Pentecost B 2018: Pentecost Possiblities
Dear Partner in Preaching,
Some insights take a little while to sink in. And that is definitely true with something I realized about four or five years ago with regard to the Pentecost story. You know the details pretty well, as do many of our people: the disciples are gathered in the Upper Room (or at least in some room), waiting for the consummation of Jesus’ promise of the Holy Spirit, when the earth shakes, the wind blows, tongues of fire descend, and they are emboldened to preach the Gospel first in Jerusalem and eventually to the ends of the earth. In other words, a dramatic event which transforms the disciples, solves their problems, and delivers a happy ending. Almost straight out of Hollywood, right?
Which is, of course, just what I get wrong. A happy ending? Given that all the disciples go on to face struggle and persecution and the overwhelming majority eventually endure martyrdom, “happy ending” doesn’t quite cut it. And as for solving their problems, it seems to me more that the Holy Spirit causes more problems than it solves. I mean, had they not been commissioned and equipped to go share the good news, they could have savored the truth of the resurrection for themselves, cherishing the pleasant memory of Jesus’ resurrected presence into their ripe old age. Instead, they are thrown out into the crowds – many of whom witnessed, if not participated in, the crucifixion of Jesus – to bear witness to a difficult truth. Yes, they preach and thousands respond, but never without cost.
And why should we expect anything different? Why, that is, should we expect the Holy Spirit to bring anything more than challenges and opportunities that, while significant and salutary, are nevertheless costly.
When Martin Luther revised – ever so slightly – the traditional “marks of the church” that he inherited, he added only one. In addition to the proclamation of the Gospel and the sharing of the sacraments, etc., that mark the presence of the true church, Luther added just one thing: struggle. If you are about the work of the Gospel, he reasoned (and had experience to believe), expect the resistance of the devil.
Which invites us to cast the challenges of our congregations in a different light. Fidelity doesn’t inevitably bring success, just as often it brings struggle and hardship – think, to offer just one example, of the Confessing Church of Bonhoeffer and Barth.
More importantly, though, it prompts us to view the work of the Holy Spirit differently. The Spirit doesn’t solve our problems, but invites us to see possibilities we would not have seen otherwise. Rather than remove our fear, the Spirit grants us courage to move forward. Rather than promise safety, the Spirit promises God’s presence. Rather than remove us from a turbulent world, or even settle the turbulence, the Spirit enables us to keep our footing amid the tremors. Keep in mind that after the Spirit is given to Jesus at his Baptism, it immediately drives him into the wilderness. The same Spirit!
Like I said at the outset, I know this. And yet I forget. Or at least I yearn for something simpler, something a little more settled or reliable. And so I work and plan and pray and strive, not to avoid challenges, but rather to overcome them, hoping that when I’ve addressed the major challenges in front of me – whether personal or professional or congregational or whatever – then I will encounter some smooth sailing. But that doesn’t seem to be how the Spirit works.
In Tracy Kidder’s biography of Dr. Paul Farmer, he shares the story of one of the world’s truly remarkable persons, a doctor who had every single reason in the world to enjoy a profitable and meaningful medical practice in the United States yet who was so convicted by the need to address the world’s most intractable infectious diseases that he has spent his life in remote parts of the world striving to bring a measure of health to the globe’s poorest citizens that most of the world considered impossible. Laboring in Haiti, Peru, Cuba, Russia, and more, Dr. Farmer has often been hailed as a “wonder worker.” But the truth is that he simply did not give up but persisted, always seeing after some measure of success another challenge and possibility. And so when Kidder titled his book, he chose a Haitian proverb that has guided Farmer and captures the wisdom that, in this life and world, when you solve one problem, there is always another one waiting for you. The book is called Mountains Beyond Mountains.
Perhaps that is the word we can choose to share with our people, not simply that problems don’t go away, or that the meaningful life is spent in service and hard work, or even that the Holy Spirit sets challenges for us that are worthy of disciples of Christ. (All of which are true, by the way!) Rather, perhaps we can share the good news that the Holy Spirit continues to help us see possibilities where others see only problems and grants us the strength and energy to climb the mountains beyond that mounts with equal measures of confidence and joy and to the benefit of those around us.
Pentecost is upon us, Dear Partner, and I am grateful for your realistic, perhaps even sobering, but always hopeful word that God is not done yet and that the Spirit is alive and well and at work among us…including in and through the words you will offer! Blessings on your proclamation!
Yours in Christ,
David
Thank you for your insight! So helpful as always.