Hope, not Cynicism
At its [building a congregation] core is the firmly held belief that we who hold a dream of building a different kind of society must begin by building a different kind of community.
Rabbi Sharon Brous, The Amen Effect: Ancient Wisdom to Mend Our Broken Hearts and World
In the Pentecost gathering, Jesus’ followers from numerous lands were discerning the next steps in building this community. Out of nowhere, they collectively experienced an awe inspiring encounter with the Holy Spirit. I find myself wondering about the group of people who cynically responded that “they must all be drunk”. (Acts 2:1-13))
Why were they so cynical about this incredible moment? I worry we live in a world so cynical that we dismiss or miss the sacred, the beautiful and the wonderful. Do we trust cynicism more than the good and the beautiful we experience in the world on a daily basis? How would our orientation change if we made it a practice to pause for a moment each day and reflect on even the tiniest moments of beauty we encounter?
How incredible was the group gathering in that room when the Holy Spirit arrived on Pentecost? I imagine these were the people who personally experienced Jesus' miraculous acts: those he healed, the blind he helped see, folks brought back from the dead, and folks who ate with 5000 others; folks at the wedding who drank the amazing wine he made from jugs of water; and people who saw Jesus heal the ear of the soldier attacked by Peter in the garden during Jesus' arrest. I wonder if the two folks who walked the Emmaus Road with Jesus were in the room.
They all gathered in one room during the celebration of Shavuot and experienced the Holy Spirit as tongues of fire and strong winds.
And yet, some of them could not believe the stories of their peers or even trust their own senses.
We undoubtedly live in a world full of acts of violence, ill will, meanness, cruelty and corruption. We must pay attention to these things. We cannot be naive.
At the same time, I find myself surrounded by kindness, love, and compassion in the woman who regularly opens her home to people experiencing life crises; the man who spent weeks covering rent for a fellow church member; the tenants courageous enough to fight their absent landlords; the folks driving a friend to daily chemo treatment; the meals made for those who are sick.
I see and experience these actions each and every day. Yes, the Holy Spirit moves through the world each and every day.
Let us together choose to live into this sense of beauty and the hope of the kingdom being near instead of the cynicism that leads us to hopelessness.