Dependence Day

I am who I am because of the society, systems, politics, and culture that was operative as I was growing up. I believed that the world was mine: I could strive and achieve anything -within reason- that I set my mind to. I -as an individual- had the capacity to apply myself, work hard, and making the right decisions succeed in career, family, life. I was told that I could achieve more than the generation before. Once paying my dues, with perseverance and a good attitude, I would have the education and job I wanted, a reasonable place to live, and a comfortable retirement. If things went awry all it took was to take control, with determination, focus, and hard work, I could better myself, fix the problem and once again be productive. Every problem was fixable with diligence, responsibility, and more effort. Ingrained in me is this world view and perspective.

 

My experience of church is that it too has the same ingrained world view and perspective. A congregation is an autonomous body, making their own decisions – it is an organization where a group of individuals comes together to be a group of people in a set time and space, for specific purpose, with programs to build character and knowledge and make one a better person; a place with pastoral support to meet individual needs, and activities to fix or at least address problems in the world. This ingrained world view and perspective has individual churches believe that if it works harder, produces more, has the right programs, makes the right decisions, betters itself – or betters the individuals in its membership- with more effort and dedication by each person the church will succeed, meaning grow and prosper, with adequate resources and financial investment. Ingrained in the church is this world view and perspective.

 

I am who I am because of the world view and perspective I have been formed in. The church is who the church is because of the world view and perspective it has been formed in.

 

Pentecost Sunday is a Sunday when the Church celebrates the coming of the Holy Spirit, marking what has been referred to as the birthday of the Church. Congregations focus on passion, wind, individual tongues of fire, each person speaking in tongues, and the sharing of the gospel. It is an exciting story, but outside of that, I don’t know why it is that this text is embraced by the church that I know. The text goes against the world view and perspective – the beliefs- that are ingrained in Canadian Lutheran churches and how they -we- operate.

 

Pentecost is a perspective buster! A paradigm popper.

The Spirit comes and upsets the world view and perspective that is ingrained in me, in the church that I know.

Pentecost is not about an individual person or an individual congregation or an individual denomination. Pentecost is a community experience that blows away the operative world view and kindles a counter-cultural perspective of DEPENDENCE.

 

The scripture from Acts is explicit in its description and use of language:

The story recounts that: ALL [were] together in one place; [the Spirit] filled the ENTIRE house where THEY were sitting; [the Spirit] appeared AMONG THEM; ALL of them were filled with the Holy Spirit;

[present were] devout from EVERY nation; the CROWD GATHERED was bewildered, … heard THEM speaking in the native language of each; ALL were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, “What does this mean?”

 

The story does not talk about individual disciples, individuals receiving special privilege or gift, no individual emotion or action is recorded; no one had a hand in bringing the Spirit; no one was in control of the event; no hard work, determination, right decisions, or effort on anyone’s part had a hand in making Pentecost happen.

 

All were together in one place and the Holy Spirit came and filled the entire house where they were sitting.

The story is first about the Holy Spirit and says much about the character and nature of God’s Spirit. The Spirit moves among a Collective.  The language is clear – a collective gathering in one place, a collective experience of Spirit – A gathering of the devout with a collective bewilderment, amazement, perplexment, questioning for meaning. The story doesn’t recount the disciples locked behind closed doors after Jesus’ death and resurrection. The story doesn’t happen for the Twelve, it happens with the Twelve in a larger community of devout people who had come on pilgrimage to Jerusalem. The story in Acts continues with tales of community living, community preaching and teaching, community dependent on each other, and interwoven connections from community to community. This is where the Spirit is moving, not through individuals, but through a collective of thousands.

 

Asian theologian Cindy S Lee says, “Dependence is where the spiritual life begins; we realize that we can’t rely on our own efforts, but we need God, creation, and community.”  Lee specifically states, “a spirituality of dependence acknowledges that despite our best efforts, we all still need others to thrive.”

 

More and more in North America the world view and perspective that has in been ingrained is shifting.  People, churches, are acknowledging that working harder, being faithful, having a stiff upper-lip, putting the nose-to-the-grindstone, pushing through, setting ones will, being tough and determined - does not guarantee one’s success or self-sufficiency– in fact hard work and making right decisions, no longer guarantees that one will have their basic needs met. Things have changed.

Large portions of North American society are coming face-to-face with the precarious nature of life. Life has changed – our world view and perspective have not caught up to the reality of struggle – where the norm is multiple jobs, the necessity of extra roommates, occasional trips to the food bank, and so on. Our world view and perspectives have not caught up.

 

Perhaps the Pentecost story speaks to the Church because it presents a possibility about what could be. Deep down, living in an individualist culture, has worn on us and the Spirit within and among us is challenging us to be a collectivist culture.  

I apologize to a segment of the congregation, for I am speaking from privilege and my white Canadian perspective. The spiritual posture of dependence with a world view and perspective of collectivism is lived by the church (and other communities) of the global south – South America, Africa, Asia, and within  marginalized communities in North America.

 

I do have hope - I believe that my perspective is changing. I believe that the church’s world view is changing. The individualist has no need for the Spirit of Pentecost; for they believe they can do it all, and have it all, by their own power. If we believed that as individuals or as a congregation, we would not gather in community. This congregation speaks about community, acts as community, and serves the community to a point…

Although community, we individually choose who we speak to, decide what to share, and for the most part never ask for help – keeping our stuff private – to be our burden alone. After we go off to our individual places, with the people we choose to be with, interacting and getting involved with others at our own discretion.

 

The Pentecost story has the Spirit stirring up the collective – collective experience is drama, passion, expression; joy, confusion, suffering, questioning. It is standing together in one place dependent on each other navigating this new and crazy experience. The community is dependent on each other as the Spirit keeps moving and causing disruption of everyday life among them. People ask for help and meet each others needs. The spiritual posture of dependency has people giving all they own, welcoming others into their homes, community meals, community meetings, community prayer, community pilgrimages, community letters, and community struggle; the community faces suffering, and persecution as their world view and perspective threatens the individualistic culture in which they live.

Today the Spirit pesters individuals and the church to change their world view and perspective. Working harder will not save the church – welcoming a perspective of dependency will – dependence on the Spirit, creation, each other; a community where the Spirit moves among the collective.

 

To one and all, happy

DEPENDENCE DAY