“One in the Spirit”
Gen. 11:1-9 and Acts 2:1-21
Pastor Deb Troester, STHPC, September 8, 2024
This past week, we were saddened to hear of another school shooting. I would say “shocked,” but this type of incident is far too common to shock us anymore. Two students and two teachers in Georgia were killed and nine others were wounded. A fourteen-year-old boy is accused of the murders. The boy’s father gave him the gun he used to commit the crime, a military assault-style weapon, as a Christmas gift, even after the child had been investigated for making online threats. Yet there is a deeper problem here – one of loneliness and isolation. If this boy had had more friends, more social contacts, would he have carried out this heinous crime? Too often the perpetrators of such evil turn out to be loners, lonely and cut-off from social interaction. We don’t know if that was the case this week, but it is a common scenario.
Our culture has long held the ideal of the rugged individual - self-sufficient, independent, who lives by his own rules. Our movies are full of such characters: think of a John Wayne western, or more recently John Wick. We admire the self-made man who controls his own destiny.
But does this Hollywood hero stereotype translate well into reality? Over the past couple of decades we have seen the darker side of this so-called “rugged individual” ideal emerge. With the advent of social media, more and more people have become “loners,” withdrawn from real-life interactions. The pandemic intensified the loneliness and isolation many people were already feeling.
Just last year Surgeon General Vivek Murthy declared that loneliness and isolation have become an epidemic with many negative health consequences. The Surgeon General’s advisory states that people with “poor or insufficient [social] connection” have “a 29% increased risk of heart disease, a 32% increased risk of stroke, and a 50% increased risk of developing dementia for older adults. Lacking social connection increases risk of premature death by more than 60%.” Young people are most likely to suffer from loneliness, with a recent American Psychiatric Association poll finding that 30% of Americans aged 18-34 said they were lonely every day or several times a week.
In his book Together: The Healing Power of Human Connection in a Sometimes Lonely World, the Surgeon General warns that “severely lonely people are so preoccupied with their own emotions that they have little energy for empathy… In severe cases, loneliness and disconnection lead to reactivity and even trigger violence.” In our culture, loneliness, division, anger, and resentment seem to be everywhere. Even when people get together, we divide ourselves into “tribes” and are quick to criticize and even demonize those who don’t agree with our group’s point of view. We seem to have lost the capacity to empathize with those who are different from us.
This is an ancient problem. Look at the story of the Tower of Babel. Teri Ott, editor of Presbyterian Outlook describes it this way: “Power-hungry people seeking to make a name for themselves, building a tower to heaven, acting as if they are God. Chaos. Confusion. Division.” She continues, comparing the events of Genesis to today: “We are a scattered and increasingly disconnected people.
We are living in a state of confusion and chaos.” Somebody has said that the Tower of Babel is like Facebook: everybody is talking and nobody is listening.
Our second scripture is the familiar Pentecost story. At first glance it seems that there is just more confusion and chaos – a mighty swirling wind, tongues of fire, people speaking in many languages. But if we look more closely we see that people are not only speaking, but listening – the Holy Spirit has enabled them to communicate across linguistic and cultural boundaries. The Holy Spirit will always encourage us to communicate with others. Even though there are people of many nations and languages present, the message they are hearing is the same: a message of God’s love and forgiveness, of reconciliation and hope. The Holy Spirit has descended and is bringing together people who thought they had little in common. Out of this diversity, the Spirit is creating the Church. The Pentecost story is the reverse of the Tower of Babel – instead of chaos and division, God brings unity. The Spirit has come to heal the divisions between peoples, tribes and nations,
to restore unity to humankind, connection and relationship between individuals, and reconciliation between humanity and God.
For in the church we are meant to love one another, to listen to one another, to work together to build the Kingdom of God. This is what Jesus meant when he said, “By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:35). As the song says, “They’ll know we are Christians by our love.” This love was seen in the early church. The Roman emperor Julian once said, “Those Christians take better care of those who are in need than we do. They not only take care of their own, but they care for any Roman, Christian or not.” I wonder if that could be said of us? Or have we, too, been infected by the idea that each of us is an island, cut off from the mainland, free to do as we wish, not beholden to anyone… but lonely?
