Sermon 05.19.2024: God the Translator

There is an old Italian saying: "Traduttore, traditore." It is a remark that assumes that the task of translation is hopeless, that you can't ever properly transmit a work from one culture to another. But what if the translator is God? This Pentecost, wear red and experience how God is translating love, peace, and unity for us in this world. 



Scripture

Acts 2:1-8

When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability.

Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven living in Jerusalem. And at this sound the crowd gathered and was bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in the native language of each. Amazed and astonished, they asked, “Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? And how is it that we hear, each of us, in our own native language? 

Greek: 

καὶ ἐν τῷ συμπληροῦσθαι τὴν ἡμέραν τῆς πεντηκοστῆς ἦσαν πάντες ὁμοῦ ἐπὶ τὸ αὐτό. καὶ ἐγένετο ἄφνω ἐκ τοῦ οὐρανοῦ ἦχος ὥσπερ φερομένης πνοῆς βιαίας καὶ ἐπλήρωσεν ὅλον τὸν οἶκον οὗ ἦσαν καθήμενοι. καὶ ὤφθησαν αὐτοῖς διαμεριζόμεναι γλῶσσαι ὡσεὶ πυρός καὶ ἐκάθισεν ἐφ᾽ ἕνα ἕκαστον αὐτῶν. καὶ ἐπλήσθησαν πάντες πνεύματος ἁγίου καὶ ἤρξαντο λαλεῖν ἑτέραις γλώσσαις καθὼς τὸ πνεῦμα ἐδίδου ἀποφθέγγεσθαι αὐτοῖς. ἦσαν δὲ εἰς Ἰερουσαλὴμ κατοικοῦντες Ἰουδαῖοι ἄνδρες εὐλαβεῖς ἀπὸ παντὸς ἔθνους τῶν ὑπὸ τὸν οὐρανόν. γενομένης δὲ τῆς φωνῆς ταύτης συνῆλθεν τὸ πλῆθος καὶ συνεχύθη ὅτι ἤκουον εἷς ἕκαστος τῇ ἰδίᾳ διαλέκτῳ λαλούντων αὐτῶν. ἐξίσταντο δὲ καὶ ἐθαύμαζον λέγοντες οὐχ ἰδοὺ πάντες οὗτοί εἰσιν οἱ λαλοῦντες Γαλιλαῖοι καὶ πῶς ἡμεῖς ἀκούομεν ἕκαστος τῇ ἰδίᾳ διαλέκτῳ ἡμῶν ἐν ᾗ ἐγεννήθημεν 

Korean:

오순절날이 이미 이르매 저희가 다 같이 한 곳에 모였더니. 홀연히 하늘로부터 급하고 강한 바람 같은 소리가 있어 저희 앉은 온 집에 가득하며. 불의 혀같이 갈라지는 것이 저희에게 보여각 사람 위에 임하여 있더니. 저희가 다 성령의 충만함을 받고 성령이 말하게 하심을 따라 다른 방언으로 말하기를 시작하니라. 그 때에 경건한 유대인이 천하 각국으로부터 와서 예루살렘에 우거하더니. 이 소리가 나매 큰 무리가 모여 각각 자기의 방언으로 제자들의 말하는 것을 듣고 소동하여. 다 놀라 기이히 여겨 이르되 보라 이 말하는 사람이 다 갈릴리 사람이 아니냐 우리가 우리 각 사람의 난 곳 방언으로 듣게 되는 것이 어찜이뇨. 

Russian:

При наступлении дня Пятидесятницы все они были единодушно вместе. И внезапно сделался шум с неба, как бы от несущегося сильного ветра, и наполнил весь дом, где они находились. И явились им разделяющиеся языки, как бы огненные, и почили по одному на каждом из них. И исполнились все Духа Святаго, и начали говорить на иных языках, как Дух давал им провещевать. В Иерусалиме же находились Иудеи, люди набожные, из всякого народа под небом. Когда сделался этот шум, собрался народ, и пришел в смятение, ибо каждый слышал их говорящих его наречием. И все изумлялись и дивились, говоря между собою: сии говорящие не все ли Галилеяне? Как же мы слышим каждый собственное наречие, в котором родились. 

