The gift of unity

 

A Sermon preached on 24 May 2026 (Pentecost) at St. Augustine’s, WI

Acts 2:1-21, 1 Corinthians 12:3b-13, John 20:19-23

Today we celebrate not only the Feast of Pentecost, but also a Baptism - of Olivia Marie. That is appropriate for two reasons.

One is that our Church considers Holy Baptism to be especially appropriate on this Day of Pentecost, as well as at the Easter Vigil, on All Saints' Day and on the Feast of the Baptism of our Lord. And the reason why Pentecost is one of the preferred days is because it is the Feast of the Holy Spirit, and Holy Baptism is full initiation not just by water, but also by the Holy Spirit, the latter symbolized by what we call chrism, which is oil specially consecrated by our bishop for this use. We are told right from the beginning of the Gospels that baptism is by water and the Spirit, for example in Mark (1:8) when John the Baptist told his listeners “I have baptized you with water, but he (Jesus) will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”

We certainly heard a lot about the Holy Spirit in today’s readings. In the passage from Acts we heard how all of the disciples, men and women, “were filled with the Holy Spirit.” (Acts 2:4) In the extract from the 1^st Letter to the Corinthians, Paul lists a huge variety of gifts of the Spirit. And in the Gospel, we heard how Jesus breathed on the disciples with the words “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.” (John 20:23)

Today is often also referred to as the birthday of the Church. Pentecost is when the apostles went out among the people and began spreading Jesus’ message, thus establishing the beginning of the Church. When we hear the word Church we often think of the building or the institution. But that’s not Church, it’s also not the priest, nor the bishop. It is all of you and all of us. The Greek word for church is Ecclesia, meaning gathering. If we look at all the readings about the Spirit, we see that she never just goes to selected people. Like the wind, the “blows where it chooses.” (John 3:8) The Spirit cannot be controlled and is egalitarian! That’s why for church hierarchies those who took their inspiration and authority from the Holy Spirit, rather than from tradition and the established leadership, were regarded with suspicion.

That is not to say that everyone is the same or receives the same gifts. As Paul writes, there are varieties of gifts as there are varieties of people and needs (services and activities as he calls them). What unites them is the one source: the same Spirit, Lord and God and one purpose; “To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.” (John 12:7) None of these gifts are meant to make one person more important than another. They are for the building up of the Church and for the benefit of all God’s people.

What might that look like? We pray that our leaders, lay and ordained, will be given the wisdom and knowledge to help our church adapt to the ever-changing context in which we work. We experience that those who are entrusted with the ministry of teaching share the meaning and implications of our faith with both young and old. We have members of our church who as nurses and counselors are healers in the narrow sense of the word. But others can be healers simply by listening, praying, and visiting those in need, giving time and attention. I truly believe we have miracle workers in our congregation too; I have no other explanation for how we make and do so much with our limited resources: If we believe it, we can do it! And as for the gift of prophecy, our many preachers, lay and ordained, put their prophetic voice to good use week by week. These are just some of the gifts Paul lists here – also discernment and interpretation of tongues – and elsewhere, for example in Romans 12 which includes serving, exhortation, giving, leadership, and mercy or compassion.

Despite their diversity and variety, they all have one source: “All these (gifts) are activated by one and the same Spirit, who allots to each one individually just as the Spirit chooses.” (1 Cor. 12:11) Again, they are not based on merit, privilege, or skill. The Holy Spirit both makes us unique and makes us one. Pentecost is also the feast of unity in diversity. In Joel’s vision that Peter cites in the Acts reading, God pours out God’s Spirit upon all flesh, on sons and daughters; on young and old; on slave and free; on men and women.” (Acts 2:17.18) And Paul reminds the Christians in Corinth, who had a tendency to value some of their members above others, that “in the one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and we were all made to drink of one Spirit.” (1 Corinthians 12:13)  

God rejoices in our differences, God's gifts and God's love are for everyone regardless of ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, age, social status, or class, or politics. And God’s purposes are best served through a diverse but united community.

Paul uses the image of the one body with many members, each with their own function, to describe this unity in diversity. God’s one Spirit unites a diverse group of believers into a single body. Our oneness, our unity is not in who we are or what we look like, but in whom we serve and how we serve.

And so once again it is appropriate that we celebrate not just Pentecost and the Church’s birthday, but also Baptism, the sacrament of unity today. We began our service with the words:

• There is one Body and one Spirit. 
• There is one hope in God's call to us. 
• One Lord, one Faith, one Baptism. 
• One God and Father of all.

Today Olivia will be baptized into that one body. We don’t know what particular gift or gifts the Spirit has in store for, we don’t know where she will be called to serve in the world or in the church, and we don’t know what activities God has planned for her. That is all in God’s hands. As family and godparents your role is to help and support her as she grows into her own expression of the full stature of Christ. As a community our role is to support her in her life in Christ, in her special role in the one body we all belong to by virtue of our own baptism. Amen.

Good Sheep

 

A Sermon preached on Easter IV, 26 April 2026 at St. Augustine’s, Wiesbaden

Acts 2:42-47, 1 Peter 2:19-25, John 10:1-10

The Fourth Sunday of Easter is often referred to as Good Shepherd Sunday. It always includes Psalm 23 and a section from John 10, a passage that is full of metaphors about sheep, shepherds and this week even sheepfolds!

