五旬节或圣灵降临节（复活节后第7主日）之一

          用众人的乡谈说话

——使徒行传二章六节

巴别分散之后，你我相去何其遥远，一在天涯，一在海角，老死不再往来。巴别分散之后，言语已经变乱，人间无由互吐衷肠，怎不充满误解、猜疑。

如火之舌，自天而降，使徒竟能用众人的乡谈见证基督。人的错失使语言由同变异，圣灵之恩又使语言化异为同。

漫漫百年，我们曾向骨肉之亲见证基督。但我们的错失，却使我们在同胞面前成为外人。我们丢失的岂止是共同的言语，更是那用故乡的泥土凝成的一颗丹心。

恳求圣灵为我寻回那颗丢失的心，并赐我如火之舌；若不然，我怎能在乡亲面前用乡谈见证基督？

Pentecost 1

Acts 2:6

Speaking foreign languages

  After Babel, you and I were separated by vast distances, at opposite ends of the earth, never to meet again.

  After Babel, our languages were muddled. People had no way of sharing their innermost feelings. They were filled with misunderstandings and suspicion.

  But at Pentecost, tongues of fire came down from heaven and the disciples were able to speak in the language of each one in the multitude. Thus they bore witness to Christ. Our common language was differentiated through human sin. By the grace of the Holy Spirit, our many languages can become the means for sharing what we have in common.

  For more than a hundred years, we in China tried to witness to our own people. But our trespass made us appear before our sisters and brothers as outsiders. It was not only a common language that we had lost, but more, we had lost the soul nourished by the soil of our native place.

  O Holy Spirit, bring us back to this heart we have lost, and give us tongues of fire. How else can we bear witness to Christ in the presence of our kinsmen of race?