Spanish:

Cuando llegó el día de Pentecostés, estaban todos unánimes juntos. Y de repente vino del cielo un estruendo como de un viento recio que soplaba, el cual llenó toda la casa donde estaban sentados y se les aparecieron lenguas repartidas, como de fuego, asentándose sobre cada uno de ellos. Y fueron todos llenos del Espíritu Santo, y comenzaron a hablar en otras lenguas, según el Espíritu les daba que hablasen. Moraban entonces en Jerusalén judíos, varones piadosos, de todas las naciones bajo el cielo. Y hecho este estruendo, se juntó la multitud; y estaban confusos, porque cada uno les oía hablar en su propia lengua. Y estaban atónitos y maravillados, diciendo: Mirad, ¿no son galileos todos estos que hablan? ¿Cómo, pues, les oímos nosotros hablar cada uno en nuestra lengua en la que hemos nacido? 

Sermon Text

The book's God Big's Plan which I read excerpts from during today’s children’s meditation was written by two of my professors from seminary: Drs. Ted Heibert and Lib Caldwell. It is a retelling of the story of Babel found in Genesis 11. For generations, this story has been called the “Tower of Babel” and has been interpreted as a story of some bad people who wanted to reach God by building a tower, so God punishes them by confusing and mixing their language. 

In this traditional interpretation, one language and one people were the original design. But because the people did a bad thing, they are punished with difference. 

Diversity being a punishment from God, however, doesn’t quite seem to fit my understanding of God the Creator who I have come to know and who seems to delight in diversity. 

Professor Heibert, a Hebrew scholar, also believed in the basic premise that God created and loves diversity. And so he studied this passage in depth, examining how it came to be that God would use difference as retribution. 

In his reading and re-reading of this story in its original language, he actually found that the tower really wasn’t the focus of the story at all. I won’t go into a deep dive of the Genesis scripture with you now. But he found that if you read the passage with no preconceived notions, in its original Hebrew, what the people really seemed to want, was to be one people, all together in one place, with one language and one culture. And it is that desire for sameness which God sees and determines as not good. 

God’s intention for humanity was not that we should all live in the same place and be the same people. But rather that humanity should be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. So God, in order for humanity to flourish and diversify as God always intended, mixes the language of the people, prompting them to go forth from that one place and live all over the earth, creating diversity in culture, tradition, cuisine, and skin color. 

In other words: it is human nature to want us to all be the same. Why? Because it’s easy. 

But it is God’s desire for humanity to be richly diverse and different. Why? Well, we can’t know for certain. But I wonder if it’s because diversity is beautiful. 

If you take only one thing away from this Pentecost Sunday, let it be this: God delights in diversity. 

We see this reflected in today’s reading from Acts as well. The apostles don’t all speak one language; nor does the Holy Spirit help everyone else understand just that one language. Instead, the people hear the apostles each in their own native language. 

God doesn’t try to compress difference into sameness because difference isn’t bad. Rather, God helps create a world where difference is valued and where diversity can thrive. 

But the reality is: difference is hard, isn’t it? 

In describing today’s sermon, I quoted an old Italian phrase “traduttore, traditore” which means “translator is traitor.” And the reality is, no matter how accurate any translation from one language to another, may be, there are things that won’t quite get expressed in the same way. There are nuances of words, double meanings, idioms, and cultural references, that just cannot be properly and fully translated. 

Those who speak two languages fairly fluently find this to be true. Jokes, especially, get lost in translation. Because once you start having to explain a joke, it’s no longer funny. 

I grew up translating for my parents. My parents do speak and understand some English but not fluently. And I have been amazed at the impatience that so many native English speakers have with immigrants who speak English with an accent. 

My parents realized this early on. They noticed how frustrated people get as they listen to them explain something; how easily Americans lose their patience when there is a misunderstanding; and how unreasonably angry people get when there’s a language barrier. So, my parents began relying on me to translate for them, as early as second grade. 

I remember speaking with the phone company asking them to please not cut off our phone line because we’d pay the bill by the end of the week. I’ve spoken with leasing offices who’ve left eviction notices outside our apartment door. I’ve yelled at our drycleaning customers on my parents’ behalf who were accusing them of ruining their clothes. 

