Sermon Notes: Pentecost
Acts 2:1-11
John 7:37-52; 8:12
…Parthians and Medes and Elamites, those dwelling in Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya adjoining Cyrene, visitors from Rome – both Jews and proselytes – Cretans and Arabs…
Our hymnody at Pentecost makes much of a difference between our reading of the old law and our understanding of the covenant given to us in Christ. A parallel is also drawn between the giving of diverse tongues today and the division of the tongues at Babel:
The arrogance of building the tower in the days of old
led to the confusion of tongues.
Now the glory of the knowledge of God brings them wisdom.
There God condemned the impious for their transgression.
Here Christ has enlightened the fishermen by the Spirit.
There disharmony was brought about for punishment.
Now harmony is renewed for the salvation of our souls.
Truth be told, I’m disinclined to draw political conclusions from scripture – by which I mean secular politics. I don’t think there is a way to use scripture to prove one should vote Tory or Liberal Democrat. There is no way to support joining one part or another, no way to support one tax law or another. There’s no way to support single-payer health care or no health care at all. There’s no way to prove that you should live in a state that does or doesn’t have gun control laws or that does or doesn’t allow abortion or gay marriage.
No way at all.
I say that mostly because there is no way in scripture for a Christian to force his rules on anyone else – especially the Non-Christian.
There are, however, ways to support Christian ethics within the Christian community and we have stories arising shortly in the book of Acts: the Holy Spirit moves the Church to a common morality and ethic – one based on forgiveness and love rather than black and white laws. And I think we want, however, black and white laws: we want to know who is in and who is out.
Pentecost starts out by telling us that no one is out. In fact, people start out in, it seems: look at that list of fifteen different nations – it’s the entire known world of the time.
If you read this as only Jews of the time (and there is good reason for that) then, by the end of Acts you have to admit it was Jews and Gentiles. But that would be reading Acts as history and I don’t think it is: the writer of Luke & Acts has Jesus already cavorting at the fringes of his cultural rules. This moment at Pentecost is a literary foreshadowing of the end of the text when *everyone* is welcomed into God’s church family. God has reaped a harvest of the entire world ad Pentecost is the first fruits of that harvest.
Now… politics.
Earlier this week, there was a kerfuffle on the internet about a brother priest posting something about the recent law in Arizona.
Immigration is a hard thing for our laws and, I think, we must admit that as much as the left or the right wish, it’s not a black and white issue.
The problem is that laws only deal in black and white issues.
God, however, only deals in people. In persons. In specific icons of God, standing in front of me, right here, right now.
And – apart from my opinion of the law in Arizona – were I living in Arizona, I’d have to disobey the law. The icon of God standing in front of me is far far more important than the law, or other people’s racism or (perhaps ill-found, or maybe well-found) fear.
And while I’d not deny communion to someone who was a racist – ie someone who put simple political or national interest above seeing the Icon of God right there in front of them – I’d have to have a talk with them before I leave them alone with kids or let them teach a class.
Because simply put: there’s no room, at all, for National Identity in the Gospel.
And while when you leave here you may, with your God-enlightened choice – vote as you feel called, when you act you have to account for it.
Part of the reason I don’t care how you vote is because I don’t imagine it makes a lick of difference. As someone once said, “If voting really changed things it would be illegal.” But how you act, to a person, standing in front of you – or how you feel, how you judge, how you project – these are the things we’re to bring to confession. These are the things that, in the first-person, we’re to struggle against.
There is no room at all in the Church of God for racism: nor judgement. I’m not saying I won’t give communion to a racist. But we’re sure going to have a talk first because if you harbour racist thoughts, I’m not sure but what it may be time to go back to catechism class and pick up the basics.
At the root, this racism is what is wrong with Orthodoxy in America. It’s simple racism – putting of national and cultural interests before the Gospel – that makes our problem an issue at all. The Greeks don’t like XYZ. The Russians don’t like ABC. The Arabs or the Serbs have problems with each other. The American Converts, well, a lot of us are just Neocons looking for a safe home for our right-wing politics. I’m reminded of the “Evangelical Orthodox” that get bent out of shape any time their Metropolitan says anything they see as “Anti-Israel” whilst thus condemning their own brothers and sisters in Christ to Apartheid. The Metropolitan knows which side his bread is buttered on, however…
Of course, as a gay man, most Orthodox wouldn’t want me at the party either. I know… so let’s relish the irony for a moment.
mmmm
Done now.
Let me be clear: there is room at Christ’s table for someone who would seek to exlude others. But Christ will change that person until he is open and receptive and as hospitable as Christ himself.
I know God’s not finished fixing me yet. I know that because I’m still standing here wrestling with him and not dead yet.
The governor of Arizona may do anything she likes but I believe we are under Christian obligation to reject her law as St Paul advises us: to do everything according to the secular law that *does not* contravene God’s law. The Empire, when it functions properly, serves God’s purposes – as St Paul says – BUT, the law of the empire is not God’s law. And I believe that the Empire of America is no better or worse than the Empire of Rome save that Rome had no “illegal immigrants”.
The Christian feast of Pentecost is our adaptation of the Hebrew festival of Shavuot or “The Feast of Weeks”. The most modern reading of the festival is that it celebrates the “giving of the law”. But the earlier, pagan understanding of an Agrarian Harvest Festival is still present in the Jewish scriptures. Today we get a different kind of Harvest.
We have seen the True Light.
We have received the heavenly Spirit.
We have found the true faith,
worshipping the undivided Trinity,
Who has saved us.
Saved means “Made whole”. We can’t be whole without everyone.
We are in the midst of Babel here. Our tongues divide us. That person on your street that you don’t like because of their race… their language… their poverty or wealth… their looks… their difference…
That person far more than any other person has been sent to you, an icon of the Face of Christ, for you to venerate and serve to the salvation of your soul.
Go speak in tongues of Divine Agapic Love and draw them into the Kingdom. Its the only way you’ll make it in yourself.
