The coming of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost has instituted the reversal of three curses or consequences from sin in Genesis. Humans are exiled from God's presence in Genesis; the presence of God With Us - Emmanuel at the front edge of Luke's Gospel - is spread across humanity with the Spirit's outpouring on Pentecost. The curse of Eve as she is put under the rule of Adam, encoded in law and patriarchal practice over millennia, is systematically weakened by Jesus across His ministry in his counter-cultural treatment of women, climaxing at His resurrection where the only ones to witness Him initially were women, then in practice in the fulfillment of Joel 2's prophecy of women, the aged, and slaves prophesying beside me, the young, and the free. The curse of estrangement at Babel is undone where language is no longer a barrier.
These discussions are being held in the wake of George Floyd's murder and the upheaval that followed. In discussing the diversity of humanity (begun at Babel) and its reflection of God's imagination, we remarked that we are not called to be color blind but to see the colorFUL nature of all humans created in His image. The goal of anti-racist work is not to make race invisible, but rather to make systems of inequity based on race apparent to all so those systems can be dismantled. For that to happen, we need to see race. Not just see it, but celebrate it.
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