One in the Spirit
It’s Complicated: Family as a Means of Grace - Part 6
June 8, 2025
Joel 2:28, Acts 2:38-47
After that I will pour out my spirit upon everyone;
your sons and your daughters will prophesy,
your old men will dream dreams,
and your young men will see visions.Joel 2:28
Peter replied, “Change your hearts and lives. Each of you must be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. Then you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. This promise is for you, your children, and for all who are far away — as many as the Lord our God invites.”
Acts 2:38-39
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“I will pour out my Spirit upon everyone… This promise is for you, your children, and for all who are far away — as many as the Lord invites.”
It has been said that the greatest scandal of Christianity is not who it excludes, but who it includes. If God is at the center of the circle, there are no boundaries. If Christ is at the head of the table, there is always an extra seat. If the Holy Spirit is poured out upon everyone, then who are we to say who is in or out, who belongs or doesn’t, who is welcome or who is not?
As the Spirit moves through Acts, we discover that everyone includes than even the prophets or disciples imagined: Jews and Gentiles, men and women, slaves and free, young and old, rich and poor. The Spirit pours out on Saul, a persecutor of the church. The Spirit reaches out across the nations and welcomes Roman centurions, wealthy businesswomen, slave girls, prison guards, merchants, tentmakers, and the list goes on.
Empires thrive on conformity, loyalty, and fear. As the Wizard says in Wicked, “nothing brings people together like a good enemy.” Tragically, Christian history has often embraced this philosophy — us vs. them — with devastating results. From the Crusades the Holocaust to present-day attacks by Christian leaders against people of color, immigrants, the LGBTQ+ community, people with mental health struggles, other religions, and even certain branches of the church that they don’t consider Christian — the list of those we try to exclude is long.
These are people God so loved, whom Christ came to save and not condemn. Even when they are in our churches and communities, seeking to live with love and integrity, we are quick to judge, to marginalize, or to ignore them entirely as if they are not really present.
Some claim that history is being “re-written” because it doesn’t match what they learned in school. In truth, what’s new is the inclusion of the countless voices long silenced by power. These people have always been present, in the world and in the church, but they have not always been seen or heard.
That is why we confess the ways we have rejected God’s promise for ALL people. We ask for a fresh outpouring of the Spirit, to open our eyes and hearts to those we have not seen and to help us hear God’s voice in the voices we have silenced.
Lord have mercy. Christ have mercy. Lord have mercy.
Hear the good news! We are one in the Spirit of God, who is poured out on all people, without exception, and who binds us together not by sameness, but by grace.