October 27, 2019 – Joel 2:23-32
Joel 2:23-32
Spirit of Inclusion and Diversity
Lectionary 30C – October 27, 2019 – Reformation Sunday
[New Member Sunday]
First Lutheran Church – Winnipeg, MB
You are now part of God’s dream. Today: you are part of God’s dream.
God’s dream has been to gather God’s people from distant places and give them a home.
Do not fear, says God in Isaiah, for I am with you;
I will bring your children from the east and gather you from the west.
Over and over we read of God’s dream of gathering the people together.
You can find almost identical words in Deuteronomy, in Ezekiel, in Jeremiah, in Hosea and
Nehemiah and Micah and Zephaniah and the Psalms.
I will gather you. It’s a promise.
And in Joel, this morning we have the even greater promise of what will happen when
all God’s people are gathered together: God’s very own Spirit will be given to them.
God’s energy for loving will be given to this gathered people.
Only together can they love bless heal and feed this whole world and every person in it.
Only together can they fulfill this dream.
And today, on New Member Sunday, you are all part of God’s dream.
Fifty days after Jesus was raised from the dead,
people from across the world were gathered in Jerusalem.
And what was promised by the prophet Joel this morning happened.
God’s Holy Spirit – the same Spirit that was at work in Jesus – came to the people gathered.
And it filled them.
And from that moment on the community of the church found its purpose in
doing all the same things Jesus did: feeding the hungry, befriending the lonely,
healing the sick, forgiving the sinful, and even raising the dead to life.
God’s dream was coming true.
The Holy Spirit was given to a community that was gathered by God from the ends of the earth.
Today: you are part of God’s dream coming true.
Today, God has gathered a community from the ends of the earth.
From the Philippines, says God, I will gather you.
From Iceland and Gimli, says God, I will gather you.
From Ontario and the Congo and Jamaica I will gather you.
From St. James and the West End of Winnipeg, says God, I will gather you.
From Edmonton and Saskatoon and Lethbridge, I will gather you.
From South Sudan and United Arab Emirates and Bangladesh, says God, I will gather you.
And then I will give you my Spirit. Because I will gather you for a purpose.
Apparently, in Joel’s understanding, the Spirit that is poured out on the gathered community
can only be poured out on a very diverse community.
God’s dream is of a very very diverse community working together.
I will pour out my Spirit, says God, on all flesh, says God this morning.
Women and men, girls and boys, young and old, slaves and free:
that is the kind of community within which my Spirit can live and breathe.
In Joel’s vision and in what happened on the Day of Pentecost, all languages,
all people’s experiences, and all cultures are honoured by the Holy Spirit.
On Reformation Sunday we don’t really honour something that happened long ago in Germany.
We honour something the Spirit continues to do: the Spirit continues to re-form the church to
Communicate the good news of God’s love for all people more effectively.
This re-forming of the church is happening right now –
it is happening this morning at Sargent and Victor
And what better way could there possibly be to honour the Reformation Heritage than
what we are doing on this New Member Sunday?
The church at its best embraces people of all different ethnicities and nationalities,
as well as people from all socio-economic backgrounds and ages.
It embraces those of both genders as well as – as we see in the story of
the Ethiopian eunuch in Acts – those of uncertain gender or who are differently gendered.
In Joel’s vision and Luke’s experience, everyone has a place.
Everyone’s experiences are honoured.
Because everyone has God at work in their lives.
And so everyone has a ministry.
And everyone is welcome at the table.
While being “different” is often considered bad in our culture,
Joel and Luke name it good – and they invite us to consider difference differently.
They invite us to consider it enriching.
“I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh,” says God in Joel: not some flesh – but all flesh.
Not in order to make everyone the same, writes Isaac Villegas,
“but to affirm all flesh, to affirm where they came from, to bless who they are,
to announce that what makes them different is good and holy.”
(https://www.christiancentury.org/blog-post/sundays-coming/unconverted-difference-acts-21-21)
This is a Day of Pentecost for our congregation.
God has gathered us literally from the ends of the earth and given us the Holy Spirit.
Together we are better. Together we are stronger. Diversity is our strength.
If we are all created in God’s image,
then the more diverse we are the more we can reflect what God truly looks like.
And here’s the thing: the Spirit we are given is ultimately a Spirit of love.
So let us use that Spirit – it is given to us. Let us love one another, as Jesus commands.
Let us take that Spirit and honour one another by listening to one another’s stories.
Let us enter into one another’s experiences in a Spirit of Friendship.
Let us care for one another and make one another strong.
So that together – together – we can fulfill our purpose, which is just this:
energized by the Spirit, together let us work for God’s mission to love and bless
this whole world and every person in it.
Each of you is making this day special by just being you.
Each of you has been gathered here by God.
Each of you has a place here and each of you has a home here.
Together, you have the Holy Spirit. Together, you now are Jesus’ body on earth.
Together, today, you are part of God’s dream coming true. So together, let us say, “Amen.”
Pastor Michael Kurtz
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