What Does This Mean?

Based on Acts 2:1-21
First delivered May 31, 2020
Rev. Dr. Kevin Orr 

            It was a sound like the rush of a violent wind. Flames of fire rested on the heads of each of the disciples gathered there. They all rush out of the building they were hiding in, proclaiming with boldness about the mighty deeds of God in the languages of all the nations of the world. And as this spectacle erupted in the city of Jerusalem, a crowd of devout Jews from every nation on earth was drawn to the disciples, listening to what they were saying. Amazed and perplexed, the people in the crowd ask each other, “What does this mean?” But there were a few scoffers who sneered and said, “they are filled with new wine.”

            The disciples knew that the Spirit would be coming. Jesus had told them. Before he ascended to heaven, we read in Acts 1:4-5, Jesus ordered them to stay in Jerusalem and wait there for the promise of the Father. “You will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now”, Jesus said. But they did not know when exactly the Spirit would come. And they did not know how the Spirit would come. When the Spirit did come, it wasn’t subtle! The Spirit whooshed in out of nowhere, knocking the disciples for a loop and immediately transforming them from a place of anxiety and uncertainty about their future to bold proclaimers of the powerful deeds of God. Their baptism of the Holy Spirit changed them immediately. It was a powerful experience of transformation that got the world’s attention, so to speak. And the crowd, baffled and perplexed at what they were witnessing, what they were hearing, asked the question, “What does this mean?”

            We knew a global pandemic would be coming. The World Health Organization has been talking about it for a long time. We all knew that the flu pandemic we often talk about that ravaged the world in 1918 would not be the last one. Hollywood made movies about a global pandemic, including the popular movie Outbreak back in 1995. But we didn’t know when a pandemic would hit or how it would impact the world. And here we are. The impact is ongoing. The pandemic has the attention of the whole world. And many people are asking, “What does this mean?” Christian folk ask each other, “What is God trying to tell us about this pandemic?” Meanwhile, there are some people who scoff and say, “This is a plandemic.”

            We have seen this played out so many times for literally hundreds of years: black people being assaulted and killed by agents of the state or white vigilantes, with little or no accountability. I still remember the uprising in Los Angeles in the aftermath of the acquittal of the police officers who mercilessly beat up Rodney King. Those of us who have lived awhile, if given some time, could come up with a long list of names of unarmed and defenseless black people who have been brutalized by law enforcement or by white vigilantes. And now, in the midst of a global pandemic, we have in the past several weeks the deaths of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor and Tony McDade. The protests, some violent, are rippling throughout our nation just as we move into the unofficial start of summer. And we hear the questions, “Why is this still happening?” “What does this mean?” Meanwhile, others scoff and say the protestors are thugs tearing up their community and ought to be shot.

            When the crowd asked the apostles “what does this mean?”, Peter was ready with an answer. With boldness, he stood before the crowd, dismissing the scoffers by quickly pointing out the fallacy of their statement, “We are not drunk, it’s only 9 in the morning.” Peter goes straight to the prophets to explain what is happening. He quotes from the prophet Joel and then interprets it for the crowd in a way that cut them to the heart which led to the next question they asked, in 2:37, “What should we do?” And Peter tells them, “Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ so that your sins may be forgiven; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” That day, about 3,000 people were added to the number of believers. There were more than 3,000 there. Not everybody repented. Not everybody accepted what the disciples said. But, my goodness. Who on that morning woke up and knew what would unfold in Jerusalem that day? A dramatic and perplexing event, accompanied by someone who could boldly and convincingly explain what it meant and what everyone needs to do to respond to what they have seen and heard.

            But what about today? Who is standing up to give us an answer to the meaning of the pandemic that is ravaging our world? There are many people boldly giving their answers, their explanations of what this means and what we need to do. They are sounding off on TV, on social media, in the newspapers. We hear many voices. There is no single voice. And the message we get is confusing and contradictory. On the economic front alone, some say there will be a v shaped recovery. Others say there will be a u shaped recovery. I read a new one recently where the writer boldly proclaimed an upside down checkmark so-called recovery. There is no one clear voice pointing to the word of God and explaining to us what all this means in a way that cuts to the heart and stirs us to repentance as we are confronted with what this pandemic is revealing to us about our society.

            Who is standing up and boldly giving an answer to why in 2020 we still have police officers and white vigilantes killing unarmed black people? Again, the voices of those boldly giving answers are many. And the answers are contradictory. Some say the answer is found at the very heart of American society that was established as a white colonial settler society dependent on the forced labor of black bodies and the systemic removal and genocide of the indigenous people who stewarded this land thousands of years before Europeans arrived. The answers of others are that this is just another example of a bad cop failing in his training and having a bad day, or someone who truly feared for his life as the victim reached to push away the gun pointed at him after being chased down by these strangers while he is going for a jog. Race has nothing to do with it, some boldly proclaim. There is no single voice standing up, pointing to the word of God and explaining to us what all this means in a way that cuts to the heart and stirs us to repentance as we are confronted again with what these murders of black people is revealing to us about our society. So many voices.

            One of my favorite scriptures is John 16:12-13: “[Jesus said] I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth; for he will not speak on his own, but will speak whatever he hears, and he will declare to you the things that are to come.” Jesus didn’t say everything that needed to be said. The revelation of God is ongoing. The Spirit is still revealing truth to us, even to this very day. As we face these perilous times and we ask ourselves and one another “what does this mean?”, those of us who are baptized have the Spirit abiding within us. The Spirit is guiding us into all the truth, one faithful step at a time. The Spirit does not rest on one person. The Spirit rests on all kinds of people, Joel says: sons and daughters, young men and old men, even female slaves, God says through Joel. The Spirit rests on many of us. The Spirit is guiding many of us. There is not one Spirit guided voice. There are many. And one of those Spirit guided voices is yours.

            As we collectively confront the reality of a global pandemic and of systemic racism, my question is, “What is the Spirit saying to you?” In those moments, when you pause and reflect on all that is happening right now, mulling it over, lifting it all up to God in prayer, what word from God are you hearing, what vision or dream is forming in your mind?

            This is some of what I sense the Spirit is saying to me. We cannot always impose our will on nature. As a society we need to rethink and rebalance our relationship with the living systems of this planet. As a society we also need to rebalance our economy to minimize the inequality and assure the protection of our most vulnerable among us. We need a society that is more resilient. We need to continue to come to terms with the virus of racism in our culture and reimagine a culture that celebrates the richness of all ethnic heritages. We need to rethink how we do policing in our society. I envision a society where each person is valued as a fellow human being, where competition is replaced with cooperation, where systems are in place to assure the flourishing of all of life. Utopian? Yes. Just a dream? It is. But that is the vision I believe the Spirit is giving me because it is a vision that aligns with the God of creation, of love, of life. It is a vision that in my gut feels right, that gives me energy, that gives me some clarity about where in my life I need to repent, how I need to live my life, what kind of culture I want to create.

            I am not pretending to possess the voice of someone like Peter and speak with the boldness and authority that we read in the second chapter of Acts on that Pentecost morning a few thousand years ago. I am not saying that my dream is the only one sanctioned by God. But I am sharing with you some of what I sense the Spirit is saying to me. I want to know…what is the Spirit saying to you? What is your divinely inspired vision of a world where God’s will is done on earth as it is in heaven? Take the authority you have as a child of God, baptized and filled with the Holy Spirit, and speak your vision.