Courageous Spirit

Come Holy Spirit and set our fearful hearts on fire. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Today we celebrate the birthday of the church, the day the Holy Spirit descended upon the disciples locked in a room, uncertain and afraid, and turned their fear into faithfulness. The Spirit burned through all of them like fire, like a gale force wind and changed everything. The Spirit gave them, and will give to us, if we want it, the courage to follow the way of Jesus in a world that often opposes it.

Do you remember when Jesus was arrested by the religious leaders, in the Garden of Gethsemane after the last supper that even his most loyal followers fled in fear for their own lives? When the going got tough, their promise to stand with him through thick and thin quickly deteriorated into fear and self-preservation. Even Peter, the boldest of all Jesus’ disciples denied him three times to avoid being arrested.

Indeed, after the resurrection, the disciples’ joy at seeing their master alive was quickly followed by a sense of confusion and bewilderment. God raised Jesus from the dead, but the disciples were not quite sure what to do with that good news and so they stayed behind locked doors. They had the good news of Jesus, but not yet the power to proclaim it.

But 50 days after Easter, 50 days after the resurrection, everything changed. As we read from the book of Acts this morning: “When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a
violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability.”

It was the gift of the Spirit that literally pushed the disciples out of their rooms and into the wider world. Here the same Peter who, in order to protect his own skin, denied Jesus three times was now preaching to thousands. It was the gift of the Spirit that turned Peter and the others from frightened followers into the Apostles of the Church willing to do whatever they needed to do to proclaim the good news of Jesus Christ – even to the point of sacrificing their own lives. The Spirit gave them courage to speak, but also to suffer, to serve, to build community, and to love boldly.

You have to remember that Christianity was born into a world dominated by the Roman Empire, where strength, power, and status were the defining values. This empire maintained order through fear and intimidation. But in the centuries that followed that first Pentecost, early Christians, empowered by the Spirit lived in ways the defied the cruelty and violence of Rome. They followed the teachings of Jesus, whose message stood in stark contrast to the culture of empire. The early Church offered something different – a reversal of values – an emphasis not on power but on compassion, not on domination but on common humanity.

Think about it. While Rome exalted the strong and silenced the weak, these first Christians went out of their way to care for the poor, the meek, and the marginalized. In so doing, through their compassion, they attracted thousands of people who wanted to learn more about the way of Jesus. In the Roman world prestige and power came from being served by others. Whereas Jesus washed his disciples’ feet and taught that true greatness is found in serving others.

The Roman Empire enforced peace through military domination. Early Christians, following Jesus’ teachings on forgiveness and love, refused to return violence with violence, choosing instead to bear witness through nonviolent suffering. Believing that every person was made in the image of God, they honored life – even the lives of their enemies – even when they faced torture and death.

In a recent piece from the New York Times, David Brooks wrote about the pagan values of ancient Rome in contrast to the Holy Spirit led values of those early Christians. Pointing out that we are seeing a rise in those same pagan values in our own time, Brooks writes, “For the Romans, the cross was a symbol of their power — their power to crucify. The early Christians took the cross as their symbol, too, but as a symbol for compassion, grace and self-sacrificial love. Christianity is built on a series of inversions that make paganism look pompous and soulless: Blessed are the meek. Blessed are the poor in spirit. The last shall be first. The poor are closer to God than the rich. . . Paganism says: Make yourself the center of the universe. Serve yourself and force others to serve you. The biblical metaphysic says: Serve others, and you will find joy. Serve God, and you will delight in his love.”¹

We may no longer have to worry about the Roman Empire, but many of the same ways of using and abusing power are alive and well in our world today. People are afraid. I see it all the time within our Cathedral community. People are afraid they will lose their jobs, afraid they will be arrested and deported, afraid that they will be further marginalized, threatened, and discriminated against because of their religion, sexual identity or the color of their skin. As General Stanley McChrystal wrote in an article not too long ago: “Fear isolates. It pushes us into ideological bunkers, surrounding us only with those who think like us. And when fear festers, it mutates. What begins as anxiety turns into resentment. Resentment hardens into hatred. Hatred strips away our ability to see others as people. The result is a society riven by suspicion and hostility.”²

Friends, we need to fight the fear. Just as those early Christians lived courageously in defiance of the empire that surrounded them—just as they trusted the power of the Spirit—we need to find our own Pentecost courage: the courage to speak the truth in love, to stand with the marginalized, to refuse to worship power. You see, courage isn’t the absence of fear – courage is acting in spite of the fear. And we need that Holy Spirit courage today more than ever – courage to be different, courage to stand by the values of our faith. Because it isn’t crazy to love an enemy, and it isn’t weakness to forgive someone who has wronged you. It’s not foolishness to care for the poor, and it isn’t pointless to stand with the marginalized. These are the ways of Jesus, these are the ways of the Spirit, these are the ways of love that are ultimately more powerful than the ways of empire.

Remember, the day of Pentecost didn’t end in the upper room – it exploded onto the streets. The Holy Spirit gave birth to a Church who at her best challenged empire, defied hatred, and loved without fear. That same Spirit is alive today and the world still needs a Church with courage. So let us pray for boldness that is rooted in humility, for love that defies cruelty, and for courage that no fear can quench. Come Holy Spirit and make us brave. Amen.

¹ David Brooks – Opinion | How to Survive the Trump Years with Your Spirit Intact, The New York Times, 5/5/25
² Gen. Stanley McChrystal On Fear – The New York Times, 4/14/25