of the essence of the divine is revealed. But this is not the essence of the
Spirit that is revealed but of that which has done the pouring. That is, the
essence of the sacred is revealed in the pouring out of the Spirit. Just as in
Heidegger’s example of the jug in which it is the act of outpouring that
is the gift, not the jug or the wine, so too the gift in Acts is that the Spirit
was poured out, it was given. And the outpouring gathers up into itself the
essence of all things, of all peoples. 18
Second, it is signifi cant that language is the evidence of the outpour-
ing. Let us fi rst take note that while speaking happens, it is language that
is given. In the Acts narrative, when the disciples speak, they speak in
languages before unknown to them. Might this be a way in which to think
Heidegger’s notion that it is language that possesses us rather than we who
possess language? 19 If so, then perhaps the signifi cance of the outpouring
of the Spirit occurring as language is to make known to us that what we so
often believe to be in command of is in fact beyond our reach. Our being
dwells in language, of which we are not in possession; it is foreign to us
and we are strangers even where we dwell. For pentecostals, the outpour-
ing of the Spirit is a fulfi llment of a promise, but also a reminder that we
do not dwell where we ought. The move of the Spirit reminds pentecostals
of an eschatological hope that at some point to come, dwelling will take
place in the appropriate place, with the divine, in all its fullness. 20 But it is
also a reminder that we do not possess the Spirit and that the Spirit will
move and dwell in spite of us. If it is in language that humans fi nd their
being, then it is no surprise that the outpouring of the Spirit is manifested
through language. Thus, we are set anew on a path to discovering the
unconcealment of our being through that which we cannot possess but
rather possesses us.
D ERRIDEAN DESERTS: A REFLECTION ON OUTPOURING
AS ARRIVAL
I have discussed that in the event of outpouring, the Spirit arrives,
and the question of arrival is key. But so too is the question of the one
that arrives, the unknown other that reveals itself before us, the name-
less face that shows up out of nowhere. It is this other who initiates the
self- deconstruction that occurs in recognition, the concealment in the
moment of their unconcealment. Imagine one is in a desert, the locational
metaphor that Derrida envisions as the home of human existence. 21 In the
TONGUES AND THE REVELATION OF BEING: READING PENTECOSTAL... 57