This past Sunday was Pentecost Sunday, the day when Christians remember the story in Acts 2 of the Holy Spirit whooshing around the disciples and causing them to speak in different languages so that everyone there can understand them. It’s a story of confusion and chaos as much as it is one of newfound empowerment and purpose for the early church.
With June also comes Pride Month, a celebration of LGBTQ+ identity that began with a riot at the Stonewall Inn in 1969 in New York. In the midst of yet another raid, the crowd of patrons began heavily pushing back. It’s a story of confusion and chaos as a people facing discrimination and persecution gain a sense of newfound empowerment and purpose.
These stories both tell of movements arising out of commotion. Eventually comes the new paradigm, but often not without an upending of what came before.
The fire of both Pentecost and Pride became too big to ignore, and through the passion of those who felt it, the old began to burn away to make room for the new. And even today, such a commotion-causing fire is needed for each.
The church needs it to discover who it is post-pandemic, as much of what worked before doesn’t engage or appeal in the same way now.
As powers and principalities are discovering a newfound audacity for marginalizing LGBTQ+ people, organizers and supporters need that renewing flame as much as we ever have.
May spirit and fire continue to cause the sort of commotion that leads to life-giving change.
Jeffrey A. Nelson 