Unity In a God Who Delights In Diversity

Sermon for May 19th, 2013

by Pastor Peggy Ray

Unity In a God Who Delights In Diversity

     Isn’t it reassuring to realize that Jesus’ closest followers didn’t “get it” at first, either? Can you feel their anxiety when Jesus talks about the end of his ministry and something yet to come which would change their relationship? They must have sensed some important experience was looming, but they couldn’t understand its significance. They couldn’t "wrap their heads around" the idea of his death or imagine his resurrection.

     Jesus had been their mentor. They even called him rabbi. He had shown them a new way to live, a life based not on status or perfection, but on a self-worth founded on God’s love and values grounded in God’s grace. Jesus accepted them in their imperfect human condition and encouraged them to live a life of simplicity and service.    

     But with news of his coming departure, they must have wondered who would lead them now. Would they return to their old ways and habits? Who would teach them about God?   Jesus’ answer was, “I will pray the Father, and he will give you another Counselor, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth” (John 14:16-17). And still, today, The Holy Spirit is with us to guide our steps, to keep us aware of God’s love, and to steer us toward a life of service. 

     Next to Easter, Pentecost is the most important day in the Christian calendar. From Pentecost on, the good news was no longer held just by a few disciples who had been with Jesus. Now everyone could experience the healing and saving presence of Jesus Christ.

     At Pentecost, wind and fire shook, transformed, and filled the very human and ordinary believers with the divine Spirit of God. And these all-too-human followers boldly spoke in dozens of languages to tell the Good News of God’s love for this world and everything in it. The faithful continue to receive this gift of the Holy Spirit to provide direction, courage, comfort, hope, companionship and peace.

     Since Pentecost, no Christian need ever walk alone, for now God is present with everyone who chooses to welcome this holy presence. It does require a desire to welcome the Holy Spirit and a willingness to pay attention to one’s experience. The nudges of the Holy Spirit are gentle and require a willingness to examine one’s experience and reflect upon it.  

     It doesn't matter, Peter says, if we're sons or daughters, young or old, slave or free; all flesh will be included – which sounds a lot to me like "No matter who you are or where you are on life's journey, you are welcome here. No exceptions." “Who we are" isn't determined by our nationality or race or gender or physical abilities or sexual orientation or status as citizens.  Who we are – children of God, beloved of God, filled with God's Spirit, a new creation – that's what matters. Our hope this morning is for the whole church Jesus loves so well to become the gathering of disciples filled, empowered, and moved by the Holy Spirit.

     John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, has written: "This family praising God together, with the tongues of all the world, was an earnest (like earnest money put down when you buy a house) that the whole world should in due time praise God in their various tongues."  

     The Spirit fosters unity, not division. Pentecost reveals God’s plan to draw the scattered peoples from every corner of the earth into a union of mutual understanding and reciprocity. Now those whose differences seem irresolvable can discover a common source of unity in a God, who delights in diversity, who revels in an immense variety of forms -- whether of snowflakes or human beings.

    

     If we could see the world as God sees the world, would we find it more integrated that we normally suppose?  None of us see the whole. We see only snatches here and there, and our self-interest substantially skews our perspective. Things that are close to us assume exaggerated importance, while the rest we view with cold indifference.  For those in congress  who voted to end food assistance to two million persons, two-thirds of whom are children, this was just a small percentage cut which wouldn’t even be noticed, except of course by those two million persons who will be going hungry and by God who weeps at our hard-hearted indifference.

     It is as if life were a great tapestry, which we face from its wrong side. This gives it the appearance of a maze of knots and threads, which give no sense of the pattern.         So we are dependent on the Holy Spirit to help us infer from the maze on this side of the tapestry the pattern which, on its right side, gives meaning to the whole.  As the beauty and harmony of the design derive from the way its parts are related, the design confers on those parts a significance that we, seeing only scraps of the design, do not normally perceive.  

     I think God gives us glimpses, opportunities to “see through a glass darkly,” just sufficient for us to recognize our longing for God, our need for the Holy Spirit. God is the one who teaches us to hear his voice. We can work on our willingness, but only God can teach us to hear His voice.

     The Spirit is given to bring a unity among those who have seen a new way to live in Christ. We are called to imagine God’s plan for our world--to trust in it, and to live into it. We might be tempted at times to give in to those same impulses we see around us–to build up our defenses, look out for ourselves, find security in our “stuff” and in our sure knowledge that we know best, but this wind of the Spirit – it blows through our lives and it turns things upside down. We want a faith that consoles us, and instead, God challenges our assumptions and opens up our eyes to see things in a new way, opens our hearts to a new creation of possibility and hope. Christians are obliged to be hopeful about the future because our faith is about unexpected resurrections. That’s who we are as the church you know--people of hope!