Pentecost Unity

Last Sunday in Sunday school, we had a debate about the nature of Pentecost.  One person thought it was a time when everyone spoke in tongues, and understood each other.  Another disagreed.  

Let's look:

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.  Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven living in Jerusalem.   And at this sound the crowd gathered and was bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in the native language of each.  Amazed and astonished, they asked, "Are not all these who are speaking Galileans?   And how is it that we hear, each of us, in our own native language?  (Acts 2:1-8)

Have you ever noticed or compared this passage to one in Genesis?

Now the whole earth had one language and the same words.   And as they migrated from the east, they came upon a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there.  And they said to one another, "Come, let us make bricks, and burn them thoroughly." And they had brick for stone, and bitumen for mortar.   Then they said, "Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves; otherwise we shall be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth."  The LORD came down to see the city and the tower, which mortals had built.  And the LORD said, "Look, they are one people, and they have all one language; and this is only the beginning of what they will do; nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them.  Come, let us go down, and confuse their language there, so that they will not understand one another's speech."  So the LORD scattered them abroad from there over the face of all the earth, and they left off building the city.  Therefore it was called Babel, because there the LORD confused the language of all the earth; and from there the LORD scattered them abroad over the face of all the earth.  (Genesis 11:1-9)

I don't think the Pentecost passage is about speaking in tongues at all.  For one thing, speaking in tongues is a spiritual gift, given to a few.  it was not something that could be understood by anyone - it required (requires) interpretation.  In the Pentecost story, everyone can understand everyone else, and not only that, they are filled with the Holy Spirit - the spirit giving them this ability.  God heard and understood among them.

Think about the story of the Tower of Babel.  The people - scattered and unable to understand each other.  In this story, it seems the opposite has happened.  Everyone is understood, and there is a unity among them.

The church is born.