Feast of Pentecost: Whitsunday, Year B

Acts, 2:1-11
1 Corinthians, 12:4-13
John, 20:19-23

+ In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

A MAN WAS WALKING man was walking across a bridge one day and saw another man standing on the edge, about to jump off. He immediately ran over and pleaded, “Stop! Don’t do it!”
“Why shouldn’t I?” the other man asked.
“Well, there’s so much to live for!”
“Like what?”
“Well, ... are you religious or atheist?”
“Religious.”
“Me too! Are you Christian or Jewish?”
“Christian.”
“Me too! Are you Catholic or Protestant?”
“Protestant.”
“Me too! Are you Episcopalian or Baptist?”
“Baptist.”
“Me too! Are you Baptist Church of God or Baptist Church of the Lord?”
“Baptist Church of God.”
“Wow! Me too! Are you Original Baptist Church of God, or are you Reformed Baptist Church of God?”
“Reformed Baptist Church of God.”
“Me too! Are you Reformed Baptist Church of God, reformation of 1879, or Reformed Baptist Church of God, reformation of 1915?”
“Reformed Baptist Church of God, reformation of 1915!”
The first man yelled, “Die, heretic scum!” And he pushed him off the bridge.

I bet that joke has many versions. I just happened to come upon the Baptist version. It may be even more apt for Episcopalians! Are you high church or low church, modernist or traditionalist, liberal or conservative? Often we generate intense vitriol for fellow Christians with whom we have much in common except for a few things. Our divisions often seem to me to be utterly ridiculous as well as sinful, but they are so tempting to us. Isn’t it nice to feel superior to others? The illusion of superiority inebriates us, but not with the Holy Spirit.

Human beings are perverse, and we sometimes use God and religion to justify our dislikes and narrowness and self-righteousness. We sometimes talk about the need for tough love and speaking the truth to those we disapprove of, but often that’s just an excuse to be small and mean. Christianity, the ministry of this parish, is about the Holy Spirit transforming us. Beginning in our baptism, the Holy Spirit re-orients our lives so that we seek unity, not division; so that we have a passion for sharing good news and finding the joy of life; so that love overcomes fear and hate.

Next week, the General Convention of the Episcopal Church will convene, and it will attempt to say something about sexuality and to sort out the Episcopal Church’s relationship with the rest of the Anglican Communion. People will look for, and even expect, some clarity in the proceedings, something definitive about the Episcopal Church’s views about sexuality, but I am extremely skeptical there’ll be much clarity. From its beginnings Anglicanism has been designed to allow for ambiguity, designed to include diverse views. I don’t expect that to change next week.

I know some Episcopalians have a lot of anxiety about what will happen at General Convention. I love the Episcopal Church, and so I care very much about what happens, but I am not much anxious or worried about what will happen. I can’t imagine anything transpiring that would significantly alter this parish’s ministry. And, more fundamentally, God calls us to deal with things within our control – like being faithful in prayer and worship, like loving and forgiving one another, like sharing the good news of Jesus. Those things are easily in my control, and General Convention is very much beyond my control.

One of the innumerable blessings of Alcoholics Anonymous is that it has popularized the so-called serenity prayer:

God grant me the serenity
to accept the things I cannot change;
courage to change the things I can;
and wisdom to know the difference.
Living one day at a time;
Enjoying one moment at a time;
Accepting hardships as the pathway to peace;
Taking, as He did, this sinful world
as it is, not as I would have it;
Trusting that He will make all things right
if I surrender to His Will;
That I may be reasonably happy in this life
and supremely happy with Him
Forever in the next.
Amen.

Only God can make all things right, and that happens when we stay focused on what he calls us to do. In today’s lesson from Acts, the Holy Spirit comes upon the disciples, who then, filled with God’s power, set upon continuing the presence and ministry of Jesus. The purpose of the Holy Spirit is to enable those who follow Jesus to continue to make him present in the world, to proclaim his good news.

One of the ways God has blessed this parish, one of the marks of the Holy Spirit at work in this parish, is that we have turned away from focusing on the divisive issues of the Church and instead focus on the unifying mission of the Church; it’s being mission driven, not issue driven; it’s being outwardly focused, not inwardly focused. Instead of focusing on what’s wrong with others, we ask, “What can I do for Jesus?” What defines us as Christians primarily is not what we think or feel about the Church’s controversies, but our faithfulness in producing the fruits of the Holy Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, gentleness, self-control. What is a true Christian? Who are the most faithful Christians? Look for the fruits of the Holy Spirit.

In today’s lesson from Acts, we see another fruit of the Holy Spirit: mission. The Holy Spirit leads the disciples to focus beyond themselves and to minister to outsiders. At Pentecost, all of a sudden the disciples – this ragtag, unsophisticated, uneducated collection of rubes – have the ability to speak foreign languages. We often confuse this scene with ‘speaking in tongues.’ S. Paul writes about ‘speaking in tongues’ as being ecstatic, but unintelligible speech. It’s sort of a private devotion. At best, it only edifies fellow believers. Paul corrected the Christians at Corinth who were speaking in tongues for being too self-centered, their worship and devotions too self-indulgent, instead of focusing outside of themselves, trying to build up the community, ministering to the needs of others.

In contrast to what happened at Corinth, on Pentecost the Holy Spirit is enabling the disciples to proclaim intelligibly the good news to strangers – to people of different backgrounds, different cultures, different races, different ethnicity. The Holy Spirit is at work in a Church, in a parish, when the primary focus is not on trying to satisfy and comfort fellow Christians, but rather on expanding its mission, reaching out to those in need, sharing the gospel with seekers and non-believers.

In today’s lesson, we see the Holy Spirit working to reverse Babel. When God destroyed the Tower of Babel, human language was confused; people began to speak many different languages. The moral of the story of Babel is that human presumption, humans trying to make a name for themselves, puffing themselves up – this leads to disunity. On Pentecost, the Holy Spirit is working to overcome division and to restore unity. And the Holy Spirit works to overcome a greater divide than language, race, nationality, culture, and geography. The Holy Spirit works to unite people separated by bigger obstacles: such as different views and ideologies, such as anger and insult, such as disappointment and mistrust, such as betrayal and dislike.

Each of us knows about being separated from other people because of these things, but sometimes we overcome our separation even when the cause of separation is not fully resolved: loving people we disagree with, people who offend us, people we don’t like. Overcoming separation requires forbearance, charity, humility, courage. It requires us to live with tension, uncertainty, frustration. But the pain of healing divisions is a sure sign of living in the Holy Spirit. Becoming spiritually mature and healthy means being able to love people with whom we disagree, people who offend us, people who have hurt us.

After years of preaching all over the world, Billy Graham wrote:

I am now aware that the family of God contains people of various ethnological, cultural, class, and denominational differences. . . . Within the true church there is a mysterious unity that overrides all divisive factors. In groups which in my ignorant piousness I formerly ‘frowned upon,’ I have found men so dedicated to Christ and so in love with the truth that I have felt unworthy to be in their presence. I have learned that although Christians do not always agree, they can disagree agreeably, and that what is most needed in the church today is for us to show an unbelieving world that we love one another.1

We can do that because God loves us and gives us his Holy Spirit.

+ In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.

1. The Rev. Billy Graham quoted by Harold Myra and Marshall Shelley, The Leadership Secrets of Billy Graham, Zondervan (2005), p. 316.