St. Paul’s Church in
Bergen & The Church of the Incarnation, Jersey City NJ
May 20, 2018
Year B: The Day of
Pentecost
Acts 2:1-21
Psalm 104:25-35, 37
Romans 8:22-27
John 15:26-27;
16:4b-15
God’s Holy Wind is Blowing
Alleluia!
Christ is risen!
The Lord is risen indeed! Alleluia!
Ten
days ago, early in the morning, just a few of our fellow parishioners, along
with Rev. Gary, gathered right over there in the chapel to celebrate the Feast
of the Ascension.
Always
forty days after Easter and so always on a Thursday and so, here at St. Paul’s
that mean it’s always at 7:30am, we never get a big crowd for Ascension.
That
day, I was at the monastery in Kentucky on retreat and, oddly enough, the
Trappist monks seemed to completely ignore the Ascension – I kept waiting but there
was no mention of it at any of the many services I attended.
And,
I don’t know, but maybe that’s as it should be because, as recorded in the New
Testament, the Ascension is, yes, amazing, but it’s also a pretty small and almost
private event, as Jesus disappears from sight, taken into heaven.
It
must have been a confusing and disheartening experience for the disciples,
whose heads were probably still spinning from Jesus’ death and resurrection. Maybe
they were just beginning to make sense of all of that - and now Jesus is gone
again -gone, but not before promising to send the Holy Spirit to them – and to
all of us.
And,
of course, that’s what we celebrate today!
Ten days after the
Ascension – fifty days after Easter – the Holy Spirit was sent to those first
disciples in Jerusalem two thousand years ago – and this is no private,
personal moment – this is big and public and very loud!
You
can hear the author of the Acts of the Apostles strain to describe what happened
on that first Pentecost – a sound like the rush of violent wind – divided
tongues as of fire – and the disciples are somehow able to speak the Good News
in foreign languages!
And
the bystanders in Jerusalem that day they were understandably confused, too –
trying to make sense of this bizarre and unexpected scene, with some people
falling back on my personal favorite explanation for the inexplicable:
“They
are filled with new wine.”
And,
let’s admit that Peter’s reply that it can’t be the wine because it’s only 9:00
in the morning, isn’t totally
convincing!
But,
it wasn’t wine.
It
was – and is – God’s Holy Spirit.
Our
human language is limited and so we struggle to describe – to find the right words
for the Holy Spirit.
The
advocate.
The
comforter.
And,
we try our best to come up with the right images of the Holy Spirit, too.
There’s
fire, of course.
And,
the dove.
But,
one of the most ancient images of God’s Spirit is breath or, maybe even better…wind.
A
holy wind blew through Jerusalem that first Pentecost two thousand years ago –
and God’s holy wind continues to blow not just in Jerusalem but all over the place,
blowing off the roof, uncovering all sorts of stuff that’s been carefully hidden
for so long.
Yes,
God’s holy wind has been blowing fiercely through our land these past couple of
years – especially these last few months - uncovering all kinds of rot that
many of us couldn’t see, or chose not to see.
God’s holy wind
has uncovered the rot of rampant sexual harassment and abuse – harassment that
for so long has turned workplaces and homes and even just our sidewalks and
streets into danger zones – harassment and abuse that has hurt so many, all of
those women (plus more men than we might think) all declaring “me too.”
God’s holy wind
has uncovered the rot of racism in our land – racism that we all knew still
existed but maybe had dared to hope was slowly on its way out – that now in our
“post-racial” society (remember that?) it was something that respectable people
would never discuss in public – something that was reduced to merely “dog
whistles” and winks rather than anything too blatant – but now we see our
racism only too clearly, don’t we?
We see this rot in
the lawyer (a lawyer!) in New York City (in New York City!) who was caught on
video freaking out because people were speaking Spanish.
We see this rot in
the white entrepreneurs beginning to profit handsomely off of marijuana, selling
the same drug that has landed so many young men of color in jail, burdened with
a criminal record, all but destroying their possibilities and opportunities.
