His life was not like my life in any way, shape, or form. My life is the normal life of a normal person who lives the daily joys and struggles of kids, living check to check, and preaching in two small congregations in rural Pennsylvania. His life was quite different.
For years, our family knew nothing of him. Even today I cannot remember his name, though my grandma would. But, he was a part of our family. Years and years ago, our family included a duke of Germany. On the Sunset of a Royal Marriage, I am reminded that my family too was royalty, a long time ago. It was most likely a marriage of political stability. My Danish ancestor married a German noble, and the borders between the two countries remained secure.
When you look at the family coat of arms from the time, you see herds of horses; in other words, great wealth. That draws me to think of my mother who dreamed as a child to have just one horse that she could ride. She still has that unfulfilled dream as she approaches retirement age.
We did not have wealth, but the Duke did. We are so different, yet we are a part of the same family.
I mentioned this to my grandmother, how different we are from our royal past. She simply said, “I’m sure if we could see him, that we would see some similarity. The nose, the eyes, the chin…something would be similar. We are family after-all.”
This is probably the case. Yet, we are so different. He lived a royal lifestyle; we lived a poor one. He lived with honor and respect due; we had to earn scraps of respect. We even lived in different countries and spoke different languages. We could not even talk to one another had we lived at the same time.
We are so different, yet there was one thing on that coat of arms that was the same. It was divided into four sections by a cross. We were one family in faith.
I think about that day of Pentecost, when the Spirit descended on the Apostles and gave them the ability to preach the good news to all the people gathered from different nations. Parthians, Medes, Elamites, Mesopotamia, Judea, Cappadocia, Pontus, Asia, Phrygia, Pamphylia, Egypt, Libya, Rome, Cretans, and Arabs were all able to hear the preaching of the good news of Jesus Christ through an outpouring of the Spirit upon them.
Even the slaves, both men and woman, were able to hear the good news as promised by the prophet Joel. The Spirit touches them all. In other words, everyone who calls on the name of the Lord is saved. Everyone.
He was a Duke. He was royalty. We are not. We more resemble the slaves of his time. Yet we are one family, not only by blood, but especially by the outpouring of the Spirit. We are one family in Jesus Christ, regardless of similar noses or chin structures.
We are one family in Jesus Christ, through the outpouring of the Spirit.
I am reminded of the worry of a parent as they considered sending their teenage child on one of those overseas Christians servant trips. Of course, all parents are naturally worried when sending their kids away for a number of days, but this parent was especially concerned.
“What if those foreigners don’t care about our kids?” the parents asked. “What if they harm our kids? What if our kids get lost? What if terrorists target them?”
The fear on the parent's face was palpable. You could slice the tension between their kid’s dreams of new experiences and the parent's concerns for the child's safety with a knife.
As the parent expressed their concerns I thought about my own experiences traveling to other countries and visiting other people in the faith.
I did not know the language of any of the countries that I had visited. I took the time to learn “Hello,” “Goodbye,” “Thank you,” and “Where's the Bathroom,” on the airplane. That was pretty much it. What else do you need to know?
Though I lacked some elements of basic communication, there is one thing I never experienced when traveling to other countries with the church: fear.
We are one of the faith. We are sisters and brothers in Christ. The Spirit has been poured on all of us just the same. Just as we would strive to never allow something terrible to happen to one of our visitors in the faith, so too, they strove to protect us and show us love every step of the way.
When I was in India, they had joy oozing from their faces as they showed us the uniqueness of their culture. They smiled when we burned our tongues on their food, sang with us as we shared church songs together, and shared our awe as we visited the temples and churches of their country. They were with us every step of the way, showing us the love of God.
When I was in Argentina, I had no problem worshiping with them even though my memory of Spanish from High School goes no further than the phrase, “Me gusto bilar en el bano.” I do not even know if I spelled that right! Translated, it means: “I like to dance in the bathroom.” That phrase gets you a long way in a foreign country.
But, I did not need to know that much Spanish to know when in the worship service we were confessing, then singing the Kyrie and Gloria, then reading the scriptures, then saying the creed, and then praying. And, I certainly did not need to know any Spanish to know that I was welcome to eat with them at the Lord’s table. I did not need to know any of it because we speak the same language of the Spirit. We speak the same language of love.
They did not need to explain to me why some Guatemalans were living in the extra rooms in the back of the church. After-all, love of the poor, hated, and outcast foreigner is a universal sort of Jesus-filled love. No explanation is needed.
They did not need to explain why the poor were invited to eat with them after worship. We did not even question it. It too is the Christian language of love. It is universal. It was poured upon us all that day when God poured the Holy Spirit out upon the Apostles.
The Spirit, which like the wind is wild and free, has worked its way even to us today, binding us all together into one family with the unconditional love of Jesus Christ.
The concerned parent who was questioning whether or not to send the teen on the trip were reminded on one thing by the trip leader: “Remember, your children will be with your brothers and sisters in Christ. They will be treated the same way you would treat a guest in Christ. Can we promise that nothing terrible will happen to them while they are away? No. We cannot. But, can you promise me that nothing terrible will happen to them tomorrow when they go to school today? No. You cannot. At least, when they go on this trip, they will be with their family in the faith.”
In the end, the teen went on the trip. The teen went on the trip because the parent was allowed to see the truth of Pentecost; where the Spirit is poured out on all nations, making us one family, one people, despite our differences of language or custom.
What we eat and how we say, “I like to dance in the bathroom,” may all be different, but one thing is the same: the unconditional love of God as seen in Jesus Christ and poured on us all through the power of the Holy Spirit.
We are one in the Spirit. We are one in our Love.
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