THE REV. ROBERTO DESANDOLI
Day of Pentecost
Genesis 11: 1-9
Psalm 104
John 14: 8-17, 25-27
Acts 2: 1-21
“The Advocate”
When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. 2 And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. 3 Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. 4 All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability.
5 Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven living in Jerusalem. 6 And at this sound the crowd gathered and was bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in the native language of each. 7 Amazed and astonished, they asked, “Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? 8 And how is it that we hear, each of us, in our own native language? 9 Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, 10 Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, 11 Cretans and Arabs—in our own languages we hear them speaking about God’s deeds of power.” 12 All were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, “What does this mean?” 13 But others sneered and said, “They are filled with new wine.”
14 But Peter, standing with the eleven, raised his voice and addressed them, “Men of Judea and all who live in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and listen to what I say. 15 Indeed, these are not drunk, as you suppose, for it is only nine o’clock in the morning. 16 No, this is what was spoken through the prophet Joel:
17 ‘In
the last days it will be, God declares,
that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh,
and
your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,
and your young men shall see visions,
and
your old men shall dream dreams.
18 Even upon my slaves, both men and women,
in
those days I will pour out my Spirit;
and they shall prophesy.
19 And I will show portents in the heaven
above
and
signs on the earth below,
blood, and fire, and smoky mist.
20 The sun shall be turned to darkness
and
the moon to blood,
before the coming of the Lord’s great and glorious day.
21 Then everyone who calls on the name of the
Lord shall be saved.’
On Thursday (just three days ago), myself and 4 other young clergy strolled into the chambers of the 145th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in Canada at Laurier University in Waterloo, Ontario. Since the crack of dawn that morning we (the “Breakfast Club” as we were dubbed later) had been occupying a local Starbucks, trying to come up with a plan to keep our beloved denomination from splitting in half on the grounds of human sexuality, and we felt like we had it, thanks to the working of the Holy Spirit that had kept us up late and summoned us to get up early; we had a solution that would, at very least keep people hearing and speaking with one another.
Now, rather than have you think that we were arrogantly comparing ourselves to the original apostles, allow me to say that the only material connection between the story we have heard and the one I lived on Thursday is that some saw the peaceful looks on our faces on such a stressful morning and assumed that we must be filled with new wine.
However, that was not the case, it being not even nine o’clock in the morning.
The stressful morning each Commissioner was experiencing was due to the events of the previous two days.
On Tuesday and Wednesday of General Assembly, we as a court held debates and votes and motions in an attempt to “finally come to a resolution” to the assembly’s years of work spent on trying to come up with a definitive stance on human sexuality.
Sadly, what we ended up with was a 1-winner, 1-loser solution that would have split the denomination and caused likely half of our membership to leave.
The next day we heard the teary testimony of those who felt like they were being forced out of their church home. We heard from those who were heartbroken to be forced out and those who were heartbroken at the actions they had previously fought so hard for which had alienated so many. It was not an easy day.
How had we failed so badly? Taking what God had made to be unified in faith and community and splitting it down the middle? Where was God’s grace in all of this? Where was Solomon’s Wisdom? Where was our ability to pray with and for those we disagreed with? How had we become so divided?
According to the Acts of the Apostles, the very first act of Christ’s Holy Spirit was to give the Apostles the ability to speak and be heard in languages previously unknown to them.
The text tells us that as “the Jews from every nation under Heaven” were arriving on Jerusalem, the Holy Spirit came into the place where the Apostles were gathered and gave each a tongue of fire to communicate with those who had arrived for the festival.
The visitors themselves could not believe it:
“Are not all these who are speaking Galileans, and how is it that we hear, each of us, in our own native language? In our own languages we hear them speaking about God’s deeds of power. What does this mean?”
After clearing up with the crowd the business about whether or not the Apostles were filled with new wine, Peter spoke, in answer, in the words of the prophet Joel:
17 ‘In
the last days it will be, God declares,
that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh,
and
your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,
and your young men shall see visions,
and
your old men shall dream dreams.
18 Even upon my slaves, both men and women,
in
those days I will pour out my Spirit;
and they shall prophesy.
19 And I will show portents in the heaven above
and
signs on the earth below,
blood, and fire, and smoky mist.
20 The sun shall be turned to darkness
and
the moon to blood,
before the coming of the Lord’s great and glorious day.
21 Then everyone who calls on the name of the
Lord shall be saved.’
“Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved”
Where in Peter’s awesome words is the division and the infighting we have gotten so used to in the church?
Where are the blanket condemnations of those who did not agree with him?
Where was the self-righteous boasting?
Where was the “you’re either with me or against me” attitude?
There was none of it.
Only the Good News of the Gospel, that “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.”
What have we done with the gift of the Advocate, the Holy Spirit? How have we taken this gift and allowed our human politics, our pettiness, and our flawed humanity to dispose of the call to unity and communication?
