Transcend and Include

In what may be a classic case of the pastor reading his or her own life into the text, I noticed for the first time that this Pentecost story from Acts, which we read every year on this festival Sunday, is a story about identity. That is, who we understand ourselves to be; as well as who God understands us to be.

In today’s story, Jesus’ disciples are gathered for the Hebrew festival of Pentecost when suddenly God’s Spirit rushes into their room, lights a fire above their heads, and enables them to start speaking in languages other than their own. This attracts a great multi-ethnic and multi-cultural crowd of amazed and astonished onlookers. Each person in the large crowd, regardless of their home country and language, hears and understands the words of God’s spirit speaking through the mouths of 12 Hebrew men. 

The first lesson about identity from this scripture is that the Spirit respects and works within an individual’s identity. The crowd did not have to sacrifice their culture or language in order to receive God’s word. No one among that crowd had to become a Hebrew in order to be filled with God’s word. The Mesopotamians could be Mesopotamian and still receive God’s word. The Arabs could be Arab and still receive God’s word, and so on.

It’s appropriate and important to layer this truth on top of our world today. Israelis can be Israeli and receive God’s word in the same way that Palestinians can be Palestinian and receive God’s word. Republicans can be Republican and receive God’s word in the same way that Democrats can be Democrats and receive God’s word. Ohio State fans can be Ohio State fans and receive God’s word...and, well, good luck to all the rest of you! Just kidding. The Spirit never demands that you give up your identity; nor does it require that of anyone else. Who you are matters. Your gifts, your desires, your quirks, your vocational calling...it all matters.

The second lesson about identity from this scripture is that the Spirit transcends an individual’s identity. Peter is tasked with correcting those among the crowd who think the disciples are nothing more than drunks. Human beings like to label and categorize the identities of others. You’re black, you’re gay, you’re rich, you’re lucky, you’re a jerk, you’re a friend, you’re worthless, you’re a banker, you’re a pastor. This can be an innocent and helpful practice, but it clearly has the capacity to push away and oppress those whom you consider different.  

To such dismissive label-making, Peter raises his voice (which, in the New Testament, only happens when a blessing is being pronounced), and shouts an excerpt from Joel:

“In the last days it will be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh….Even upon my slaves, both men and women, in those days I will pour out my Spirit; and they shall prophesy. Then everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.”

All flesh shall prophesy and everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. Not just the Lutherans, the Hebrews, the Republicans, the Democrats, the righteous, the drunks, the rich, the poor, the bankers, or the pastors.

This story is an epic announcement that God seeks to transcend and include our identities as the Holy Spirit does its saving work. 

It is absolutely true that who we are matters. 

It is absolutely true that God will work within us in spite of who we are. 

It is absolutely true that God will work within us because of who we are. 

Transcend and include. In other words, be who you are but don’t let it limit you or others.

This is my final Sunday here as a Pastor at Cross of Grace. Since announcing my resignation, the question of my identity has been a dominant one. Just about everyone has questions about who I am, or, rather, who I will be starting tomorrow. 

Will I still be in the ministry? 
Yes, of course. After all, one of our core faith tenets is the priesthood of all believers. We are all in the ministry. 

Will I still be a pastor? 
No…probably not...well, who knows!

What is my next job title or career path? 
Excellent question! TBD, I’ll keep you posted. Earlier in the week a friend told me he is going to think of me as a retired pastor, which I find quite amusing, though it’s a designation I’ve not earned. “X-Pastor” sounds like a superhero comic book character, like the “X-Men.” I suppose I could print a business card that says that. 

It’s not that these are unimportant questions. God knows I have been wrestling with these questions of identity for a long time. 

In packing up my office I picked up a book that was given to me as a gift when I was ordained. It was signed by the gift-givers (friends who have known me my whole life). They wrote in it: “February 7, 2010 – the day you became the man God created you to be.” 

That was exactly what I needed to hear when I started in parish ministry and it got me through a lot in my 11 years of ministry. When people would get mad at me for what I would or wouldn’t do or say...when I found myself devalued by people in the church...when I couldn’t find encouragement or support, I needed to know that in spite of all the frustrations and disappointments, I was doing what God created me to do.

