Monday, June 13, 2011

You can't contain the Spirit


Pentecost Sermon
I’ve hemmed and hawed a bit over the last few years about a very important decision.  It is a costly decision, one in which I had to weigh whether to invest my time, talent and treasures into a decision that could significantly affect my life and my reputation.  After wrestling with the options for some time, I finally made my decision.  I bought an iPhone.
Now, like any person, my first task upon acquiring it has been to learn its ins and outs so that I can maximize my efficiency....oh, who we kidding, I’ve been playing with it this week.  I’ve been looking for cool apps, trying out the new camera, did you know this thing could make phone calls too?  But in my playing, I actually had an insight about Pentecost this week.
Scripture says that when the disciples were filled with the spirit, they began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability.  They were able to rush out and communicate the good news of Jesus Christ to people who, up until a few minutes before, were blocked from hearing the Gospel simply because they did not speak the same language.
So boy, was I excited to find out that with my phone, I could replicate that part of the Pentecost experience right here.  One of the amazing features in our new technology is its ability to cut across previously insurmountable language barriers.  Is there anyone in the congregation who speaks another language?  Even if its not well, call it out!
So, lets test it by trying to share the message the choir lifted up today-  “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son”
Demonstrated Google Translate as it translated the above into Spanish and spoke it back.
So there we go-  Pentecost recreated courtesy of the iPhone.  So if the point of the Holy Spirit was to translate for us, I guess we can just tell God were good now right?  That it was great to have the Holy Spirit, but we can do it ourselves, so thanks, but no thanks!
Granted, we have to pay hundreds of dollars and use some separate device, but close enough, right?
If indeed, the purpose of the Holy Spirit was simply to translate for us, I suppose we could say that.  But there is a problem here.  Equating the Holy Spirit with Google translate puts it’s purpose into a very narrow category.  It causes us to see the Holy Spirit as one-dimensional.  It lets us explain this co-equal part of God in just a few brief sentences.  It narrows our expectations.  But if there is anything that scripture and history has taught us, however, its that when we try to limit God, to contain the Holy Spirit to our expectations, its going to burst forth and be bigger than we can ever imagine.
In our Gospel reading today, we found the disciples literally cowering in fear in the upper room.  Jesus had just been crucified and they were afraid they were next.  Now mind you, this is the same upper room in which Jesus had given them instructions to carry on his ministry and warned them of his coming death.  Despite their advance knowledge, they still huddled up locked behind closed doors.  But if death wasn’t going to stop Jesus, neither are a few locked doors.  In the midst of their fear, Jesus comes to bring them peace.  The disciples doubted that God could work amidst death and locked doors, but the spirit wouldn’t be contained.
So, now we come to Pentecost, and the situation has changed.  They met with the risen lord, seen Jesus ascend into heaven and choose a replacement for Judas.  So, where do we find the disciples?  Gathered all together in one house.  Now, at least this time we don’t think the doors were locked.  But by gathering together in one house, they were in some ways a closed community.  They were a small sect of Hebrew speaking Jews, gathered from the region around Jerusalem and Galilee.  They spoke the same language, likely had the same customs, and all believed together that Jesus was the Messiah.  Now, maybe they fully intended to get on with that ministry in the world thing.  Maybe they were just resting up and building strength.  But the spirit wouldn’t wait.  The Holy Spirit bursts into the room and transforms this stationary mono-language group sweeps them into action.  They burst forth into the streets proclaiming the Gospel in not one, not two, but all of the languages of every Jew from every nation under heaven.  The disciples were limited to their little group and their common language, but the spirit wouldn’t be contained.
If we move further into Acts, we begin to see the disciples engaged in the Jewish community.  They take care of the Jewish widows from both the Jerusalem area and those in town from throughout the world.  They begin to share everything in common.  This is truly a Jewish renewal movement!  But then, suddenly Peter gets a troubling vision.  In the dream he is hungry and is offered reptiles and birds and pigs and shrimp, all the things a good observant Jew would not eat.  In fact, we learn in a different book of the Bible that Peter was so observant he wouldn’t eat with non-Jews.  Surely, this is what God wants, right?  Jesus only had Jewish disciples, so naturally this is a Jewish movement.  But God had other ideas, and Christianity began to spread among the Gentiles like wildfire.  Peter was limited by the careful observance of his faith, but the spirit would not be contained.
Many of the first people to cross the Atlantic to come to the United States were Christians.  In addition to their faith, they brought with them their farming techniques, there trade skills, a government responsive to people, and, they brought slaves.  Many of the settlers were both faithful, bible believing Christians, and slave owners.  They saw no conflict.  Now according to Nancy Koester’s Introduction to The History of Christianity in the United States, these observant Christians “did not look to introduce Christianity to the slaves-  afraid of Baptism as it declared people to be children of God rather than the property of this or that owner.
To address the problem, laws were passed-  1667 Virginia Statute-  “Baptisme doth not alter the condition of the person as to his bondage or freedom.”  (p. 14)   Sure that they had resolved their conflict, they began to allow missionaries to preach the Gospel to the slaves.
Now, the “Masters wanted Christianity to reinforce paternalism by teaching slaves to be grateful, obedient, and submissive.  Christianity was often twisted to this purpose, but even so, many slaves sensed that Christianity was at odds with slavery.  Christianity taught that all believers are children of the Most High God, redeemed by Christ.  If one were bought by the blood of Christ, how could one still be owned by a human master?  Many black Christians felt the contradiction between the claims of slavery and the claims of Christ....Converted blacks felt their infinite worth as children of God, no matter what slaveholders thought and taught...”  (p. 81-82).  Now these white Christians believed that all of the benefits of God’s love belonged with only their race, but the spirit could not be contained.
This past Monday, I had the opportunity to attend the founding convention of the Greater Cleveland Congregations at the Masonic auditorium downtown.  You might have read about this group in the paper this week-  they are a group of Christian, Jewish, Muslim and Unitarian congregations who have banded together “to organize and campaign for good jobs, accessible and affordable health care, safe and productive schools for our children, fair and equal treatment in our criminal justice system, and sustainable and healthy food."  (Plain Dealer).  The highlight of the event was having the 2000+ people present roar in appreciation each time one of the congregation leaders pledged their support and announced how many people from each congregation had attended.  While Christians may have been slightly in the majority in this group, there was a very sizable presence of committed individuals of other faiths.  And yet, with the energy and the commitment in the room, I truly discerned that that Holy Spirit was alive and at work in the hearts of each and every individual in that room.  We think at times that the Holy Spirit is just a Christian thing, but the spirit will not be contained.
Brothers and sisters, on this Pentecost Sunday, we commemorate the outbreaking of the Holy Spirit on one particular day in one particular region of the world amongst one particular people.  But the Spirit of Pentecost cannot be contained in so narrow of a way.  Today we are called to celebrate and invite the Holy Spirit’s presence into this community, into this congregation, and into each of our individual lives.  We are called to prophesy, or speak clearly for God’s justice.  We are called to have a vision, a vision of where God wants to lead each of us in his service.  And we are called to dream dreams.  Dreams of a congregation revitalized and reaching out in unbelievable ways to this community and beyond.  Of people who dare to step beyond their comfort zone to show God’s love.   Of mission groups that will come forth from Cincinnati, that will go to Corbin, Ky, and will not stop until they see a bit of the kingdom of God established here on earth.  But my friends, know this-  no matter how limited our justice, how narrow our vision, how foggy are dreams, we can always be assured-  that the spirit will not be contained.  

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