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Sermon |
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May 15, 2005 A Sermon Preached at Food writer Ruth Reichl has been on the radio talking about her new book Garlic and Sapphires: the Secret Life of a
Critic in Disguise. She talks
amusingly about her days as the restaurant critic of the New York Times when
she would disguise herself and become different characters so she could check
out restaurants incognito. The amusement edges over into something more
poignant when she recalls becoming “Betty Jones” a woman she actually met
once on a bus. Reichl
recalls that she stood to give Betty her seat and Betty was amazed,
explaining that “people usually treat me like I’m invisible.” The encounter
led to Reichl adopting Betty’s persona because she
realized the best way to be incognito was to become invisible. The disguise worked depressingly well. As Ruth Reichl,
critic of the New York Times, she caused a stir whenever she entered a
restaurant; as Betty Jones, an old woman in The tragedy here is how often most of us are invisible and unknown to each other. We are conditioned to pay attention to those we think are rich and powerful and we respond to extraordinary youth and beauty, but so many others just fade into the background. All of us know to our dismay how difficult it is to recognize the individuality of people of other races. And so it is too, with the poor and the folks on the street with whom we think we have nothing in common. For most of us, truly to be known and to have another’s attention is a great rarity. And so it is that the Biblical event of Pentecost is a reproach and a challenge to us all. As the Book of Acts describes it, the coming of the Holy Spirit of God is announced in the sound of rushing wind and the flashing of tongues of flame, but its chief effect among the people who were there that day seems to have been an unexpected ability to communicate. It is a chaotic scene and we could get it wrong. I know of a congregation that decided to simulate the effects of Pentecost by having everybody in church who knew a language other than English read the Gospel simultaneously in a different tongue. The effect, of course, was impressively chaotic. The Biblical experience of Pentecost, in contrast, may have involved a lot of languages but the essence of it was the experience of understanding and being understood. What all those people from diverse nations experienced on Pentecost was the sudden lack of a language barrier: suddenly all those different people understood what they were hearing. I think it is still safe to say that one of the chief ways you know you are in the presence of the Holy Spirit is that barriers come down. The chief hallmark of the Holy Spirit is our ability to come to know one another. One of the things you hear when you really communicate with another human being is the Holy Spirit of God. We often think that God is present in great plans and brilliant designs. We forget how often God is present simply in the depth of another human being. A famous diplomat was once asked what she hoped to accomplish in an international meeting. Her reply was, “My hope is that we will all come to the table and talk to each other.” I, for one, think that is the holiest thing that can happen between people: that we might come together and really come to know each other. In the acrimonious debates about human sexuality which are polarizing the Anglican Communion, our bishop has become an amazing figure. This is not because he is such an eloquent and persuasive debater—his predecessor was much better at that. His strength is that he is such a winsome, open and accessible person that people who take radically different views come to him privately to ask, “Tell me about the life experiences that lead you to take your position. I want to understand where you are coming from.” More than any legislative accomplishment, no matter how impressive it may be, I think that sort of coming together is the mark of God’s Holy Spirit. The challenge of Pentecost is to make that kind of coming together a part of our own lives. The challenge of Pentecost is to learn to speak each other’s language and to come together to talk to each other. This is a challenge for our home lives, of course. When we are in conflict with a parent, child, or significant other, the temptation is to be the loudest, most powerful or at least the last voice. But the challenge is to enter into the other’s experience instead. This is a challenge for our work lives where we want to be the most successful when the challenge instead is to be open to each other. Most of all, I think Pentecost is a great challenge to each of us as members of a diverse society. The world is full of unknown and unheard people. The real “Betty Jones” is pretty much invisible to us on the bus and so are so many of her sisters and brothers who are of a different race or culture or maybe just not rich or powerful or beautiful enough to catch our attention. The challenge is to take the time and to make the effort to pay attention to those with whom we share this planet so that we can come together and talk to each other. I know that it is a challenge. It is stressful and we feel awkward at it. But it is a holy challenge, for when we really come together, we encounter the Holy Spirit of God. AMEN
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