Have you ever thought while you were taking a course in school, “What am I going to use this for?” I knew when I was in high school I needed to take a foreign language to enhance my acceptance into college. Of course, I didn’t take something useful like Spanish! I decided to take something esoteric like, Latin. I enrolled in 3 years of Latin, I must have been a glutton for punishment. Its considered a dead language, no one speaks Latin as a native first language. I remember a few phrases from my 3 years of study, and I can sing the whole first stanza of Adeste Fidelis from memory. That’s “O Come All Ye Faithful” in English.
Beyond the aforementioned few quirks, I thought to myself, how in the world will this ever be useful to me? Turns out, knowing some Latin is helpful in a number of ways. There are a great many legal terms that use Latin as a base. A great bit of English is predicated on Latin structure, as well as other so called Romance languages such as Spanish, French, Italian. So, every now and then a few things come back to me when I can pick out the Latin phraseology.
Sunday, our choir sang the Michael W. Smith rendition of Agnus Dei. After church, someone asked me why it was named Agnus Dei, when it never mentions that in the lyrics? Aha! Eureka! My Latin came back to me in spades. Agnus Dei’s literal translation is Lamb of God. But even beyond that, Smith’s rendition is not a translation from the Latin text. I grew up in the Lutheran Church and we sang the Agnus Dei every Sunday…”Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world, have mercy on us. Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world, grant us peace.” Its a beautiful chant that has an ethereal mystique about it as its sung. I love the contemporary version Michael W. Smith has arranged and written, but the original teaches us so much about who Jesus Christ is for us.
Okay, before you start glazing over reading all this stuff, I do have a point to make. As we stood in the church kitchen talking about the Agnus Dei, it suddenly struck me! The name of God in Latin is Dei. D-E-I. There’s been much in the news of late about the current push to get rid of the whole program surrounding D.E.I. Those letters stand for Diversity. Equity. Inclusion. The whole reason for having an emphasis on D.E.I. is to make sure we are providing space for well qualified persons in a great many areas who also bring with them a wealth of other intangibles that are critical to a well rounded society. When a society is closed, and only makes room for those who are like-minded and from similar backgrounds, no real growth can take place. When the society opens itself up to different cultures, different ideas, different ways of thinking, real growth can burst forth.
What about God? Could it be that God is much more diverse than we can even imagine? Is it possible God is all about equity for all people? What about inclusion? Do we think God wants to include all, or does God want to exclude those who are different than us?
I’m never going to be able to think again of the Agnus Dei apart from how I understand God. The God we worship is so much bigger, so much more diverse. God is so committed to treating all with a real equality and justice beyond our limited vision. And the God I have come to know, certainly makes room for and includes all people everywhere. Kudos to whoever put together the Latin language and decided the word Dei should stand for God.
Your companion on the Way,
Pastor Tom