Pentecost: Healing Our Country from Political Partisanship.

Acts 2:1-21

Rev. Dr. Niveen Sarras

Pentecost: Healing Our Country from Political Partisanship.

May 31, 2020

Grace and peace to you.

Partisan politics is polarizing the United States. Around the country, partisanship allegiance is fracturing relationships at the level of the family and community. Churches are not immune to this problem. Instead of churches participating in healing this fraction, they are coming apart over politics. Many pastors are feeling the weight of the political partisanship that has divided their congregation during the COVID-19 pandemic. Political polarization and extreme partisanship have divided the country into two parties defined by race, wealth, and geographic groups. This division has impacted the church’s life, and many people feel more suspicious of one another. What a mess we have gotten ourselves into.

 

Healing is what we urgently need. We need God to heal our land from the coronavirus, to heal our broken relationships, and the wounds of division. The Holy Spirit has the power to resist the sin of division and heal our brokenness. The Holy Spirit seeks to reconcile us with one another.

 

Today we celebrate the birthday of our church. Pentecost is derived from the Greek word for "fifty." It occurred 50 days after Jesus' resurrection.  On this holy day, the Jews from all over the world gathered in Jerusalem to celebrate God’s gift of the law on Mt. Sinai. God chose that particular gathering to give the disciples the gift of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit appeared as “Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. 4 All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability” (vv. 3-4). The disciples spoke the languages of many nations. The Pentecost was a sign of God’s desire to bring all nations, races, and religions to God’s family. The Pentecost was and is still an event that brought reconciliation to the divided world. The Holy Spirit seeks to make us one despite our differences.

 

On the day of Pentecost, God proclaims that the kingdom of God is against extreme partisanship and political polarization. There is room for love, forgiveness, and diversity in the kingdom of God. There is no room for bigotry and prejudice, but only room for compassion and tolerance. The church is called to advance the kingdom of God on earth and to reflect Christ’s glory in this divided and wounded world. Our Lord Jesus Christ is seeking partners to work with him to heal this broken world.

 

How do you know that the Holy Spirit inspires you in your relationship with your neighbor? If you carry the fruit of the Holy Spirit, then you are led and inspired by the spirit of God. According to the apostle Paul’s letter to the Galatians, the fruit of the Holy Spirit is “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, and self-control” (vv. 22-23).

 

 As we give the Holy Spirit more control in our lives, the Holy Spirit shapes and transforms us to become more like Christ. The Holy Spirit helps us to reject political polarization and bigotry and leads us to work together toward reconciliation. The fruit of the Holy Spirit inspires us to welcome and to respect our neighbor, who has a different opinion than ours. When we open our hearts to the work of the Holy Spirit, we find ourselves living according to the Golden Rule  in Matthew 7:12 “In everything do to others as you would have them do to you; for this is the law and the prophets.”