When did the Holy Spirit’s gift of allowing us to speak to and hear one another become rejected, like a gift we cannot see ourselves ever using?
For 5, 10, 20, or perhaps even 30 years the PCC has been involved in a lengthy and painful conversation about its future regarding human sexuality.
This conversation (sometimes a chat, sometimes a debate, and sometimes a fight) has often been presented, inaccurately, as a binary choice:
Are you with the God who demands purity or the God who loves everyone?
Are you with the God who has written his Law across all Scripture or are you with the God who frees us from rules?
Are you with the God of Law or the God of Love?
Friends, we have gotten ourselves in an awful lot of trouble in attempting to divide God in half. Scripture and the doctrine of the Trinity show us that God presents himself in THREE distinct persons of ONE godhead. God is one and three and one again, but never TWO.
The danger of dividing God in half is that it divides the church in half:
Those for tradition and those for new expression
Those for known values and those for new values
Those for the law and those for love
But this is wrong. God is three, God is one, but God is never two.
Prior to Thursday of this week, it appeared that we have finally alienated one another a point we could not walk back from:
In an attempt to “finally arrive at a decision” we forgot to love one another.
In the attempt to figure out which of our TWO faiths would carry the day, we forgot the Good News that “all who call on the name of the Lord would be saved”
In the attempt to find out if God is for Law or for Love, we alienated and hurt each other.
God, scripture, tradition, love, and acceptance are NOT ours to be divided according to the limitations of our human minds and hearts.
The Good News of Jesus Christ is that His heart is always larger, more radical, and more wonderful than our own.
The Advocate is not simply for us, nor simply for our enemies, the Advocate is on the side of the divine heart and mind, known only to Godself.
Whatever God sees as justice, it is not SIMPLY what we see as justice.
People have been left out in the history of the church; whether because of their ethnicity, language, expression of faith, orientation, gender, or sexuality, and now we run the risk of alienating so many of those who built the very churches we stand in in the name of “inclusivity.”
The task of church is to find ways to be “inclusive” without losing sight of the “gospel.” It is ALWAYS both-and. Just as God is the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit (“and,” never “or”)
There are times when we will be pulled in one direction or another; either to speak for tradition or to speak for a new way, but we must remember that we are always more faithful and truer to God’s word when we have the courage and humility to work together and to hear one another.
10 months on in my ministry at St. Andrew’s, I have managed to avoid giving my own position on human sexuality within this church.
I have taken my direction from my favorite Political Science professor during my time at University of Lethbridge, Dr. Harold Jansen, who spoke both critically and in favor of each Canadian political party. When asked what party he voted for, Dr. Jansen replied “If I’ve done my job well, you’ll never know”
As our denomination moves into the difficult work of reconsidering our doctrinal position on human sexuality, let me be as clear as possible:
More important to me than my own theological conclusions is my call to serve God’s church:
I am called by God to serve in a unified Presbyterian Church in Canada
I am not called to minister only to those with a traditional view of scripture
I am not called to minister only to those who hold an inclusive view or a traditional view
I am called to minister to this diverse and beautiful congregation, not to half of it.
Everyone belongs in this church regardless of their position on human sexuality. We gather together, we pray together, and we communicate together, because that’s what a church is: a community that discerns God’s will together with love for one another.
We are in conversation, we are in community, we are here to speak and to hear when another speaks.
When the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, came into the house the Apostles were in and gave each the power to speak and be heard in new languages, the Advocate did not tell the church to speak only to one group, to speak only to those they agreed with politically, to speak only to those who looked like them, to speak only to those who acted like them.
No.
The Advocate EXPANDED the circle of conversation to those who were previously not in the conversation at all – those who could not even understand one another at a language level.
What more can we imagine that the Holy Spirit will do for us? We who are not divided by language?
Returning to the events of Thursday morning, as myself and the rest of the “Breakfast Club” arrived into the General Assembly chambers to get as much feedback and consideration for our motion as we could muster, something extraordinary happened.
People began to talk to each other.
We, that is our diverse group of young clergy, talked with the most traditional and the most liberal of Presbyterians, with the youngest and most senior, with the most experienced and the least – and not only did people talk, but friendships began to form, contact information was traded, those regarded as enemies only one day earlier prayed earnestly for one another.
In the end, our motion was presented and passed: calling for each Presbytery in the country to share its voice on whether we could commit to living together (the traditional AND the inclusive), with freedom of conscience, and mutual respect.
Of course, our work was not perfect.
The solution we came up with was not a perfect solution to such a complex problem.
Not everyone was happy.
Several members of the “club” received tongue lashings and even hate mail following its presentation.
It was a human solution to a human problem.
And yet, as the 145th General Assembly came to a close, we were, at last, not alienated one from other. Most were hopeful, some sure, and some upset, but we were in conversation. We could speak to and hear one another.
And for this reason, if no other, I knew the Holy Spirit was still with us.
Amen.
