Oh for shit’s sake (or is it “for shit sake?)...I was one of those pearl-clutching evangelicals who though God may strike me DEAD lest I use any language in my everyday life that falls out of line with “proper”. (Also read “judgmental AH”) You, I am afraid, will never fully understand the priceless influence you have on SO many, including me. Finally, with the language box blown wide open, I can communicate with folks with less/same/more colorful language than I. It was a far piece off that high horse, lemme tell ya. *thud* THANK YOU, Nadia.
Hmmm.... i wonder what it says about me that i used to curse while wearing pearls. Hah! Still curse, but have given up pearls.
I really like how your teaching stretches and expands my understanding of God. In the last fifteen years, it was a privilege to befriend a refugee family. As i helped them with children’s schooling and life in a new country... i was getting to learn how much of our cultural norms is mistaken as ‘God’s ways’. God is so much deeper and bigger than one culture. And i wonder if pentecost was God redeeming the punishment of the tower of babel story...and love, grace being the real universal language.
What a gift to know them. I remember when I was interviewing people for Shameless, many, many folks who were raised in a Christian bubble, changed their view of the world when they actually went out into the world - meaning, when they spend a semester abroad or even just spent a few weeks in another country.
Recall that Luther’s reforms included ditching the medieval idea that Latin is the required language for all sacred texts and liturgies, and that the anointed priests dispensed the contents of scripture as they saw fit. Luther insisted that people should hear *everything* in their own language, and read it for themselves if they could. When our settler ancestors came to this continent, they did the same thing with English and Spanish that the medieval church did with Latin with respect to the indigenous languages of the American continents. We went so far as to invent residential schools to complete the job of conversion and assimilation, with the full complicity of churches. As a linguist who worked in First Nations territories for years, I attended many meetings and events that began with a traditional prayer to the Creator in the local language (often repeated in English).You have reminded me that those languages have been used in conversation with the divine for millennia, long before we turned up on these shores.
Thank you for this Nadia! It goes so well with what Kat Armas stated too: "Pentecost shows us that the divine spirit does not ask us to assimilate - to contort ourselves into someone we are not. When Spirit appears, everyone feels at home In the full expression of who we are. This is how we are seen and known by God, how we are to be seen and known by each other."
You both make me think about what today's Pentecost would look like as we all spoke in languages of who we are without labels, boxes, or contortions of belonging.
Dear Nadia, I so look forward to reading your post every week. I have to tell you how much I loved that you mentioned Spanglish as a language. I am a native Spanglish speaker (3rd generation Mexican-American born in the USA). My husband was born in Mexico (even though my mama told me to NEVER marry a man born in Mexico) and had to learn English and it gets him so frustrated when people here in our hometown of Watsonville, California speak to him in Spanglish. Every Jesús, María and José here in "the Ville" talks in Spanglish. He does not get it. He's like: "WHY?".
Speaking Spanglish is such a comfort for me, and I mos def feel connected just hearing other Spanglish speakers talk . I know this is kind of random, and kept thinking to myself, don't post anything you weirdo!
As another frequenter of church basements, I was told that if you listen to people’s stories what you eventually hear is the language of the heart. Your heart hearing their heart, the deep calling to the deep as it says in psalm 42, your story in their story. Language, any language, is always going to fail us when we try to describe the indescribable love of God. It is the identification we hear when someone else’s heart speaks to ours that when we can catch a glimpse of the otherwise indescribable sense of Divine belonging. Each of us, our unique gift to the world is our authentic self, the true language of our heart, made known to us by the Holy Spirit and if we are brave enough to speak it just as it is, we will always find there is someone who needs to hear it just that way. ❤️
This is what I love about your sermons and writings, you speak in a language and a way that I understand. My dad was a carpenter, my uncle a fisherman, and my cousin a logger. Although I try not to swear much, I do have the vocabulary. It's strangely comforting to me to hear you speak in the way I grew up listening to. And, for whatever reason, I "hear" you. I have found myself integrating things from your writings and videos without consiously thinking about it, reducing my stress and anger levels considerably.
I love that God speaks through non-human beings!!! He sends his fur-filled angels to keep us company. They ask nothing but to love us. They let us look into their eyes and see the love deep in their souls. Yes, You are there, Lord.
I remember a moment, a short while after God first spoke to me (literally, words right in my ear), when a Christian friend I'd known since before that happened, expressed that she envied how free I was when talking to God. She'd been taught to always be polite, to make herself small for God. Whereas I would swear, rant, beg, and generally just throw all my messy emotions into my prayer. And wow, did I have some to throw!
