Pride and Pentecost

Abby: God of all our stories, speak through our lives. Reveal your ongoing story. Through the richness of our experiences, connect us to one another and open our hearts and minds to your good news exemplified through the many stories unlike our own. Whether through words spoken, images made, or songs sung, we open ourselves to what you have for us. Create in us a new and liberating way of knowing. Sustain in us the power of our very being and inspire in us the way of sharing vulnerably. Lord, accept each of our unique stories as an offering to you. May each of our lives lived out loud, empowered and freed, glorify you in every moment. Amen.

Debbie: Hi everyone. If you're new, I'm Debbie Manning. I'm the lead pastor here at the table. And as many of you know, over the past year, we've had a team, an amazing team of diverse people from this community that have been meeting every month, building a pastor, a new co-lead pastor profile, a rubric for when they're interviewing, interview questions. They put their heart and soul and faith into this process. And at the end of the day, after a lot of prayer, a lot of work, we have moved forward. One candidate that we have felt fits our community beautifully, a candidate that we feel God is calling into this, into the next step.

So we are more than excited. We are so grateful that Justin Bell, he is a pastor from Elkin, North Carolina, the First Baptist church there. He's been there for nine years as an associate pastor. He spent the weekend here with his partner, Manuel. We've tried to sell Minnesota big. We're trying to sell Minnesota. So last night we had a Discernment—the group that has been discerning God's will in this process—Dinner, a wonderful dinner over at the trapeze home. And there was a few of us in the background going, "Quit talking about Minnesota winters because that ain't selling them." But no, it has been a joy to spend time with both Justin and Manuel. And we couldn't be more grateful to have him here with us today to preach the good word. So would you please all welcome Justin Bell?

Justin: Hi. Well, good morning, everybody. Manuel and I are so thankful to be here with you today. I have been on the other side of this search process before, on the search for a pastor. And it takes a lot of prayer, a lot of patience, a lot of meetings, coffee, and maybe a Xanax to get through the search process. And every step of the way, it has been nothing but an absolute blessing, and we both just feel honored to be here with you today. Even though I'm from North Carolina, you gave me some Minnesota socks. So I'm sporting those today, and it's an honor to be here. So I can't wait to share coffee with you after worship.

Our text for today comes from Acts, chapter 2:1-24:

When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place, and suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, that filled the entire house where they were sitting. Divided tongues as a fire appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability.

Now there were devout Jews from every people under heaven living in Jerusalem. And as this sound the crowd gathered and they were bewildered because each one heard them speaking in the native language of each. Amazed and astonished, they asked, "Are not these who are speaking Galileans? How is it that we hear each of us in our own native language?" Others sneered at them and said, "They are filled with new wine."

But Peter, standing with the eleven, raised his voice and addressed them, "Fellow Jews and all who live in Jerusalem, let this be known to you and listen to what I say. Indeed, these are not drunk as you suppose, for it's only nine o'clock in the morning. No, this is what was spoken through Joel: ‘In the last days it will be, God declares, that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams, even upon my slaves, both men and women. In those days I'll pour out my spirit, and they shall prophesy, and everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.’

Fellow Israelites, listen to what I have to say. Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with deeds of power, wonders, and signs that God did through him among you, as you yourselves know. This man you handed over according to the definite plan of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of those outside the law. But God raised him up, having released him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for him to be held in its power.

Well, if you grew up in a liturgical tradition that followed the church calendar, then you might have already made the connection that today is Pentecost Sunday. That's the day when we celebrate the Holy Spirit descending upon the disciples and giving them the power and the ability to go out and proclaim the news—the good news—and all of these various tongues and languages. And so I wanted to start this message off today with a story about some folks in the city who were often persecuted and had to hide in fear, but in a brave moment they stood up for justice and love and fought back.

That story sounds a lot like Pentecost, but I'm referring to the Stonewall riots in New York in 1969. It was dangerous to be gay in the 60s in New York, even down to the clothing that you wore. If you had on three articles of clothing that didn't match your biological sex, you could get arrested for that. And so the Stonewall Inn was a safe haven. It was a sanctuary of sorts for the LGBTQ+ community.

And on June the 28th, 1969, there was a police raid that did not go as they normally do. That night, instead of the crowd scattering, they stood and they fought back for what was right. And as the lore goes, there was a lady who was being arrested, and as she was being arrested, she said, "Don't just stand there, do something." And the riot broke out. So this is a sort of Pentecost-type moment where a diverse group of people from a diverse background came together in boldness to stand up for what was right in justice and in love. And when we open the pages of Scripture to the book of Acts, we see a similar scenario take place. The disciples are hiding away in fear because they're scared of being arrested for their faith in Jesus, and yet the Holy Spirit empowers them to speak in all of these various languages. And they are so bold to stand up and declare that Jesus is Lord.

