Acts 2:1-21
Psalm 104:25-35, 37
1 Corinthians 12:3b-13
John 7:37-39
Gracious God, take our minds and think through them;
take our hands and work through them;
take our hearts and set them on fire.
Amen.
The world is full of chaos, and violence, and hate right now. It’s nowhere near the first time it has been so, nor unfortunately will it be the last – even though it feels like the end of the world, and even though we would hope that no one would experience such a time as this ever again.
What we are seeing is the perfect storm that has been brewing in our nation since its founding. It is the harvest of the toxic fruit of racial oppression that has been ripening for centuries.
We did not plant these trees, this system, but they have been handed down to us nonetheless. And so we have a choice, to either tend the grove or grab an ax.
Yes that is a stark image, but it will take more than being “good people” to fix this broken system we have inherited, it will require honesty, discomfort, listening, humility, vulnerability, courage – and because we are followers of Christ who always stood on the side of those that society pushed to the margins – we are called to both prayer and action.
And so on this Day of Pentecost, when we celebrate the coming of the Holy Spirit and the birth of the church, let us begin in prayer:
O God, we remember that your church was born in wind and fire, not to sweep us heavenward like a presumptuous tower, but to guide us down the dusty roads of this world so that we may lift up the downcast, heal the broken, reconcile what is lost, and bring peace amidst unrest. Amen.[1]
+++
When the day of Pentecost had come, the disciples were all together in one place. And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wing, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability[2].
The account in Acts goes on to show the diversity of people gathered who all heard and understood what was being said about God’s deeds of power – each in their own language.
It strikes me that the first act of the Holy Spirit in forming the church was once again God acting to meet people where we were, gifting the disciples with the ability to cross the human boundary of language.
God has a habit of doing this, meeting us where we are. Not waiting for us to be better or perfect, but reaching out in love and compassion.
The incarnation, God choosing to become human, is the ultimate way God chose to meet us where we are, but the coming of the Holy Spirit is no less powerful – for the Spirit brings gifts to equip and empower us to do God’s work.
In our reading from Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians today we read about the variety of gifts the Spirit gives. But easily lost in the list of what the Spirit bestows is this essential assertion in verse 7: To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.
For the common good.
Over the centuries as the church was built into an institution, and throughout the ensuing waves of reformation, too often the central tenet of the common good has been eschewed for individualism.
But the scriptural record points us again and again toward community. One of the first things Jesus does in all four gospels is call together a community, and today on Pentecost we celebrate the birth of the church – the very community we are members of all these centuries later.
Our Presiding Bishop, the Rt. Rev. Michael Curry, is known for saying if it’s not about love, it’s not about God, and I would add if it’s not about the common good, it’s not about God.
Mother Teresa is famous for saying that if we have no peace, it is because we’ve forgotten that we belong to each other.
As I witness the turbulence of the world around us I can’t help but think that we have forgotten that we belong to each other and also our calling to use what God has given us for the common good.
I don’t yet see a clear path forward from where we are, but I know that it has to start with us.
With each of us choosing love over contempt, and justice over comfort. As followers of Christ we are called to pray and to act.
That action will look different for each of us, but none of us are exempt from taking a stand.
German theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who paid the ultimate price for resisting the Nazis wrote, “Silence in the face of evil is itself evil. God will not hold us guiltless. Not to speak is to speak, not to act is to act.”
And so I pray, come Holy Spirit, fill us today with your power, that we might have the strength to meet the days ahead with prayer and action. Amen.
[1] Garth House, Litanies for All Occasions.
[2] Acts 2:1-4.