Acts 2:1-21
Listen and Watch Sermon
Pentecost is about the outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon God’s people. It is not the beginning of the Holy Spirit’s work in the Church. It is God making our cups run over and overflow with his spiritual gifts. The way God does this is counterintuitive. He gathers people from all over the world into the Temple in Jerusalem. The temple itself is made of a diversity of wood, stone, fabric, gold, silver, color, and imagery in heaven and on earth. God takes this rich variety of humanity and weaves their multi-ethnic threads into one beautiful tapestry called the Church, the Body of Christ. We bear the image of God in the world to all eternity with all our magnificent diversity. All our Scripture today reminds us of this transformative truth: He creates unity through diversity. The Holy Spirit has blessed us with a variety gifts to bring us closer together and draw us closer to God in Christ.
When we look at our world, nation, and communities there is so much division, hostility. There is such a lack of understanding and empathy. Jesus himself said that he gives peace that the world cannot give (John 14:27). God has called us by his Holy Spirit to be in the world but not of the world (John 17:16). It is why Scripture reminds us of how the Holy Spirit loves to enhance the diversity of believers in order to build each other up. It grieves the Holy Spirit when we are more like the world than what he has called and equipped us to be. It saddens God’s when we are plagued with prejudice, ignorance, indifference, and disregard for anyone created in God’s image. The church is the last place we should find this darkness. We are the light of the world! The lies of egoism, ethnocentrism, nationalism, racism, and parochialism will not live forever. We have been given the truth.
The truth does not press down anyone. It empowers. It equips. It validates. It encourages. The Holy Spirit unifies through diversity. The Holy Spirit blesses us through a vast variety of gifted people. “For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and we were all made to drink of one Spirit.”
Look around how blessed we all are through diversity. In athletics, a variety of talent makes a better team. In business, a diversity of skills makes a more effective organization. In music, a variety of instruments makes a richer tapestry of sound. In art, a variety of shapes and colors creates an infinite ways of seeing the world. In writing, poetry, and the spoken word there are endless ways to express and understand. In politics, family structures, and community organizations we should learn and cherish the different perspectives people bring. That means listening non-judgmentally. It means being humble teachable. What is the Holy Spirit teaching me through this unfamiliar and viewpoint. We even see it in nature with biodiversity. Where it is the coral reefs in our oceans that sustain life, our forests, deserts, or in the air. One of the most striking examples is in Yellowstone Park.
Twenty-five years ago, wolves were re-introduced to the park after being killed off by humans because they were seen as nuisance and threat to wildlife. Just after a few years, the wolves have helped the bison become healthier. It even has helped the grizzly bear make a comeback because of the way all these creatures are interdependent on one another. The breakdown in this analogy reminds me of Paul’s admonition in Galatians (5:15) that we do not bite and devour one another.
The more the Holy Spirit blesses us the more unalike we are—the more we appreciate the uniqueness of what different cultures bring to enrich our own—the more we cherish the differences and see them for what they are: gifts. I love the image of the New Jerusalem in Revelation where the nations—the multi-ethnic body of Christ is entering the City: “They will bring into it the glory and the honor of the nations” (Revelation 21:26). God values what each tribe, nation, tongue, and people bring. Scripture calls it “glory and honor.” How much more glory and honor and praise should we give back to God that he has given to us! We are the light of Christ. We are gifted by the Holy Spirit. To a world shrouded in despair, division, and ingratitude we bring peace, hope, and healing.
Come Holy Ghost, God and Lord,
With all Your graces now outpoured
On each believer’s mind and heart;
Your fervent love to them impart.
Lord, by the brightness of Your light
In holy faith Your Church unite;
From every land and every tongue
This to Your praise, O Lord, our God, be sung:
Alleluia, alleluia!
(“Come Holy Ghost, god and Lord,” LSB 491, v. 3)
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