Pentecost is the day of the Holy Spirit.
We sometimes call this the birthday of the church.
On that first Pentecost after Christ’s resurrection and ascension, the followers of Jesus were bound by fear, for good reason, and once again together in a room. The same way that they were together in our Gospel reading from John when the Risen Christ came through locked doors to meet them, to give them peace, and to breathe on them the breath of life, the Holy Spirit to send them out to continue the work of God in the world.
Jesus enters in, finds his followers, frees them from fear – fear of death, fear of the other, fear of not being worthy, fear of the people in power who looked down on them, fear of getting it wrong.
Jesus gives them peace that passes understanding – not the absence of conflict – in fact the conflicts that exist will continue to exist and new ones will arise. The fears they have do not disappear and the causes of them don’t dissolve – rather the fears lose their power. The peace Christ gives is true peace, the kind of peace Rev. Dr. MLK Jr described as “not the absence of conflict but the presence of justice.” God – the just one – the one who makes things right and reconciles all things and people to himself is with us. That is peace.
And the Holy Spirit is breathed on Christ’s followers. To sustain them.
Peace and the Holy Spirit come again in our Pentecost story from Acts 2, and divisions are overcome, conflicts still exist but they aren’t the end of the story, fear is still present but its power is gone because perfect love is here and it drives out all fear. Pentecost is the birth of a movement as new life is breathed into Christ’s followers and the church takes up its call to carry its cross and follow where the Holy Spirit leads – we get that story in ACTS and it continues in the church today.
Pentecost is
A celebration of diversity – if we continue to say we are a people longing to be diverse as the kingdom of God is diverse, the Holy Spirit calls us to wake up to the reality that
Difference is not a barrier to love and unity.
There is a need for the diversity of people, as the psalmists like to try and list out all of the ways to give thanks and praise to God in everything and with everything and with all the nations and peoples of the earth. We need everyone.
I must stop now and breathe because we are at nine minutes. Nine minutes you have watched this video. Long enough to be bored, to pause, to wander. Nine minutes you have been free to do as you please, to move and live and breathe.
AT NINE MINUTE MARK IN SERMON
-for nine minutes the knee of an officer designated to serve and protect pressed his knee into George Floyd’s kneck
-for nine minutes Mr. Floyd, my brother in Christ, George, pleaded for his breath, for his life
-for nine minutes the cries of people standing near pleaded for the life of their neighbor in need and were ignored, refuted, threatened with arrest and the fear of a similar violence
-for nine minutes the Holy Spirit couldn’t breathe as the life-giving breath of God was suffocated and squeezed out of a beloved child of God, made in God’s own image
It was not a respiratory virus of pandemic proportions that suffocated the life out of our sibling, it was the deadly virus, lie, sin of racism and white supremacy. Of a system of thought, power, and action that creates a vision of people who aren’t considered white as something less than a person, as more of an animal, as having less value. The sin that enabled those police officers to pay no heed to the cries of a beautiful child of God and left them feeling OK enough to file a report that removed their own responsibility for George Floyd’s death. This insidious sin is what made two white men feel entitled and in the right about chasing down a man on a jog and shooting him and a young boy armed with nothing but skittles and tea, Trayvon Martin, is handed a death sentence at gunpoint. This intrepid virus of racism leads law enforcement to arrest white men who are confirmed armed mass-murderers of black people, like Dylan Roof, and walk him calmly after vesting him with the protection of a bullet-proof vest while suspected, unconfirmed shoplifters like Michael Brown and innocent children in parks with toy guns are shot almost on sight.
This sin is so deeply rooted in our systems, our culture, our minds, and our bodies that it is why I feel a tightness in my chest and lurking suspicion when I see a person of color heading towards me when I’m alone at night and not when I see a white person acting out the exact same behavior. It is what taught me indirectly, without anyone saying it, that the “bad part of town” is the place where there is a majority people of color. It is what enabled textbooks in my schools to be published saying that the main reason for the Civil War was an argument about “states rights” and not “states rights to own people and exploit free labor.”
Racism and white supremacist thought has us captive and we cannot free ourselves – but God in Christ has set us free to do the work.
