Scripture Readings:
Acts of the Apostles – Acts 2: 1-211
1When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. 2And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. 3Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. 4All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability.
5Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven living in Jerusalem. 6And at this sound the crowd gathered and was bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in the native language of each. 7Amazed and astonished, they asked, “Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? 8And how is it that we hear, each of us, in our own native language? 9Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, 10Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, 11Cretans and Arabs—in our own languages we hear them speaking about God’s deeds of power.” 12All were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, “What does this mean?” 13But others sneered and said, “They are filled with new wine.”
14But Peter, standing with the eleven, raised his voice and addressed them, “Men of Judea and all who live in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and listen to what I say. 15Indeed, these are not drunk, as you suppose, for it is only nine o’clock in the morning. 16No, this is what was spoken through the prophet Joel: 17‘In the last days it will be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams. 18Even upon my slaves, both men and women, in those days I will pour out my Spirit; and they shall prophesy. 19And I will show portents in the heaven above and signs on the earth below, blood, and fire, and smoky mist. 20The sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon to blood, before the coming of the Lord’s great and glorious day. 21Then everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.’
Hebrew Scripture – Genesis 11: 1-92
1Now the whole earth had one language and the same words. 2And as they migrated from the east, they came upon a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there. 3And they said to one another, “Come, let us make bricks, and burn them thoroughly.” And they had brick for stone, and bitumen for mortar. 4Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves; otherwise we shall be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.”
5The Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which mortals had built. 6And the Lord said, “Look, they are one people, and they have all one language; and this is only the beginning of what they will do; nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them. 7Come, let us go down, and confuse their language there, so that they will not understand one another’s speech.” 8So the Lord scattered them abroad from there over the face of all the earth, and they left off building the city. 9Therefore it was called Babel, because there the Lord confused the language of all the earth; and from there the Lord scattered them abroad over the face of all the earth.
Epistle – Romans 8: 14-173
14…all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God. 15For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received a spirit of adoption. When we cry, “Abba! Father!” 16it is that very Spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God, 17and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ—if, in fact, we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him.
“All Who Are Led by the Spirit of God Are Children of God.”
Richard Dawkins says that it’s the root of all evil4 -- and, no, he’s not talking about money. Christopher Hitchens says that it poisons everything5 -- and, no, he’s not talking about oil spills. Both are talking about religion. We all should be disturbed by the fact that these two authors are not alone in their excoriating comments about “organized religion.” There’ve been at least half a dozen popular books recently that have “preached” an anti-religious message.6 Where do you suppose this sentiment is coming from?
As I and some of my colleagues in the progressive Christian movement would say, this upwelling of “a-theistic” literature is most assuredly an understandable reaction to what we’re all beginning to notice as a worldwide rise in religious fundamentalism. But in striking out in this way at extremism, the bestselling atheists don’t seem to discriminate between mainstream religious faith and the lunatic fringe. It’s religion itself they object to. Well, gathering here this morning as one of those mainstream expressions of religion, ourselves, we ought to be aware of what these author’s are thinking and saying -- especially on this day.
Because today (in the traditional rhythms of the church) is Pentecost Sunday, the so-called “birthday” of the Christian church -- even though scholars of any repute would claim that the traditional story is probably just an echo in reverse of the story of the Tower of Babel and the result of Luke's own literary imagination, instead of an actual moment in history. As some have observed, it’s nothing that we could’ve captured on audio or video equipment had we been there. Curiously enough, in some progressive church circles today it’s also listed with another title: Pluralism Sunday. It’s supposed to be a day for us to give thanks for religious diversity.
The Center for Progressive Christianity (of which we as a church are a member) has taken the lead for such a Sunday. My friend, The Reverend Jim Burklo (who’s preached from this pulpit, by the way) headed up that project for a time. He’s said that there were three general ways in which religions relate to each other. Either they championed exclusivism -- which is the idea that my view of God and religion is the only right one and all other religions are wrong, at best, and outright evil, at worst. A second way of relating he called inclusivism -- which is the idea that my religion is still the only true one, but yours is interesting; so we should tolerate each other’s religious point of view and find ways to cooperate and communicate. The third way of relating, however, is called pluralism -- the idea that my religion is still good for me, but your religion may turn out to be as good for you as mine is for me.
