Holy Spirit! Come and renew us! (June 5 2022)
Sermon: Holy Spirit! Come and renew us!
Scripture:
Genesis 11:1-9, Acts 2:1-21
Date: June 5,
2022
Location:
Glen Ridge Congregational Church, NJ
(church website, https://www.glenridgecong.org/)
Peng-An, おはようございます, and
good morning. It’s my honor to be here, sharing the message, and worshiping with
you.
Greetings
are also from the Chicago Metropolitan Association of Illinois Conference and
Association Minister, Rev. Terrill Murff, and my home church, United Church of
Hyde Park, senior minister, Rev. Charlene Hill. May the peace of Christ be with
you and may God bless the ministries you are doing now and going to do in the
near future.
I believe
they might be participating in the service right now via watching our Facebook
streaming service in Chicago. Maybe, having an early tea and pancake with them.
It’s pretty amazing that our church can reach out to different people, far and
near, in real-time just like right now, and at any time. The definition of
“being a church” has been changed and upgraded in the past several years,
especially since the COVID-19 pandemic hits us: the geographical boundaries –
in New Jersy or in Illinois, different types of gathering – in the sanctuary,
in the courtyard, in the park, or in front of the computer, different ways of
presence – in-person or online. The Church, as a collective, keeps sharing
testimony in the tough time.
As we know, today is Pentecost Sunday. Some would call today the birthday of the Christian church – Holy Spirit came, like divided tongues, as of fire, rested upon Jesus’ followers. They were filled by the Spirit and started proclaiming God’s deed of power. Jesus mentioned earlier, that the disciples will be baptized with the Holy Spirit. The scripture today fulfills Jesus’ promise. At the end of Acts chapter 2, followers of Jesus gather together, worship God together, live together, and eat and share food. A new type of gathering, community life, and fellowship, quite different from the Jews used to be, was formed. It turns out the early church “having the goodwill of all the people. And day by day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved.” (Acts 2:47)
The
lectionary lessons today also include the story of Babel in the Book of
Genesis. “Now the whole earth had one language and the same words.”
(Genesis 11:1), and a group of people would like to build a tower to the heaven,
and YHWH (Adonai) noticed it and said, “this is only the beginning of what
they will do; nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them.”
(Genesis 11:6) Then, YHWH (Adonai) confused their languages, they could not
understand each other, and they were scattered over the face of the earth. The
construction of the tower stopped. “What does this mean?” (Acts
2:12) if I quoted the scripture today from the Book of Acts. Does that mean
technology was dangerous? Or, does that mean YHWH (Adonai) was jealous or felt
threatened by human achievement?
If we read
Genesis chapters 10 and 11, we would notice the narrative is talking about
Noah’s sons and their genealogies, and the nations they built after the flood.
Some biblical scholars remind us of the editing background of Genesis. It was the
time under the oppression of the Babylonian Empire. Hebrew people were forced
to leave their homeland and were reallocated by the empire. They were not
allowed to have their own cultural identity or elements, but to be unified and give
up all their differences. To be one Nation, the Babylonian Empire dominated the
whole world. The Tower of Babel, is the symbol of this dominating power. YHWH
(Adonai) came down, as another symbol of liberation to deconstruct the power of
unification. It was an explicit hope for the oppressed people to dream of. When
people were powerless, and most of the time we are, only God, the creator and
the most high, could make the initial change.
Via the
understanding from the Tower of Babel, we can also know it was the oppression
of the Roman Empire that prevented the early Christians from worshipping the
resurrected savior, Jesus the Christ, as their Lord and God. Only Caesar is the
son of the god of the Roman Empire. When Jesus’ followers proclaimed Jesus is
the Lord, the Christ, Son of God, it was the extremely risky thing to do under
“Pax Romana.” And now, not only those who spoke Hebrew or Aramaic
proclaimed Jesus is the Lord, but also other people from different regions who use
different languages did the same thing.
