Unity in a disunited kingdom

It feels as though we are living in a society that is becoming more and more divided and separate. As a nation we are politically divided with strong views on either side of every issue. We seem to be culturally divided too. Everyone is speaking their own “truths”, everyone is creating their own unique identity. It feels sometimes that we are all speaking our own unique and separate languages.

Our modern lifestyles seem geared up to encourage this separation from each other.

In the ‘old days’ when I was young, we used to hear about music and new artists through shared experiences, watching Top of the Pops on TV or listening to a radio chart show. Today, we stream music on our devices and the technology we use creates a unique playlist for every individual listener. You will be recommended new artists to listen to based on your previous listening habits. And so, everyone has their own separate music catalogue.

When we shop online, computer cookies remember what we last searched for and then offer us adverts tailored specifically to us. Our own experience, separate from the experience of everyone else.

Most people don’t watch TV in real time anymore. We watch TV on demand or stream TV shows and movies on Netflix. Our viewing experience is uniquely individual and separate from the viewing experiences of our neighbours.

We know that social media algorithms ensure that everyone gets their own bespoke news and information. Following Brexit and the election of Donald Trump we discovered that internet robots were being used to spread false information or ‘fake news’ on social media. Computer programmes disguised as real people and designed to create stir up anger and encouraging an unpleasant and aggressive online culture. Deliberately designed to create more and more disunity in society by pitting communities against each other. Rich against poor, workers against unemployed, Brexiter against Remainer, black against white.

I’m not such a technophobe that I’m suggesting that all these technical innovations are bad in and of themselves. Our modern way of life offers so much convenience and potential. But it also has had the consequence of making our experiences become ever separate and individual from the experiences of our friends and neighbours and fellow countrymen.

It encourages tribalism, when it is so easy to unfriend or block anyone who doesn’t share our opinion and views of the world. People can sit in a Twitter or Youtube echo chamber, only watching and hearing from people whose views align with theirs. The world’s current emphasis on identity politics creates division when we group people into separate boxes based on one or two characteristics of who they are, rather than focusing on the common humanity we all share.

And so these changes in our world have helped to increase divisions between people and their communities.

Events like the Queen’s jubilee this weekend, are perhaps rare occasions nowadays where the whole population participates in a somewhat shared experience.

Yet, it still might feel to many that, in this world of I-phones, I-pads, and selfies, it is so easy to be together in one place but disunited from each other in so many ways. All speaking our own unique language.

This is what made today’s reading from Acts Chapter 2 so significant to me when I read it again this last week. In the passage we see the remnants of Jesus’ followers sitting in an upper room together.

They are gathered perhaps fearful of more attacks from Roman soldiers and the religious leaders, who had worked together to crucify Jesus.

But they are also gathered together in a shared hope. They have seen the resurrected Saviour. And before He left them, He told them to wait in Jerusalem until the promised Holy Spirit arrived.

That day in Jerusalem, Jews from all over the ancient world were observing Pentecost. This is a Jewish festival that celebrates the first fruits of the harvest and also remembers Moses receiving the Ten Commandments.

The Roman soldiers stationed in Jerusalem must have been out in force to police this annual festival. Religious observers from every nation crowded the city and – after the recent crucifixions - the soldiers must have been on the lookout to make sure there were no more troublemakers like Jesus in the crowds to cause any more unrest.

The people gathered in that upper room were made up of a bunch of very different people. Fishermen sat with tax collectors. Former prostitutes, former political revolutionaries, rich people and poor people. Young and old. Educated and uneducated. But despite their differences they all shared one thing in common, they had followed Jesus and they were united, waiting together expectantly for what He had promised.

And when the Holy Spirit was poured out on them. God’s Spirit gave them new abilities to communicate the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the international crowds outside. Pathians, Medes, Elamites, Mesopotamians, Judeans, Asians, Egyptians, Africans, Arabs, Romans and Greeks – each person heard the early church members speaking in their native language. The Holy Spirit enabled them to communicate God’s message to each individual in the crowd, no matter what unique language they spoke.

This was a spectacular event. An amazing and perplexing miracle. “Are not all these who are speaking Galileans?”, “What does this mean?”

