with some Indian friends who are working among widows and orphans affected by HIV/AIDS. After catching up, we prayed together, and my friend Esther prayed in Telugu. Free flowing and full of love, I was able to understand about three words that she said over the next few minutes. But it was moving and beautiful. 

Why was this beautiful? Why wasn't it simply annoying to not be able to understand everything that was said? 

I think that the answer is that sometimes, we need to be reminded of just how expansive God's family is. We need to realize that the English speaking, American-centric assumptions that we have are not even a faint reflection of what the kingdom of God really is. We've wrongly attempted a cultural captivity of God. I have grown so weary of the "us-vs-everyone" mentality that has become central to American identity in nearly every way. 

One of the great delights of the past few weeks of World Cup soccer coverage is seeing so many countries converge on US soil. International fans are having fun in our cities, making friends, and trying our food... but also keeping their cultural distinctives (never change, Scotland). Wilmington completely adopted the Ivory Coast last week as they stayed there and played in Philly. People are naming how absurd it is that we are taught to look down on other countries. How healing those images can be, and how heartbreaking that when it's not the World Cup, we rarely practice respect and honor for cultural differences, even within our own country. The post game prayer between the players of Germany and Curaçao was breathtakingly beautiful.

These moments can be reminders to all of us that most division and animosity are simply manufactured by those who control the narrative. Those divisions break down when people meet face to face and share a moment. And sometimes that moment can even transcend language. 

This is true in areas of both faith and community. I've sat in church services in Asia, Africa, South America and the United States where I barely understood what was happening. But what I saw was a Christlike spirit of care, welcome and joy. And it became a reminder to me that God simply doesn't function how we assume. God doesn't speak English anymore or less than God speaks Swahili. God speaks to the human heart and transcends cultures, time zones, languages, and history. And yet at the same time, God enters into those very things through the mystery of the Spirit, bringing us together. 

To be honest, I've seen this clearly outside of Christian spaces as well. I've been in places here in the US where I had very little in common with others in terms of Christian belief, family background, or culture. But we had come together to show love. To advocate for dignity. To serve the poor. To create spaces for everyone to be welcome. And those spaces felt holy, too. God's Spirit is sometimes present in ways that we don't even have language for. 

I fear—truly fear—that we are losing the capacity to see beyond our small, comfortable spaces. But if we learn anything from Jesus, it's that he was always crossing the lake to the regions his disciples weren't comfortable in, so that they could be surprised that God was so obviously at work in areas they found unfamiliar. 

These are just some random musings today. Jesus told us again and again that his community doesn't function like the world does. It is built on cooperation and not competition. It is built on compassion and not comparison. It can be communicated in any language, and it can only be fully realized when it includes every language. 

Lord, keep us looking for the beauty of your expansive world, and your expansive ways of revealing yourself. 

Peace,
Keith