Homily, Pentecost Unity and Disruption
The Day of Pentecost, 2023
Good Shepherd Episcopal Church
Tequesta, FL
The Rev. Derek M Larson, TSSF
Today’s Lectionary Readings:
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
In the months and years following the American Civil War, little traditions across the north and south of placing flowers at the graves of fallen soldiers in April and May became increasingly common. In 1868, just three years after the end of the war, May 30th was officially designated each year for the decorating of the graves of those who died in the rebellion. As time went on the tradition became popular throughout the United States, and came to be a memorial for all those American soldiers who died in battle in every war, eventually shifting the time of its observance to the last Monday in the month of May. Tomorrow is that Monday, and so this weekend we pause to remember the many people who have died because of war and division.
This year we also happen to celebrate this same weekend, the Day of Pentecost. The day when the Holy Spirit came down upon the disciples empowering them and enabling them to speak in other languages so they might proclaim the message of Christ to all. And in speaking the languages of others, they encountered one of the most essential characteristics of the Holy Spirit: as the great unifier—the one who breaks down barriers between us in order to bring us together in unity with one another.
Today, then, we remember both the death that comes from waring division, and the life that comes from the Spirit’s unifying presence. We are both warned of the danger of division and enlightened of God’s desire for union.
And that’s a message we need to hear. In today’s increasingly polarized world, we need to hear both that warning and that message of hope. Most of us are wearied by the amount of division we experience around us. It’s all over the news, but it isn’t only there, it’s in our lives. It’s in our relationships. We all know the feeling of strained or broken friendships and family ties because of division. Because we disagree with one another so passionately that we simply cannot find a way forward together. Because in our disagreements we hurt one another and cut one another down. There is so much division around us, and today, I wonder what the story of Pentecost has to say to us in the midst of it.
In our passage from Acts this morning I’m struck by these opening lines, “When the day of Pentecost had come, the disciples were all together in one place.” They were all together in one place. In this opening line we see the image of a community united together as one. Praying with one another, breaking bread with one another, living together in communion with one another. Isn’t that the kind of community we crave?
But then in the middle of that communion came a rushing and violent wind that filled the entire house. And a great fire divided itself into tongues which rested not over the group as a whole but on each individual. And then suddenly each of them found themselves dispersed from their gathering and standing outside, speaking to strangers in languages that were not their own. They find their community, at least momentarily, disrupted, and they find themselves dropped down in someone else’s community, someone with an entirely different culture and language.
In this story, the Spirit, that great unifier, begins her work by disrupting community in order to expand community. The Spirit takes the disciples out of the community in which they feel comfortable and places them in foreign communities, where they have to speak a language that is not their own. It’s not that the disciples’ community is bad, but God is looking for something bigger. On the Day of Pentecost the Spirit does not settle for unity in small doses; like a tidal wave, the Spirit washes over all for unity everywhere.
I think sometimes in our weariness of division, we settle for little pockets of unity. We gather with people who think and look and act like us, and celebrate our coming together as loving communion. We live together, work together, pray together, eat together, avoiding all conflict and enjoying peace as best we know how, while at the same time avoiding those who are different from us or at the least, avoiding topics of conversation which remind us of how we are different. And while these little loving and united communities are crucially important for our own health and well-being, sometimes we forget that God is calling us to something bigger and more expansive as well.
It’s easy to settle for unity in small communities; the real work comes in working towards the bigger unity with those who are not like us. In this passage from Acts the disciples had to be taken out of their own echo chambers to do the real work of building community with those who were unlike them by speaking a language that was foreign to them. At the Spirit’s leading they found themselves meeting people right where they were, using the words and images that worked for them. And we are called to something similar.
So what does it look like to speak in the language of those that are different than us? What does it mean to set aside our own way of seeing the world in order to converse with someone different than us right where they are? Who is God calling us to work towards deeper communion with? What does it mean to speak and listen in a different political language? A different theological language? A different social language? Not to completely give up our own language, but to try to build community with someone by seeing and engaging the world where they are.
If we can do that—if we can allow ourselves to be dispersed from our little communities of comfort to the uncomfortable work of building bigger communities with those different than us, than we will truly be empowered by the Holy Spirit.
Yes, the Day of Pentecost is a day to remember how God brought together people from every nation and language, but it is also a day to remember how God disrupted a small community of disciples to send them out from their little gathering to participate in building a bigger one. As we celebrate both Pentecost and Memorial Day this weekend then, let us join with the Spirit in working towards that greater unity that will put an end to all war and division, where people truly of every language and nation may be joined as one. Amen.
Thoughts on Faith 