This Gospel reading has been called “John’s Pentecost,” where Jesus himself is there to give them the Holy Spirit. “Receive the Holy Spirit,” he says and breathes on those gathered. I suppose I favor the traditional Pentecost story in the book of Acts (just because of the drama of the whole event)...which may be why I never really noticed the last line of Book of John’s Pentecost… Immediately after Jesus breathes on us—which he does today and every time we gather—he says this stuff about forgiveness: “If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven; if you retain the sins of any they are retained.”
What’s forgiveness got to do with Pentecost?
You know, the church is such an unnatural thing. And today we celebrate the birthday of something that could never have been born without the help of the Holy Spirit. Humans could never have created this crazy institution called Church.
There is no other group like Church! Think about clubs and organizations, like Rotary or Elks or the National Organization for Women, the ASCLU or National Rifle Association, the Coronado Country Club or the Sierra Club. They all gather because they share a common perspective, a common base, a common opinion, a common membership…which they have human power over. Or think of political parties or even nationalities (I don’t have to name those). They gather under an identity that is created by human boundaries and human sets of ideas…which they we human power over. Are you in or are you out of our group. Or think about different culturally specific groups. African American groups, Latino groups, Asian groups. What’s that Norwegian group that meets?
All of the ways we group and organize ourselves…using our human power to control.
This is natural.
And then there’s the Church...
And then there’s Pentecost. Where fire and wind, the Holy Spirit, un-natural and un-human, comes down from above onto a group of people from all walks of life and binds them together for mission. That’s unnatural! We’re going to need a little outside help in order to be bound together.
What’s forgiveness got to do with Pentecost?
One of the most poignant moments in my ministry here at SVLC was when I received a note from someone who disagreed strongly with how I and the council had dealt with the transition that we went through over year ago regarding the position of our former music director David Yantis. There was a time where it may have been difficult for her to talk to me, maybe even look at me. The whole thing just made her sick.
A few months later, however, I received a note from her. The cover of the card said, “Just because I don’t agree with you, doesn’t mean I don’t love you.” And inside it read, “Looking forward to continuing in ministry together.”
What’s forgiveness got to do with Pentecost?
As our larger church bodies continue to disagree over issues of sexuality, political activism, war and peace, the Holy Spirit continues to move in midst, calling us together, whispering in our ears (ever so softly sometimes): “Looking forward to continuing in ministry together.”
The church is an unnatural place. That’s probably the reason for its decline over the years, especially as we drift out of the years of shaming and guilting and frightening our people into membership.
I was talking to a life-long Presbyterian this week and he was reminiscing about the days that his church “had no conflicts.” It was a time I learned, when the ushers and the officers of the church were all men, who sometimes even wore white gloves. When the only color in the sanctuary was in the stained glass windows, which blocked the view to the streets outside. When no one talked about sex or sexuality, and the organ was the only instrument that was ever heard inside those white washed walls of the sanctuary, and the same beautiful hymns were played at the same time of every year. Everything was very controlled, very predictable, very nice.
It’s interesting to compare that picture with the picture of the 1st Pentecost.
I was reminded recently at a conference where Diversity was the theme. Diversity seems like something some of us want in our churches, so we have conferences to talk about how to get there. How to be more welcoming of all people. But I was reminded at one of these events that diversity is not a goal, as in an end result. Rather diversity is the original picture of the church. “Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabs …”
I heard story once about a woman who came into a church for the first time. She was dressed in pretty shabby garments, and even smelled a little bit. Her hair looked like she hadn’t washed it for days. And when the older, pretty, well-put-together woman who was the “greeter” that Sunday saw her coming in from the parking lot, she got a little bit nervous. And when the unpleasant visitor got to the door, the greeter said calmly, “Hello.” And then she whispered, “Um, you may be more comfortable at the church down the road. I can go get you the address.”
How do you think the stranger responded?
The story goes, I’m assured that it’s true, that she responded harshly to the well-dressed, long-time member. [I have to sensor my language here, because here words are pretty violent, so I’ll just use the first letters of the words] “F you, B! I’m coming in!” And then marched right into the sanctuary and participated just like anyone else in the service of Word and Sacrament. What I find interesting is that the “greeter” didn’t try to throw her out after that. Something, I understand, snapped her into a new place. Maybe it was a little Pentecost.
“And suddenly…came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting.” (How we’d prefer to sit.)
But it’s a little tricky to stay seated when the Holy Spirit arrives, in through the doors, down from above, “I’m comin’ in!” the Spirit says, whether you’re open and welcoming and ready…or not. That exact same Spirit of Christ, he now gives it to us.
Pentecost is a breaking in, a disturbance in the human order of things, now we’re talking God’s power, not human power.
Imagine people from the Elks Club, the National Organization for Women, the ASCLU and National Rifle Association, the Coronado Country Club and the Sierra Club, the Republican Party and the Democrat party, people from every race and culture—Latinos, Anglos, African Americans and Africans, Asians, Pacific Islanders, and Europeans—all gathered in one room…
But not ready for what is about to come in the door: A violent wind, and suddenly flames on each one’s head, that is a spark of the Spirit, a breath from Jesus. And finally a word: Forgiveness. It all begins with forgiveness.
We can’t do ministry without dealing with forgiveness. Jesus was right—first Holy Spirit, then a word of forgiveness. Christ forgives us. We forgive ourselves. You forgive yourself. Retaining sins holds us down, it’s a weignt on our shoulders. We forgive one another. We forgive the strangers.
And then it begins. We begin speaking in the tongue of forgiveness. The language of grace and love and hospitality, the very language of God. The windows and the doors are flung open wide and out we go, into the world. We begin the Spirit life – un-natural, un-common, un-popular – loving others in a world where some only see hated and violence. Welcoming others in a world where you have to meet certain criteria to get in. Caring for the stranger and the friend alike. Honoring the visions of old and prophesies of the young. God’s spirit is poured out on all flesh. Even on us, who were formerly slaves to sin, all of us both men and women.
“Looking forward to continuing ministry together!” AMEN.
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