Pentecost

Acts 2:1-21 or 1 Corinthians 12:3b-13

Pentecost, the birth of the church, we are here once again, but what does it all actually mean? This birth of something new, what newness is it? This pushing out of the doors of the upper room, which had been kept closed because of a fear of death, because of a fear of being recognized as on of the followers of another Jewish Messiah that died. What is this message of good news?

I'm concerned for our country. We seem to have forgotten what it means to be Christian. We stand silent in the face of another black man killed by might and right. We stand silent once again thinking this is right, it was a police officer, it is a part of the law. We never question how or why this happened. The story is someone was going about their day and because of the color of their skin they were forcibly hauled out of the crowd and killed. 

I'm concerned for our country. Do we even know the names of all the black men, women who have died at the hands of white people? Have you ever gone to the lynching memorial in Montgomery, Alabama and seen how many, how near they were to here or, as I have heard, includes here? Have you read their names? Do you even know the names of the three that have been killed in these past few weeks? A man jogging by the name of Ahmaud Arbery on April 30. Or the name of the woman Breonna Taylor on March 13 sleeping in her own home. Or this last one, George Floyd, minding his own business, stopped because of the color of his skin.

I'm concerned for this country. We have forgotten that after Pentecost these first Christians took care of the ones the state and the others called unclean or forgotten. These no name hungry people, these people with disease and sickness, the babes forgotten on a hillside. These first Christians did an act against the state, they took care of one another and the forgotten. This is what it is to be a Christian.

Because what is the first story of good news? This first story of good news which Peter preaches and converts people to the belief in Christ is one about a no name Jew. See when we go back in history to find this Jesus named as having existed, it is very hard. Josephus, who was the main historian of the day explored that time while being a slave of Rome. Jesus is just a by word. Someone not worth even noting. So this first good news is while other Messiahs came and went, a dime a dozen in the ancient world, this one, this one with no notable name mattered. 

Jesus matters because another no name Jew died on the instrument of might and right and instead of rising for vengeance, came back to this little group to say he had risen. This no name Jew mattered to God and God loved him enough to defeat death. God loves the no named people and might and right and power don't matter most. It's in becoming vulnerable and knowing we don't have it all figured out and standing with the no name people, this is when we are most Christ-like. This is worth getting out on the street for.

I am concerned for this country. I am concerned for this because of a small incident which happened yesterday while I was shopping. A man, a very loud man, expressed his political opinions to the man in back of him while at the checkout. When he got to the cashier he was asked to keep his views more quiet or private and he loudly, verbally abused the cashier and no one, not even me, said a word. This is not Christ-like, this is not what is important. I don't care what that view was, he has no right to be verbally abusive to someone who is asking him to think of others.

We have become so convinced we are right, it doesn't matter who is talking, we don't need to listen, we just have to shut them up. Is this what happened at Pentecost? They were shut up, asked not to express their views about the no named Jew, who was killed by the state. Because this is right and Rome had the might silence should reign. No this group talked. It witnessed the no name, Jesus, whose life was taken now lives, so we don't have to fear. Do what is good news. Stand up for the no names. Find out their names, find out how many so we can witness, witness this good news. No names are loved by God, no names are our neighbor and it is how we care for them which makes the difference.

I'm concerned for our country because we have forgotten the name of love, in the name of being right. Where is love for one another, does it remain silent in the face of abuse? Where is love for our neighbor, when another innocent no name is racked up as an acceptable loss? Where is love? Where is it going to grow? Might we as Christians find and witness this scandalous love of the no named because it is where we were born one early morning, in the face of might and right, and gave light to a dark world. Now this is something to witness to.