So, here we are, in the last days, with the Spirit of Pentecost being poured out upon all flesh. Our sons and daughters are prophesying, our young are seeing visions and our old are dreaming dreams. And in this congregation, in this city, and even in this Synod, what they are prophesying about, visioning and dreaming about, is justice. Whether it’s justice for LGBT people, justice for refugees and immigrants, justice for the victims of war, or justice for the poor and marginalized, the Holy Spirit is certainly stirring in this day and age, moving us to make God’s reign a reality.
I know it doesn’t always seem like it. It’s very easy to take in all of the things that are going on in the world and to get depressed by it all. LGBT people are not able to expect the same rights and respect as heterosexuals, being denied marriage in this country, even being denied the right to live in others. Refugees and immigrants around the world are in no country treated in a just manner, being viewed instead as some kind of plague and drain on a country’s resources, and treated accordingly. War, well war continues to create and foster all kinds of injustice on both the winners and the losers, and the war machine seems as if it’s too large and complex to even begin to stop. The poor and marginalized are subjected to injustices every day, not the least of which is a denial of their rights and a removal of the power to decide the course of their own lives. The systems of injustice in which we live are so complex that any attempt to rectify things seems not only hopelessly complicated, but hopelessly fruitless as well.
Especially for the individual. Justice work can be incredibly exhausting for people, for individuals, and eventually that annoying, frustrating, but ultimately understandable question arises: But what can one person really do? It’s a valid question - one person really can’t do very much in the larger scheme of things. Yes, there are those heroes, like Nelson Mandela, and Gandhi, and others whose personal commitment actually changed the course of history and brought justice to hundreds of thousands. But those people are exceptions. Most of us actually find ourselves legitimately unable to change what seems like a never-ending fight for the rights of others. The hours are long, the obstacles keep popping up one after another - it might be okay if we were dealing with other individuals, but when we’re dealing with a system, it can often feel like we are bashing our heads against brick walls trying to move anything forward. It’s exhausting and it’s lonely.
But it is not meant to be. That is, we are not meant to struggle individually and alone in our work of realizing God’s reign, and doing so might even by a drawback. Now, I realize that sounds a bit contradictory to American ears that are used to hearing constant messages relating to the empowerment of the individual. Self-help books, do-it-yourself websites - these are popular ways of strengthening one’s individual capabilities. Privatized health insurance, 401Ks to supplement Social Security - these are other ways that this country shows its value for the individual over the group. But even putting aside the secular world, as Lutherans we are at the forefront of valuing the individual over the group. Lutherans are the ones who first made the point that God’s relationship is with us as individuals. Luther’s Small Catechism makes it clear that Jesus has redeemed me, that the Holy Spirit gives faith to me. Even the Apostle’s Creed is about what I believe. It isn’t until we get to the Nicene Creed that we hear the corporate we. There is a definite sense of the individual in our religious and secular cultures - and I would go so far as to say that it is hindering the work the Holy Spirit is trying to do in the world.
And I say this because what I see in our Scripture readings for this morning is an emphasis on the larger group. In 1 Corinthians we heard that “to each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.” God gives God’s gifts for the good of all people. Not so that we can go out and be Christian heros, so that we can single-handedly save the Church, or transform society or fix the world. In fact, the way God sends those gifts, it’s not even possible for one person to go out and do those things on their own. It takes all of the gifts of God combined to start bringing the reign of God to reality, because not a single one of us gets every single one of those gifts. Some of us get one, others get another, others get something completely different. Paul used the image of a body, with some being eyes, and some ears, and some even being the “clothed members.” Only by working together, with the eyes and the legs and all the parts each doing their bit, can the body actually make something happen. So it is only with all these various gifts actually working together that we can actually make something happen.
We see this particularly in our first reading, too, in the Pentecost story. Now, I don’t know how familiar you are with the scholarly treatment of this passage, but there are some scholars who see the Pentecost story as a literary reversal of the Tower of Babel story. You remember Babel, right, in Genesis 11? A bunch of people decide to build a tower so high that they can reach the heavens, and they’re almost at the top when God says, “Oops, that’s high enough!” and changes their common language into a bunch of different ones so that they can’t understand each other and can’t continue on with their common goal. They’re forced to work alone, and so they can’t accomplish anything. Well, some scholars believe that in the Pentecost story, we see God reversing the effects of Babel. God takes a bunch of people who can’t understand one another, and who are at odds in their mission to serve the world, and unites them in the one common language of the Spirit, whereupon they are finally able to come together and begin serving the poor and carrying out the mission that Christ has sent them to do. So what we have here, like we had in 1 Corinthians, is a clear indication that when God sends the Spirit, it’s to a group of people. It’s not to individuals, so they can go off and do their own thing, it’s to the group of people, so that they can work together for God’s reign.
And this is a blessing, this Holy Spirit’s privileging of the group over the individual. It is a blessing because, while God doesn’t remove responsibility for the way we use our own individual gifts, God does remove from each of us the crushing responsibility of the bigger picture. The burden of trying to bring about justice at every turn, of carrying the pain of the world on our own, only human shoulders, is claimed by God, so that rather than being overwhelmed to the point of paralysis by the work that has to be done, we can stand with one another and take the necessary steps together, blessed by what the Holy Spirit has given to us as a group. Some are given the gift of helping us to worship. Some are given the gift of teaching. Some are given the usually-considered-unglamourous gift of administration. Some are even given the gift, like Thomas at the end of John, of skepticism. Every Christian is given a gift of the Spirit, every one here has something particular to contribute to enabling the reign of God to come about, even if that gift is to just show up faithfully Sunday after Sunday and worship with everyone else. Every gift works with every other one, and the Holy Spirit blesses the results.
Now I want to end by saying that I’m not forgetting that for this particular congregation, it just so happens to be a sabbatical year. So what is this church, this gathered group with all its individuals and various gifts, supposed to do? Ah, well, that’s the question that I don’t quite have the answer to. But if I had to, I would hazard a guess that for this congregation, which is particularly gifted with the passion and strength for justice work, with bringing about the reign of God for all people, for this congregation it might be important to actively pursue that sabbath rest. For one, it allows other congregations to exercise what gifts they might have in this area, gifts that they might have overlooked because someone else was taking care of things. But for another, this deliberate movement towards doing nothing is a good way to make sure that we are not, in fact, acting as an individual congregation, believing that the future of justice lies in our individual work. It is a good way to step back and to trust that in the group, in the larger body of the Church of Christ, the Spirit is continuing to move and continuing to ensure that God’s mission is being carried through. Then, when the year is done, we can return, refreshed for God’s work, using our gifts so that others may rest. This is also the work of the body of Christ - this is the way we, by the help of the Holy Spirit, brings God’s reign of justice to life. This, too, is Pentecost. Amen.
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