But at some point, I became curious about life outside of being Pastor Aaron. If I could set off on another career path, what would I choose and why? I discerned a sense of encouragement and optimism as I considered my future outside congregational ministry. And, as the saying goes, you can’t put the genie back in the bottle. 

The Spirit is inviting me to transcend my identity as a pastor...but to include it as well. Tomorrow, I will no longer be Pastor Aaron; but tomorrow I will have been Pastor Aaron. That rich and beautiful experience will always inform my sense of identity.

Transcend and include. After all, I’m still becoming the man God created me to be. And God’s still helping me in the process.

This process has, admittedly, been fairly tumultuous. I have an email folder full of rejection emails from positions at nonprofit organizations to which I’ve applied over the past few months. It is tempting to think of myself as someone no one wants to hire. And that is, in fact, a part of my identity. The call of the Spirit is, of course, to transcend that identity...but to include it as well...to let it fill me with humility as well as inform my decisions and have compassion for others who find it hard to find meaningful employment and the gifts that such employment provides. Transcend and include. 

On top of all this, I found out this week that my identity has been stolen and that someone with my name, phone number, address, and social security number recently applied for a $50,000 loan from the US Small Business Administration. The credit reporting agencies are helping me transcend this identity issue, but as long as I’m unwilling to change my name, phone number, address, and social security number, there will always be a chance that someone will pretend to be me and steal money. I think there’s a whole separate sermon in there about being your true self, but alas, I’m out of time. 

All this is to say that identity matters, but only insofar as it leads to openness and inclusion rather than pride, isolation, and judgment of self or others. Who I am today and tomorrow matters. It matters to you, to my family, to me, and to God. Who I am today will be a part of who I am tomorrow. But who I am today or tomorrow will never change the fact that my true identity is found in Christ alone. I am a child of God. And doesn’t that make for a better business card to carry around? 

Who am I? I am a child of God. 

That’s what the Spirit says when it speaks to and through me, as it will continue to do regardless of whether I’m a pastor, a business owner, a teacher, a bartender, or anything else. 

And what’s true for me is especially true for you. Know who you are and let that knowledge expand your heart and mind in order to treat yourself and others with kindness, respect, and love. You are a beloved child of God with unique characteristics that God placed in you for a reason. You are still becoming the person God created you to be. So be kind to yourself and others, treat one another as beloved children of God, and may God bless you today, tomorrow, and forever. 

Amen. 

Babel, Babble, Pentecost and the Power of the Holy Spirit

John 14:8-17, 25-27 (NRSV)

Philip said to [Jesus], “Lord, show us the Father and we will be satisfied.” Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and still you do not know me? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say I do not speak on my own, but the Father who dwells in me does his works. Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; but if you do not, then believe me because of the works themselves. Very truly, I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these, because I am going to the Father. I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If in my name you ask for anything, I will do it.

“If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever. This is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, because he abides with you, and he will be in you.

”I have said these things to you while I am still with you. But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything, and remind you of all that I have said to you. Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid.”

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Even though we hear a lot about it on Pentecost Sunday, most of us know Lutherans aren’t much for speaking in tongues. It happened for the folks in Babel, back in Genesis, and it happened for the earliest disciples that day in Jerusalem, which we heard from the book of Acts – the Spirit of God moved so dramatically that people began speaking in languages they never knew they knew. It was surprising and bizarre enough that those who heard them thought they must have been drunk.

And I get that. It sounds bizarre enough as I stand here today. I’ve grown up in the Lutheran church and have yet to see the spirit move in such a way. And, truth be told, I’m cynical enough to admit that I probably wouldn’t believe it if I did. And even though I work hard to never tell God what God can and cannot do, I don’t expect I’ll be speaking in tongues anytime soon.

But if you’ve been anywhere near social media this week – Facebook, Twitter, YouTube – I imagine you’ve seen this video of a young father talking to his toddler-sized son. It even made its way to CNN one evening, it had gone so viral. But just in case you haven’t seen it – and just because it’s too impossibly cute – I think we should watch it now. For those of you who don’t know – or think you’re not understanding or hearing things correctly – you are. This kid isn’t saying anything with words you need to understand – which is the point, really.

Who among us hasn’t carried on a conversation with an infant or a toddler?