None of this is appropriate for an eight-year-old to do. But if that eight-year-old can say the words in her perfect, unaccented English, the chances of it getting resolved positively are much higher than if an adult with a strong Korean accent is speaking the same words. 

Growing up, I hated being a translator for my parents. Sometimes it embarrassed me. A lot of the time, it made me anxious and scared; after all, I was a child speaking to grownups on my parents’ behalf. 

Admittedly, other times, I took advantage of it, especially during my middle school years when my teachers felt the need to call my parents to tell them what I’d done. You better believe I didn’t translate exactly what they said! 

As a teenager I mostly resented it. Having so many languages and ethnicities in our world did seem like a punishment from God. 

But now, as an adult who is a pastor, I see that it is actually a gift. And I understand that translation is part of my call. Because speaking English as well as I do is a privilege in this country that opens doors up for me that aren’t open to first-generation immigrants whose English is more stunted or broken than my own. 

And if we, as people of faith, are called to lift up and amplify the voices of those who are silenced and marginalized, then I must speak out and speak up and translate for those like my parents and others who are too often ignored, cast aside, or made to be the “other” by dominant society. 

Translation is not easy, and it is rarely 100% accurate. Not to mention it makes everything take longer! You experienced that as we read scripture today. 

But it is necessary. And it is a matter of justice. 

I was a commissioner to the 220th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (USA). And one of the things that we were debating at that time was whether we should continue to translate the church’s publications in both Spanish and Korean. 

Getting rid of translation services would save money, and the denomination was looking for ways to tighten the budget. But growth in the church was often found in Spanish-speaking and Korean-speaking congregations. And to stop translating in those languages would signal a certain kind of exclusion and inhospitality from the wider church. Practically speaking and fiscally speaking, it perhaps made sense. But it was neither fair nor right to end access to documents and resources to an already marginalized group in the church. 

But lack of translation is often one of the most benign things we do to those who speak another language. Because the things we are willing to do to those whom we deem the “other” is horrifying, really. 

When our differences get the best of us, be it our differences in language, skin color, traditions, or religion, humankind has proven all throughout our history, that not only are we willing to oppress those who are different from us, we are often willing to kill and completely obliterate those who are different from us. The Crusades, the Holocaust, the Trail of Tears, the list goes on and on. 

And the truth of human nature and human history is that we fear difference. We treat it like a punishment from God, and so when we read stories like Genesis 11, we insert that bias in there like that’s the way it’s always been. Many of us are conditioned to believe that difference is bad. And if it must exist, we demand assimilation. Difference is only tolerated if you are willing to act and be just like us. 

But, friends, that’s not how God created us. And that was never God’s intention for us. And that’s not the story of Pentecost we hear today. 

When the Holy Spirit comes down as tongues of fire, giving birth to the church, it does so in every language represented by every culture present in Jerusalem that day. 

We stopped the scripture reading short of this long list, but in verses nine through eleven, we are told: 

Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia,

Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to

Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabs—

in our own languages we hear them speaking… 

So, yes, translation is hard, and it never suffices because it always falls short of its original meaning. But God speaks love in every language. And God created us to be united, yes, but not uniform. 

Being the same is not what God wants from us. God wants us to be filled with the Holy Spirit, so that we can share God’s love with whomever we encounter, no matter our differences. 

And when God is our translator, the Holy Spirit speaks in ways that we can’t even comprehend, yet in ways where love abounds so that we can all understand. 

In fact, God wanted to speak the language of humanity so much, that God became human, brought into this world as an infant, having to learn what it means to be enfleshed, and then to live and dwell among us. That is the God whom we worship today. 

So, this Pentecost, let us be in awe of the Holy Spirit: how she comes to us in fire and wind and breath; how she crosses boundaries and bridges differences, allowing us to hear God’s message for us in our own native tongue.

And let us allow the Holy Spirit to move: to move us to compassion; to move us to action; and to move us to do God’s will on earth today. Because as the old saying goes: actions speak louder than words. 

So may our actions and the very way we live our lives be the good news from God to the world, embracing each unique person as God’s beloved child, sharing a message of love and hope with a lonely and despairing world, and declaring that God indeed delights in diversity! 

Our differences make us stronger. Our diversity makes us better. And it is as God always intended, part of God’s big plan. 

Thanks be to God, Amen.