Yes, some in the crowd mocked. Some accused the disciples of being drunk. But all heard a unified message. All heard the truth. All heard what God had done for each individual standing there. In Jesus, God suffered the punishment for the sins and wrong doings of all humanity. Then He offers to adopt us all as His own children, placing His Spirit in us at Baptism as confirmation that “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.”

Today, as we look back at the Pentecost festival that marked the start of the first Christian church – can we imagine ourselves in the disciples position?

Perhaps its not too difficult to imagine. Maybe we, as a church, as Christian individuals, are feeling – battered, frightened, cowed, nervous, and fearful of boldly declaring the unpopular Gospel message.

Yet we come here week after week as witnesses to the truth of the Gospel. As witnesses of the power of God that has transformed our own lives.

We are witnesses of the Good News of salvation that has given us forgiveness and hope.

The Holy Spirit is within us. Each time we read the bible we experience the Spirit of Truth shining a light on the parts of our lives that don’t please our Heavenly Father. The Holy Spirit daily challenges us to change our ways of thinking and behaving that are still not aligned with who God, our Father is.

Today, we have heard about the birth of the church in Jerusalem but can their story of unity and hope inspire us here in St Paul’s Church/the Church of the Good Shepherd? Pentecost has come and we have the Holy Spirit in us, so what can we do to honour God in our individualised world?

Firstly, we can follow their example of unity:

As different as we all are as individuals, as different as our personalities are, we share one unified message of the works of God in common. Is our Faith strong enough for us to overlook the petty differences or irritations that can and do arise between us and instead to come together as one?

Secondly, like the church in Acts, we can raise our expectations:

Psalm 104 says that all of creation looks to God for good things in the right season. Are we – as individuals and as a church – looking to God and expecting Him to bring something good to us in this time we are living in today?

Or are we allowing ourselves to be swept along with the spirit of this age? The negativity, fear and lack of hope for the future we hear on the news every day.

What would we do if right now the sound of a violent wind blew through this church building? If we looked around and really saw each other as brothers and sisters who contain the Spirit of God within us? Let’s raise our expectations that we will see God’s power at work in our lives and the lives of the people in our community.

Finally, will we, like the first church members, allow the Holy Spirit that fills us to work through us?

What action will the Spirit move us to carry out in our communities, our homes and work places?

We are promised that in the last days God will pour out His Spirit on all flesh. Giving us visions, dreams, and the ability to prophesy.

Today, might we open our hearts and minds up to allow the Holy Spirit to refill us and breathe new life and new power into our faith?

Will we listen for where the Spirit is blowing? Share in the dreams that God want to make a reality in our community?

Which ‘lost cause’ marriage or dead situation is He waiting to transform and renew? What is His vision for our town, our city, our nation?

Will we allow the Spirit to give us the ability to speak God’s words into our own lives and the lives of the people around us? To enable us to connect with those who feel disconnected. To speak to people in their own unique language in a world that is in danger of becoming more and more separate.

Can we prophesy unity instead of division? Promote peace in our conversations when others are focusing of blame, hatred and anger? Respond to the challenges and people we encounter with love and not fear?

Today, in an age where it is so easy to drift into individualism, we must work even harder together to create more unity. Praying together, meeting together, forgiving each other our offenses.

Envisioning new ways we can use the technology available to us to connect with people and share God’s powerful message of unrelenting love.

If we open ourselves to God’s Spirit, He will make the impossible happen. Transforming our hearts and making us into more patient, forgiving, and loving people, especially towards those we find it most difficult to like, let alone love.

Just like the church of Acts. The Holy Spirit will give us the boldness to declare the Good News. We will be enabled to share the truth of God’s works of power, His overwhelming love that gives His own life to save us from judgement and despair. We will be empowered to encourage a dream, share a vision for the future that contradicts the despair we hear daily on the news. To bring light and kindness to our neighbours when they are in a dark place.

Yes, just like the disciples experienced, many will reject this message, many will mock, many will accuse falsely. But – as Paul tells the Romans (8:14-17) – the Spirit bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, and Paul warns us that we will suffer the rejection, mockery and false accusations that Jesus himself suffered. The good news is that we will also be glorified with him.

So, this Pentecost morning, let’s imitate the first church and be united, expectant and willing to receive God’s Spirit with power.

Trusting that when we do, God will enable us to connect in a disconnected world and transform us so that our whole lives are truly speaking the universal language of God’s sacrificial love to everyone we come into contact with.