Burklo goes on to say this:
…pluralism is the concept that there are multiple loci [or sources] of truth and salvation among the religions. [It] does not imply that all religions are the same or that all religions are equal; but it does recognize the possibility that my way is not the only way and that my religion is not necessarily superior to yours.7
The way that we say it here at the 1st United Methodist Church of Napa is represented in the first two points of our “Welcoming Statement:”
By calling ourselves progressive, we mean that we are Christians who have found an approach to God through the life and teachings of Jesus. [And yet we] recognize the faithfulness of other people who have other names for the way to God’s realm, and acknowledge that their ways are true for them, as our ways are true for us.8
So I would invite us all to consider today that these Pentecost moments could also be recognized as moments of celebrating our pluralism: a day in which our differences were viewed, not as a reason for conflict and expulsion, but in celebration, a day in which we will finally learn how to understand and appreciate each other in spite of the differences in our language, our culture, our theology, or our point of view of the world.
His Holiness The 14th Dalai Lama, leader of the Tibetan Buddhists, has said, “The point isn’t to convert people, but to contribute to their well-being.” I’ve understood him to have said that he doesn’t travel the world to convert people to Buddhism, but simply to share his humble experiences of the wisdom that Buddhism has developed over the centuries. If we were to find anything useful in it he’s said, “Make use of it. Otherwise just forget it.”
I find that pluralistic approach extraordinary for a world-renowned religious leader. Can you at all imagine a new kind of Christian approach to evangelism which would have enough confidence in its message to say something like this? We should be able to state, simply: “This is our tradition. This is what it has meant for us. If you find it useful, use it. If our understanding of Christianity contributes to the well-being of others and the world in which we live, if it contributes to peace with justice through its form of interfaith dialogue, then take and apply it. Otherwise, just forget it.” As much as I wish it were so, somehow, sadly, I don’t think that the neo-conservative expressions of Methodism would sit still for such a statement.
We live in a time that is dominated more by religious babble than it is a celebration of religious pluralism. With such tension in the air it feels more like a return to tribalism than it is anything at all like interfaith dialogue. Sadly, we live in a time when Christians think the only way to salvation is to convert Muslims to Christianity and Muslims think the only way is to convert Christians to Islam. We should all finally be able to say, with Paul today, “all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God.” There must come a day and a time when we will be able to recognize that we all have something to learn from each other. Pentecost –- this day of all days –- should be a great day to listen to the Spirit's voice present in other traditions as well as our own.
The Spirit of Pentecost isn’t meant to lead us into some kind of religious “fruit salad,” though, where you just toss it into the bowl and anything goes. It is, however, about appreciating what other religions bring to the table and honoring them at a deep level of respect and openness. Our worship together today, then, should lead to letting the world of radio hosts and newspaper columnists, television producers and political assemblies, as well as the neighbors with whom we engage in conversation over the back fence, know that there are progressive Christian churches around here that challenge the exclusive dogmatism of the fundamentalist churches who continue to claim that Christianity is the only way to find communion with God.
There is a way to be authentically and particularly religious, to be involved and immersed in a particular religious culture, to practice a specific religious discipline and follow a particular path, but -– as Jim Burklo put it:
…if you go all the way with that, you will discover that we all end up on the top of the same mountain [with]… brothers and sisters of other faiths who have done the same sort of thing.9
On this Day of Pentecost, then, may we commit ourselves to a deeper, spirit-filled kind of pluralism that both encourages us and yet allows us, “in our own languages” to listen to and hear each other “speaking about God’s deeds of power.”10 May this day enrich our own faith as well as teach us how to learn from the faith of our neighbors.
