The disciples were “all in one place together” when “tongues as of fire, parted and came to rest on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Spirit and began to speak… as the Spirit enabled them.” They went out among people gathered together from all parts of the world, and they brought forth the memory of the peacemaker Jesus. Memory amidst strife was not enough though, for a mission of peace compelled them.
Pentecost is the further missioning of people for peacemaking. Pentecost often coincides with a quite different U.S. public holiday, Memorial Day. Memorial Day was originally called Decoration Day. The Day’s two titles are not from a memory of peacemakers but rather of warmakers, the Civil War. The Day’s original name was coined from the action of Southern women decorating the graves of their dead soldiers. It was the graves of husbands, brothers, and sons killed fighting for the Confederacy. As they decorated their own complicity in the enslavement of human beings with the title Christian, so they decorated the graves of the family’s slaveholders with flowers. They honored men who had abused African Americans and murdered any challengers and did so while the Civil War was still being fought. After the war, the dead abusers continued to be remembered and honored alongside dead northern soldiers and the title Memorial Day was coined. White Northerners and Southerners alike could remember their war dead and decorate their graves and their memories because their combined abuse of Blacks largely continued. Yes, the brutality of slavery ended but the brutality of white supremacy did not end and so white masters could remember and continue their deadly abuse of Blacks. White supremacist abuse continued through sharecropping, land theft, Jim Crow discrimination, and lynchings, all properly policed by the Ku Klux Klan. KKK policing continues. It continues in Fred Zimmerman’s murder of Trayvon Martin, in Darren Wilson’s murder of Michael Brown, in Timothy Loehmann’s murder of Tamir Rice, in Gregory and Travis McMichaels’ murder of Ahmaud Arbery, and so many others, and most recently in Derek Chauvin’s murder of George Floyd. All the murdered men are remembered in this month of May but not so much with flowers to decorate their graves. They are remembered by our Pentecostal mission to be one healing power. They are remembered by our mission to change police culture steeped in KKK values and practices. They are remembered by our mission to transform their warrior based ‘us vs. them’ / ‘good guys vs. enemies’ mindset. They are remembered by our mission to end soldier’s and police’s civil war against African Americans stemming from a continuing confederacy. These murdered men are remembered for being loving husbands, brothers, and sons. How shall the men who murdered them be remembered? Shall they be remembered with fading flowers to decorate their graves and our memories? Shall they be remembered as good soldiers who gave their lives to continue slavery, cruelties, and civil war? Why did not these and all killers go across the world as one healing Pentecostal power to bring about peacemaking. Did the killers not know how they would be remembered?
“The thick lids of Night closed upon me… To brood and be still… Soon seemed nearing… a dim-discerned train… Frameless souls none might touch or might hold… And I heard them say “Home!” and I knew them For souls of the felled… “Is it you, O my men?” Said they, “Aye! We bear homeward and hearthward To listen to our fame!” “I’ve flown there before you,” “Your households are well; But–your kin linger less On your glory… war-mightiness Than on dearer things.”–“Dearer?” cried these from the dead, “Of what do they tell?” “Some mothers muse sadly, and murmur Your doings as boys – Recall the quaint ways Of your babyhood’s innocent days… “A father broods: ‘Would I had… slacked his high fire, And his passionate martial desire; Had told him no stories to woo him and whet him To this due crusade!” … “And our wives?” quoth another resignedly, “Dwell they on our deeds?” –“Deeds of home; that live yet Fresh as new–deeds of fondness or fret; Ancient words that were kindly expressed, These, these have their heeds.–” Alas! then it seems that our glory Weighs less in their thought Than our old homely acts, And the long-ago commonplace facts Of our lives–held by us as scarce part of our story, And rated as nought!” Then bitterly some: “Was it wise now To raise the tomb-door For such knowledge? Away!” But the rest: “Fame we prized till to-day; Yet that hearts keep us green for old kindnesses we prize now A thousand times more!”… And the spirits of those who were homing Passed on, rushingly, Like the Pentecost Wind.” (The Souls of the Slain – Thomas Hardy)
Prayer: Spirit of Pentecost, stir us for a peaceful, healing Oneness.
Question: What decorates our lives, flowers for memory or missions for healing a Confederate U.S.?
May 31, 2020 Gospel John 20:19-23 Pentecost