You be you.
Pentecost C: Acts 2:1-21, Romans 8:14-17, John 14:8-17, (25-27)
Most of the people in this video were chanting “shame, shame, shame.” You wouldn’t think that would be enough to make a group of armed, armored men back up, let alone drive away, but they did. Clearly, there was something more than words at work.
There was something special at work on the day of Pentecost too. Scripture says it was the Holy Spirit. The scene in Acts is cinematic: sudden sounds and amazing sights. But the Holy Spirit’s appearance is rarely sudden.
Before Pentecost, the disciples had been waiting and praying for 50 days. Before that, they had been with Jesus for a year, maybe more.1 For a long time they had been watching, listening, practicing and preparing.
I suspect the people in the video had been preparing in their own ways. Talking to friends and maybe to the families of people who had been swept up in an ICE raid. Maybe carrying a sign or writing their representatives, feeling the outrage or taking it into their prayer. Like the disciples, they had been preparing, and when the ICE agents arrived, they were moved to do something new.
In Sunday’s gospel, Philip says: “Show us God.” He has been with Jesus for a long time and learned alot. But he wants more.
Of course he does.
When we are present to the needs of the world, we can never feel as though we have enough of God or the creative energy that gives rise to and underlies goodness, beauty, love and life.
We want more. And we don’t need to be Jesus to know God. It’s as if this week, Jesus says to Philip and to us, “To know God, you be you.”
We have learned how to prepare: Stay close to the others, wash their feet, share meals, love one another. But also this: you be you.
Then (Jesus says) you will do the works I did, “and greater works than these.”2 Which is to say that amazingly and cinematically or quietly and incrementally, God will be there.
Peace.
Postscript: The action in the video took place in San Diego. I couldn’t find a date. I dropped out the audio because one gentleman was using some pretty rough language which would be hard to listen to if, like me, you are an early morning reader.
John’s gospel suggests Jesus’ ministry lasted three years. The synoptics tell a one-year story.
“None of the ‘works’ [i.e., miracles performed] . . . in John 2-11 carries with it instructions to disciples to imitate it or do similar things. The only action of Jesus set to be an example to his followers is washing their feet. That was given overwhelming, commanding weight . . . So what is ‘greater’ than washing feet? The very meaning of ‘greater’ is transformed by [the footwashing, so now ‘greater’ means] to surpass it in humility, in loving service . . . For that to happen as a way of life, the followers need to be participating in [God’s] love… ‘so that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.’” David F. Ford, The Gospel of John: A Theological Commentary (Baker Academic, Grand Rapids, MI. 2021) at 281.
As you so aptly write, "... we can never feel as though we have enough of God" when we try to "be the change we want to see in the world." But your idea that Jesus implies one of the best methods to know God is paraphrased as "you be you," rings true in my soul. Simple. Not easy. And very good advice.
Love it…. You be you. When you dig deep and try to be your best self, poof… there’s the divine. When we act in communion with others, all striving to do good, care for others, stand up for each other….. there’s the divine.