1 To understand this story we need to understand something of the meaning of the Jewish pilgrimage festival of Shavuot. Originally celebrating the last grain harvest and the first fruit harvest, it was a time to bring the “first fruits” to God as an offering. Later it became a real pilgrimage, as the first fruits were offered to God at the Jerusalem Temple fifty days after Pesach (where we get the Greek name for this feast, Pentecost, which is a word that simply means “fiftieth”). Some elements of the giving of the Ten Commandments and Israel’s acceptance of the Torah were certainly part of the festival at the time that Luke wrote about it. It’s very possible that the reading from the Torah on that day included the description of the theophany at Sinai – complete with its vision of smoke, trumpets, thunder and lightning (cf. Exodus 19: 17 to 20: 21 and Deuteronomy 5: 22-27). I think that Luke wanted to evoke both the dramatic elements of that covenant moment with the consequences and destiny of this newly forming community – i.e., just as the giving of the law was a community-making event, so the coming and sharing of the Spirit is an event creating the new community.
2 This is the story of the tower of Babel, which offers a theological interpretation for the ethnic, cultural and linguistic divisions that separated people. I think Luke purposefully uses this story as a backdrop for his story of Pentecost – a great reversal that reaffirms the common unity (community) of all humanity, which was actually God’s intention from the very beginning. The divine inspiration of Pentecost transforms what was a consequence of human alienation from God. What’s more, the Kingdom of God is one that celebrates a Spirit-filled diversity. The community that was broken apart at Babel is now reconstituted into a new community – the church.
3 This reading from Paul’s letter to the Christians at Rome also implies a sense of unity in the church – i.e., that we’re all to be called “children of God.” This is a new relationship made possible through the ever-encompassing power of the Holy Spirit – described here in terms of freedom from all of our fears.
4 Richard Dawkins, The God Delusion (Bantam Press, London, GB, 2006).
5 Christopher Hitchens, God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything (Allen & Unwin Pub., 2007).
6 A couple of the more popular examples are The God Delusion (by Richard Dawkins) and something with the intriguing title of The Christian Atheist: Believing in God but Living As If He Doesn’t Exist (by Craig Groeschel).
7 Jim Burklo, The Center for Progressive Christianity, www.tcpc.org, on “Pluralism Sunday,” 2007.
8 The full statement reads this way:
Our Mission Statement: The First United Methodist Church unconditionally welcomes all people in greater Napa wherever they are on their faith journey. As a congregation rooted in scripture, tradition, experience and reason, we promise opportunities to grow in the Spirit and to become active followers of Jesus Christ.
As a Reconciling Congregation (www.rmnetwork.org) and one affiliated with The Center for Progressive Christianity (www.tcpc.org), we also affirm and support the following Eight-Point Welcoming Statement:
By calling ourselves progressive, we mean that we are Christians who…
…have found an approach to God through the life and teachings of Jesus.
…recognize the faithfulness of other people who have other names for the way to God’s realm, and acknowledge that their ways are true for them, as our ways are true for us.
…understand the sharing of bread and wine in Jesus’ name to be a representation of an ancient vision of God’s feast for all people.
…invite all people to participate in our community and worship life without insisting that they become like us in order to be acceptable (including but not limited to):
believers and agnostics
conventional Christians and questioning skeptics
women and men
those of all sexual orientations and gender identities
those of all races and cultures
those of all classes and abilities
those who hope for a better world and those who have lost hope
…know that the way we behave toward one another and toward other people is the fullest expression of what we believe.
…find more grace in the search for understanding than we do in dogmatic certainty – more value in questioning than in absolutes.
…form ourselves into communities dedicated to equipping one another for the work we feel called to do:
striving for peace and justice among all people
protecting and restoring the integrity of all God’s creation
bringing hope to those Jesus called the least of his sisters and brothers
…recognize that being followers of Jesus is costly, and entails selfless love, conscientious resistance to evil, and renunciation of privilege.
9 Loc. cit.
10 cf. Acts 2, verses 4 and 11.