Pentecost and Oneness

May 9, 2005

On the day of Pentecost, (Acts 2) God gave the church the Gift of the Holy Spirit. The Bible records that disciples and seekers were all in ONE place, at ONE time, in ONE accord, sharing their meager possessions as if they were ONE family. (There is a four-point sermon!) In that environment, God’s Spirit fell upon them as tongues of fire (symbolized in our United Methodist logo), transcending ethnic, religious, language, and cultural barriers. Upon receiving the Gift of the Holy Spirit, the disciples miraculously began to speak in different languages so that all the foreigners gathered in Jerusalem were able to hear the Gospel in their native language. Many mark the day of Pentecost as the birth of the church.

This Sunday, we have the opportunity to experience Pentecost as few have done since the original day 2000 years ago. Believers from different cultures, languages and denominations will gather at Christ Church to celebrate the Gift of the Holy Spirit. Members of our Anglo and Hispanic United Methodist congregations will join with the members of the predominately Hispanic Iglesia Vida Nueva Evangelical Free and predominantly African-American Exodus Missionary (Southern) Baptist congregations for joint worship.

Yesterday, my text was Jesus' prayer in John 17. In verse 11, Jesus prayed that the disciples would be "one" as Jesus and the Father were "one". It did not take long after Pentecost for the disciples to lose the sense of oneness. They splintered into sectarian groups. Today, we have hundreds of denominations, making the goal of Christian oneness seem impossible.

That realization saddens me; but God helped me see a fundamental truth: Oneness is NOT sameness! We don't all have to look alike, act alike, and worship exactly the same. We don't have to get everyone to sign articles of faith in a vain attempt to keep everyone "orthodox". Each expression of Christianity is itself a gift, bringing to the church universal some aspect of grace.

Jesus continues to be in the barrier-busting business. In him, there is nether male nor female, Jew nor Greek, bond nor slave. Join us Sunday, and experince to joy as we tear down the walls that divide us. For One Day, for God's Sake, let us be ONE!