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Becoming One in a Divided World
Day of Pentecost
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Paul Bresnahan
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When the Holy Spirit came down at Pentecost, it was a time of great unity. Jews from all over the known world came and heard the same gospel message in a language they could understand, and thousands responded, unified under Christ. Today, there are literally millions of Christians in the world. How unified are we? Can the same Spirit that unified those first believers unify us today? Here's a preview:
Becoming One in a Divided World
Paul Bresnahan
Acts 2:1-21
In the current political campaign, race has become an issue. In the last general election, sexual orientation was. It seems we can always find some way to pigeonhole folks. Where I grew up, there was an Irish Catholic Church, Italian Catholic, French Catholic, and a sprinkling of Portuguese Catholics shared by each. Black folks went to the AME Church, the Swedes went to the Lutheran Church, and the English origin folks went to the Episcopal Church. The Scots tended to be Presbyterians and on and on it went.
There are Russian Orthodox, Greek Orthodox, and Armenian Orthodox Christians... and the Jewish folks are also Orthodox, Conservative, and Reformed. Even our brothers and sisters in Islam are Sunni and Shi'a.
However, on the day of Pentecost, there was one Spirit alighting upon the heads of the apostles. They were given the ability to preach the gospel in every language, to every race and ethnicity, and more still they were able to make themselves understood. Besides all this when Jesus came to them on Pentecost, he breathed on them the breath of God and said; "Peace be with you."
To this day, people of faith greet one another "Shalom" or "salaam alaykum," and of course, the Christians say "Peace." The root of the word "Jerusalem" means "peace," and is thus viewed as the Holy City. We say peace... but do we mean it?
As recently as today, there is division and warfare. Can we transcend race, ethnicity, and sexual politics? Will the measure of our wealth or the lack of it continue to divide or classify us? We are still, as it were, "Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabs" (vv. 9-11). All that is different in the dynamic of definition are the labels we use because now we are black, white, rich, poor, gay, straight, Arab, Jew, Protestant, Catholic, and every ethnicity under the sun. If we listen to the still small voice of God, we'll hear that gospel message making us all one in Christ. Today let us pray for the Pentecost moment that it may alight upon us once again.
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