Still at Bishops' week, though right now I am at the Barnes and Noble in Fayetteville. This afternoon, we heard Dr. Justo Gonzalez, who spoke to us about how to approach ministry with Hispanic persons in our midst. He spoke about Acts 2, the Pentecost story, (the picture at right is a Coptic icon rendition) and it was great. He reminded us that it was not that when the Holy Spirit came down upon the persons there, that the people miraculously were able to understand Aramaic, and thus could communicate (Aramaic being the language of the community in which all of those many different nationalities had gathered on that day). It was that the persons understood "in their own language." There is a difference. I don't think I need to elaborate.
Hmmm. What does this say to the churches today and younger adults? Maybe that those younger adults don't have to be forced or even requested to speak the same cultural language as their parents and grandparents in order to come to belief? Maybe there is a place for the language of the wireless world and "my spaces" and ipods in the discipling of all of the world, and a place always for respect for other generations who worship and serve in ways that seem foreign to us...hmmm
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