Pentecost
John 14: 8-17
May 30, 1993
We are here today to celebrate one of the three great holidays (holy days ) of the Christian religion, Each of these major days are represented by an image, a symbol, a representation, an icon of God, The images are: a pregnant woman, a broken man and a community of persons, These icons are not God, but ways to discover God, They are first steps, And therefore, the church has said, at Christmas, first look at the pregnant woman to find God, And, at Easter, first look to the broken man on the cross, And on this day, Pentecost, the church says to first look to the community, This is the day that we acknowledge that God in found in community, This is the day we celebrate the coming together – – the joining — the infusing of a holy group into the body — the church — the people of God.
But I must admit to you that this is a terrifying day for me, it is a day on which I am forced to raise certain questions, questions I don’t want to consider, Questions like: “Where on earth would I be without you? ” Part of me quickly answers: “I need you to complete me, I need you to find God, I need you to be whole or holy. ” Part of me says that, but another part says: “Where would I be without you? I’d be just fine, thank you very much, I don’t need you, any more than you need me, I can find God very well on my own.
Let me be even more honest, I am filled with panic today. Panic because my security is threatened. Am I really at my best– most free — most creative — most whole — most able to discover God when I am joined in community? Do I really need others to find God? Are we really made for each other? Wouldn’t I prefer some other alternative? I’m not sure the Pentecost is good news, particularly when I look about me on Sunday,
There was a delightful Garfield cartoon I cut out of the paper a while back. It says it all for me. Garfield is dressed as a freedom fighter, with a bandanna around his head. He enters a pet shop and begins zipping through it, opening all the cages. As he opens them, he yells: “You’re free! You’re free! ” But all the animals cower down in their cages and won’t move. Garfield says, “Huh, so you’re not into freedom. ” So he closes all the cages and shouts: “You’re secure! you’re secure! ”
Many are fearful of freedom because deep down inside we realize we can only be free — be whole — be saved — if we are in community, We are into security, though for security means we can stay in our cages, We don’t have to acknowledge we’re part of each other, That, at best, we are connected, No, we fear that answer– so all we need concern ourselves with is how to build a strong enough cage to keep people out,
One of the hardest myths to overcome, as a minister of the Gospel in America, is the American view of Christianity. This myth is insidious because it equates Christianity with the American illusion of rugged individualism. This cult of individualism views the Christian faith as a personal adventure into morality, and salvation is something attained by personal piety, and if there is any coming together, it’s simply out of weakness, and we had better be prepared to exclude those hypocrites. Those sinners who could interfere with our road to finding God. This exclusive view of the Christian faith that lifts up the individual and downplays the community has a lot of supporters today. You can find them on television as well as in churches. There is even some socialized justification for this point of view -the point of view that downplays community.
I recently read one explanation of how the community happened. There once was a tribe, this writer speculated, that was unable to do anything together. They were locked in a deadly rivalry, as most people are. Cooperation was impossible: Finally, I two of them agreed on one thing, and that was to kill someone else. The first moment when the community was formed, according to this writer, came when two people came together to exclude a third,
The first community was a lynch mob, and the community has never really progressed much past that state. If you believe this and you subscribe to American rugged individualism, it’s easy to see why this holiday produces in many of us a sense of angst,
But the historic Christian faith would have us look beyond these myths, beyond our cultural bias — beyond popular Christianity,
I have a friend who calls the historical Christian faith a great transcendental soap opera, A soap opera with a story line that reminds us that God comes to us when we are in community, and that the lynch mob formed at the crucifixion was transformed by the broken man on the cross into the people of God,
Connection is the primary motif of the soap opera, and inclusion, rather than exclusion, becomes the central theme. The terrifying message of the day – – the denouement of the soap opera — is when I finally realize that I can’t be whole without you being whole. I can’t find God without you finding God. Alice Walker ( of Color Purple fame ) put it so well that I hesitate saying it any other way. She said: “We can only be healed in our community- and everybody is our community.
We begin our Pentecost celebration this morning by baptizing these youngsters. It is our custom before baptizing a child to spend some time with the parents, and I usually ask the parents what they think baptism is all about. They usually say something about it, meaning that their child will be admitted into heaven, or their answers remind us of someone who thinks that baptism is comparable to a supernatural inoculation- but instead of keeping us from catching the measles, it keeps us from catching sin
But today we are proclaiming an extraordinary event- that these youngsters have been joined to a community. These children have been marked as Christ’s own forever, and the most real thing about these youngsters is that they are part of the people of God.
The analogy sometimes used — when talking about baptism — is that of being born into a family And the terrifying thing about the analogy is that once you are born into a family, you’re Stuck You can change your name, change your address, turn your back, but you can never get away from being a part of the family, And so it is with baptism — once we’re made a part of the community, we know that wholeness is found, God is found within the body.
That’s a great vision, That’s what this day is all about, The image of the community of persons, The Christian faith — the transcendental soap opera — with three icons: the pregnant woman, the broken man, the community of persons -three ways in which God comes to us -three pictures of God.
Amen