Today we celebrate Pentecost Sunday; this day marks the beginning of our lives together given to us through the Spirit. The Spirit came to those not-so-conscientious deserters of Jesus fifty days after Easter and transformed them from scared and scattered followers into a bold people called the Church.

There, the followers of Christ together experienced the continued presence of Christ in the person of the Spirit. The Spirit of God that so intoxicated these early believers is the same spirit of God that in the beginning stirred the turbulent waters of the deep, the same spirit that spilled forth from prophets and kings alike proclaiming the word of the Lord, the same spirit that rained down upon Jesus in his baptism and poured over the disciples, and it still lays its deluge down even now upon the people of God at Wilshire Baptist Church.

Have you caught the Spirit? How exactly do you catch the Spirit anyway? Is it like catching a ball, or a cold, or a cab to the airport? We speak of many spirits and partake of them all: our school spirit, our national spirit, the Spirit of the Market and the Spirit of St. Louis are joined by a host of other spirits just waiting to be consumed.

Let's be honest. . This overuse of spiritual as an adjective for everything from Oprah to aroma therapy has diluted the potency of the word. How can we live as a people filled with the spirit of God and be sure that we are not serving a watered-down imitation? We forget that the word Spirit is nothing less than "God-present" when we use spirit language to refer to nothing more than "feeling" or "mood." [See Samuel Morse, Dogmatics of Disbelief, Trinity Press, 1994, p.174ff].

Before we can live life under the influence of the Spirit, we must develop a taste for the spirit that bears the maker's mark. Not every spirit freely imbibed brings us under the influence of God. Spirits must be tested and tasted to see if they are of the divine vintage. This requires us to discern together which practices flow forth from the fountain of the true spirit through our collective memory over time.

Peter's message was a prophetic one, harkening back to the words of the prophet Joel. But understanding the Pentecost event requires us to look beyond the prophets to the primeval history of our very being found in Genesis

In the 11^th chapter of Genesis we find that the whole earth spoke one language though few words. People settled down and came together, planting, building and making a life for themselves and establishing together a colony of man on the plain of Shinar, called the city. Their ability to unite as one became nothing short of self-idolatry when they chose to establish a permanent shrine to their own ability to create life for a people and by people alone. These people wanted to name themselves, creating for themselves a place of achievement and security. Their idolatrous assumption was that they could name their lives as anything less than a gift of God.

As a result of their idolatry, God confused their languages so that they were no longer one people. This too was a gift. For now they had an opportunity to know themselves . cooperation demanded that one see one's own creatureliness through learning the language and practice of the other. The only way to understand that you are not a creator is to see yourself flawed and open in the life of someone else.

Instead they chose to use their difference as a weapon, each hoping to force other peoples to now speak their particular language. Fear became the reason for forcing others into the sameness of their particular story.

What was confused in Babel is made clear at Pentecost. God has created a people possible of witnessing to the unity and glory of God through their difference in the body of Christ. This new work of God makes possible a people capable of sharing a common story in the body of Jesus. The outpouring of the spirit invites everyone to call upon the name of the Lord, regardless of dialect.

Sadly, the wars of Babel for the prize of a single human story are waged still. . In his book Who Are We? Samuel Huntington is upset about the emerging American identity. Now, I don't want to shock you . but it seems that the normative visions of one Norman Rockwell aren't real. Are you shocked? Cultural America is under siege, believes Huntington. His thesis: If people and countries with similar cultures are coming together, then countries made up of different cultures are in danger of coming apart. He further argues that multiculturalism, diversity and bilingualism are . strengthening "subnational identities" at the expense of the greater national identity. [NYT Review by Michiko Kakutani "An Identity Crisis for Norman Rockwell America" a review of Who Are We? By Samuel Huntington, Friday, May 28^, 2004].

Not exactly Pentecost thinking, is it? But it is the same thinking that informs a Tyler, South Carolina, man to propose succession from the Union to create a Christian state, even though it worked so well for the Palmetto State the first time.

The after-Babel logic seeks to create the one story of America at the expense of difference. Americans, argues Huntington "should recommit themselves to Anglo-Protestant" values, and old-fashioned cultural assimilation. One of the many troubling things is that Prof. Huntington doesn't see the Protestant Church in America as a threat to his vision of sameness. Attempts to create a single human story for all people that denies their difference are attempts to make us forget our particular stories.

Pentecost is not just any kind of unity. It does not deny the reality of other languages. But it creates the framework to tell the tribal stories of some, but the epic story of all people under God that encompasses and yet transcends particular communities . creating the possibility for all people to find unity in the one body of Christ.

This new language burst forth creating rich practices that allow us to participate in the one story of Christ. Practicing the new life of forgiveness, made possible as we become witness to the story of Christ, makes languages of discord into a language of love overcoming hate and history, without forgetting the past. Instead of denying the reality of our histories, we come to the mending wall together and create a new life.