So I think the story of Pentecost has a lot to say to us and the church today, especially during Pride Month, in regards to how we can and should move forward as the church. There's a theologian at Yale named Willie James Jennings, and he's done a lot of work in the book of Acts. And he says that you know the Holy Spirit is at work when you feel compelled to do something that you wouldn't normally do. And he says that we should always be asking the question, "What is it that the Holy Spirit wants me to do?" And just like the lady during the Stonewall Riots shouted, "Don't just stand there, do something," I think the Holy Spirit is empowering all of us in unique and bold ways to stand up and do something. So this intersection between Pride and Pentecost is where we're going to camp out for a little bit this morning.

The disciples had prayed for power from the Holy Spirit, but the type of power that they were praying for was a power to take back Jerusalem. It was a political power to take over the city and usher in the kingdom of God, but instead God gave them this mysterious power to speak all of these various languages that they didn't know before. The disciples desired power over people, and what God gave them was power for people. This was not a power that was meant to divide or conquer. It was meant to unite people in Christ. It was meant to bring understanding.

Manuel is from the Philippines originally, so his native tongue is Tagalog, and I wanted to learn a little bit of Tagalog, so I bought a Tagalog basics workbook, and it is not going very well at all. I know that “Mahal kita” means "I love you," and I know that “administration” means "administration," and that's all I've got. But his family is so gracious to me because when we sit around the table to eat dinner, they use English because they want me to understand what they're saying. They want to include me in the conversation, and I think those dinner conversations are such a good picture of what the church can and should be like.

So there's so much hope here in Pentecost for queer people of faith, and there's also an immense challenge for the church as well. Pentecost, I think the hope that we find at Pentecost for queer people of faith is that while there are certainly powers at work in this world that are seeking to strip us of our dignity and our respect, God is working on our behalf for inclusion where there has traditionally been exclusion. And God is building up faith communities just like this one for people like me to be able to grow and flourish and learn, and that would not have been possible 20 or 30 years ago. So the Spirit is opening people's minds and hearts to understand.

I think the challenge for the church here continues to be to use the power that we do have to make sure that we're using our power for people and not the oppression of people. We have to use what God has given us to continue bringing understanding where there has been a breakdown in communication. We have to use our power to build unity where there has been division. So when the Spirit fills the room and gives the disciples the ability to speak all of these various languages, there are pious people in the crowds that say, "Oh, these guys are just drunk off of wine." And there's something that really resonates with me in this story about this crowd that sneers at what God is doing, and instead of approaching it with a curiosity about what God could be up to, they use an excuse and they condemn it.

When I was 19, my mom called me and asked me if I was gay, and that was not a conversation that I was ready to have at 19, I had so many questions about my sexuality and my identity and my faith. So I sat down and I wrote a letter. I poured my heart out into this letter, and I lived about three hours away. I was at college. And so I went home, and she was waiting on me when I got there, and she told me to put my bags down. And we got in the car and we rode down to the little church that I grew up in, and we sat down in the front of the church. And I read my letter to my mom, and she balled it up and said that it was the most disgusting thing that she had ever heard. And she made me kneel at the altar, and she pointed at this golden cross and just told me to give my life to Jesus over and over again. And she told me that Satan had taken over my life, but she believed I was still in there somewhere. And at that point, that's when my head started to spin around…I'm just kidding! [laughter] I needed to tell a joke there.

I felt so stripped of my dignity in that moment. So some people are going to ask the question, "What does this mean that queer people are joining the church and preaching and teaching and serving?" And unfortunately, they're going to answer that question with an excuse rather than a curiosity. Pentecost teaches us that when God is on the move, people are going to be quick to ridicule it, and they may not understand it at first.

If you're here today and you identify with the queer community, I just want you to know, and I hope you hear me when I say that it's not your fault, and it's not your problem, that someone else can't understand what God is doing. The crowd started to call these disciples drunkards, and that still happens today. We might be called abominations or disgraces. We might even be called flamers. And we can say, "Well, have you heard of Pentecost?" I am a flamer because the Spirit of God is alive and well in me, and I'm just going to let the Holy Spirit grow the fruits of the Spirit in my life, and I'm going to let those speak for themselves. And I promise you that the fruit of the Spirit will speak for themselves in your life and in mine. So all you need to do is hold your head high and continue to grow in love and joy and peace and patience and kindness and goodness and gentleness and self-control.

