The Spirit of Courage

I preached this Sunday on May 27, 2012, a Sunday that was both Pentecost and Memorial Day Sunday. One goal of this sermon was to find common ground between these two holidays that are so very dissimilar. I chose to focus on the virtue of "courage." The book of Acts implies that courage was a gift of the Holy Spirit to Jesus' followers. It seems to me that the courage shown by many of our military men and women is that same kind of gift. If you choose to read the sermon, see if you agree with me.

This morning is a two-for-one Sunday: it’s both Pentecost and Memorial Day! For those of you who may not know, Pentecost is the celebration of the gift of the Holy Spirit to Jesus’ disciples. It’s frequently called the “birthday of the church,” because it marks the beginning of the proclamation of Jesus as Messiah outside the circle of his followers. Memorial Day, of course, is the day when we honor the men and women of our military who have died in the service of our country.

At first glance, these two holidays couldn’t be more different. Pentecost is a Christian holiday; while Memorial Day is celebrated by people of all faiths – and by people who have no faith at all. Memorial Day is an American holiday; while Christians all around the world join in the celebration of Pentecost. But the most glaring contrast is that Pentecost celebrates the Spirit of Jesus, who urged us to pray for our enemies and to follow in his way of peace; while Memorial Day is a reminder of all the wars that have taken place since the dawn of history.

This contrast between Pentecost and Memorial Day will cause many churches to choose this morning which holiday they will celebrate. Some will opt for Pentecost. They will place images of a dove in their sanctuary to remind worshippers of the Holy Spirit; and they will change the cloths on the altar to red. Other churches will choose to celebrate Memorial Day. The churches who do that will sing patriotic songs; and they’ll make sure that an American flag is displayed somewhere in the church. But celebrating only one holiday or the other suggests that somehow church and society don’t belong together. It forces us into a false choice. If we celebrate Pentecost on Sunday and save Memorial Day until Monday, we buy into the notion that religion is only for one day a week. We go to church on Sunday and think about the Holy Spirit; but on Monday, the Holy Spirit may have no part at all in our lives. On the other hand, if we celebrate only Memorial Day on Sunday and forget about Pentecost, we buy into the idea that our country is somehow more important than God’s Spirit.

I hope that we have found a middle way here in our worship this morning. We have prepared for both Pentecost and for Memorial Day! There are doves in the sanctuary (both on the church banners and on my stole), and the cloths on the altar are red. But we are also singing songs appropriate to Memorial Day; and the window in the narthex displays markers that remind us of the many wars in which our military men and women have fought and died. Does this make us schizophrenic? I hope not. I hope that we’re showing how our faith can inform the events of our nation. In a recent Pastoral Ponderings (my column in our church newsletter), I mentioned a man named Karl Barth. Barth was an influential theologian in the early part of the 20^th century. He advised pastors to preach with the Bible in one hand and the newspaper in the other. In Barth’s opinion, if we can’t apply our faith to our society, then our faith isn’t much good; and our society probably isn’t much good, either. It seems to me that on this Memorial Day/Pentecost Sunday, it might not be a bad idea to put our Bible in one hand and the morning newspaper in the other, and consider how one holiday can inform the other.

Let’s begin that process by considering the gift of the Holy Spirit. The early church understood that when a Christian is filled with the Spirit of God, it is evident in that Christian’s life. The letter from Paul to the Galatians contains a long list of the characteristics that a Christian displays when he or she is filled with the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. That’s a good list. But it seems to me that there is one virtue that Paul has left off his list – courage. I’m convinced that the Spirit offers us courage as well as all these other good things. Now, when I talk about “courage,” I don’t mean “foolhardiness.” Bungee-jumping off a bridge without first checking the strength of the bungee cord isn’t courage; it’s stupidity! No, I’m talking about real courage – the courage to do what it takes for a cause that is a lot bigger than any one of us.

The apostles showed that kind of courage in proclaiming the gospel after they were filled with the Spirit at Pentecost. Peter faced a huge crowd on that first Pentecost, and he spoke out boldly as he proclaimed that Jesus was the Messiah. He did the same thing when he was hauled in front of the Jewish ruling council; so much so that the book of Acts tells us that they were amazed at his “boldness.” The apostles didn’t let the threat of punishment, or hardship, or even execution stop them from proclaiming the good news of the Gospel to anyone who would listen. Their courage was, quite simply, astounding.

The scripture reading this morning was taken from one of Paul’s letters to the church in Corinth (II Corinthians 11:21-29). Did you take note of all the hardships that Paul experienced? It’s a very long list: prison, floggings, beatings, stoning, and shipwrecks, in addition to sometimes not knowing where his next meal was coming from. It takes real courage to face all those things! And no one was forcing Paul to spread the Gospel. After his conversion to Christianity on the Damascus road, he could have decided to stay home and drop out of sight. He might have simply written a letter to the Christian churches in the area that went something like this: “Hey, friends, I was wrong about that Jesus guy. I know now that he really is the Messiah. I’m so sorry if I’ve caused you any inconvenience with that persecution business! Let me know if there’s anything that I can do to make up for all the trouble that I’ve caused you.” But that’s not what Paul did. Paul put himself in harm’s way for the cause of Christianity – a cause that was way bigger than he was.

And that’s what our military men and women do every single day while they are serving our country. They put themselves in harm’s way for a cause that is way bigger than they are. Now, it’s true that they aren’t serving a religious cause. They are serving a country that is imperfect at best. They may not agree with all of its decisions. They may not even support the wars in which they are ordered to fight. But they put their lives on the line nevertheless for the sake of all the people who live in that country; and for the sake of people in many other countries around the world, as well. And many of them serve with a sacrificial courage that surely comes from the Spirit of God.

The most notable examples of this kind of courage are the recipients of the Congressional Medal of Honor. The Medal of Honor is the highest award for valor in action against an enemy force that can be bestowed upon an individual serving in the United States Armed Services. To date, there have been 3,459 recipients of the Congressional Medal of Honor. 81 of them are still alive. The most recent recipient is Specialist 4^th Class Leslie H. Sabo, Jr. Specialist Sabo served as a rifleman in the U.S. Army: Company B, 3^rd Battalion, 506th Infantry, 101^st Airborne Division. On May 10, 1970, Specialist Sabo and his platoon were conducting a reconnaissance patrol in Se San, Cambodia when they were ambushed from all sides by a large enemy force. Without hesitation, Specialist Sabo attacked one of the enemy flanks, drawing fire and ultimately forcing them to retreat. In order to re-supply ammunition, he sprinted across an open field to a wounded comrade. As he began to reload, an enemy grenade landed nearby. Specialist Sabo picked it up, threw it, and shielded his comrade with his own body, saving his comrade's life. Seriously wounded by the blast, Specialist Sabo nevertheless continued his attack, receiving several serious wounds from automatic weapons fire in the process. Mortally injured, he crawled towards an enemy bunker and threw in a grenade. The resulting explosion silenced the enemy fire, but at the cost of Specialist Sabo's own life. His courage and disregard for his own safety saved the lives of many of his platoon members. He was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor on May 16, just 11 days ago.

 
Jesus told his disciples, “Greater love has no one than this: that he lay down his life for his friends.” Being willing to lay down one’s life requires great courage – the kind of courage that only the Spirit is able to give us. On this Pentecost, let us give thanks for the Spirit that can fill us with enough courage to lay down our life for our friends – and on this Memorial Day Sunday, let us give thanks for our valiant military men and women who have done just that.