God Walks With You

Author: Pastor Mike Gutzler

Pentecost Sunday

It is hard to believe we have come to the end of our journey. Back in September we started down a path of the narrative lectionary which started with the book of Genesis and ends today with the story of Pentecost and the gift of the Holy Spirit given to God’s community.

Over the past weeks we have read the stories of God’s deep desire to be in relationship with us no matter how wayward we can be. We heard the stories of God using individual leaders to help guide God’s people through difficult times and challenges.  We heard the stories of how God, in Jesus Christ, broke through the institutional barriers that restricted people from access to God. We heard how Jesus continued to bring the gifts of God’s love and grace to all people expanding the definition of “God people” to all creation. And finally over these past couple of weeks we heard how God started a new community of “God’s people” in order to continue the work of love, forgiveness and grace in the world.

We have come a long way since September, but the world has changed dramatically too. Even since the beginning of the calendar year, we have seen the start of COVID-19, the dramatic rise of unemployment, the experience of scarcity in our stores, and deep concern for the wellbeing of our lives and the question of if life will return to “normal.” And now, in just the past week we watched the death of George Floyd by police and were reminded of the deep and systemic racism that is interwoven into our culture. And, we crossed the sad marker of passing 100,000 COVID-19 deaths – the equivalent population of a city like Boulder, CO or Green Bay, Wisconsin.

If we could simply take a moment to acknowledge our feelings, we would notice we are sad, angry, scared, upset and more. It is also important to acknowledge those feelings are valid and I encourage you to pause for a moment of silence and appreciate how much has changed, and our world’s current condition.

*Silence*

Today is the day of Pentecost – the day God’s spirit came into the world and started our faith community. In the reading from Pauls’ letter to the Corinthians today, Paul acknowledges the gifts that come with this Spirit are very powerful. Paul also reminds his community that with power comes responsibilities. The power of the Holy Spirit is always used for the common good.

Today, as is tradition, we celebrate our young people who make a profession of their own faith and become full members of our congregation. We give thanks for their gifts and recognize that we need them to share their gifts for the greater good of our community and the world, just as much as we need everyone else’s gifts.

There are two ways to think about these gifts, or the ways that the Holy Spirit is at work in our lives. The first is seeing the gifts of the Spirit like natural talents and attributes. Like an athlete with incredible physical abilities, or the musician with extraordinary talent, some gifts of the Holy Spirit can be easy for us to notice in ourselves and embrace.

The other side of the Spirit, and more challenging aspect for sure, is the element of the Holy Spirit that is connected to a “calling.” This is the messy side of the Holy Spirit that pushes us out of our comfort zone to use our not so natural gifts to bring love and grace into the world. This calling takes us to places outside of our control, but we go with confidence that the calling is authentic and that God’s walks with us along the journey.

Right now, it may feel like the world is upside down. It would be good for us to take some time and consider what is God up to in all of this. The question is not only for our own discernment about what God is doing in the world, but also for us as a community of faith. This is an extraordinary time and an opportunity to prayerfully consider how God is calling us to use our natural gifts and be moved into places that are unconformable and challenging.

Regardless of where we find ourselves, and hopefully we do find ourselves in challenging places sharing God love, we can be reminded God walks with us, picks us up, and pulls us forward to that place where we see “God’s kingdom come” in our world.