The Rev. Canon Leonard Hamlin: A Brave New World
I invite you to join me in a word of prayer. Almighty God, we come once again, so ever grateful for this beautiful day. And ask now that you would hold us, cover us, keep us, that you would most of all fill us, for all the places you are preparing to send us. This we ask in your wonderful name. Amen. You may be seated.
Realizing it is Pentecost Sunday, it was just a few weeks ago that I was approached by a member of our Communications Department, in an effort to navigate and participate in this technological, digital, and virtual social reality that we live in. I was asked for major themes of the sermon that I would preach a few weeks later, that I would be offering for you today. They were asking for these themes in an effort to provide some advanced highlights of what was to come. Needless to say, I was surprised by the advanced inquiry and the question.
Knowing it was Pentecost Sunday, I was familiar with the scriptures that would be read and shared. They had already been marked and reviewed. They had been established before me. I had already settled on this subject for the sermon, But I did not have full clarity at that moment the route that I would travel. Put it plainly, my destination had been set, but I had to confess I was still praying about the help I needed to get there. Let me just share something with you. See, as preachers, and I share this truth that my colleagues may smile about as well, even though this is Pentecost Sunday, the relationship that we have with our source of inspiration and the spirit can be funny at times. We do well to have the sermon finalized by Saturday night, for Sunday morning, let alone weeks in advance. But here I am. Better stated, here we are. On Pentecost Sunday, a day affectionately known by some in the church as the birthday of the church. Here we are on this day, Pentecost, when the apostles went out among the people and began spreading Jesus’ message, thus establishing the beginning of the church.
In the very opening line of a pivotal and inspiring publication entitled The Holy Spirit and Preaching, written by James Forbes, who is the senior Minister Emeritus of the Riverside Church, he states, “the person who preaches the gospel makes a statement about the Holy Spirit just by entering the pulpit. Even before the first word is uttered, presuppositions and definitions from across the centuries speak volumes about the spirit led event to be experienced by the preacher and the community of worshipers.”
Whether in this place, whether joining online, that is true that some were talking about the spirit’s presence before I even stood up. Who are waiting and expectingly looking for the spirit to show up and arrive. Here we are as a community of worshipers, as individuals who make up this collective body, this presence that is here in this place and watching and joining us all in different places online, celebrating that something mysterious and miraculous took place in the life of those who gathered centuries ago. Well, I shared in response to the question that was posed to me after having read those scriptures, recognizing that this was Pentecost Sunday, the occasions of baptisms that would take place within the context of this day. That upon entering the pulpit what I would use as a subject and what I wanted to raise before you today was a subject A Brave New World.
There are many things that all of us will remember hearing and reading. And oftentimes I am reminded of some words that were shared in 1976 by the then Texas Senator, Barbara Jordan, being the first African American woman to address any major political here convention. She made an effort to characterize the moment in 1976, she made an effort to characterize the nation and the society by declaring, “We are a people in a quandary about the present. We are a people in search of our future. We are a people in search of a national community. We are a people trying not only to solve the problems of the present, unemployment, inflation, but we are attempting on a larger scale to fulfill the promise of America”. On this Memorial Day weekend, on this Pentecost Sunday, on this day, when we are looking from generation to generation, I’m captured how true these words are still today as much as they were in 1976. Here we are a people trying to solve the problems of the present. Here we are a people in a quandary about the present. Here we are a people in search of a future. These words were spoken years ago, but they still find meaning today as we see the landscape of the current generation in light of another day, of remembering those who served, those who’ve witnessed in the natural as well as in the spiritual.
We must realize that there are moments in all of our lives when dealing with the tensions, the imperfections, and the frustrations that are part of life. Whether looking at the world in which we live or looking at ourselves. At some point we all come to the conclusion: things don’t have to be this way. You may not say it out loud, but I know you’ve whispered it in your own conscience. You’ve told yourself perhaps when looking at the mirror, you’ve uttered these words when listening to news reports that truth be told, as many would say, we are better than that. We have more to offer than what we offer. We are able to do more than what we’ve done. We’re able to accomplish more than what we’ve accomplished. Things don’t have to be the way that they are.
We are here on this day mindful of our savior, Jesus Christ, and his words shared in the gospel of John. Words shared with disciples in an upper room. Words shared behind locked doors. Where fear was the filter for their perception of the world. Fear was what shaped their conclusions about the world. Fear was the filter that directed their actions while they lived in the world. The disciples thoughts must have been wandering and even wondering, about the moments they were experiencing and the events that would unfold before them. And I imagine that many of you, if you are thinking about the world that we live in, your minds are wandering and wondering about the world that we live in today. We are thinking about our lives, our family’s lives, our children’s lives, our children’s children’s lives. And so often as the scriptures characterizes, we are even dreaming about our children’s children’s children’s lives. Having already heard the words that Jesus lifted earlier on the night of his betrayal, the disciples, the men and women who had gathered together on this day, were waiting as directed.
They were waiting in prayer as community. They were waiting in expectation. You may remember the words that were shared on that night of betrayal. Jesus looked at his disciples and said, “I will ask the Father and he will give you another advocate.” And in other translations it says, “Another comforter to help you and be with you forever, the spirit of truth”. But here we are a few moments later and days later where in John’s gospel we hear on one side of the locked door, Jesus standing among the disciples and saying, “Peace be with you” in spite of their fear. Peace, in spite of their worry. Peace, in spite of their concern. Peace, in spite of not knowing what is yet to come and what may be on the other side of the door. Peace.