I almost ran into a flock of sheep a little over a week ago on our trip to Turkey. On the last day, we were visiting the ancient city of Miletus, the site of Paul’s farewell speech to the Christians of Asia Minor and amidst the ruins of temples and baths and theatres, on a Roman road a flock of rather dirty sheep came my way. They were quite literally following their shepherd just like the sheep in the parable.

In the little parable – or figure of speech as the Gospel writer calls it – Jesus contrasts the shepherd, the one the sheep know, trust and follow, with thieves and bandits or strangers. The shepherd image reminds us of the biblical shepherds who led Israel, especially Moses and David who were both genuine shepherds before their calling. In Psalm 23 and in other OT passages, God is often the shepherd. Here it is Jesus.

If he is the shepherd, who are the thieves and bandits? They could be the Jewish leadership, leading their people astray, or possibly those who encourage violence and foment rebellion against Rome. One group was encouraging too much compromise with the occupying power, at the risk of losing their true identity. The other group’s embrace of force and violence to achieve their aims will lead to the death and destruction that Jesus prophesies. The Jewish rebellion of 66 AD was a disaster and ended with the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple.

One figure is certainly a little mysterious, the gatekeeper who opens the way for the shepherd to gather his sheep and acts the guardian of the sheepfold, ensuring only the true shepherd enters. This figure has variously been interpreted as the Holy Spirit or the Old Testament prophets leading people to Christ, it could also be the leaders of the church, guarding and guiding the flock. Or, and that would fit well with what follows, Jesus is both the shepherd and the gatekeeper, protecting, guarding, guiding and nourishing his people.

For when Jesus explains his parable, because “they did not understand what he was saying to them” (John 10:6) he does not actually compare himself with the shepherd, instead he says, “I am the gate.” (10:7) So perhaps we should call today “Good Gate Sunday”? It doesn’t work as well, does it. And yet this is an important metaphor. Often the sheepfold was not a purpose-built enclosure, attached to a house with a proper gate, but a temporary enclosure in the fields and the gate was literally the shepherd, lying in the gap in the low stone walls, protecting the sheep from harm with his own life. And the gate is also the means by which the sheep not only enter the fold, to be saved, but also how they go out to find pasture, to have life. As such, “I am the gate” reminds us of that other metaphor, “I am the way, the truth and the life.” (John 14:6) Jesus shows us the way and accompanies us on that path. To have life abundantly, as he promises, is also a call to share in the divine life we are given.

The sheep come off pretty well in this passage. They hear the shepherd’s voice, they respond to his call, they know his voice, they do not follow the stranger. In fact, and I know Fleur for one would agree with me here, sheep’ bad reputation as stupid animals is not deserved. In Covid times we even developed a derogatory term for a group of people supposedly acting stupidly: “sheeple.” Though as this was used by those opposed to common sense, life-saving, anti-infection measures such as mask wearing and social distancing to describe those who adhered to the regulations and recommendations – one wonders which group was really the stupid one …

Anyway, as scientists from the University of Cambridge discovered and documented in a 2011 study, sheep are more intelligent than previously believed.  They have a high degree of intelligence within the animal kingdom. The researchers performed several in-depth studies with sheep and demonstrated that the average sheep can recognize and easily distinguish between at least fifty other faces—of their fellow sheep, humans, and other species—and that this memory stays with them over a period of several years. They also can discriminate colour and shape as separate dimensions and seem capable of a wide range of emotions. And one scientist even said that "They have an agreeable disposition!”[1]  

At our Bible Study this week, when we were talking about sheep, one participant also referenced the novel “Three Bags Full: A Sheep Detective Story,” a detective story by Leonie Swann featuring a flock of Irish sheep who solve the murder of their shepherd! Not stupid at all.

The idea that sheep are stupid probably comes from how they act whenever they become frightened. As herd animals, they will do very stupid things when fearful, though as one of the Cambridge scientists of the sheep study reminds us, “Any animal, including humans, once they are scared, don’t tend to show signs of intelligent behaviour.”  And as we know and are currently experiencing, those who want to manipulate us use fear a lot! Fear of loss of status, fear of change, fear of the other …. There is a reason why Jesus constantly tell us not to fear, not to be afraid. And in his letter to the Philippians Paul writes “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 4:6-7) And I’m sure you know the famous line from Franklin D. Roosevelt's first inaugural address: "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself."

Hearing Jesus’ voice, heeding his call and following his lead is a sure and certain antidote to fear. Jesus leads us out of fear and division into life and love. The thieves come only to steal and kill and destroy. Instead of taking from us for personal gain, the Good Shepherd gives his own life for us, just as we heard in the Epistle “He himself bore our sins in his body on the cross, so that, having died to sins, we might live for righteousness.” (1 Peter 2:24) In him we have nothing to fear, certainly not judgment and not even death.

The sheep in the parable know the voice of their shepherd and follow only him. How can we be as clever as the sheep and listen to and follow only the voice of the Good Shepherd, the one who calls us by name? It is something we can learn through study, prayer and worship, together, just like the first converts whose experience we heard about in the first reading, in Acts: “They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.” (Acts 2:42) And it is something we can feel. If the voice you hear is not calling you to love God and all your neighbours, if it is not calling you to live an abundant, faith and hope filled life, if it is not calling you to follow his example, it’s not his voice. Jesus is the Good Shepherd, be good sheep and follow him!

Amen.

 

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[1] For example: https://www.cam.ac.uk/research/news/shear-brain-power-sheep-smarter-than-previously-believed