Holy Spirit Power

Sermon

In this season of Pentecost, there is a sense of powerlessness weighing heavily throughout the United States. Can you feel it? It doesn’t seem to matter whether it’s in the White House, our medical community, the mayor’s office, or the church collectively; it doesn’t feel as if there is a way to move forward, nor do many of us think there is a way.

Imagine what it was like for the apostles and the other believers in Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost. Jesus’ death and resurrection have occurred. There probably was a sense of powerlessness. In Luke, in the scripture found before what I read for today, we’re told that the apostles choose Matthias to be added as the 12th apostle because of the death of Judas. Mattias is chosen by casting lots. Casting lots may feel like a powerless method to use to make a major decision to us in 2020, but back then it was a way of providing God’s guidance when wisdom and the scriptures were not enough. By the way, casting lots never appears again in the timeline of the scriptures once the Holy Spirit arrives on the day of Pentecost. There is a new identified power for discerning God’s will.

The powerlessness many of us are feeling is real, and it could be that we are thinking about coronavirus or poverty or homelessness or public education or any number of concerns that we think we are powerless over. The reality on this Sunday, this Sunday of Pentecost, on a day we celebrate the birth of the church, is that many are feeling powerless over racism. It is tearing up, dare I say killing, our country, literally.

I do not feel as if I have anything to say and yet the truth of the matter is that it’s not my words that matter as much as my actions. Friends, I suggest to you in the strongest terms possible it’s our actions that are of the highest importance in the years ahead.

George Floyd, a black man, was held down on the pavement of a street in Minneapolis for over eight minutes by a white male police officer using his knee. The video is horrific as we watch powerlessly a man slowly die. There’s nothing that anyone can do while watching the video. We can argue about what could have been done in the moment by those standing around but that’s not our story to tell or talk about.

The story of Pentecost is a holy moment. We are told that men, and I would imagine women, gathered in a room, maybe 120 faithful beings. After being touched by the Holy Spirit, they begin to speak using words that they are not supposed to know, in languages that they have never learned. It’s such an amazing sight that when they go out of the room using the power of the Holy Spirit, speaking in never-learned languages, they are accused of being drunk. Peter must remind the good people of Jerusalem that there is no way they are drunk, it’s only 9 a.m. in the morning.

If there is an invitation for us today, it is to call on the Holy Spirit. In the years ahead, in this new decade, each of us is being asked to hear and then respond, possibly with actions and words that we haven’t used or heard before. Do you have a sense of the Spirit? I believe you do or at the very least, most of us have a sense of the Spirit.

The church is not a powerless entity. We can use our power for justice; we can use our power for good. Right now, I believe the Holy Spirit is calling us to use actions that we don’t currently use or that we haven’t practiced or we haven’t been taught. We, the Church, are not powerless.

Wouldn’t it be wonderful to be able to say and believe, “Oh there’s nothing we can’t do, we people of God?” Because if we did believe these words and do believe we have power, then God’s calling to us to work for justice, wholeness, and equity would not be falling on ears that refuse to hear.

The story of Christ is about love and justice. It is about followers of Jesus going and serving a God in ways that might frighten us but at the same time empower us. And whose power are we to use? We are called to use the power of the Holy Spirit, God’s power. Our work is not to make more money in the name of God, to conquer more lands in the name of God, to enslave more people in the name of God, to refuse people entry in the name of God. Our power is to say things, try our Holy Spirit best and learn, hopefully work for justice in the name of God. We can no longer turn our eyes away from injustice. Friends, we know there’s so much injustice in the world and we can talk about the lack of justice for our indigenous friends, the lack of justice for women or the LGBTQ community. Yes, there is plenty of injustice, but today let us open ourselves to the Spirit and recognize the injustice toward people of color and particularly in this country toward black men.

I don’t worry about what would happen to me if I went birdwatching. Frankly I would never go birdwatching, but if I did, why would I ever be concerned about being accosted? I wouldn’t be afraid to be pulled over by a police officer. I’d be fearful that I may have to pay money for something I’ve done. I’m not afraid that police will enter my home without a warrant. I’m not afraid to go into public parks. I’m not afraid to jog the streets of Portland. No matter what anyone tells you, the reality is in this country, all the things I don’t worry about doing could cause major harm including death if you are a black man. Americans have been told this truth for centuries. Unfortunately, it has taken multiple videos to show us over and over and over and over and over that black men are being killed by racism, by individual actions, by all of us turning our eyes away from truth.

One sermon cannot change the world. It is up to all of us, in our lifetimes, to work to change the world with the power given to us by the Holy Spirit. I want to read a few words by the Reverend Dr. Bill Sinkford, the senior pastor of First Unitarian Church here in Portland and an African American.

“I will not offer you a simplified and sanitized hope. The most I can offer you is an invitation…for those of you who are white-identified and even those who are Black, Indigenous and People of Color. An invitation to be present to the lack of hope.

Not an invitation to a pity party. Not an invitation to despair. An invitation to cease pretending.

The challenge is not to punish one white police officer in one city for one act of violence. We…that would be all of us…need to face the truth that so much of the structure of the world we know is built on a commitment to maintain the racial hierarchy. We must face it if we want to have any chance of changing it.

The words of prophet James Baldwin: ‘Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced.’

We must face the truth. Be present to it. Visit the depression and the hopelessness…

Let us, individually and together, face the truth. Name it. So that we do not remain in either denial or despair but can emerge more certain of where our hope lies and more willing to move toward it.”

Friends, our hope lies in believing there is a God who loves us and who claims us. Our hope lies in knowing that being a follower of Jesus is a commitment to work for love and justice. Our hope lies in the 17th verse found in this reading:

“In the last days it will be, God declares,

that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh,

and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,

and your young men shall see visions,

and your old men shall dream dreams.”

Using the gift of the Holy Spirit, let us prophesy, see visions, and dream dreams knowing that we have been given power to work for love and justice for all.

Happy Birthday, Church! Happy Power Day, Westminster.

Amen