This way of thinking does great harm. We become accustomed to thinking we can do as we please, without regard to others. When it gets into the church, we think it is optional whether or not we participate in worship and fellowship,
that going to church is just one more choice in the smorgasbord of activities available to us on a Sunday morning. If a particular congregation doesn’t meet our needs, we feel free to move to another without trying to do anything to improve it. This is a consumer-oriented attitude toward church that doesn’t require any commitment on our part, and I’m afraid it’s really prevalent. We have forgotten that we are a family. We have forgotten the Apostle Paul’s admonition to the Roman Christians: “Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.”
But I am thankful that when I look out into this congregation, I see a group of people committed to our church, willing to work to improve things, happy to serve others and even to give sacrificially so that the work of God’s kingdom can continue. I see a group of people who view each other as family – or close to family anyway. Thank you. I do not take you for granted. You are on the right track. Keep on keeping on. To quote the Apostle Paul again, “So let us not grow weary in doing what is right, for we will reap at harvest time, if we do not give up.”
Not only will we be rewarded in some distant future, but there are actual tangible rewards to be reaped right now. As Surgeon General Vivek Murthy wrote, “Our relationships are a source of healing and well-being hiding in plain sight – one that can help us live healthier, more fulfilled, and more productive lives.” The church is one of the best places to develop these relationships with others, including others who may be very different from us. Look around at the others here and ask yourself, “If I hadn’t met this person at church, would I know him or her at all?” We are blessed with a diversity of people in our congregation that enriches our lives and our understanding of others from different backgrounds. We are a witness to the unity God’s Holy Spirit brings.
For those looking for tangible rewards from church participation, according to studies from Harvard, Mayo Clinic, and elsewhere, religious service attendance is associated with greater longevity, less depression, less suicide, less smoking, less substance abuse, better disease survival, less divorce, greater social support, and greater life satisfaction. Compared to those who never attend religious services, studies have found that regular attenders have a 29% reduced risk of depression, 33% reduced risk of death, 50% reduced risk of divorce, and 84% reduced risk of suicide. So just by being here today, I daresay even on Zoom, you are doing something good for your health!
But of course, we are not here just for ourselves. If there is anything the story of the Tower of Babel teaches us, it is that when we strive to make a big name for ourselves, it leads to disunity and disaster. But at Pentecost, the Spirit came down to unite us so that we might work together for the healing of the world. Here at Pentecost we see how the Holy Spirit brings disparate people together in service to God and to one another. As the song reminds us, “We are One in the Spirit.”
Is there anything we can do to open ourselves up more to the work of the Holy Spirit in the church? There are a couple of clues here in Acts. Verse 1 says, “they were all together in one place.” It doesn’t say that they agreed on every detail of doctrine. It doesn’t say that they always got along with each other or never disagreed. They were all together in one place – despite their differences.
If we stick together, God can work with us. It’s kind of like marriage – we may argue from time to time, but if we remain committed and work things out, we can stay together for a lifetime and we will find that our love and commitment grows. It is like that in the church.
The other clue is in Acts 1:14 “All these were constantly devoting themselves to prayer.” They were praying together. I like our prayer time, when we share our joys and concerns. It is important that we pray for one another and for our world. Let’s also pray for our church. When we pray, it opens a pathway for the Holy Spirit to work in our lives and in the lives of those around us. I find that when I pray about a problem, God will often place a possible solution before me. Also, those we pray for, we begin to love, if we don’t already. That is why Jesus tells us, “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.” It is hard to hate someone you are praying for.
So the advice from Acts – pray together, worship together, spend time together – is a path to allowing the Holy Spirit to work.
As we read more from the Book of Acts this fall, let’s try to trace the work of the Holy Spirit in the early church and see how it might help us today to grow into the church we want to be – the church God wants us to be. May we be known as a church filled with the Holy Spirit, and with love. Amen.
©Deborah Troester 2024