St. Gregory’s Church Woodstock

Sunday, 31 May, 2009, Pentecost

The Rev’d Susan Auchincloss

Acts 2:1-11

For today’s reading go to:http://bible.oremus.org

If you have been looking for a good Pentecost movie lately, you might consider “The Soloist.” Both stories – “The Soloist” and Pentecost – speak to desperate times and point to a way through. This Way does call for courage; yet those who step out on it will find a surprising spring in their steps, as if they already touched the goal.

The Pentecost story actually begins with an earlier story in the book of Genesis. At that time, because everyone spoke the same language, they were able to cooperate amazingly. With the power this gave them, they proposed to build a tower to heaven. God saw what they had in mind and said, "Look, they are one people, and they have all one language; and this is only the beginning of what they will do; nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them. Come, let us go down, and confuse their language there, so that they will not understand one another's speech." Now, substitute for the Tower of Babel any human project conceived to put humans in the place of God, and you can understand God's alarm. Humanity was not ready for so much power. We had to be saved from ourselves.

At Pentecost God reversed the curse of Babel. To celebrate the Feast of Pentecost Jews, who lived all over the known world, would return each spring to Jerusalem. They had no language in common, and yet on this occasion, when they heard Jesus' disciples speaking, they understood. You notice that the restoration of one language did not happen all over the city; it happened among a specific group of people, a group we would now call the church – the first church. Why? Why just here?

Again, we need the Hebrew Bible to understand. Through the prophet Joel God had promised, “I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams. Even upon my slaves, both men and women... I will pour out my spirit and they shall prophesy.” This promise shocks even today. An equal sharing of spiritual authority? Allowing women to prophesy? The young? The old? Even slaves? Cultural norms called for men, men in their prime of life, to hold authority! Their interests counted as paramount! And yet, here on Pentecost, tongues of flame came to rest on all of the disciples – young and old, male and female, slaves and free. All were filled with the Spirit of God. All prophesied. All shared power and authority. In other words, at Pentecost God gave the world a foretaste of God's plan for all people.

“The Soloist” puts the Pentecost narrative in a modern idiom. It tells the story of Nathaniel, a gifted musician, an African American, who lives alone on the streets of Los Angeles. Originally a promising 'cello student at Julliard, Nathaniel, the soloist, had to give up on his studies because of mental illness. Now he pushes his worldly goods around with him in a shopping cart and spends his time playing a violin – a violin with only two strings. He is, we guess, forty years old, though he looks older.

Steve Lopez chances upon him one day as Nathaniel is playing in a city park at the foot of a statue of Beethoven. Steve writes a popular, human interest column for the L.A. Times. When Nathaniel mentions in passing that he had attended Julliard, Lopez senses a story. In pursuit of his story Lopez “befriends” Nathaniel. I put “befriends” in quotes, because while he genuinely wants to help Nathaniel, he also uses him to make a better story. For instance, Lopez gets Nathaniel a 'cello, but then uses it to manipulate Nathaniel into a shelter. He arranges for Nathaniel to take 'cello lessons, and uses that to manipulate him into an apartment. Friend or foe? For much of the film we do not know.

How Steve and Nathaniel get to know each other puzzled me; because language helped scarcely at all. As often as not they spoke at the same time; and not to each other, but at each other, past each other. Not only were they not hearing each other, the audience caught only the occasional word as it popped up out of the verbal scuffle. In effect, we heard Babel.

One scene crystalized, for me, the film's chief concern, and explains why I call it a Pentecost film. Lopez has managed to secure tickets to a rehearsal of the Los Angeles Symphony Orchestra. Eager to get to the rehearsal on time, Lopez tries to hurry Nathaniel. Nathaniel, however; will not leave his shopping cart; its overflowing wire baskets contain everything he values. It symbolizes his life and his history. He fears that if he leaves it unattended street people will steal his things. Lopez becomes frantic. Nathaniel digs in his heels. Lopez shouts at him, “Forget about this junk! This is just garbage; leave it!” The scene resolves by Lopez helping Nathaniel to push his cart to symphony hall... at a run!

That is our modern day Babel, and what Pentecost comes to set right. Lopez sees Nathaniel as an object – an object to be helped, to be sure, but not a human being on a par with himself. Not a person with interests as important as his own; not an individual with experience as valid as his. Lopez's attitude toward the shopping cart – “junk”, “garbage” – overlaps painfully with his attitude toward Nathaniel's life. No wonder language cannot unite them. How many other places do we see this same dynamic at work? How do Democrats see Republicans or vice versa? How do Islamists see the West and vice versa? How does the secular see the sacred or science, religion? How does society see the elderly or the young? How do men see women or vice versa? Real listening cannot happen if I judge what you will say as a shopping cart full of refuse. No language can bring us together.

Contrast this with a congregation that takes Pentecost seriously! We lick our lips, for this is a foretaste of what God has in mind for the whole world. Language united people at Pentecost. “We hear, each of us, in our own native language!” Three times this claim is made; it is that astounding! Think how many languages those people spoke who flocked to the sound of the mighty wind! No two alike; and yet each understood. That is key. Each one heard in his or her own language. In other words, the same message, but different idioms. So Pentecost is about unity, but not uniformity, not about the erasing of differences, not about the loss of individuality. Differences matter!

In church, if we are being true to God and to ourselves, we believe that everyone has a gift to give. When you speak I listen, and not just with my ears, but with my heart open and my spirit tuned to discern the gift. This is one of the ways I live out my faith. Probably most of you agree with this; but let's take it a step farther. How many of us believe that we, ourselves, have gifts to offer? Some of us are not the least bit shy about speaking out on any occasion – loudly, boldly; others of us are too shy to speak out at all. Both facades, seemingly so different, hide a person who doubts the value of his or her own gifts, who believes deep down, “I, at least, have nothing to offer.”

This fear drives Steve Lopez through the whole film. We see him go to extraordinary lengths to help Nathaniel. There is nothing he will not do for him... except the one thing needful. He will not offer Nathaniel his friendship. Actually, he cannot offer Nathaniel his friendship, because he believes he has nothing to offer. He has not heard the Pentecost message. Perhaps very few of us have really heard that Pentecost message. We come to church as if to a play pen, where we can learn to walk spiritually, learn to trust God's word to us, learn to practice the faith that says, I have something to offer this community and the world – a gift that is needed and that I alone can give. What follows from this? Not hubris, but humility. As for Steve Lopez, the film did not leave him in his misery. That might have been true to life; but even more true to life is a message of hope. Thanks to Nathaniel, we see Steve begin to trust that he has a unique gift to offer, and it is not his skill at building towers of Babel. He is learning to offer himself.

Steve Lopez shows us the promise of Pentecost as well as its challenge. The tower of Babel was a disaster in the making. Supposing, instead, we set ourselves to build a Tower of Pentecost.