We really do observe this #Pentecost in the midst of a pandemic. The pandemic of #COVID19 is real. It is painful. And we pray that scientists and researchers and all of the folk who are working hard will find a way to bring this pandemic to an end.
But there's another pandemic, not of the viral kind, but of the spiritual kind. It is a pandemic of the human spirit, when our lives are focused on ourselves, when the self becomes the center of the world and of the universe. And it may be even more destructive than a virus.
This pandemic of self-centeredness, if you will, has been the root cause of every humanly created evil that has ever hurt or harmed any child of God or even the earth itself.
It is the pandemic where I am the center of the universe and if I'm the center of the universe, then everybody else and everything else, including you is the periphery.
And that pandemic is the root cause of every humanly created evil that has ever been made. Every war that has ever been fought, every bigotry, every injustice, every wrong that has ever been wrought.
Love is the antidote to that. Love is the cure for that. Love is what can help us remove that way of living and establish a way of life where we find life for us all.
Love is the way. It is not a mere utopian dream. It is our hope. Our only hope. And it is the cure for this pandemic caused by the human spirit.
Let no one deceive you. This is not cheap grace or sugar coated religion. It's not easy. It's not easy to live an unselfish life. It's not easy. And the truth is, much that we see around us is the fruit of this unhealthy self-centeredness.
If God is love, and the Spirit of God is the spirit of God's essence and life and heart, then when that spirit is poured out on us, the very love that is the heart of God is being poured out on us and love becomes possible. But it's hard.
In Minnesota, the killing of George Floyd was a violation of basic human decency and dignity. And we all saw it. We all saw it. Maybe the deeper pain that comes with that is that it wasn't an isolated incident.
This is a painful path that we have been on for a long time. We've made such progress in our human relationships and in our racial relationships, and yet this seems not to have changed at all.
I was a teenager when my father warned me when I learned how to drive, that if ever you have encounters with the police, obey, do what they say. Do not talk back and watch how you move your hands. I was told that in the 1960s and we're still having to say it today.
That's where some of the anger and the frustration that we're seeing on our streets is coming from. It's accumulated hurt and disappointment. But not just for those on the streets, for people of goodwill and human decency of all races, all stripes, all religions, all kinds.
There is a part of us that just wants to throw up our hands, and in the words of the Psalmist cry, how long? How long oh, Lord? How long?
And yet, we are not victims of fate. We are people of faith. We are not doomed and condemned to continue our past into our present and future. We need not be slaves of fate. We follow in the footsteps of Jesus.
Jesus taught us that love will make a way out of no way. He taught us that sometimes you have to take up the cross and follow in his footsteps. And that if you dare to follow his way of love, you will find God's way of life.
We will not submit to fate. We must not give in to fate. We must dare to follow Jesus in the way of love that can save us all.
If I make room for you, and you make room for me, and if we will work together to create a society where there is room for all of God's children, where every human being, every one of us is treated as a child of God, created in the image and likeness of God…
…where everybody is loved, everybody is honored, everybody is respected, everybody is created as a child of God. If we work together to build that kind of society and don't give up, then love can save us all.
There is a balm in Gilead to make the wounded whole. There really is a balm in Gilead to heal the sin-sick soul. So walk together children. And don't you get weary, because there is a great camp meeting in the promised land.