And to me, that was just as simple as "God told me to give them everything without restraints, because they are big enough to take it". But to her, it was an entire breakthrough in her relationship with God.
In return for always throwing whatever I was feeling, expressing it however I needed it to, God gave not just what was promised, but what was needed, every time, even if I didn't realise until later.
Thank you, Nadia. The Spirit playfully blows up everyone’s language boxes, starting with mine. (Your/this piece inspired me to insert the word playfully. I need more playful in my often too cynical world).
Amen! I've thought for a long time that the Pentecostal gift was at least as much for the disciples (if not more) as it was for the people hearing in their own languages. I've studied 3 additional languages beyond my native English, and each one has taught me something new about myself, the world, and the way I choose my words in any of them.
For instance, the phrase "I know" in Russian has two distinct words that you could choose from: one is "knowing" a fact or the answer to a question, and one is "knowing" a skill. Now when my ego jumps immediately to a defensive *crosses arms, rolls eyes* "I know" response, or when I read something like scripture or recovery literature I've read so many times, I often pause and ask myself if I know it in just my head, or in my body as well.
I just love that Spirit's "conversion" in this tale isn't about converting outsiders to fit the Church. It's converting the Church to fit the "outsiders."
Also, I laugh every single time I get to the part later in the reading where good ol' Pete basically says: "It's only 9 a.m. - they CAN'T be drunk." Because, ya know, 9 a.m. was when I did my best work pre-sobriety. 🤷
Now, I really want for Douglas Adams' babel fish to exist so that we can all experience instant language comprehension. really enjoyed this post. I've been struggling for the past few years with the knowledge that certain kinds of language, considered "correct, proper, civilized, educated, etc." serve to reinforce a kind of cultural norm focused on elevating the dominant culture at the expense of diversity and freedom of expression. time to let go of the judgmental shit. if I want to chat with g-d via emojis, so be it.
Oh for shit’s sake (or is it “for shit sake?)...I was one of those pearl-clutching evangelicals who though God may strike me DEAD lest I use any language in my everyday life that falls out of line with “proper”. (Also read “judgmental AH”) You, I am afraid, will never fully understand the priceless influence you have on SO many, including me. Finally, with the language box blown wide open, I can communicate with folks with less/same/more colorful language than I. It was a far piece off that high horse, lemme tell ya. *thud* THANK YOU, Nadia.
And maybe God speaks in and through the voices of non-human beings.
oh yes!!
I like to call my beloved companions "beyond humans." After all, God is Dog. Same word backwards. ❤️
Absolutely!!!
Hmmm.... i wonder what it says about me that i used to curse while wearing pearls. Hah! Still curse, but have given up pearls.
I really like how your teaching stretches and expands my understanding of God. In the last fifteen years, it was a privilege to befriend a refugee family. As i helped them with children’s schooling and life in a new country... i was getting to learn how much of our cultural norms is mistaken as ‘God’s ways’. God is so much deeper and bigger than one culture. And i wonder if pentecost was God redeeming the punishment of the tower of babel story...and love, grace being the real universal language.
What a gift to know them. I remember when I was interviewing people for Shameless, many, many folks who were raised in a Christian bubble, changed their view of the world when they actually went out into the world - meaning, when they spend a semester abroad or even just spent a few weeks in another country.
The wisdom of the Rumspringa, the "leaving the community" part:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rumspringa
Recall that Luther’s reforms included ditching the medieval idea that Latin is the required language for all sacred texts and liturgies, and that the anointed priests dispensed the contents of scripture as they saw fit. Luther insisted that people should hear *everything* in their own language, and read it for themselves if they could. When our settler ancestors came to this continent, they did the same thing with English and Spanish that the medieval church did with Latin with respect to the indigenous languages of the American continents. We went so far as to invent residential schools to complete the job of conversion and assimilation, with the full complicity of churches. As a linguist who worked in First Nations territories for years, I attended many meetings and events that began with a traditional prayer to the Creator in the local language (often repeated in English).You have reminded me that those languages have been used in conversation with the divine for millennia, long before we turned up on these shores.
Thank you for this Nadia! It goes so well with what Kat Armas stated too: "Pentecost shows us that the divine spirit does not ask us to assimilate - to contort ourselves into someone we are not. When Spirit appears, everyone feels at home In the full expression of who we are. This is how we are seen and known by God, how we are to be seen and known by each other."
You both make me think about what today's Pentecost would look like as we all spoke in languages of who we are without labels, boxes, or contortions of belonging.
