The Tongues of All Nations
The Spirit Smashes The Hierarchy
Welcome to “Global Witness, Globally Reimagined.” You get a glimpse here of the kind of work that I do both at Church Mission Society and Missio Africanus where I help students of all levels (from unaccredited courses to PhD) explore the theological (and missiological) implications of the rise of World Christianity. In the newsletter, I focus on the subject of global witness in the context of the twenty-first century. Every Thursday, I share a thought that has spoken to me in the week, one or two resources that I trust will be helpful to you, and three exciting quotes about mission to give you something to think about as you go through your day. I pray one of these will energise you.
1. Thought I Can’t Shake Off
For Pentecost (this past weekend), I attended an event in London that had several hundreds of church leaders from around the world read together—at the same time—the second chapter of Acts, each in his or her own mother tongue (or, as some say, heart language). It was the closest thing I have heard to Pentecost. I wished they had simply allowed us a few minutes to speak “great things of God” in our languages, instead of reading Acts 2. We would have been acting out the very thing that happened on Pentecost day. It was a surreal experience that made me wonder, “how did those outside the Upper Room hear those languages?”
I recorded the reading—imagine the beauty of a cacophony of 400 bumble bees in one room. It is impossible to make out any of the languages that were spoken though I know that beneath the noise were possibly more than one hundred languages being spoken. It struck me that unless the disciples prayed one by one, (which is highly unlikely), the hearing of the languages outside the Upper Room was a miracle in its own right. The Spirit that enabled the disciples to speak in other tongues caused those outside the room to hear them speaking about God in their own languages.
Of course, Luke suggests that devout Jews from "every nation under heaven" were in Jerusalem on that day. Thus, every nation and tribe were represented in Jerusalem. Their tongues were heard outside the Upper Room. Numerous gentile languages—representing their national and cultural identities and dignity—were spoken in that Holy City on that momentous day. No language was too insignificant and no people group too small to be left out. The Spirit sees all nations and recognises all languages. Even those of people groups we today call "unreached," the Spirit reached them and made sure they were heard in Jerusalem on that day.
Oh that we understood that all our nations are equal before God!
2. Resources I am Enjoying
Book: Michael Ufok Udoekpo, Biblical Approach to Mission in Context: A Festschrift in Honour of Sister Prof. Teresa Okure, SHCJ. (Wipf and Stock: Eugene, OR, 2022).
This book is a handy missional resource that brings various scholarly voices together in honour of Professor Teresa Okure (New Testament and Gender Hermeneutics at the Catholic Institute of West Africa in Port Harcourt, Nigeria) and her contribution to the study of biblical theology in context. The contributors of the twenty essays that make up the book explore mission from various viewpoints—biblical exegesis, theology, and inculturation—in relation to the African social context. The breadth of the masterpiece rightly attests to Okure’s scholarly and ministerial versatility and the social-cultural crucible from which her formation and impacts evolved. The range of the current issues the essays addressed also makes the resource’s missiological and theological implications extend beyond the African context to global missional frontiers. Indeed, discussions in the book not only transverse but also demonstrate the intersection of exegetical studies, theological methods, and inculturation.
3. Quotes I am Pondering
… mission is an interventionist strategy of the Holy Spirit in the execution of a Christological mandate in a world that is alienated from a holy God. — J. Kwabena Asamoah-Gyadu
The quintessence of an incarnational Christology is that God's self-revelation continually unfolds within a people's lived experience as God guides and leads them to full humanity and dignity. — Francisca Hildegardis Chimhanda
If we understand the call to mission to be the church’s basic interpretation of its vocation and responsibility, then mission, in its universal scope, has to encompass all nations … It must be truly cross-cultural or trans-cultural. — Laurenti Magesa
I pray that you will be faithful to the mission God has for you this week.
Thanks for your encouraging messages, Harvey. I love the quote from Asamoah-Gyadu!
Concerning Pentecost, I wonder whether you may be claiming too much, with the idea that (by taking Acts 2:5 absolutely literally), on that day, "No language was too insignificant and no people group too small to be left out." That idea surely does apply, I agree, to the command and aspiration for ongoing mission ("all nations" can be absolutely literal in Luke 24:47). But you give the impression of suggesting that, among the various miracles of Pentecost (especially of speaking and of listening) there was also the miracle of God arranging for Jews to belong in every single people-group on earth (even in the yet-to-be-discovered-by-west-Asians continents of the Americas, Australia etc.!?) and then to travel to Jerusalem to be present at Pentecost. (Mormons do claim that sort of ancient, cross-continental connection as their heritage; but there is no credible archaeological evidence to support their claim.)
I agree that the Jews assembled that day can be seen as, symbolically, representing all the nations; but not necessarily literally including at least one Jew from every people-group. Here, the phrase "from every nation under heaven" could reasonably be interpreted as "from all over the currently-known world, to which Jews have migrated."
"All" or "every" does not always need to be absolutely literal e.g. Acts 3:18 ("all" the prophets is a broad generalisation which is not inappropriate, even though none of the recorded prophetic words of Jonah seem to have been fulfilled at all, let alone fulfilled in Christ). If Luke wanted to emphasise that God had miraculously populated every people-group with Jewish immigrants and miraculously gathered these representatives from unreachable corners of the earth, he would have had to explain that far more explicitly than he does. But, rather, he lists only known and accessible nations in vv. 8-11.
I agree, these Jews ARE portrayed as representatives of all of us, whatever our people-group; but not necessarily because some of them literally came from our home-place, whoever we are. After all, there is more to the story, and we Gentiles have to wait til Acts 8 and 10 before we get a clear affirmation that the Good News truly is for us too, not only for the Jews among us. I join you in celebrating that!