By the grace of God and through introspection, intentional conversation with people who aren’t identified as “white,” an exploration of my own ethnic history, filling myself with the voices of African Americans, Indigenous people, hispanic and latino/a people, to identify the racist thoughts within me, to be aware of the ways white supremacy and privilege have and do play a role in my life, thought, words, and deeds, and to begin to dismantle it – to move towards being an anti-racist because through the waters of baptism and by the Holy Spirit I am freed from sin and for service to neighbor and have given my allegiance to God, made a covenant to join in God’s work in the world and to renounce and resist sin, the devil, and all the forces of evil that defy God which certainly includes renouncing, resisting, and dismantling racism and white supremacy.
This is not to toot my own horn, because my growing awareness humbles me daily with the ways I am racist and that I fail to be anti-racist. But it is to say there is hope in the grace of God and the power of the Holy Spirit.
HOPE – We have hope in the song of Mary who knows God is with the oppressed and breaking down the oppressors, hope in the anthem of our African descent fellow Americans “Life Every Voice and Sing… Let us march on ’til victory is won!”, we have hope in the Holy Spirit
- Pentecost – overcoming divisions, getting people out into what’s next after time in fear
- Conversion of people with privilege, power, authority – Saul/Paul, Cornelius, Roman Centurion – their encounters with Christ in life, post-resurrection, the Holy SPirit
- In the face of a pandemic nearly the whole world, certainly the vast majority of our nation changed our behavior drastically almost overnight for the sake of saving lives and fighting a deadly infection.
- Imagine if we named and recognized and treated the deadly infection of racism and white supremacy for what it truly is? If your hold up is that the system is too big, too deeply woven, “people can’t change,” I want you to see the hope in this.
The Holy Spirit creates in us the unity and love that Jesus prays for his disciples. When Paul encourages the church in Philippi to “be of one mind… to do nothing from selfish ambition but regard others as better than yourselves… to look not to your own interests but to the interest of others, and to let our one mind be the same mind that was in Christ Jesus” this is the work of the Holy Spirit flowing through us, inciting us to action of unity and love.
That mindset and way of Christ offers those of us who, like myself, have privilege and authority to consider how we might, like the centurion, like Cornelius, like Paul, and most of all, like Jesus use our privilege and authority for the sake of our neighbor that they may know the love of God, the shalom and justice of God’s reign, the abundant life God intends. Jesus is God, he has the ultimate privilege and authority, and rather than lord it over us, he becomes human, he serves all, he roots out injustice, lets nothing get in the way of bringing wholeness and life – no social customs or norms, no opinion of others, no threat of being killed by others heavily invested in the status quo, no desire to “go back” but a pressing on the a more complete realization of the kingdom of God.
The Holy Spirit is calling us, pulling us, empowering us to be like Jesus, to be the body of Christ with the mindset of Christ doing the work of Christ. On this pentecost day, the Holy Spirit is giving new birth to the church, lighting us on fire and blowing us toward God’s path of justice and righteousness of life and love.
Concrete action to take:
- Two opportunities for a summer book study
- Dear Church by Rev. Lenny Duncan- which many of us started in March but have not had our discussions about yet
- How To Be an Anti-Racist by Ibram X Kendi
- Give financial support to organizations combating racism – one local group is Austin Justice Coalition
- Show solidarity for and with people of color in your life – check on them, pray for them, create space for them to share the fullness of who they are where they don’t have to pretend to be something other than themselves, support their endeavors
- Consider the shows you watch, the books you read, the music you listen to – and add media created by people of color to those lists
- LISTEN – listen, listen, listen
- As Martin Luther King, Jr. said, “riot is the language of the unheard”
- What have we, what have our government leaders, what has the church not heard
- Listen.
- As Martin Luther King, Jr. said, “riot is the language of the unheard”
Feel the breath of life come into your lungs from Christ himself.
See by the light of the flames of the Holy Spirit alight within and upon you.
Let the spirit of the living God fall fresh on you this day and may it move you to act however you can for the sake of the kingdom of God, for the life of the world to eternity – and right now.
Amen.
May the fires of the Holy Spirit burn away the sin in our hearts, may they refine our lives that we live more like Christ and love our neighbors. As on Pentecost 2000 years ago, let our hearts be set ablaze with love and our lungs filled with life that we are born anew to live differently in God’s way of life and love and shalom. Amen.
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