Dear Nadia, I so look forward to reading your post every week. I have to tell you how much I loved that you mentioned Spanglish as a language. I am a native Spanglish speaker (3rd generation Mexican-American born in the USA). My husband was born in Mexico (even though my mama told me to NEVER marry a man born in Mexico) and had to learn English and it gets him so frustrated when people here in our hometown of Watsonville, California speak to him in Spanglish. Every Jesús, María and José here in "the Ville" talks in Spanglish. He does not get it. He's like: "WHY?".
Speaking Spanglish is such a comfort for me, and I mos def feel connected just hearing other Spanglish speakers talk . I know this is kind of random, and kept thinking to myself, don't post anything you weirdo!
Keep coming back Esa,
Cariño,
Kat
As another frequenter of church basements, I was told that if you listen to people’s stories what you eventually hear is the language of the heart. Your heart hearing their heart, the deep calling to the deep as it says in psalm 42, your story in their story. Language, any language, is always going to fail us when we try to describe the indescribable love of God. It is the identification we hear when someone else’s heart speaks to ours that when we can catch a glimpse of the otherwise indescribable sense of Divine belonging. Each of us, our unique gift to the world is our authentic self, the true language of our heart, made known to us by the Holy Spirit and if we are brave enough to speak it just as it is, we will always find there is someone who needs to hear it just that way. ❤️
Jennifer, this is awesome.
This is what I love about your sermons and writings, you speak in a language and a way that I understand. My dad was a carpenter, my uncle a fisherman, and my cousin a logger. Although I try not to swear much, I do have the vocabulary. It's strangely comforting to me to hear you speak in the way I grew up listening to. And, for whatever reason, I "hear" you. I have found myself integrating things from your writings and videos without consiously thinking about it, reducing my stress and anger levels considerably.
I love that God speaks through non-human beings!!! He sends his fur-filled angels to keep us company. They ask nothing but to love us. They let us look into their eyes and see the love deep in their souls. Yes, You are there, Lord.
I remember a moment, a short while after God first spoke to me (literally, words right in my ear), when a Christian friend I'd known since before that happened, expressed that she envied how free I was when talking to God. She'd been taught to always be polite, to make herself small for God. Whereas I would swear, rant, beg, and generally just throw all my messy emotions into my prayer. And wow, did I have some to throw!
And to me, that was just as simple as "God told me to give them everything without restraints, because they are big enough to take it". But to her, it was an entire breakthrough in her relationship with God.
In return for always throwing whatever I was feeling, expressing it however I needed it to, God gave not just what was promised, but what was needed, every time, even if I didn't realise until later.
Wow. Thank you.
Thank you for calling God God without a gender preference.
Thank you for being authentically you. Swear words and all.
I am grateful for your words today.
Thank you, Nadia. The Spirit playfully blows up everyone’s language boxes, starting with mine. (Your/this piece inspired me to insert the word playfully. I need more playful in my often too cynical world).
Amen! I've thought for a long time that the Pentecostal gift was at least as much for the disciples (if not more) as it was for the people hearing in their own languages. I've studied 3 additional languages beyond my native English, and each one has taught me something new about myself, the world, and the way I choose my words in any of them.
For instance, the phrase "I know" in Russian has two distinct words that you could choose from: one is "knowing" a fact or the answer to a question, and one is "knowing" a skill. Now when my ego jumps immediately to a defensive *crosses arms, rolls eyes* "I know" response, or when I read something like scripture or recovery literature I've read so many times, I often pause and ask myself if I know it in just my head, or in my body as well.
I just love that Spirit's "conversion" in this tale isn't about converting outsiders to fit the Church. It's converting the Church to fit the "outsiders."
Also, I laugh every single time I get to the part later in the reading where good ol' Pete basically says: "It's only 9 a.m. - they CAN'T be drunk." Because, ya know, 9 a.m. was when I did my best work pre-sobriety. 🤷
fact. we laughed EVERY YEAR at HFASS at that line
Today, a local pastor I watched virtually interjected about the 9am part, "I think we can imply a 'yet' there, folks. 'They can't be drunk YET.'"
Promiscuity aside, there is also a lesson in radical inclusivity- with the aforementioned exclusivity of imperialistic dominance.
Now, I really want for Douglas Adams' babel fish to exist so that we can all experience instant language comprehension. really enjoyed this post. I've been struggling for the past few years with the knowledge that certain kinds of language, considered "correct, proper, civilized, educated, etc." serve to reinforce a kind of cultural norm focused on elevating the dominant culture at the expense of diversity and freedom of expression. time to let go of the judgmental shit. if I want to chat with g-d via emojis, so be it.
Ah, the language of the Holy Spirit...
There is only love
Remove the blocks to the awareness of love's presence
You are either turning toward love or turning away from love