Be of Good Courage: Reflections on Pentecost

 

RCL Pentecost A

28 May 2023

 

Holy Trinity Anglican Cathedral

New Westminster BC

 

         In the summer of 1995 I found myself being asked at the last minute to preach on Pentecost in a three-point parish in the Ottawa region.  I was part of a group being hosted by the rector of the parish who, three days before our visit, had been stricken with what her physician said was the worst case of laryngitis he had ever encountered.  Because of its severity she had been directed to remain pretty much silent for ten days.

 

         Even though I had preached on Pentecost on more than one occasion, I found myself a bit anxious.  Major feasts such as Pentecost require some preparation, perhaps re-visiting biblical commentaries on the readings.  But I was far from home and did not have access to resources that I would usually consult.

 

         In part my anxiety stemmed from the fact that I had grown up in the 1960’s and 1970’s when the Episcopal Church in the United States was embroiled in a controversy over the Holy Spirit, a controversy associated with the charismatic renewal.  The same controversy stirred up the waters of the Anglican Church of Canada.

 

         Without going into too much detail, the controversy centred on a simple question:  How do we know when the Holy Spirit is working in the church?  What are the signs of the Spirit’s presence?  There were those Anglicans, influenced by the Pentecostal movement that began in the early 1900’s, who believed that the Spirit was surely present when people spoke in tongues, when healing ministries were active, when people spoke prophetic messages.  Growing up in the Diocese of Colorado where the charismatic renewal had a significant presence meant navigating these controversies wherever one went.

 

         But as I prepared for that Pentecost in 1995, I realized what I believed was the most certain sign of the Spirit’s presence.  It was not tongues, miracles and prophecy, though these are signs.  It was not worship that engaged the heart more than the mind, though this is a false dichotomy.  The surest sign of the Spirit’s presence is when Christians face the challenges of the present with courage.

 

Jesus said to his disciples, “The hour is coming, indeed it has come, when you will be scattered, each one to his home, and you will leave me alone.  Yet I am not alone because the Father is with me.  I have said this to you so that in me you may have peace.  In the world you face persecution, but take courage:  I have conquered the world!” (John 16.32-33 NRSVue)

 

         Let’s look a bit closer at the story of Pentecost in the Acts of the Apostles.  When the leaders of the apostolic community are gathered, they are not ignorant of the mission and ministry of Jesus.  They have been with him for three years.  They have heard his teaching in many times and places.  They are witnesses to the resurrection.  They have spent forty days in his risen presence.  But they are still huddled for safety in that same upper room where he broke the bread and poured the wine.  

 

It’s not for want of knowledge that they hide.  It’s not for want of experience that they hide.  They are afraid and their fear renders them silent.  I’m sure that they had hoped that Jesus would stay and continue to be physically present among them.  But he had ascended and he had entrusted his mission and ministry to them.  He had promised that he would send them the Paraclete, the Advocate, to enable them to do what he had asked them, his friends, to do.

 

The Spirit descends upon them and the apostles can no longer remain silent.  Their fears are real.  There are those in the Jewish community who think that the apostolic community is delusional at best, heretical at worst.  The religious leadership has managed to smear Jesus as a political and religious revolutionary whose followers constituted a threat to the Roman imperial government.  But despite these ‘real and present dangers’, Peter and his colleagues step out and speak out.  And from that moment everything changes and a movement begins that has led to this day, to this congregation, to you and me as friends of Jesus.

 

Courage is not the absence of fear.  Courage is the choice to face our fears, our doubts, our hesitations, because we have hope in God’s purpose for us and a vision for the future God has set before us.  Courage empowers both individuals and communities.  Courage enables us to do what needs to be done, even if we cannot yet see the outcome.

 

In every generation Christians have needed to call upon the Spirit to give us courage.  We have need of that gift now.  Last week Conwest, our development partner, informed us that it is withdrawing from the residential construction business.  They will finish two projects currently in construction but not continue their involvement with our project.  Although this decision is not an unusual one in the development world, it comes as a blow to us.  Conwest is committed to working with us to identify a construction partner who will take over the project.  The Property Development Committee is meeting this week and we will consider how best to proceed.  I recognize how Conwest’s decision generates anxiety and apprehension, but there are also reasons for hope.

 

·      Conwest and our consultant, Terra Housing, are identifying potential partners.

·      We are through the costly and difficult municipal approval process.  We have a project that will be shovel-ready once the necessary permits are issued.

·      We have a supportive Bishop and Diocesan Council who are committed to seeing this project reach fruition.

·      We have had setbacks before but have the perseverance and vision to continue.

 

So that we can take counsel together, I am calling a Parish Town Hall for Sunday, 11 June 2023, to discuss our property development, to answer questions and to do some work to assist our Search Committee.  Together, with the Spirit’s help, we will map a way forward.

 

         In 1930, at a time when the United States and the industrial world, was in the midst of the Great Depression, Henry Emerson Fosdick wrote a hymn that has resonated for more than ninety years.  Even though Fosdick was the pastor of Riverside Church in New York City, a church built with a multi-million-dollar donation from John D. Rockefeller Jr., he was a champion of what’s known as the ‘social gospel’, a commitment to the needs of urban poor and racial justice.  He was widely praised and just as widely condemned.  But he knew what his congregation needed; he knew what we needed. [1]

 

God of grace and God of glory,

on your people pour your power;

now fulfil your church’s story;

bring its bud to glorious flower.

Grant us wisdom, grant us courage,

for the facing of this hour,

for the facing of this hour. [2]

 

Fosdick lived to see the end of the Depression, achieved only after great sacrifices and a world war.  But the pulpit of Riverside Church continues to this day to be a place from which a message of justice and inclusion is preached.

 

         We have served New Westminster since 1859.  We’ve burnt down twice and built thrice.  We’ve endured the moving of the provincial capital to Victoria and the re-location of the Bishop’s chair to Christ Church.  We had to re-start our property redevelopment when our first development partner was not up to the task.  We had to re-tool our hoped-for affordable housing plans when BC Housing chose not to fund our project.  We rode the rough water of COVID and municipal legislative process and achieved what had eluded us for years.

 

We’re a bit floppy at the joints.  But we are still here.  We’re a touch worried and uncertain.  But we are still here.  We may be ‘ . . . wearied by the changes and chances of this life . . . ‘.  But we are still here.  On this Pentecost we pray for wisdom and for courage, confident in our faith that we will find a way to continue to gather, to be transformed and to be sent forth to proclaim the good news of God in Christ.  Because God knows – and we know – there is work to be done in this place and in these times.  God of grace and God of glory, grant us wisdom, grant us courage, for the facing of this hour.

 

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[1] Drawn from https://www.umcdiscipleship.org/resources/history-of-hymns-god-of-grace-and-god-of-glory.

 

[2] ‘God of Grace and God of Glory’, Common Praise 577.