Pentecost 2020; Acts 2:1-21; John 20:19-23; St. Paul’s
5/31/2020
Jim Melnyk: “To See As God Sees”
Whether it’s through the
gentle breath of their teacher and Lord on that first Easter evening, or in the
midst of rushing wind and tongues of flame seven weeks after, Holy Spirit comes
upon a gathering of early Jesus Followers and their lives – and the life of the
world – are changed forever.
All three images – wind,
fire, and breath – are images of change. On a nice spring day we open the
windows of our homes and allow a delicious breeze to blow through the house –
dispelling any sense of staleness and restoring balance with the creation
surrounding us. Fire may scour a country side – and it can prove damaging as we
know all too well. But it also can keep us warm, bring us light, help us
prepare nourishment for our bodies, it can cleanse, and it can induce seeds
long-buried in the earth to sprout and reach for the sun. And then consider the
intimacy of the gentle breath of a friend, a spouse, or a lover – how it can
cause our skin to tingle with anticipation and stir our hearts, causing them to
beat just a bit more quickly. Wind, fire, and breath – these are the symbols of
Pentecost.
And Pentecost is a
significant moment in the history of both Judaism and Christianity. Both are
decisive moments of change in the lives of God’s people – both are decisive
moments when God’s power and presence are made known among God’s people.
For the Jewish people Pentecost
– which is the Greek name – was first known as Shavuot, or the Feast of weeks.
It comes 49 days after Passover, and was marked this past Thursday evening by
our Jewish sisters and brothers around the globe. An early agricultural
festival, Shavuot came to commemorate God’s gift of Torah to the Hebrews
gathered at Mount Sinai. Realize that to know and to pray the Torah is to be in
the presence of God.For Christians, Pentecost
signifies the gift of God’s Holy Spirit given to the first Jesus followers and
communicated ever since through the sacrament of Holy Baptism.
In the deepest sense, I would
argue that the two gifts of Torah and Holy Spirit are not at all different –
that they are two sides of the same living coin – the expression of God’s
presence for and with God’s people. Both are gifts of God’s grace in the lives
of God’s people. Both are offerings of God’s wisdom – teaching us how to live
in communion with one another and with God. Both are gifts intended to help us
see each other – and to see the whole of creation – as God sees; and then to
live, move, and be with one another in ways that emulate the grace, and love,
and compassion of God.
In John’s gospel the Holy
Spirit is given to the small community of Jesus Followers on the evening of the
Day of Resurrection. In Acts the gift is fifty days later. We don’t need to
force some sort of theological or chronological conformity upon the two stories
– we can let them live side-by-side as each evangelist tells the story of the
coming of God’s Holy Spirit upon God’s people in their own way.
In essence, both John and
Luke tell us that Easter Day – the resurrection of Jesus – and the gift of the
Holy Spirit, are inextricably and unexplainably intertwined, and that both are
expressions and experiences of the ongoing incarnation of God in our lives and
in the world.
Pentecost is born out of
surprise, and it is a harbinger of sudden newness. Pentecost comes upon us this
year in a season of uncertainty and in what feels like a new abnormal. Pentecost
comes upon us with wind, and flame, and the breath of God – and it brings with
it ever again the gift of God’s Holy Spirit to renew us – to strengthen us – to
point us in new directions – with Jesus going ever before us. But our uncertainty
of the future doesn’t mean there’s a lack of God’s presence in our lives and in
our communities. Physical separation from one another is not lack of community.
Not being sure about what God might be doing in the world doesn’t indicate an
absence of God. God’s Holy Spirit in our lives is the power to face uncertainty
and challenge with hope as well as “the courage to will and to persevere.”[1]
In a few minutes we will once
again renew our baptismal covenant – making promises before God to be faithful
in our lives as followers of Jesus. The words we proclaim each time we renew
these vows do not change over the years, but hopefully we do. We are not the
same people who first recited these words together nearly ten years ago. Nor
are we the same people we were five years ago – or two – or even three months
ago – before the coronavirus pandemic changed our definition of normal, and
changed the face of society for some time to come.
There is nothing good about
the pandemic. There is nothing good about a virus that has already killed well over
100,000 people in our nation alone – in just three months. But I can see how
the reality of this terrible ongoing event has opened so many eyes, and moved
so many people to action – move us toward taking our faith and our baptismal promises
seriously.
Perhaps the questions with
which we are faced on this day of Pentecost are simple to ask and a bit
daunting to answer. Are there ways we’ve missed or ignored the Spirit’s
promptings in our lives? I find myself disappointed with those in so many faith
communities who see church as a right to be exercised no matter what the cost
in human health and well-being.
Packing into enclosed spaces,
mask-less and sitting shoulder-to-shoulder in pews, enveloping one another in
spirited hugs is terrible theology – and I suspect a failure of Citizenship 101
as well. I see video of workers being assaulted for asking patrons to wear a
mask. I see video of people purposely coughing or spitting on fellow human
beings who just want as safe and healthy a work space as possible. I see larger
corporations taking stimulus checks instead of readily available low interest
loans or dipping into their own capital, while mom and pop franchises with no
access to those kind of funds have to lay off employees.
On a day when we celebrate
the Spirit of God being made known as Jesus breathes upon his followers, we
shouldn’t be faced with realities in our nation where people of color find
themselves gasping out the plea, “Help me, I can’t breathe – I can’t breathe,”
as they themselves give up their last breath of life unjustly. I don’t see any
of that as a people looking for or paying attention to the Holy Spirit’s
promptings in our lives.
On the other hand, how have
we responded positively to the Holy Spirit in our lives? During the pandemic it
seems pretty simple. It’s as easy as wearing a mask to protect the most
vulnerable among us. It’s picking up groceries for a frail or susceptible
neighbor. It’s staying six feet away from others in the grocery store. It’s
about recognizing that our Diocese will err on the side of caution and pastoral
concern before allowing us to open our doors to even a reduced number of
worshippers in this sacred space – not to be controlling – but as a way of
being pastorally present to those whose lives would be at risk.
It’s also about willingly taking
a daily stand against racial injustice and speaking out against what has been
called America’s original sin – a wound of racism that has been with us from
our very beginnings of a nation.
Wearing a mask and keeping
our distance isn’t about being afraid – it isn’t about being a sheep – or about
being controlled by others. Speaking out against racial injustice isn’t about
being politically correct or pushy. Both are about honoring our promise to seek
and serve Christ in all people, our promise to love our neighbor as ourselves,
and our promise to work for
justice and peace, respecting the dignity of every human being. Both are about
exhibiting the very love that Jesus commanded when he said, “Love one another
as I have loved you.” It’s about
listening to the Holy Spirit in our lives.
In the late 13th
or early 14th century mystic Meister Eckhart offered a poem that for
me speaks to the heart of what it means to be created in the image and likeness
of God no matter what path our faith might take us – but especially for me
about what it means to be Holy Spirit filled followers of Jesus.
It is your destiny to see as God sees,
to know has God knows,
to feel as God
feels.
How is this possible? How?
Because divine love cannot defy its very self.
Divine love will be eternally true to its own being,
and its being is giving all that it can,
at the perfect
moment.
And the greatest gift
God can give is [God’s] own experience.
Every object, every creature, every man, woman and
child,
has a soul and it is the destiny of all,
to see as God sees, to know as God knows,
to feel as God feels, to Be
as God
Is.[2]
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