Gumbo, Chicago Mix, and Mincemeat Pie
Highland Avenue Church of the Brethren
Pastor Katie Shaw Thompson – May 28, 2023
Gumbo, Chicago Mix, and Mincemeat Pie – Acts 2: 1-12
If you have already read today’s sermon title you may be wondering, what do Gumbo, Chicago Mix popcorn, and mincemeat pie have in common? Well, first, I for one would welcome all those things at a Memorial Day weekend picnic, although I’ve already heard that not all the people in this room would join me in enjoying the mincemeat pie.
Second, If you ask me, although each of those dishes has different flavors, the magic in each one of them is the mix of different ingredients that complements each other while remaining distinctly present rather than blending into sameness. It’s the sweet and savory combination. It’s the way the caramel popcorn makes me want the cheddar cheese popcorn and the way the cheddar cheese popcorn makes me want another bite of the caramel popcorn and vice versa until before I know it I’ve eaten way more popcorn than I intended to eat.
Maybe you can already see where I’m going and what I want to say today, which is that the church at its best is like a delicious potluck picnic, full of lots of different flavors and gifts and perspectives and life experiences. The Holy Spirit did not flow into the room on that first Pentecost to ensure sameness among Christ followers. Rather, I understand that she came to inspire us to oneness across our individuality.
Today’s scripture text is sometimes interpreted as the reverse of what happened at the Tower of Babel in Genesis 11, when God quells the would-be skyscraper builders by confusing their language. Today’s story then is interpreted as one in which unity is restored.
I do find that interpretation somewhat appealing. But what I find even more appealing is the caution from Acts scholar Eric Barreto, who points out that such an interpretation sees difference as a problem to be solved, which is an assumption that may lead us to overlook the fact that no restoration of a common language occurs in this chapter of Acts. “Instead, the Galilean disciples are heard in all the dialects represented by their audiences. What we witness, then, is the Holy Spirit validating difference and working through it.”
I believe the theological wavelength this congregation generally occupies is one that sets us up well to be just that kind of delicious, difference-celebrating potluck of a church. That’s not to say we’re always perfect at it or that we can’t get better. But I do believe our congregation’s and our denomination’s historic commitment to non-coercion in religion–that is refusing to demand that we all believe exactly the same thing–is a gift, especially in a world that often seems keen to sift and sort us by our differences.
As you may well know, it’s not always easy to maintain unity across differences. Conflicts inevitably arise and must be navigated with compassion and care if we hope to maintain community.
One skill I wish the Holy Spirit had poured out a bit more liberally on the church and society at large would be the ability to notice and check our assumptions about each other, because they can be the source of so much harm and disunity. Yet, the ability to check those assumptions is sometimes in woefully short supply.
I may see what you’re wearing, what bumper stickers are on your car, your age, your lack or presence of tattoos, your race, your gender expression, and I may be tempted to assume I know a lot about you. But I find that the more I can check those assumptions and respect that I don’t know something about you until you trust me enough to tell me, the more I am delightfully surprised by each person’s remarkable uniqueness and giftedness. Every time that happens to me I for one feel like the church and the world get a little bit bigger in my understanding, and I feel a little more like God, the church, and the world have room for all that makes me me, too. The more I am able to check my assumptions, the more I find that people are generally not one thing or another, but a complex combination of feelings, stories, and experiences from which I can learn if I have the capacity that day to try.
For me, Memorial Day weekend brings up a boatload of assumptions. One assumption I hope is not true about our congregation is that because we are part of a peace tradition, we have no compassion for the trauma veterans experience, no space to hear their stories, and no time to join in mourning with those who have lost loved ones to the horrors of war. I hope, too, that I can speak of the reality of that pain from this pulpit without it being assumed that I am uncommitted to peace and the end of all wars.
I know though that it often makes us humans uncomfortable to wade into the complexity of human reality. It can be so tempting to assign labels like good and bad or in and out. It’s often a stretch to really, respectfully consider a point of view that is not our own while being honest about our disagreement. I believe, however, that when we make that stretch we are stretching toward a lifestyle of community building that is full of Spirit-infused vitality and deep belonging for us all.
One assumption Christians sometimes make in reading today’s text is that it is a story about the good inclusiveness of Christianity beyond the bad exclusiveness of first century Judaism. I do believe that Christ followers are called to build inclusive, loving communities. And, as I read today’s text, I read that “there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven living in Jerusalem.” That leads me to believe that an inclusive strain of Christianity is a descendant of an inclusive strain of Judaism. Rather than one being superior to the other, the traditions are a kind of closely related kin. What’s more, the conversation about who God loves, who belongs, and who receives the Spirit is an ancient debate that reverberates throughout the Old Testament or Hebrew Bible and that is still with us today.
We are still making the church. We have two millennia of tradition to draw on but with the Holy Spirit’s help we are called to continue knitting together the ties that bind us into one inclusive body of Christ, serving the particular time and place in which we live.
I would be honored to hear of your respectful disagreement but it is my deeply held belief that we can practice Spirit-filled oneness in Christ without us all being, acting, or believing the same way. We can embrace the beautiful diversity with which we were created as well as the diversity of experience through which we have lived. I believe it is that very embrace that allows us to do our best to love one another into being the beloved community God calls us to be–a place where we all know we are loved, where we feel deep belonging, and where we are enlivened with a holy passion to serve our neighbors’ good and bring glory to God.
May it be so. Amen.
