The Spirit Moves Us to Justice
Community organizer Idalin Luz Montes Bobé draws inspiration from the Holy Spirit’s energy shared on the first Pentecost:
In Acts 2, the Holy Spirit comes to—and into—the disciples of Jesus [and] enables the disciples to speak in such a way that others, no matter where they come from or what language they speak, can understand.
That same Spirit is at work today, and we can still feel the power and unity of that moment. That Spirit is the power that affirms for us the worthiness we are so often denied and reminds us that we are beloved. It gives us the power to cry justice in the face of oppression, and claim human rights as our inheritance, and grow our movement. When we cry out in protest, we hear, see, and feel the Spirit moving.
We read that when the Holy Spirit comes in this way to the disciples, they are mocked and called drunkards. . . . Yet they carry a life-affirming message, and through their unity, they are filled up with a spirit that sustains them. Peter steps forward to oppose the lies being told about this freedom movement. He reminds everyone there that the disciples are fulfilling what has been proclaimed: that in God’s kingdom, young and old, men and women, and especially the poor will prophesy.
To prophesy is to carry a message of the mind of God to a particular situation. God’s mind is always on justice, on the end of oppression, on fully living. This empowerment, carrying God’s unmistakable message, is exactly what happens when movements for liberation take root. . . .
Our systems try to shame us, silence us, and divide us, but the Holy Spirit unites us and imparts the ability to deliver a message. We will not be divided, ridiculed, or vilified. We all have messages about defending life—messages that God wants others to hear. The Holy Spirit is moving in our midst. [1]
Rev. Dr. Yvette Flunder describes the spiritual revival that joined people of different races in the Pentecostal movement:
The greatest manifestation of the power of God comes when we work together to find ways to be together and do justice together and love together and stand together.
In 1906 in Los Angeles a revival broke out in a small mission on Azusa Street, led by Rev. William J. Seymour. This revival marked the beginning of the modern day Pentecostal movement. The event has been reduced over time to a group of people displaying external “signs and wonders” such as speaking in tongues, healings, and prophecy, with little meaning to most people today. But the power of that Pentecostal revival was not in the external manifestations of speaking in tongues and healings but in the miracle of black and white people worshipping together, men and women preaching together and decrying racism and sexism by their very presence in one place. The Spirit still moves when we move past our prejudices and differences. [2]
