When Google Translates...
When God Translates
Donald Trump and Steve Witkoff in the Oval Office. Anna Moneymaker / Getty Images
I talk to Fedir*
Witkoff talks to Putin.
Who translates?
Reading…Ezra 1-7/Acts 2
Apparently, in our reading for today, God does. “They’re speaking our languages, describing God’s mighty works!” (Acts 2:11b)
It’s Pentecost. Pentecost (the Greek word for fiftieth), commemorates the giving of the Torah to Moses on Mount Sinai. It occurs 50 days after Passover.
There are many Jews from all over the world who have pilgrimaged to Jerusalem to celebrate. Somehow this International gathering (the list looks like a United Nations meeting) somehow each country’s representatives are able to hear Jesus’ disciples speaking in their own native language.
Some consider it a drunken debacle. The disciples, on the other hand, believe it is God translating. Peter gets up to preach. In response, three thousand are saved, the same number who are killed in the giving of the law at Mt. Sinai (Exodus 32:28).
Not only are three thousand saved, a community has a birthday. (Wasn’t there another birthday celebrated recently?) Here is how Luke describes this first Christian community.
Everyone around was in awe—all those wonders and signs done through the apostles! And all the believers lived in a wonderful harmony, holding everything in common. They sold whatever they owned and pooled their resources so that each person’s need was met. They followed a daily discipline of worship in the Temple followed by meals at home, every meal a celebration, exuberant and joyful, as they praised God. People in general liked what they saw. Every day their number grew as God added those who were saved. (Acts 2:43-47)
Writing…
God translates during Pentecost with life giving, community building, impact. Steve Witkoff has different translators…
MOSCOW — President Donald Trump’s special envoy broke with long-standing protocol by not employing his own interpreter during three high-level meetings with Russia’s Vladimir Putin, opting instead to rely on translators from the Kremlin, a U.S. official and two Western officials with knowledge of the talks told NBC News.
Steve Witkoff, who has been tasked with negotiating an end to the war in Ukraine, met with Putin in Moscow for several hours on Feb. 11, on March 13, and in St. Petersburg on April 11, and “used their translators,” one of the Western officials said. “If they speak to each other in Russian, he doesn’t know what they are saying,” the official added, referring to Putin and the interpreters.
Witkoff, a former real estate mogul and cryptocurrency trader, does not speak Russian. By using Kremlin interpreters, he ran the risk that some of the nuance in Putin’s messages was missed and he would not have been able to independently verify what was being said to him, two former American ambassadors said.
https://www.nbcnews.com/world/russia/russia-ukraine-war-trump-envoy-witkoff-interpreter-kremlin-rcna205878
Building…
I don’t know why Witkoff doesn’t bring his own translators. I do believe, however, that it makes a difference..
Which brings me back to Fedir. Fedir is a Ukrainian friend of a friend. He helps me last week with some work on my house. He takes a lunch break out on my patio. I join him.
I start to talk. He stops me with a hand motion. He types into his phone and hands it to me. Google translates…
“How long have you been in the United States?”, I ask.
He speaks Ukrainian back into his phone. Google translates… “Ten months”.
“Do you have family still there?” I ask
“Yes, my mother and father.” He/Google responds. “My wife and three children come with me to United States”
Then, he looks back at his phone. He finds a short video, cues it up and gives the phone back to me. The screen is dark until I see a flash of light. I hear the sounds of explosions. Shouts and screams in the background. It is a video taken by his parents when bombs are falling on their city of Kiev.
This time, after watching this video taken by Fedir’s parents, God translates. This time God’s Holy Spirit laments to me and I think I hear the following…
“This is not the way it is supposed to be. A young family with three small children should not be forced to flee their own country. A President should not then force them to go back.”
When Google translates (or when Russians attacking Ukraine, translate), we lose some things, maybe even some lives, in the translation. When God translates, we might just find some things. We just might find some compassion. We just might be challenged to JBBBC.com (Build Beloved Communities like my late wife JB).
I talk to Fedir.
Witkoff talks to Putin.
Who talks to you?
Who translates?
Yes...and a better (and safer) strategy for diplomacy...
A good argument for learning to speak the language of the stranger as a matter of Christian discipleship.