A Sermon for St. John the Evangelist Episcopal Church, St. Paul, MN
by The Reverend Craig Lemming, Associate Rector
Sunday, May 28, 2023 – The Day of Pentecost
In the name of The Holy Spirt: Our Creator, Companion, and Purpose. Amen.
When I was 17, my parents, my cousin Michelle, and I were driving to Mosi Oa Tunya, “The Smoke that Thunders,” also known as the Victoria Falls. Our car suffered a flat tire somewhere in the middle of nowhere between Bulawayo and the Victoria Falls. We were anxious because we were in a very remote area in the Zimbabwean savannah. Unbeknown to us, when we left Harare, the spare tire was flat. We waited. We watched. We hoped. We prayed. No cars came down the road to our aid. Then to our surprise, several native people came out of the bush to greet us. They did not understand the Shona or English we spoke. We did not understand what could have been Lozi, Kalanga, Dombe, Venda, Ndebele, Setswana, or Tonga – the languages spoken in that Matabeleland province. We resorted to universal human gestures to try to communicate with one another. As we gesticulated the predicament of our flat tires to them, two of the young men immediately picked up one flat tire each and then they started running to the nearest service station about an hour away, the tires atop their heads. Astounded by this extravagant kindness we also accepted their gracious invitation to rest at their homestead while we waited for the two young men to return with our repaired tires. We were invited to sit with their elders at the center of the village. Cold water was offered to quench our thirst, as well as traditional refreshments: nzungu or peanuts, fried mopane worms, ishwas (which are fried flying ants), fire-roasted maize on the cob, and native fruits: mazhanjes also known as mahobohobos. Mahobohobos are Zimbabwean sugar plums and my mother cannot resist them. Even though we didn’t speak a word of each other’s languages, a sweet Spirit of comfort, belonging, and joy settled over us that sunny afternoon. It was miraculous. After centuries of apartheid had distorted relationships across racial, ethnic, and linguistic lines of difference, this Matabele people and my mixed race coloured family experienced something akin to that first Day of Pentecost.
In that remote homestead on that gorgeous afternoon in Matabeleland, we may not have understood each other linguistically, but we did “speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave [us] ability.” We spoke the native language of all human hearts. A language of hands graciously held over hearts and extended tenderly in friendship; a language of companionship in a time of need; a language of joy and laughter; a language of generosity, sacrifice, and sharing; a language of gratitude for extravagant hospitality: languages the Holy Spirit provides to bind all of her diverse peoples together with cords that cannot be broken.
Some of you know that I am a Church Nerd. Fellow Church Nerds, I found a quote from a Patristic Theologian just for you! Cyril of Jerusalem describes this Holy and life-giving Spirit beautifully in his 4th century treatise as follows:
The Spirit comes gently and makes himself known by his fragrance. He is not felt as a burden for God is light, very light. Rays of light and knowledge stream before him as the Spirit approaches. The Spirit comes with the tenderness of a true friend to save, to heal, to teach, to counsel, to strengthen, and to console.
Cyril’s language expresses the intimacy of the Holy Spirit’s fiercely tender and uncontrollable power that binds broken relationships together. The historical context in the Book of Acts resonates with our own strife today. Roman authorities knew that if they kept differing cultural groups divided by making them hate each other, Rome could dominate them all. Oppressors have practiced this evil for ages. Nevertheless, when we wait, watch, hope, and pray, the Holy Spirit turns up in unexpected people and unlikely places. And we must yield to her power in order to be translated into her love language. After paying for the repaired tires and our humble gifts of thanks were given to the villagers, we said goodbye to a homestead of people who taught us the language of the Holy Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Galatians 5:22-23).
This is the language we need to speak, to listen to, and to be translated into today. People are suffering from isolation, loneliness, and disconnection that is now deadly. Sin, according to our Catechism, is the seeking of our own will instead of the will of God, thus distorting our relationship with God, with other people, and with all creation. Distorted relationships can only be healed when we invite the The Holy Spirit to translate our relationships back into her love language.
In today’s Gospel Jesus breathes this Holy Spirit on his disciples and says to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.” It’s time for us the receive The Holy Spirit so that we can be released from distorted relationships. The sins of racism, sexism, agism, ableism, heterosexism, and classism are retaining us from loving one another as God loves us. These sins distort our relationship with God and with those who differ from us. When we receive the Holy Spirit of God’s liberating love we can all be released from all forms of apartheid. In the words of Big Freedia in Beyoncé’s hit “Break My Soul,” it’s time to let the Holy Spirit:
Release your anger
Release your mind
Release your job
Release the time
Release your trade
Release the stress
Release the love
Forget the rest
On this Pentecost Day, as we prepare to celebrate the Sacrament of Holy Baptism, we are here to receive and to release the Holy Spirit’s love so that we can create God’s kinship together. Theologian Willie James Jennings calls this miracle of Pentecost “the revolution of the intimate.” He writes, “The Spirit creates joining. The followers of Jesus are now being connected in a way that joins them to different people in the most intimate space – of voice, memory, sound, body, land, and place.” As we renew our Baptismal Covenant together, in this intimate space, we invite the Holy Spirit to be in our voices, to create beautiful memories, to hear the sounds of new life, to feel God’s healing in all of our bodies, to be reconciled in right relationship with the multiplicities of peoples and races and creatures in this land. Come, Holy Spirit, and translate us into the language of Christ’s love. Amen.
