In all the Mothers’ Day hooplah, I was neglected to be informed that yesterday was Pentecost Sunday (not that I strictly follow the Liturgical Calendar).

I was reminded during my blog reading this afternoon from a friend’s blog post — that yesterday, Pentecost was “a day in which we remember the events that took place 50 days after the crucifixion and resurrection of our Lord, where the promised allos paraklêtos (another helper, John 14.16) found fulfillment in the coming of the Holy Spirit.”

And so, in a belated celebratory remembrance of Pentecost, I want to share with you these reflective words from Harold Best.

Pentecost is Babel turned right side up: all speech is unified because it is God, no longer people, who is building toward the heavens.

The story of Pentecost goes further than its historical reality. It is also a parable that urges us into the knowledge that the gospel is comfortable in any culture and its message finds easy residence in the languages, cultural ways and thought styles (but not thought systems) of countless societies. In other words, whoever seeks to move a culture towards transformation by Christ must join it, participating in the transformation from within.

God is not Western; God is not Eastern; God is not exclusively the God of classical culture or primitive culture; God is the Lord of the plethora, the God of the diverse, the redeemer of the plural. Likewise, God calls for response in different languages, dialects, and idioms, accepting them through the Son. Pentecost tells us that one artistic tongue is only a start and a thousand will never suffice. There is no single chosen language or artistic or musical style that, better than others, can capture and repeat back the fullness of the glory of God. This truism cannot be avoided. Cultures are not infinite. No single one can hold the wholeness of praise and worship or the fullness of the counsel of God.

["O for a thousand tongues to sing my great redeemer's praise." Lord, show us our chains of linguistic and artistic elitism. Set us free to hear and respond - to know your ways and worship you in spirit and in truth. AMEN!]

–Harold Best, in Music Through Eyes of Faith, Chapter 3, “Musical Pluralism and Diversity,” Harper Collins, 1993, p. 66.