"Jesus Doesn't Play Favorites"

 5-23-21

Grace to you and peace from God our creator and from our risen Lord and Savior Jesus the Christ by the power of the Holy spirit, amen. 

You may have noticed that time within the church is a bit wonky. For example, Easter is not just a day, but it is a seven-week season. We can skip years of Jesus’ life between Sundays, and we can spend weeks talking about what happened on one single night. 

Just today even, we heard FIRST about the actual arrival of the Holy Spirit, with the wind and the flames and the languages and the confusion. Then, our Gospel reading takes us all the way BACK to Maundy Thursday, the night Jesus was betrayed… to hear how Jesus gives his disciples the first announcement of the Holy Spirit’s arrival.

Jesus was leaving…Jesus would die, rise, and then ascended into heaven…  but Someone was coming to be at their side when life gets scary and unfamiliar until Jesus returns again. Jesus was leaving…. But Someone was coming would lead the way into the abundant life and exciting future that God was calling them to. 

We have the Holy Spirit to be present with us when Jesus is not. We are not alone, because we can’t walk this path on our own. The disciples shut themselves up in a room until the outpouring of the Spirit happened on Pentecost. Martin Luther explains it in this way: “I believe that by my own understanding or strength I cannot believe in Jesus Christ my Lord or come to him, but instead the Holy Spirit has called me through the Gospel, enlightened me with his gifts, made me holy, and kept me in the true faith.”

Luther here means that when we rely on our own smarts and strengths, we often miss the boat on following the way of Jesus. It is the Holy Spirit who gives us the tools we need, pushes us out the door, and of course reminds us that we are loved. And so, we are empowered to love others, as Jesus has done… as agents of the Holy Spirit, to remind OTHERS that they are loved by God, and to treat them accordingly. 

There are so many voices out there trying to drown out the Holy Spirit, by telling people that they are not loved, they are not worthy, they are not valued for whatever reason. Sometimes these voices are loud, scary, and occasionally in one’s own backyard (and I’m not talking about cicadas here!)

I attend an online weekly text study with many Lutheran pastors across the country, including one Episcopalian priest. This priest also happens to be one-half of the famous Christian music duo called “Lost and Found” – You may have heard of them! Last week he informed us that he would be reading a 90-year-old sermon on Pentecost, and when we all expressed our surprise and confusion, he told us the incredible story behind it. I think you’ll see why he’s preaching this particular sermon at his church, St. Timothy’s, 90 years later.

In May 1931, in his town of Massillon, a Greek gangster was killed by another gang. Because there were no Greek Orthodox churches in that town, the priest of St. Timothy’s at the time let other priests from that tradition use St. Timothy’s for the funeral…. and it was HUGE funeral. By all accounts, the locals were OUTRAGED and felt their church had been “desecrated.” The following Sunday was Pentecost, and apparently, this priest let them have it.

My friend was kind enough to send our group a copy of this sermon, and I was flabbergasted at how it much power these words still held. In the famous sermon, the priest never mentioned the event by name, but instead, lays into his parishioners by saying, “I find that as I talk with people today, they do not at all understand what the Church is and what Christ intended it to be.” Now, this next sentence of the sermon is written in all caps, in the original: “IT IS NOT THE CLUB OF THOSE WHO HAVE ATTAINED TO RIGHTEOUSNESS AND SAINTLINESS!”

But oh, he’s not done! He goes one by saying: “But the Church is never so weak as when it permits itself to be a cold-storage warehouse for uncorrupted truth, or a gymnasium for the calisthenics of individual souls, or a Sunday Club … or an entertainment bureau which seeks to amuse…”

WHOA. Let me remind you that these words were written in 1931! I was shook as my friend read these words out loud, and I read the rest of the text of that sermon. The church is not a social club, or a sterile cold-storage for truth, or an exclusive member-only gym for the “saved.”

The priest then describes the work of the Holy Spirit through the body of Christ – the church – as a powerplant built next to a powerful, thunderous waterfall, pumping out electricity in a constant stream, hour after hour, day after day – the constant and relentless energy of love through God’s people - the church – us - out into the world. Apparently, the Holy Spirit speaks in mysterious ways, including a 90-year-old sermon.

After all, the Holy Spirit never stopped speaking. Instead going back to the disconnected reality we got complacent too in the “Before times,” what if we paused, just for a little while longer, and listened to where the Holy Spirit is calling us? As we are navigating a world in flux and experiencing intense transitions, what is the Holy Spirit saying to us, Emmanuel in this time?

In a world were nearly every community has been experienced trauma in the last year, the church has the important responsibility of bringing people together for the sake of participating in God’s kingdom. Rather than going back to “the way things were” without a second thought, instead the church’s mission is to offer an alternative way of living, right now, as we move closer to a post-pandemic reality. Our job as followers of Jesus is to champion that mission - to welcome and value all people, and doesn’t leave anyone behind. God’s love is for all and all people are God’s beloved children and should be treated accordingly.

If Jesus doesn’t play favorites, then neither can the body of Christ. The spirit of inclusion is at its core a refusal to practice exclusivity. After all, we are all sinners in need of redemption, broken people in need of healing, exhausted and in need of resurrection. And our job together is to remind each other that we are loved, valued, and worthy, no matter what.

A great irony is that the end of this famous 90-year-old sermon wasn’t even written down. The sermon text ends by saying simply in all caps: “CONCLUDE BY APPEALING FOR THE DIVINE AND POWERFUL INSTITUTION THAT CHRIST FOUNDED.”

Whatever it was, it worked, because my friend’s church is still there. Emmanuel is still here, and the whole body of Christ on earth is still here – still doing the work that God has set out for us to do. May we never forget that this is God’s work, and God’s church, and it is for everyone. Thanks be to God. Amen.