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Acts 2, 1-21 & John 7, 37-39
Today is Pentecost. St Luke suggests in the Acts of the Apostles that the coming of the Spirit on the first Christian Pentecost is the reversal of Babel, when human language was confused and people scattered. Divided languages are reunited, what was scattered as a result of human sin - the ability of the human race to understand one another - was restored.
The disciples were, we have just heard, gathered in one place. United no doubt in common confusion about the departure of the Lord, but otherwise disorganised, chaotic, unclear about the future and what hope there might be for the continuation of the mission of Jesus.
"Gathered in one place." That’s a pretty good interpretation of what St Luke wrote, even though he didn’t, strictly speaking, mention being in one place, as a matter of geographical location. Rather he said twice (emphatically) that they were together "When they were together, united with each other" is pretty much the sense. Then it was that the amazing gift descended.
There are I think two specific dogmatic consequences to be drawn from this. The first is that we are entirely dependent on the grace of God to communicate with each other. Second however, that we can, so to speak, place ourselves in the best position to receive God’s grace. This "best position" has to be "together". It was only when they were together that the apostles received the Holy Spirit. It was only when they were together that they received the gift that enabled them to speak every language and thus to proclaim the gospel to every nation.
The Church of Jesus Christ is quite simply that kind of body.
It is fundamental to Christianity that Christ died for all, that all might reconciled with God, and, in consequence, with each other.
It is central to our understanding that it is only reconciliation with God that can bring reconciliation between people. That is, I rather take for granted, at least in present company, so obvious that we do not need to explain it.
That having been said, what does this mean in terms of the aims of Christian Aid and its partners in support of the needy of the world?
We do not of course think that any attempts we may make on earth to reflect God’s impartial generosity and (his rather more discriminatory) forgiveness will actually bring about God’s kingdom. We do however believe that every effort God’s people make on earth to image or reflect the justice of God’s kingdom is a real sign of that kingdom.
So it is against that background that we do our best to support those in need throughout the world. Well, of course, all, everywhere in the world, are in need. But there is a particular responsibility on Christians, who, with others who share this aspect if not the whole of our faith, have a vision that human dignity is not only because God gives it to us but above all because we bear his image and are called to share his life - or even, as St Peter puts it, "to share his nature".
Whenever we gather round the table of the Lord for the most characteristic Christian act, the Eucharist, we know we are not only God’s creatures, made in his image, but also the brothers and sisters of his incarnate son, the word made flesh.
In the Hebrew Bible, the scriptures of our older Jewish brothers and sisters, it is made clear beyond doubt not only that ultimately God’s promises are for everyone and that every particular promise to his chosen people is a sign of his promise to all people, but also that those promises carry obligations with them.
What God has given equally to all, we who control the lion’s share of what has been given to all must learn to share with all - this is not a matter of charity (as popularly understood) but of truth or even of faith.
Indeed truth and faith must always and ultimately be what control behaviour. We should behave because what we believe and for no other reason.
So, my Christian friends, joined for this evening’s ecumenical service of prayer, I invite you to pray with me first that those who say they believe in or follow Jesus Christ may grow together and learn to express together, the truth that sets us free, and, second, that we might learn together the moral consequences that follow from it.
So, belatedly, let me take as the text for this sermon a scriptural text from another reading. It is from the book Leviticus, perhaps the clearest possible explication of how our beliefs should inform our behaviour.
You shall not reap to the very edges of your field, or gather the gleanings of your harvest. You shall not strip your vineyard bare, or gather the fallen grapes of your vineyard; you shall leave them for the poor and the alien. I am the Lord your God.
Well, that, as I say, really is that is the text for this sermon. Actually, that’s a fib: that text is the sermon.
The moral teaching of the older part of the Christian scriptures, which we share with Jews and Muslims, is unambiguous. Our behaviour towards other people must be determined by the way God has treated us. We were slaves in the land of Egypt and God set us free. God led us through the wilderness and settled us in the land of plenty which we enjoy today. Therefore our behaviour towards the alien, the immigrant, the stranger, the former slave must be determined by the way God has behaved towards us. There may be several possibilities for the way we may properly handle his, and indeed how modern governments may respond, but Christians do not have a choice about their moral starting point, which simply has to be in the graciousness of God towards those who did not exist but whom God created and towards those who had no right to his forgiveness and mercy to whom he sent his son and his spirit.
There may, as I say, be a number of different ways in which this obligation may be expressed in terms of political and economic policies: but the principles are non-negotiable. The prosperity of a particular country, the advantages of a particular political or economic system, are not the point. What is the point is that every human being should have the best possible opportunity to enjoy the fruits of this life to learn and to be able to enjoy the next, where no distinctions of wealth, culture, advantage or anything else will count, but only the grace and above all the life of God himself.
+John Hind
Chichester Pentecost 2005