We hear it not just once, but if you were listening to the gospel that was read, you heard it twice. He said, “Peace unto you”, and he said it again, “Peace be with you and as the father has sent me, I am sending you”. And with that, he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit”. It may be on this day, however, that many of you are more familiar with the record captured by the writer of Acts. As the disciples were all together in one place, as the disciples had assembled together, all of the believers, the men and women, the crowd that were there in that upper room and suddenly, not slowly, suddenly, not quietly, but noisily, suddenly, a violent, mighty rushing wind came blowing through that room. A violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting and all of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the spirit enabled them.
A mighty wind moved through the house, a mighty wind. And there’s something about when the wind blows. There is something fresh that happens when you can imagine a newly opened window in your own home in the springtime, that gives way to fresh air moving through the house. See, when that wind brings vitality, it removes what has been dense and stagnated and stale. It removes the heaviness of the air that’s sitting there. The breath of God’s spirit brought new life to their human spirit because of the Holy Spirit. And suddenly the scene moves from inside the house to outside the house. Suddenly, no longer were they trapped behind a closed door. Suddenly they decided to go out and to engage with the community. Suddenly it wasn’t just about what’s happening with me, it was about what’s happening with all of us. Suddenly it was not just about my own self concern, it’s about our community concern.
Suddenly something changed. The folk who were listening thought they were crazy. The folk who were listening didn’t understand they had some help. And see, when you get help sometimes from other places that causes you to respond in different ways, folk will look at you strange. I use an old example. At one time I was at home in my house. My wife and I were in other rooms, just two rooms separated apart, but happened to be watching Jeopardy at the same time. And as you know, we were watching, as we were listening in Jeopardy going through the categories. I realized after a while I had a five second advance on my TV set. The category came up with Science and Physics, which I know nothing about. But as they started going from 200 to 400, oh, y’all have seen it. Alex Trebek at that time was asking the questions, and sure enough, I started hollering out the answers five seconds before she could hear what the answer was. Not knowing what it was, it got quiet in the other room. Finally, she hollered back, “How do you know all those answers?” I couldn’t keep it to myself. I started laughing because she didn’t realize I was getting help from another source.
Well, let me remind some of you. If you are gonna live a divine life, you’re gonna need help from another source. If you’re gonna love your enemy, if you’re gonna love your neighbor, you are gonna need help from another source. If you are going to do what God has given us to do, we’re all gonna need help. I remind you on this day that as we look at the scriptures with the coming of the Holy Spirit, we hear the words of the prophet Joel, as Peter stands on behalf of the church that is no longer fearful. But now speaking with power. It is the spirit that guides us. It is the spirit that leads us.
It is the spirit that empowers us. It is the spirit that gives life to the individuals and life to the church, to carry out the work we have been given to do. A church without a spirit is just another organization. It is the breath of God’s spirit that makes us more than just an organization. When God breathes his spirit into the church, we turn from organization to an organism. All of a sudden there’s life in us. There’s movement with us. There’s fluidity within us. There’s joy within us. There is excitement within us. There is friendship within us. There is fellowship within us. There is singing that comes from places all around us. It is the breadth of God’s spirit that guides us away from meaningless manipulation and invites us to experience divine transformation. It is the breath of God’s spirit that allows us to move through life while listening to the discordant and conflicting notes in this life, and somehow still find power and strength to make a certain sound that is filled with divine melody.
It is the breath of God’s spirit that allows us to stare evil right in the face and still declare “My God is able”. It is God’s spirit that allows us to experience what many would call the dark night of the soul and still stand up saying, “But there’s a bright side somewhere”. It is the spirit that speaks to us, and particularly those, who as Howard Thurman categorizes, “Have their backs against the wall”. That makes us raise our head, lift up our voice and declare that I serve a God who may not come when you want him. But as my mother always reminded me, he’s always right on time. The presence of the spirit ushers us into a brave new world. A world where we, or let me make it plain, where the church, are empowered and is empowered to move beyond the immobility initiated by fear, to move beyond ever accepting the inadequacy of indifference, or the lukewarm state of our commitment to Christ.
It is God’s spirit that empowers the church and this world to never accept the inhumanity in the treatment or suffering of the of the least of these or the oppression of the poor, or to disregard the rights of the weak or even the defenseless. It is the spirit that makes us raise our voices and declare that, “In the name of our Lord, everyone can be saved”. Here I remind you of the words of Henry Emerson Fosdick who wrote, “God of grace, God of glory on that people, poor thy power. Crown thy ancient church’s story. Bring her bud to glorious flower. Grant us wisdom, grant us courage, for the saving and the facing of this hour, for the facing of this hour”. If I were home in another place, I’d probably say I feel my help coming now. But in this place, I remind you that in here, we ought to be telling the world about Jesus. And I don’t know about you, but I borrow the words of the hymn writer that said, “I love to tell the story of unseen things above, of Jesus and His glory, of Jesus and his love. I love to tell the story because I know it’s true. It satisfies my longing like nothing else will do. I love to tell the story t’will be my theme in glory. I love to tell the story of Jesus and his love”. Amen. Amen.