Pentecost Sunday, May 31, 2020 - in the midst of the COVID Pandemic

It’s been a rough week.

• COVID continues around the world, with now more than 105,000 people in the US dead from this disease.
• A woman called the police on birdwatcher Christian Cooper, who was African American, because he asked her to leash her dog.
• We saw horrific video footage of George Floyd dying at the hands of, or should I say knee of, a police officer, after that officer knelt on his neck for 8 minutes and 46 seconds, including for more than 2 minutes after he became non-responsive.
• Since then, we’ve seen protests and increasing violence, all around the US, following Mr. Floyd’s death.

 
I’ve been praying for a break from non-stop coronavirus coverage on the news, but this was not what I had in mind.
 
How do we make sense of all this? And what is our call as Christians – Christians who, as part of our baptismal promises, have promised (and will do so again shortly) to strive for justice and peace and respect the dignity of every human being?
 
The only place I know to go is to scripture. What does scripture tell us about God’s desire for Christian community? What does scripture tell us about God’s desire for this world?
 
Today is the Feast of Pentecost. It’s sometimes called the church’s birthday. We celebrate the moment when the disciples were driven out of a locked room where they were hiding in fear by the Holy Spirit - and moved out into the world.
 
Now, this story might have been a little hard to understand, because we didn’t hear it today in English. Instead, we heard it read for us in French, Polish, German, Russian, Estonian and Farsi. But what our multilingual reading models for us is what happened on that first Pentecost. Hear the relevant part in English:
 
Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven living in Jerusalem. And at this sound the crowd gathered and was bewildered, because each one heard the disciples speaking in the native language of each. Amazed and astonished, they asked, ‘Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? And how is it that we hear, each of us, in our own native language? 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—in our own languages we hear them speaking about God’s deeds of power.’ 
 
This story of the first Pentecost tells us that from the beginning, God imagined a church that was diverse. Through the power of the Holy Spirit, God sent the news about Jesus out into that incredibly diverse gathering representing what we would call today – the Middle East, Europe, Asia, and Africa. 
 
Just a relatively short time after that first Pentecost, Peter is called to the home of a Roman centurion – a leader in the occupying Roman Army. To make a long story short, that soldier named Cornelius could have killed Peter. But, what he wanted was baptism. It’s one of the first instances of this nascent Christian movement spreading from Jewish followers of Jesus to Gentiles - the people good Jews sometimes called dogs. And what does Peter say in response, “Truly I understand that God shows no partiality….” In other words, God welcomes you, my enemy.
 
The apostles and other believers weren’t impressed with Peter’s decision to baptize Cornelius and his household. But Peter says this: And I remembered the word of the Lord, how he had said, “John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.” If then God gave them the same gift that he gave us when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could hinder God?’ When they heard this, they were silenced. And they praised God, saying, ‘Then God has given even to the Gentiles the repentance that leads to life.’  
 
By the time of the Nicene Creed, in the year 325, Christianity has spread and could be found across the known world. Buckle up - in: Jerusalem, Antioch, Alexandria, Asia Minor, Caesarea, Damascus, Greece, Thrace, Libya, Rome, Carthage, Southern Gaul, Italy outside Rome, Aquileia, Milan, Syracuse and Calabria, Malta, Salona, Seville, Roman Britain, Armenia, Ethiopia, Georgia, Mesopotamia and the Parthian Empire, Persia and Central Asia, the Arabian Peninsula, and Nubia. Talk about diversity!
 
The final book of the Bible, Revelation, also shows us this vision: John of Patmos writes:
I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb. And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God is its light, and its lamp is the Lamb. The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it. Its gates will never be shut by day—and there will be no night there. People will bring into it the glory and the honour of the nations (Rev. 21:22-26).
 
Now, lest we think that this desire for diversity is some Christian anomaly, hear this from the prophet Isaiah:
On this mountain the Lord of hosts will make for all peoples
   a feast of rich food, a feast of well-matured wines,
   of rich food filled with marrow, of well-matured wines strained clear.
And he will destroy on this mountain
   the shroud that is cast over all peoples,
   the sheet that is spread over all nations; 
he will swallow up death for ever (Isaiah 25:6-8).
 
What’s clear to me, reading scripture, is that God’s desire for the world and for God’s people is this: to live in peace (shalom) and harmony (loving-kindness). And to do so in the midst of our God-given and God-blessed diversity.
 
So, how will we strive for justice and peace and respect the dignity of every human being, at this time?
 
If, like me, you have been troubled by all that has happened to our siblings of color this week, that distress is actually a gift of the Holy Spirit. It means that the Holy Spirit is using this news to speak into your heart, to act in some way, just like she moved those first disciples. Each of us needs to prayerfully ask the Holy Spirit what she is motivating us to do. Holy Spirit, to what are you drawing my attention? Holy Spirit, how are you igniting my passion to act? Holy Spirit, how can I strive for justice and peace and respect the dignity of every human being?
 
Some options might include:

• Find organizations that are working for racial reconciliation and donate to them. Go deeper – don’t just send money, educate yourself about their work. Go even deeper– find a local organization doing this work and get personally involved.

• Help your neighbors in need. I learned last week that St. Thomas is located in the middle of several “Islands of Disadvantage” in Northern Virginia. There are fifteen such islands that have been identified – and four of them are close to us: Bailey’s Crossroads, Seven Corners/Culmore, Herndon, and Reston. These islands existed before COVID, but COVID has greatly exacerbated the circumstances for our neighbors. I’ve joined a small group looking to form partnerships between the Diocese of Virginia, Episcopal churches in and near these islands, and other faith communities to address some of the challenges found there. It’s a concrete way to put our faith into action.

• Learn more about what you don’t know. I’ve been aware more and more that there is much about the history of race in the United States that I just don’t understand as a white person. I’ve tried to broaden my understanding by reading. I make a point to read fiction by authors from diverse backgrounds. And, I read books about race and racism to help expand my understanding. If you’re interested, email me – I can share some great books to get you started.

• Finally, join me in reading about race. The ECW may choose one or more books about race for their 2020-2021 reading. Once they’ve made their decisions, I’ll choose a book or two for us to read together and discuss via Zoom in the coming months.

 
On this Pentecost, we celebrate the diversity of the church. We celebrate the gift of diversity in creation. We celebrate the Holy Spirit, who drove those first disciples out of their locked room and into the world. And we celebrate that same Holy Spirit who calls us to strive for justice and peace and to respect the dignity of every human being, in order to achieve God’s vision for a beautiful and diverse creation. Amen.