THE SPIRIT AT WORK TODAY
Psalm 104: 24-30; Romans 8:22-27; John 15:26-27; 16:4b-15
Day of Pentecost — May 23, 2021
Pastor Ritva H Williams
Long ago, a band of Galilean pilgrims traveled to the holy city of Jerusalem to celebrate Passover — the great Jewish festival of liberation from slavery in Egypt. The plan was to stay for all 8 days of the festival, present their first fruit offerings of spring wheat, and then go home. A few of them wanted to stay for the 50 day Festival of Weeks (aka Pentecost) to give thanks for the gift of the commandments received by Moses at Mount Sinai. All these plans went awry when their leader, a carpenter from Nazareth named Jesus, was arrested and crucified. While the holy city continued celebrating, the Galilean pilgrims were traumatically plunged into grief, followed three days later by incredulous joy when Jesus appeared among them alive. After another 50 days God’s Spirit showed up in wind and fire to empower those Galilean pilgrims to speak in many languages. For them, the Day of Pentecost was the spark that ignited a movement dedicated to proclaiming the Way of Jesus. In time Pentecost became the birthday of the Christian church. But Pentecost was not a one-and-done deal. The Holy Spirit didn’t give birth to the church and then retire.
Today our scripture readings highlight the ongoing work of God’s Spirit. Psalm 104 reminds us that the earth is full of God’s creatures, nourished and fed by the Spirit who gives them breath, creates new life, and renews the face of the earth.
The apostle Paul declares that all of creation is groaning with labor pains. Human beings, and especially believers who have the first fruits of the Spirit, are groaning inwardly as they wait for redemption. Most significantly, the Holy Spirit herself groans with us and for us with sighs too deep for words (Romans 8:22-27).
These two readings show us that creation and humanity are deeply connected, dependent on each other. God’s Spirit is at work in all of creation and in all of humanity. The Spirit does not seek to lift believers out of their bodies and whisk them away to some heaven light years away, but to continually transform life on our planet. The Spirit’s goal is to make all persons more and more like the resurrected Christ — a perfect union of human and divine, holy and whole, living in harmony with creation (Romans 8:29). As Professor Jennifer Pietz aptly states, “This process is painful and often messy, as the image of the creation in labor pains implies. The gift of new life is beautiful, but it emerges out of struggle.” (1)
In our gospel lesson, Jesus tells us how God’s Spirit acts like an Advocate of truth, testifying on Jesus’ behalf. This Spirit will prove the world wrong about sin, righteousness, and judgment. The Greek verb used there (elegzei) literally means to expose, convict, convince, or correct. Jesus says, the Spirit will expose, convict and correct “the world.” Last Sunday we learned that “the world” refers to humanly devised structures and systems that organize our lives. The Spirit’s job is to expose and correct three things in the world.
Sin, which is defined as not believing in Jesus, not having faith in him, not being faithful and loyal to Christ. It is not only the world that is guilty of this sin, but Christians too, when we split belief and practice, word and action, walk and talk. Our disloyalty to Jesus shows up when our beliefs do not lead to changed hearts and minds, to justice, to caring for the suffering or repairing what we have damaged.
Righteousness is one of those churchy Bible words that doesn’t mean what you think it means. The Greek word is dikaiosyne — justice. The Holy Spirit’s job is to expose and correct the world’s way of doing justice. Biblical justice is not about endlessly punishing people but about establishing fair and equitable relationships between all people. Injustice shows up when our attitudes, actions, and relationships reveal that we don’t see Jesus in the face of our neighbor.
Finally, the Holy Spirit’s work is to expose the fact that God has already condemned the ruler of this world. Professor Claudio Carvalhaes writes: “The ruler of this world is the structure of death that spins round and round with spirits of sickness, destruction, poverty, brutality, violence, hunger, greed, consumerism, and so on. Patriarchy and capitalism are the structures from which the ruler of this world lives and enacts death.”(2) To these I would add racism, homophobia and other systems of prejudice.
Professor Carvalhaes insists that to experience Pentecost it is necessary to search for change and to allow ourselves to be changed. Change mean new forms of consciousness, awareness, commitment, and agency (3).
We might well wonder what the Holy Spirit is up to here at St Stephen’s on this Day of Pentecost? At least two things:
After this morning’s second service we will be planting tomatoes in our expanded Feed Iowa First Grow Don’t Mow Garden. By using the fertile soil that surrounds our building to grow vegetables we help feed hungry people in our community, where one in eight adults, and one in six children struggle with food insecurity. This garden is part of our anti-hunger ministry together with our Little Free Pantry and our participation in HACAP’s Operation Backpack.
We are taking our first steps in becoming an anti-racist congregation. This new ministry team emerged from our men’s group as they read Robin Diangelo’s White Fragility in the wake of last summer’s renewed calls for racial justice. It highlights one aspect of our commitment to welcome all persons, without exception, regardless of age, race, gender identity, sexual orientation, financial or family status, physical or mental disabilities. I am grateful to Dan Husmann for his leadership in convening our Anti-Racism Team and for facilitating the Council’s book study of White Fragility. Learning to become anti-racist is different than doing anti-hunger work. Anti-hunger ministries are about growing or purchasing food to be distributed to families experiencing food insecurity. Anti-racism is an inward journey. It involves listening and learning with an open mind. It requires self-examination, becoming aware of biases and blind spots we don’t even know we have. It means learning to tolerate discomfort. We can only become anti-racist if we are willing to let the Holy Spirit expose and correct the ways of thinking and believing we’ve picked up from the ruler of this world. As a Pentecost project I would like to encourage all our members and friends to read White Fragility. If you would like to have a conversation about this, or organize a small discussion group, let me know.
Shake Us From Our Slumber by Martin Luther King Jr.
When our eyes do not see the gravity of racial justice, shake us from our slumber and open our eyes, O Lord. When out of fear we are frozen into inaction, give us a spirit of bravery, O Lord. When we try our best but say the wrong things, give us a spirit of humility, O Lord. When the chaos of this dies down, give us a lasting spirit of solidarity, O Lord.When it becomes easier to point fingers outwards, help us to examine our own hearts, O Lord.
God of truth, in your wisdom, Enlighten Us. God of hope in your kindness, Heal Us. Creator of All People, in your generosity, Guide Us.
Racism breaks your heart, break our hearts for what breaks yours, O Lord.
Ever present God, you called us to be in relationship with one another and promised to dwell wherever two or three are gathered. In our community, we are many different people; we come from many different places, have many different cultures. Open our hearts that we may be bold in finding the riches of inclusion and the treasures of diversity among us. We pray in faith. Amen.
1) Jennifer V. Pietz, “Commentary on Romans 8:22-27,” May 23, 2021. www.workingpreacher.org
2) Claudio Carvalhaes, “Day of Pentecost — Hold on to the subversive memory of Jesus — Commentary on John 15:26-27; 16:4b-15.” May 23, 2021. www.workingpreacher.org.
3) Ibid.
