Sermon for Pentecost 2017, by Martin Carr at St John the Baptist Church, Holland Road, Sunday 4 June
Sermon for Pentecost 2017, by Martin Carr at St John the Baptist Church, Holland Road, Sunday 4 June
In
the one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or
free.
In the name of the Father and
of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Do you know who you are? I’ll
ask that again – do you know who you are? I want you for a moment to consider
that question, and then come up with three words, just three words, to answer
it – don’t worry, I won’t be asking you to share them, but be honest with
yourself – do you know who you are? Take a moment to think …
Now hopefully you have those three
words to describe you – keep them in mind, and we’ll return to them later.
In the 1980 film epic The
Empire Strikes Back, we follow the character Luke Skywalker, who, instructed in
a dream by his former mentor Obi-Wan to journey to the Dagobah system, meets
the elderly Jedi master Yoda and is instructed in the Jedi arts and its
mysterious Force.
Receiving a premonition that
his friends Han Solo and Princess Leia are in trouble, Luke cuts short his
tutelage under Yoda and hastens to Cloud City to rescue them. The arc of
tension builds to its denouement as Luke engages Darth Vader in lightsabre
conflict over the city’s central air shaft. Vader’s skill surpasses Luke’s, and
he severs his hand. Vader urges Luke to join him on the Dark Side of the Force.
Luke resists – you killed my father, he accuses Vader. ‘No’ Vader replies, ‘I
am your father’.
In these four words, among
the most famous in the history of cinema, Luke’s true identity is disclosed.
His destiny is now shaped by the knowledge of his true origins. Finally, Luke
knows who he is.
Do you know who you are? I
wonder what words you came up with in answer to my question. My name happens to
be Martin – but does that really shape who I am? There are many Martins in the
world, some may be more like me than others, but there is no real essence of
Martin-ness which we all share. Some names do give clues to our identity – if I
were meeting Edna, Tarquin or Mohammed for lunch, in all three cases their name
gives me a clue to who they might be – their age, gender, social standing and
ethnicity. When we meet someone for the first time we instantly become
conscious of whether they are young or old, female or male, tall or short. But
other aspects of their identity – their religion, sexuality, family background,
may be more opaque until we get to know them a little better. Identity can hinge
around small differences – two white, similarly-aged men from the north east of
England, in so many ways the inheritors of a shared background, would
nonetheless inhabit quite different identities depending on whether they
supported the Newcastle or Sunderland football teams.
I could go on, but I hope
I’ve said enough to make my point. Luke Skywalker’s identity is revealed as the
son of Darth Vader – this knowledge makes sense of his past, and changes his
future; our own identities too are shaped by parentage and genetics, in ways we
may like or dislike, but also through choice – what sports do we play, what
entertainment do we like, what clothes do we wear? And sometimes we are shaped
by events outside our control – illness, bereavement, betrayal.
What
can we learn about identity in what we have read from Scripture on this day of
Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit descended on the Church in flames of fire?
Those gathered are identified by nationality - Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and
residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and
Pamphylia. Yet as they speak, in different languages and dialects, they are
able to mutually understand each other.
The
story of Pentecost deliberately mirrors the story of the Tower of Babel in the
book of Genesis. In that story the people build a tower which will reach to
heaven, but God confuses their languages and the construction fails because
they can no longer understand each other to work together. But now, by the gift
of the Spirit, diverse people can comprehend each other – what unites them is
greater than what divides.
Pentecost
then can be seen as a parable of identities in dialogue. And Peter marks this as
the work of the Spirt, as foretold by the prophet Joel. Where there is the
Spirit, there is no longer discord and confusion, but mutual understanding.
Paul works further with this
theme in his first letter to the Christians in Corinth. Christianity was quite
radical in the first century – it brought together people of various
backgrounds who might not usually have been expected to hang out together – slaves
and freemen, wealthy and working class, men and women. The church in Corinth
was especially diverse, and this was the cause of some division there, but in
the passage we heard today, Paul identifies their unity in diversity.
To my question – do you know
who you are – Paul names a variety of gifts possessed in the community. Who are
you? A healer. Who are you? A prophet. Who are you? An interpreter. Who are
you? A worker of miracles. Yet the source of all these identities is the same –
the one God and the one Spirit. And it is in baptism that the Spirit is given
to all to make them, in Paul’s words, the body of Christ.
Do you know who you are? How
many of you I wonder came up with the word Christian to describe yourself? Our
identity as members of the body of Christ is the reason we have come together
this morning. Through our worship we affirm and celebrate that shared identity.
And empowered by that identity we go out into the world to use our gifts for
the building up of God’s kingdom on earth.
In contemporary Britain we
may no longer need, thankfully, to discuss our identity in terms of being slave
or free, or indeed Jew and Gentile, but we are male and female, gay and straight,
old and young, black and white, introverted and extroverted, carers, cared for,
teachers, students, but all members of one body, Christ’s body.
I remember a sermon I heard
when I was much younger in which the preacher suggested that on receiving the
bread of the Eucharist, each of us could reply to the words ‘The Body of Christ’
with the affirmation ‘I am’ rather than simply ‘Amen’. In claiming our identity
in Christ, we acknowledge not only who we are in relation to God, but our
identity in relation to others. By the power of the Spirit, those gathered on
that first Pentecost no longer primarily were considered as Medes, Parthians.
Elamites etc, but could communicate with full understanding as members of the
body of Christ.
In my work as a spiritual
director, one of the things I want to help others discover is their identity –
who they are, who God sees them as, and who they are called to be in the
future, because our identities are constantly being moulded and changed by our
prayer, our relationships, our experiences. And we must recognise the role of
the Spirt in all this, not just to magic us into better people, or reveal our
true self in a blinding flash – however much we might hope for that - but as
that gentle presence of God with us, speaking peace and guiding us with love to
a self-realisation where our desires and God’s purposes for us are more closely
aligned.
So each of us has an identity
– but identity is not only an individual concern. This coming Thursday we are
being invited to take part in a process which will help shape the identity of
the UK over the next few years. We must ask ourselves what sort of country we
want to be, and indeed does our identity in Christ shape our thinking?
And what sort of Church do we
want to be? For those who today make promises as members of the PCC to wisely
and diligently govern our common life, where do you believe the Spirit is
calling this community in the future? How do we mould our particular Christian
family to be more Christlike?
As part of London’s capital
Vision 2020, the diocese has produced a booklet for Pentecost, Right Where You
Are, which can help each of us, whatever our situation, to respond to our
calling as Christians in our daily lives. Copies are available today I believe,
and I hope that might help you think about how your identity as part of
Christ’s body might be lived out.
Do you know who you are? I
began with Luke Skywalker discovering his identity as a Jedi knight, the son of
Darth Vader, and I suppose in that fantasy world the Force is a metaphor for the
Holy Spirit in the Christian faith – empowering and leading individuals and
communities to come to a true knowledge of themselves and to use their gifts
for the service of God and others. Who are you? What gifts has God given you?
How does God desire you to use those gifts?
In John’s gospel as Jesus
breathes the Spirt on the apostles, he leaves them two gifts – the first peace
– the ability not to succumb to anxiety and fear but to observe a faithful
trust in God which goes beyond and above worldly cares. And the second is forgiveness,
because often we are not true to ourselves and God, and need to be brought
back. So today receive the Spirit, let it enable you to discover who you are
and will be, and receive the gift of peace which drives out fear and enables
us, a diverse people, to live together within the love of Jesus Christ. Amen.