We see this rot in
Puerto Rico, much of which is still in shambles eight months after Hurricane
Maria, a situation that would not be tolerated, would still be in the news
every single day, if we were taking about any other place in America.
(I wonder why that
is?)
We see this rot in
a federal government that, more than ever, seems mostly interested giving the
wealthy and powerful even more wealth and power.
After each school
shooting (you probably saw the statistic that so far this year more students
and teachers have been killed this year than active duty military personnel) –
after each school shooting, God’s holy wind reveals the cowardice and
insincerity of so many elected officials with their rehearsed and meaningless
calls for “thoughts and prayers” – God’s holy wind uncovers the fact that some
among us love our guns – or love the false security that comes from our guns –
more than we love innocent kids and teachers.
And, God’s holy
wind has been blowing strong through Jersey City, too – uncovering carefully
hidden rot here at home.
Last Tuesday
evening, the wind wasn’t even a metaphor – the wind really did blow as a big and
powerful storm came through! We talked about canceling the Jersey City Together
action about tenants’ rights but decided to take our chances and go for it.
And, sure enough, God’s
holy wind blew through this old room that night as about 200 people braved the
storm to learn about their rights and to hear from fellow tenants, all of whom
live nearby and two who live right across the street, as they told disturbing
and heartbreaking stories of life with crumbling walls and leaking pipes and
infestation of roaches.
We learned that in
at least one building right across the street, where some of our parishioners
live, every single tenant is paying an illegally high rent.
These brave
tenants told of disrespect and harassment by landlords, whose only interest
seems to be squeezing as much money as possible out of their properties, no
matter the human cost.
It’s hard to see
all of this, hard to talk about it, I know, but fortunately, God’s holy wind
doesn’t only uncover the rot, doesn’t just reveal our carefully hidden
sinfulness.
Fortunately, God’s
holy wind also reveals the good stuff – the blessings – that we might otherwise
miss.
God’s holy wind certainly
blew the roof off of St. George’s Chapel in Windsor, England yesterday when a
descendant of slaves gracefully and confidently married into the royal family –
who could’ve imagined! And our own Presiding Bishop, another descendant of
slaves, brought the Black Church to the House of Windsor – and, man, he did us
proud by preaching a dynamite sermon all about the power of love.
And
then just a few hours later, God’s holy wind blew through St. Peter’s Church in
Morristown when another competent and confident woman of color was elected on
the first ballot to be our next bishop – the Rev. Carlye Hughes, who will the
first woman and first person of color to serve as Bishop of Newark.
And, finally, it’s
clear to me that God’s holy wind has also been blowing right here as our two
churches are coming together, moving towards unity.
God’s holy wind
has uncovered how much we… like each other – how well we fit together – and, yes,
I’ll say it, how much we love each other.
This was brought
home to me a couple of weeks ago when we had our parish meeting about the
future name of the unified church.
To be honest, I
wasn’t really sure what to expect and I worried a little that our discussion
about this important subject might get a little uncomfortable, a little heated
– that it would undo at least some of the good progress we’ve made.
But, if you were
here that day, you know that it was actually kind of a dull meeting. Right from
the start, pretty much everyone was in agreement that the name should be some
version of “St. Paul’s and Incarnation.”
It was such a
non-issue that at least half the room wasn’t even paying any attention to what
we were talking about.
This level of
harmony would have been unimaginable even just a year or two ago.
Yes, God’s Holy
Spirit – God’s holy wind – has been blowing strong, uncovering all kinds of carefully
hidden rot in our society – and also uncovering unimaginable goodness right
here in this place.
And, God’s Holy
Spirit also gives us breath – gives us the courage and the voice to denounce
evildoing and to speak up for the oppressed.
And, most of all,
just like for the first disciples, God’s Holy Spirit gives us breath – gives us
the courage and the voice to proclaim through our actions and words the Good
News, the best news of all-time:
Alleluia! Christ
is risen!
The Lord is risen indeed! Alleluia!
Amen.
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