Pentecost
June 1, 2020
Scripture Reading:
Acts 2:1-21
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.
Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven living in Jerusalem. And at this sound the crowd gathered and was bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in the native language of each. Amazed and astonished, they asked, ‘Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? And how is it that we hear, each of us, in our own native language? . . . All were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, ‘What does this mean?’ 13But others sneered and said, ‘They are filled with new wine.’ –Acts 2:1-8, 12-13
I turned off the TV after hearing about the protests of the police killing of George Floyd, another black man killed in a long string of black people being killed primarily for being black. That coupled with the knowledge that: Nearly 23% of reported Covid-19 deaths in the U.S. are African American as of May 20, even though black people make up roughly 13% of the U.S. population, according to the data* probably as the saying goes, broke the camels back. We now have protests across our land, some turning into riots. Some being infiltrated with extremists trying to make them worse. The protestors in Oklahoma City were at an intersection about a mile from my house when I went to bed. I could not hear them, but I listened to the helicopters circling above my home.
I flashed back to when I was a 20-year-old college student in 1968, lying in bed in my apartment located about a mile from where the black residents of Enid lived. Martin Luther King Jr. had been killed earlier that day. There was rioting in the black part of town with fires and explosions that I could hear. I did not understand why the blacks were destroying their own buildings. Loss of hope, perhaps that discrimination will never end. There is history to give credence to that fear. This year Tulsa, Oklahoma is observing the 100th anniversary of the Tulsa Race Riots. There the black section of Tulsa was called the Black Wall Street. It was thriving when a group of white people burned it down.
Is Pentecost still real? Are we capable of creating and living in a world where all can communicate and understand one another? The Holy Spirit can always empower us to see Christ in all of God’s children. We can appreciate each person and all people for the gifts that God instilled in them at their creation. Let us make it so.
Prayer: God, forgive us for our foolish ways**, grant us wisdom, grant us courage*** for the facing of this hour. Amen.
*https://www.cnbc.com/2020/05/27/as-us-coronavirus-deaths-cross-100000-black-americans-bear-disproportionate-share-of-fatalities.html
**From the hymn Dear Lord and Father of Mankind see at https://hymnary.org/text/dear_lord_and_father_of_mankind
***From God of Grace and God of Glory see at https://hymnary.org/text/god_of_grace_and_god_of_glory
All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights are reserved.