God's Native Language

June/July Newsletter article reflecting on how God speaks to us in the language of love

God’s Native Language

“Today the lost are found in His translation.

Whose mother-tongue is Love, in every nation.”

 From Sonnet for Pentecost Malcolm Guite

We are very fortunate that our ‘mother tongue’ our ‘native language’ is recognised as one of the worldwide universal languages, when we travel we can almost always find someone who speaks our language.  But this is not true for vast numbers of people. This is a fact that the story of the Disciples in Acts at Pentecost brings into stark reality, as the Holy Spirit coming upon them enables them to speak the good news to people in their ‘native tongues’. Yet in our world so many people have been damaged and traumatised by being forced to abandon their language and by the resulting impact upon them culturally.

Some classic examples of this:

In the US,

“In April, 1917, the United States declared war on Germany. In addition to sending troops to fight in Europe, Americans waged war on the language of the enemy at home. German was the second most commonly-spoken language in America, and banning it seemed the way to stop German spies cold.”

And after Culloden,

“Their culture was demolished, their native language - Gaelic - was banned and marked as a hanging offence if spoken, the wearing of tartan was also made a hanging offence and even the Bible was not allowed to be learnt in their own language, never mind written”

And sadly the list could go on and on producing a culture of assimilation and dominance that has repercussions for centuries.

What you may wonder has this to do with the church, with our faith as Christians? The story from Acts tells it all. God send the Holy Spirit so that his people can be spoken to in their own tongues, in the depths of their hearts in a language they fully understand and identify with. And God’s native language? well I think that is clear, he doesn’t speak in Hebrew, Latin, Greek or English these are human constructs, but he does speak to all nations in his own language in one language only ‘the language of love’ his ‘mother tongue is love’ for every nation.

Love for you, love for me. Love for the whole of his creation.

With blessing to you all

Liz Baker

May 2016