Sermon for Pentecost – evening
Sunday 4th June 2017
Joel 2. 21- end
Acts 2. 14 – 21
Revd Preb Maureen Hobbs
Well, tonight we get a double dose! First the reading from Joel and then St Peter in our reading from Acts of the Apostles, quoting the same passage at length. You are meant to take note!
We have a tendency, these days, to listen only to people who think like we do. I am very conscious of this on social media – the algorithms that Facebook and Twitter use make sure that I am more likely to see the postings of those who like what I like, than the opposite. And so we tend to retreat into a little bubble of comforting opinion that tells us we must be in the majority – because after all, that is what ‘everyone’ is saying…. And so we unconsciously marginalise many people from whom we could learn a lot…. until a referendum or an election comes along to shock us out of our respective bubbles of course! Who knows what we will discover on Friday morning?!
And if we do become aware of a contrary viewpoint, we may well dismiss it out of hand – “Oh he’s too young,’ we say. “He hasn’t lived/ she has no experience.” And we may ignore the views of those older than ourselves, because they are ‘past it’. Thereby we may miss the opportunity to hear some imaginative new ideas, or to learn from people who have long years of experience behind them. We also tend to ignore those in a different socio-economic group – (the class system still exists!) and those with a different educational background to ourselves. And sadly, racial stereotypes still affect us. Men hardly notice the opinions of women, and, to a lesser extent, vice versa.
But the day of Pentecost – if we pay attention to those readings, – puts an end to all that. On that day St Peter was talking to a huge crowd – no mean feat for a Galilean fisherman with limited public speaking experience,- and he told them that the experience of the Holy Spirit, which they had all enjoyed, is a fulfilment of the prophecy of Joel. And notice too that we are told this will happen ‘in the last days’. So the last days must begin with the resurrection of Jesus , and continue to this day – we are living in the ‘end time’. And we are told clearly that the Holy Spirit is to be poured out on ‘all flesh’. Not just the Jews, not a select few, not just on ‘people like us’. The Spirit speaks for God through the mouths of people we have hitherto ignored and despised. And we are given examples: God will speak through young people, old people, uneducated, working-class people (who in those days were often slaves), and through both men and women.
The meaning is clear – those whose opinions we have so far ignored, will speak with a new insight, giving us a picture of what the future ought to be. Prophets rarely have a magical certainty about what will happen; usually they hold up for us a vision of what the future ought to hold for us, if we will only listen to what God is saying through his Spirit in our hearts, and act upon it. Wise words in the week leading up to a General Election!
Young people, whose minds are not cluttered up with ancient prejudices, can often catch a glimpse of the ideal society, which their elders have been blind to for years. We may dismiss it as ‘youthful idealism’ and yet surely we could do with a few more idealists to govern and direct our nation??? I am much more concerned that so many young people appear to be totally disengaged from the world of politics. I’d take idealism over apathy any day!
But the older generation – to which most of us here this evening now belong (!) have something to teach too. They can – we are told, – dream dreams, from which all may learn. They can dream of happy times gone by, and warn of what is lost when the values of a previous generation are abandoned. They can dream of a society where all is compassion, caring and love, and urge everyone to keep pressing on towards that goal.
From this you may guess that I have little time for our system of adversarial politics in the country – although I shall be using my vote on Thursday as I hope will everyone else here who is eligible to vote. Human beings are inclined always to separate into tribes – us against them… and the church as an organisation is no better. But it is when we come together; when we acknowledge that we all have far more in common than the differences that divide us (as the late Jo Cox was wont to say) It is then that the true potential of humanity can be unleashed to address the problems that face us all on this beautiful but endangered planet. Mr Trump, please take note – for God’s sake! For humanity’s sake!
So it is the Holy Spirit, given at Pentecost, which can bring power to the powerless, and make us listen to the marginalized. Young and old, rich and poor, male and female, black and white, we all need to listen to each other, and hear the Spirit of God speaking through the mouths of those we had never listened to before.
Amen.