Narrative Lectionary Key Verse for Today
“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.”
NL Daily Devotion for Sunday, June 8, 2025
by Vicar Wing Lin Yi, Clergy Stuff
Main Idea: Filled with the Holy Spirit, we as Christians are enabled to speak a language that is foreign to our society.
Isn’t it fascinating to imagine being filled with the Holy Spirit and then enabled to speak in a language that is unknown to us? Clearly, we know that the Holy Spirit does not function like a built-in “google translate,” but have we not wondered why we (or at least, most of us) are not experiencing what the disciples had experienced? Traditionally, some have answered that question by arguing that miracles as such belonged only to the Apostolic Age and that the ability to speak in other languages is no longer needed in modern societies; while some others claim that speaking in tongues is still a sign of being a “reborn” Christian and those who do not speak in tongues simply have yet to be filled by the Spirit. However, both approaches seem to be reductive in their own way. Perhaps, we need not sever the connection between being filled with the Holy Spirit and the ability to speak in other languages, but we need to ask if speaking in other languages is only limited to speaking in tongues. And if not, what could it also mean?
Today, our society is often speaking a language that favors the rich and powerful and undermines the needs of the poor and disadvantaged. It is well versed in rhetoric that justifies systemic racism and unequal distribution of wealth and resources. And because we have been taught to speak this language from infancy, we have internalized its distorted values and see them as natural. But as Christians filled with God’s Spirit, we have been enabled to speak a language that is different from what the society is speaking. This language is what the Holy Spirit speaks when she calls out “Abba, Father.” It is a language foreign to our society, for it seeks not to separate or subjugate but to free all people from the state of slavery and call them as equal before God as God’s children. Those who speak this other language have the presence of Christ’s Spirit in them, and they no longer see one other as master or slave but as siblings in God’s household.
