Almost two thousand years ago, for the festival of Shavuot or Pentecost, Jerusalem was full of pilgrims from all over the Mediterranean and Asia Minor. The festival marked the beginning of the wheat harvest.

For the followers of Jesus, other issues preoccupied them. It was just over fifty days since Jesus’ crucifixion. They were still coping with that tragedy. On the other hand, they had also experienced his resurrection, and that was equally hard to grasp. The disciples had stayed in Jerusalem trying to figure out how to live in the context of these two experiences.

According to the writer of Acts, it was on this day that the Spirit of God came upon the disciples in a new way. They were filled with God’s power like a flame that brightened their way and energized them. Inspired, Peter began to preach about Jesus to the gathered crowd.

The important thing about this crowd was that they had come from all over. There were people from Rome and Egypt, from Mesopotamia, Phrygia, Cappadocia and more. They spoke many different languages, but each of them understood what Peter was saying. Peter spoke Hebrew, but they heard him each in their own language.

Over the years, I have heard people say that this day undid the curse of Babel. Early in Genesis, we are told that the people were arrogant and set out to build a tower that would reach heaven. God stopped this project by giving them different languages so they could no longer work together. But if this was a response to that event, everyone would have suddenly understood Hebrew, which to some extent they likely did.

The gift was that the message came to them in their own language. The differences were not erased. Their separate languages and cultures were affirmed.

The gift of Pentecost has been a hard one for followers of Jesus to learn. Initially in the early church, there was an expectation that people would follow the Jewish law. As they reached out to people who were not Jewish, they came to understand that Jewish laws did not need to be imposed on everyone. They came to understand that following food laws and being circumcised were not necessary for followers of Jesus who came from different backgrounds.

Leaders like Peter and Paul also relaxed their observance of the law when they were in Gentile churches.  Sometimes. There was a bitter dispute between Peter and Paul when Peter went back to following food laws. Paul’s angriest letter comes when the church in Galatia was told that men needed to be circumcised. Learning to accept difference was difficult.

The lesson of Pentecost was also forgotten by the Colonial church. When people left Europe to live in Asia and in Africa and the Americas, they brought their European version of Christianity and insisted that people follow not just Jesus but the European pattern of following Jesus. Local practices were outlawed. Local languages were not allowed in the church.

In Canada, attempts were made to exterminate indigenous languages. We forgot that when Peter preached in Hebrew, everyone heard him each in their own language.

When the United Church apologized for its participation in this colonial enterprise, part of that apology read, “We confused Western ways and culture with the depth and breadth and length and height of the gospel of Christ. We imposed our civilization as a condition of accepting the gospel. We tried to make you be like us and in so doing we helped to destroy the vision that made you what you were.” The apology acknowledges this was wrong, and the church is working to live into that apology.

Accepting that difference is good has been a hard thing in our country. It continues to be difficult. There have been debates about turbans and more recently about hijabs, head coverings with deep roots in their cultures. There is still a tendency in Canada to think that “our” ways are the right ways. Learning that they are simply ours is hard work.

Cathy Hird lives on the traditional territory of the Saugeen Ojibway Nation