Reynolds Price's eponymous narrator in his book Noble Norfleet is a North Carolinian man pushing 50-tired, once credulous, now an unwilling and unwitting spiritual seeker. Life was not very gracious to Noble. At 17 his family was devastated by the loss of his brother and sister at the hands of his homicidal mother. It gets worse. Abused by his priest and taken advantage of by his teacher, Noble sought life's solace by serving as a medic in Vietnam. After his tour he returned stateside and gave his life to the care of infant burn victims and the elderly. Still, his deep depression was relieved only by his mother's release from prison thirty-two years later. ... Noble's healing was slow, painful and partial. What would the two say to each other.?"When we moved our lips to speak, what came out was a lot like music. Not words at all, but wordless music, stranger than any I'd heard before; and you could almost see it streaming through the air above us like a flag meant for battle, but never used that way, clean and not torn. [Homiletics, Pentecost 2003].

Can you see how the blowing flags of battle are turned into the flaming flags of forgiveness? It was Noble's life spent under the influence . serving others in pain through his pain that allowed him to begin to heal.How? Through bearing the sufferings of others, Noble discovered the means necessary to practice healing forgiveness.

Through the spirit we are adopted into the family of God and become joint heirs to the new resurrected life in Jesus. The new tongue that we are given to speak is neither unintelligible nor ecstatic but communicates the wonders of God through bold proclamation of the new life found in Jesus. Learning this new grammar for our lives requires us to learn the vocabulary of faith in Jesus.

At Pentecost the disciples spoke their first words in the language of the Gospel, taking their first steps toward the city of God and a common life and language that is called the kingdom of God. God works in collaboration with real people willing to be and act and practice life together under the influence of the Spirit to create the church. Are we willing to learn a new way of speaking and living in this world?

Under the influence of the spirit we must boldly enter a sober world that is out of our control and does not speak our language. Our peculiar speech and practice as a people must become a challenge to a world that continues to believe that there is no alternative to its self-congratulatory narrative of power and control.

Mohammed S. Tahman, a New York City taxi driver, must find time to faithfully practice his faith. As a Muslim, Mohamed prays five times daily, including ritual cleansing. Often Muslim cabbies like Mohammed must choose between fares that represent 20 percent of their daily fare to faithfully meet together. They turn off their "on duty" signs and drive off their intended routes long enough to pray at a local mosque or gather together in the back of a friendly restaurant or even pray under the freeway at the airport terminal at La Guardia. Willing to risk a fine, they double-park their cabs to ensure that they are able to pray together. Mohamed and Muslim cabbies like him have received many parking tickets and paid many fines. But it doesn't bother him . he is willing to be ticketed for living under the influence of his faith. [NYT "When No Mosque Is Near?" by Daniel J. Wakin].

How convicting is that for us all when we are so unwilling to be inconvenienced or to be thought of as peculiar in anything? When we wonder if we should come to church when the pastor isn't preaching or really struggle to get out of bed when the weather outside is too wet or too dry, or too hot or too cold; when we live our lives in such a way that we cannot give to God rightfully or when I hesitate to tell someone my vocation, because that is when the start treating me all weird!

Outside these walls we feel the lived effects of the "good old cultural assimilation" that George Huntington so desperately wanted and we must ask ourselves: Are we a people under the influence of the spirit, or have we been made sober through our concessions to culture over time?

We have much to learn from the faithful practices of others like Mohamed, who must live their lives out of control.

If pulled over today, would you be ticketed for living under the influence? Early Christians living under the influence of Christ were known by their peculiarities. Their very lives followed different rhythms than those of the larger society. "We as Christians have the reputation of living aloof from crowds," commented the early church father Tertullian.

Practices like worshiping together privately, keeping one day set aside for the Sabbath, living separate lives. This disciplined life under the influence became political acts of nonconformity and distinctiveness that placed early Christians in danger of being different, their very lives being an alternative to the larger way.

Their very lives gave courtroom evidence that their actions were a direct result of drinking deeply from the Spirit's well.

We of the modern era must learn from our ancient parents to give up in order to live out of the Spirit's influence. We must forgo any attempts to create the one homogenous people based on stories other than the gospel. We must redefine our sense of self and community so that the different find a welcome place within. We will be a people who care for the young and unwanted, a people who remember their promises to fidelity in our relationships, who do not forget the elderly for the sake of nowness. We will be a people who make the time to practice faithful spirit living together.

Babel has been reversed. The spirit of Pentecost is upon us. So no longer do individual and private stories remain to be what is most determinative for your life. Through baptism and taking the Lord's Supper, we are named a new people in a new time, with the space to live faithfully. Surrounded by a world that does not understand us, we must live an alternative witness to the power of God. Will you be willing to live such a peculiar life . a life that others will find as "mere drunkenness"?

Last call . . . Are you thirsty?