It seems to tell the difference between your god is “Veni, Vidi, Vici / I saw I came I conquered”; and, the god we want to recognize is the one we called the good shepherd, who takes good care of the wounded and marginalized, and humbles himself to death, and now is resurrected. From the lectionary lesson today, it was Holy Spirit that empowered people to proclaim their faith under the great danger.
In the
scripture today, Peter also gives us a new understanding of prophet Joel’s
prophecy. God will pour out the spirit upon all flesh, young and old, man and
woman, high and low. This gift from God is for everyone, not only for the Jews,
but everyone, according to the prophecy. Let us envision what does this
scripture wants to say in Peter and the early church’s context: it was a
rebellion against the Roman Empire, from all ages, all people, all nations, all
languages, and all cultures. It is a story of resistance against the oppression
of “one mind, one nation, and one language”. They were not afraid. It is also a story of
crossing the boundaries of “Jewish only” ideology – the early church has experienced
testimonies from a combination of all kinds of people, languages, and cultures.
And they were eyes open. Peter proclaimed “everyone who calls on the name of
the Lord shall be saved.”
Pentecost was the just beginning of church formation: the church was soon challenged by the outsider, non-Torah followers, non-circumcised people, not following cosher, and people eating hot dogs, and seafood, and wearing clothes mixed with two materials. However, the Book of Acts has provided us with “God’s deeds of power” via the interaction between the Holy Spirit and people who were looking for God. New chapters of the church were happening, every day. And so are today.
The covid-19
pandemic is brutal, but it cannot stop us from being a church. We recognized
the need of been connected to each other, and to God. We could not wait to
reconnect with each other. We adopted different kinds of tools and technology
to make it possible. We are empowered by the Holy Spirit to be able to do new things
like the early church did, perhaps just in different and creative ways.
Before I
close the sermon today, I would like to share a story. June is Pride Month in
many countries around the world to celebrate Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender
and Queer life. Different cities will host Pride Parade this month. Some places
have more than one. Many of us might have known that the United Church of
Christ ordained the first gay minister, Rev. William R. Johnson, in 1972. This
year is the 50th anniversary. Several years later, in 1982, the
first lesbian minister, Rev. Anne Holmes, was ordained by our church, too. The
United Church of Christ is also the first mainline denomination that opened
arms to embrace the LGBTQ+ community. It happened at the General Synod in 1985,
the Resolution urging the congregations to “Declare Themselves Open and
Affirming” has passed. Till today, our church is still one of the leading
denominations in related ministries.
It's hard to
imagine back then in the 1970s ad 80s, when AIDS was a huge thing and how AIDS
impacted the whole country. Some churches even considered AIDS as a punishment
from God toward the gay community and called AIDS the Wrath of God.
Discrimination, hatred agenda, and violence against gay and the sexual minority
community was real and is still real today here in the US. Instead of
condemning the gay community, our church proclaimed, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual,
and Transgender are children of God, having God’s image too. We are devoted to making
our churches equal and safe places for all by embracing all of God’s people with
dignity. People wondered and are still asking “what does that mean?” regarding
what has happened in the United Church of Christ. “Why do they do that?”
“Why?”
It was about
love! It is always about love, the unconditional love we have received and experienced
from God. I believe it was the power of the Holy Spirit that made our church
move forward to embrace LGBTQ siblings regardless of what people say about it.
Jesus says
in the Gospel of Matthew in a parable “Truly I tell you, just as you did it to
one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did it to me.”
(Mat 25:40) “for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you
gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, 36 I was
naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in
prison and you visited me.’” (Mat 25: 35-36) It is all about love so we are
not afraid.
What is the
vision in your heart? What is the vision of our church, here in Glen Ridge? What
can we do together to bring love to our community, set the captive free, and
make the wounded whole?
Peter
proclaimed that sons, daughters, and siblings of ours will say prophecy. The young
shall see visions and the old shall dream dreams. New and amazing things are
happening, every day. May the Holy Spirit come, renew and empower us all. Amen.
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| Glen Ridge Congregational Church, NJ |
* For complete worship and communion service, please check out church's YouTube channel.
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