Sermon preached by the Reverend Richard Tombaugh

St. Paul’s on the Green, Norwalk, Connecticut

The Feast of Pentecost – May 11, 2008

May the words that are spoken and heard be spoken and heard in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

 I am sure most of you remember the Genesis story about the Tower of Babel. The story relates a legend of an ancient people who settled somewhere in the area we now call Iraq. According to the text they wanted to make a name for themselves. To do this they set out to build a massive tower that would reach to the portals of heaven and allow them to sit triumphantly on top of their world. Implicit in this act of hubris was the desire to supplant God. Their power to do this lay in their capacity to communicate with each other.

 To frustrate their plans the Lord confused their language “that they may not understand one another’s speech,” and scattered the people abroad. In this story the author of Genesis was trying to explain several things at once. First, the author was trying to explain why there are in the world many races of people with different languages. Second, the author was explaining how the great city of Babylon got its name; and finally, the author was making a theological statement: human efforts divorced from acknowledgment of God’s power are ultimately futile and empty. What began on the plains of Iraq as a quest for deeper self-understanding had ended in division, separation and misunderstanding.

 We also heard today a counterpoint story about what happened once during the Hebrew Feast of Weeks, called in Greek Pentecost because it falls fifty days after Passover. At this time of year when the Temple was still standing all male adult Jews who were able to do so were required to make a pilgrimage to Jerusalem to sacrifice the first fruits in the temple. In the Book of Acts, St. Luke lists 17 different geographical locations with presumably different languages from which men came to fulfill this religious requirement. Jesus’ followers were also in Jerusalem to celebrate Pentecost. Still struggling to comprehend the full meaning of the death and resurrection of Jesus, they had gathered together in a house in Jerusalem to consider the question: “What did these past events mean?” The story then tells of a rushing wind and cloven tongues of fire, of overpowering religious emotion and passionate babbling, of general amazement that language differences didn’t divide anymore. Lastly the story tells of broadly shared excitement born of a common attraction to a spirited message of hope, as St. Peter affirmed that God will pour out his spirit upon all flesh. The process of the separation and alienation of people that traces back in legend to ancient Babylon was reversed and people began to move toward unity and deeper understanding about the mighty works of God.

 Some of those present were doubtful and asked the key question: “What does this mean?” If pursued with patience and integrity this question about meaning unlocks the mysteries of life. In this case the passionate babbling clearly didn’t mean excess consumption of another season’s Beaujolais nouveau. Scholars also doubt that it was an early ad for Berlitz implying that all kinds of linguistic capabilities were suddenly given to a group of ignorant Galileans. St. Luke wants us to believe that this was the first descent of the Holy Spirit, the birthday of a new Christian community and the beginning of its missionary outreach, and there is much truth in this understanding.

 Despite the drama of rushing winds and tongues of fire, I am drawn to the key question: “What does all this mean?” To the extend that all those present engaged the key question about meaning, the first Pentecost event signaled the discovery by all those various groups present that they shared a common ground. Somehow this coming of the Spirit of God gave new and exciting significance to our unending search for meaning and to the potential of human beings in all of the communities represented there in Jerusalem to understand the nature of life itself. The impediment of different languages was overcome. Those present understood were not caught up with understanding individual words. They found they had in common the basic experiences of life: love and loyalty, need and failure, sin and salvation, hope and freedom – things common to all persons regardless of race, nationality or religion. To understand what these experiences mean is to understand what we share with others and this understanding tends to draw people together.

 I prefer to believe that this story of Pentecost is not only about a single event. Pentecost is an icon of divine action repeated throughout history, though often with less fanfare. Whenever and wherever we are surprised by joy or sorrow; and ask the key question: “What does this mean?”, whenever or wherever we search for truth and ask the question “What does this mean?”, we set the stage for deeper understanding of things seen and unseen. To ask the key question about meaning is to invite into one’s inner deliberations the Spirit of God with all its numinous power.

 And I also prefer to believe that this gift of finding understanding by the patient inquiry into the meaning of experience was and is given to all people not just to the emerging Christian community.

 It seems clear that self understanding of this depth does not usually come swiftly or easily. Confusion, anxiety and despair often precede understanding. To understand the meaning of life requires internal perspective, openness to surprise, patience and the courage to have faith in that which one cannot fully understand. To understand the meaning of life and to search for truth requires the ability to communicate, to put into words, ones thoughts and insights, as much for one’s own self-understanding as for the edification of others.

 The Jesuit theologian, John Courtney Murray, liked to use the term “conspiracy” in its literal sense, which means “to breathe together.” In this sense the first Pentecost was a conspiracy - not some sinister gathering, but a consensus for good as the wind of the spirit broke down barriers and permitted people to breathe together. In the same sense a parish like St. Paul’s must become a conspiracy in which the wind of God’s spirit continues to break down barriers and to permit people who search for meaning and truth to breathe together.

 Our meetings here, formal and informal, offer members the time to communicate to each other their thoughts and insights born of their quest for meaning and understanding. Meetings then become a reminder of our past participation in that great conspiracy called Pentecost and an opportunity, while looking backward down the long corridor of memory, to remember that the future is real and filled with hope because the coming of Holy Spirit will forever continue to make it possible for all people to “breathe together.”

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.