Jesus told the disciples, "I'm sending you the Advocate, so let the Holy Spirit advocate for you. You don't have to defend yourself. You don't have to defend yourself to your mom or your childhood pastor that's harassing you on Facebook. You just need to let your light shine so that others may see it just like Jesus taught us to do, and we can find our peace and our rest there.

Having said that, as soon as we start to feel justified in cutting people out of our lives or disengaging with people who may disagree with us, we run into Peter, who is a hot mess of a person, which is why I think I love him so much. We see a very different version of Peter in this Pentecost story than we do in the Passion narrative. If you remember, Peter follows behind from a distance when Jesus is arrested, and as he's warming himself by the fire, a girl points him out and says, "You are with them. You're one of them." Peter says, "No, I don't know what you're talking about. I've never seen that man before in my life." This is the guy that Jesus called the Rock. He was supposed to be the one that Jesus was going to build the church upon, and when it came time for him to be loyal and faithful, he fails.

But what I love about the post-resurrection story is that Jesus sits with him on the beach, and they have breakfast together, and he says, "Peter, do you love me?" And Peter says, "Lord, you know I love you." And Jesus forgives him and recommissions him and restores him to go and feed his sheep. This restored Peter is who we see on Pentecost Sunday, boldly being able to stand up and proclaim the good news to the people of Jerusalem. So there's a difficult juxtaposition here because while we certainly have to set good boundaries and know when it's not healthy any longer for us to have certain relationships in our lives, we also have to understand that people can change, the church can change, and most of the time it's relationships that God uses to soften people's hearts.

We have a gentleman in our church named John, and his son is gay, and he really struggles with that. When I first met him and he talked about his son, I actually thought that he had a substance abuse issue the way that he spoke about him. But John showed up at our church looking for a safe place to wrestle, and so our staff all agreed that we were going to give him that, that we were going to walk alongside of him. And so we listened a lot more than we spoke. We had worship with him. The gay people on staff had an opportunity to share our testimonies and our stories with him. And he joined our church a few months ago, and in the fall he's going to be leading an adult Bible study.

I don't think that John and I see the world the same way all the time, and I think that he still struggles with his son's identity. But there's something so holy about John coming forward to the communion table, and I, a gay pastor, the same age as his son, extend the body and the blood of Christ to him. And he sees the image of God in me. I see the image of God in him, and I know that he can see the image of God in his son more clearly. Peter represents the church. He's the rock, and we see a transformed Peter, one from cowardice to boldness, because Jesus was willing to sit on the beach with him, have a relationship with him, and restore him. And as the church, we have an opportunity to build really holy relationships with people who don't always understand us and that we don't fully understand either.

What that doesn't mean is that we have to subject ourselves to trauma and harm in order to maintain a relationship. You know, John is a success story in our church, but for every one John, there's three people who have sent in an email and said that they can't come back to church because there's gay people on staff. And I just, when I see those people out in public, I say, "Hi, how are you doing?" and I go, I move on with my day. But if and when it's possible, reaching across the divide to love your neighbor is a huge catalyst for change, and it sounds so easy, and it's so hard, but it's what Jesus calls us to do.

So the crowd in our story wants to know, what does all of this mean that these people are speaking in languages that they don't know? What does it mean to see what I'm seeing at Pentecost? And I think that that's a great question to ask. What does it mean that queer people who have been excluded from the church are being called to preach? What does it mean that Peter could be restored as the rock? What does it mean that people can repent of their homophobia and become advocates for their gay neighbors?

Well, according to Peter, what it means is that Jesus is alive, and that death was no match for the power of God. Peter uses a passage from the prophet Joel, and he changes up some of it to make a new point. What Joel says is, "Even upon slaves, both men and women, in those days I'll pour out my spirit." But Peter adds a few things. Peter says, "Even upon my slaves, both men and women, in those days I'll pour out my spirit, and they shall prophesy." So Peter is taking this prophecy, and he's making a new point that God is drawing all kinds of people to the table of God. All flesh, the spirit is pouring out itself on all flesh. Every nationality, every gender, every social status, every orientation, we can all be reconciled. We can all be restored. We can all be the people that God created us to be. We can take pride in who we are, because Jesus is alive, and his spirit has been poured out on you and on me.

So what is it that the Holy Spirit wants you to do? I don't know the answer to that question, but I know that none of us can sit by and do nothing. So my prayer this week and always is that we would walk in the boldness of Pentecost and allow the spirit that's been poured out on us to transform us so that we can transform this world into a place where all flesh can thrive in the kingdom of God. Amen.