Together

Weekly Lectionary is a thing I used to do each week, but I have slacked off. I'm going to try to do better this summer starting with this short one as I pack for youth camp.

Acts 2:1-21
First Reading for Pentecost (Year A)

My headspace is a complicated place right now. Today is Pentecost; the day we celebrate the coming of the Holy Spirit. It's considered by many to be a sort of birthday for the Church. It reminds us of the ties that bind the disparate threads of Christianity together. We all started in that room.

At the same time, I'm processing another terror attack in London. Whenever something like this happens, it splinters everyone into factions. There are people saying we need to profile minorities more. Folks use the attack as a catalyst to argue certain political platforms. There individuals aghast at all of this and saying we need to pull together and others calling those people snowflakes. Such an atrocity divides, strikes fears, incites rage, and all of that is exactly the goal of such an evil act.

We are separated. We remember something that is supposed to pull us together. As frustrated and as concerned as the news makes me, I can't help but think about the day we celebrate. The disciples were all together in the upper room. The many different nationalities and languages represented that day heard the same thing. The fire of Pentecost turned this mass of individuals into a melting pot of community. There is something there: a spark, a hope that needs to be spoken into this world today.

There is not an easy answer in God bringing all those fractured pieces together. The church wrestles with that diversity throughout Acts. We have continued to struggle with it to this very day. We don't do "together" well. But, God, we need to try. We don't need to turn on one another. We don't need to cast out a brother or sister because they look differently. About evil, we do need to be wise as serpent and innocent as doves, but that doesn't mean we become a monster to break the monster.

God help us. Kyrie eleison. God helps us to pull together to do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with You.