Pentecost Sunday Year C
June 5, 2022
Good Shepherd, Wells, MN
Acts 2.1-21
Antonin Scalia was an associate justice of the US Supreme Court until he died in 2016. He is described by Wikipedia as the “intellectual anchor for the originalist and textualist position in Court's conservative wing.” Ruth Bader Ginsburg, another associate justice who served on the court at the same time as Scalia, represented the opposite position from him and they often had heated debates. Yet, she was devastated at Scalia’s sudden death in 2016. Why was she so upset? Because they were good friends who were united in a shared love for opera.
I think that unity in the midst of diversity is a major theme in our text from Acts chapter 2. Today is Pentecost Sunday, when we celebrate the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the early believers. It’s the 50th day since Jesus’ resurrection, hence the term “Pentecost,” which was also a Jewish festival. The followers of Jesus have remained in Jerusalem awaiting the Holy Spirit as instructed by Jesus. What an outpouring it is, with a mighty wind that fills the house, tongues of fire alighting on each of them, and people hearing what is being said in their own language. Pentecost has been described as the birth of the church, but that’s not quite accurate. It’s really the inauguration of God’s mission to love and bless the world post-Jesus. We remember that God has a mission and for that mission God has a church.
Pentecost has also been labeled as a reversal of the Babel event where God scattered the people and confused their languages because they were getting too big for their britches. But I think that’s inaccurate, mostly because there is no return to a universal language in this story. The diversity of languages remains. Rather, I think that the Babel narrative has been completed by the Spirit’s outpouring in Acts. Through the Holy Spirit and the witness to all nations, God is including all nations, each in their glorious diversity.
Holding a diversity of people together is hard work, especially in a time of the divisiveness and polarization we are experiencing today. We not only have two political parties who seem to think their job is to sabotage and demonize the other, who also have “bases” within those parties that exacerbate the situation. But those aren’t the only antagonistic groups. In the church we suffer from denominationalism, which should be a sign of the blessing of diversity. Yet we have denominations that are fragmenting and engaging in similar behaviors as our political parties.
As you well know, this phenomenon occurs within congregations, where political battles can get played out as well as fights about contemporary vs. traditional worship and what color the carpet should be. But, wouldn’t it be great if we could figure out a healthy way to listen to one another and to have heated discussions about our mission and ministry rather than denouncing what others believe? As Christians, who find our unity in Christ, we should be able to do that. And because we stand at the foot of the cross, we can even engage with other religions.
Sociologist Brené Brown studies vulnerability, shame, and belonging. In her book, Braving the Wilderness, she echoes poet Maya Angelou who says, “The work is hard. The rewards are great.” The work is hard, but as people of the Holy Spirit, we can do this. As we’ve seen throughout the Easter season, the Holy Spirit continues to blow, guiding us as we continue to figure out what God is calling us to do. I can think of no greater work than unity. It’s a unity that preserves diversity, not uniformity, and it is God’s desire. Let it be ours as well. Amen.
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