Who would believe the words and sounds a grown man or woman can produce – goo-goo-ing and ga-ga-ing with the best of them – in order to get a child to smile or laugh or sleep or stop crying? Who hasn’t pretended to understand – or actually knew exactly – what a babbling baby was trying to say through non-sensical sounds and squeals, of their own?

Well, baby talk isn’t exactly speaking in tongues, but it did get me thinking about the Holy Spirit and with the events surrounding the Tower of Babel… that first Pentecost in Jerusalem… and most importantly, with what God is calling us to as we gather to celebrate the gift of the Holy Spirit, the birthday of the Church and this Pentecost Sunday, so many generations later.

First of all, I always like to remember that there’s more to the Tower of Babel story than what most of us learned in Sunday School. There’s more to the story than just that God punished the Israelites for building the tower; that God punished the Israelites for trying to be like God; and that God’s punishment was to confuse their language and to scatter them throughout the world, so that I would speak English and need a translator in Paris, or Prague or Port-au-Prince.

No, the key to the story isn’t just that people wanted to be like God. The key to the story isn’t just that God punished them for it by confusing their languages. And the key to the story isn’t all about God’s vengeance and anger.

The key to the story – much of the sin of the people at Babel – was their desire to set up camp, to stay put and keep to themselves. The sin of the people of Babel was that they neglected to be about multiplying and growing and newness and change. See, the people of God are called to be about sharing grace with all creation in whatever ways they can manage, and the Tower of Babel was wrong for a lot of reasons, but the major malfunction was the attempt to keep good news and blessing and the power of God all for themselves – and all in one place.

Which puts our reading from Acts into better perspective, for me. See Babel wasn’t the first or the last time that the people of God would screw things up. The Old Testament is all about the many and various ways that generation after generation after generation of God’s people kept getting it wrong. They had forgotten their call to be a blessing for creation – and they kept on forgetting it.

And then Jesus showed up.

God sent Jesus as the clearest reminder of what love, grace, forgiveness, mercy and sacrifice look and feel like. God sent Jesus to let humanity know that the cries of God’s people have been heard. But no matter how clear the message; no matter how dramatic the reminder; no matter how amazing his teaching and preaching and healing; no matter how awesome his death and resurrection were, God – and Jesus – had a pretty good hunch we still wouldn’t get it right all of the time, even after Jesus showed us how to do it.

And even if, like Phillip in this morning’s Gospel, we can’t always see it or say it or wrap our brains around just who or what the Holy Spirit is in our life or for the world, it’s clear that – in the context of these Pentecost stories – God doesn’t give up on us. God never stops speaking. Like that dad in the video, God always hears and understands the wants, the needs and the longings of God’s people.

And that, to me, is what our lesson for Pentecost and the promise and gift of the Holy Spirit are all about this morning. God will go to any length, not only to share love with us, but so that we will share God’s love with the world – in whatever way we can manage.

The gift of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, the gift of Jesus’ ministry, death and resurrection and even the gift of the confused tongues and the scattering at Babel are examples of God’s willingness and ability to hear and understand the heart of God’s people, in hopes that we will, with God’s help, do the same.

And God speaks in the strangest ways still – in the promise of water at baptism and in the forgiveness of bread and wine during communion. Sometimes the message is clear in the words of a well-crafted sermon – we hope – or through a perfectly prayed prayer. Sometimes God’s message of love is just as clear through the messy presence of a loved one while we’re grieving; or through a stumbling confession and the gracious offering of forgiveness. Whatever the case, the message can seem inconceivable – that we are loved without condition; that even we are forgiven and that even they can be too; that this grace is ours as much as it is theirs; that God wants us as much as God wants them; that God so loved – and that God so loves – the whole wide world.

It’s all meant to bring joy and comfort and peace to the world – to the nations – to the Church, just the same – still fussing and fighting and screaming and pouting and trying too often to keep the good stuff to ourselves.

So let us believe that the promises of resurrection and new life are ours. Let us trust the sounds of grace among us – no matter how crazy and unbelievable or hard to explain that may be. And, let us hear the invitation from God to speak and share something new about our faith and God’s love for the sake of the world. It will bring joy and peace to the world around us. It is the promise of life lived under the influence of the Spirit. And it is the hope of God for all creation.

Amen