When the Spirit Says Go

the Rev. Dr. DeWayne L. Davis

June 22, 2025

Text: Acts 20:17-24, 31-38

As many of you know, two weeks ago, my mother closed her eyes for a goodnight’s rest and woke up in the presence of God, gone from us in the appointment that all humanity must eventually keep. Thank you for how you showed up for me, Kareem, and our entire family. Your every prayer, every word of condolence, every sympathy card, every show of love and support, and every gift of time and beauty blessed us beyond measure. Last week, we woke up to the news that a man imitating a law enforcement officer had assassinated Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband Mark and attempted to murder Senator John Hoffman and his wife Yvette. The pall of political violence has come close to us and shattered our sense of safety.

These are faith-testing experiences, the kind of events that draw one face-to-face with profound grief, loss, and despair. And yet, in both instances, I have also experienced the healing presence of the beloved community, the coming together that overcomes our estrangement and disconnection from one another. I am undaunted, and my faith is strong. I attribute that to the power of the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God that empowers us to endure. In the closing chapters of the Book of Acts, we see how the Holy Spirit moved in the early church, in the ministry of the Apostle Paul amid disagreement and grief over the decision of one of their leaders to leave. It is only fitting that I reflect on the Spirit’s movement in me, our church, and in our country in my final and farewell sermon today.

[READ Acts 20:17-24, 31-38]

In the church of my youth, the faithful had a simple proverb for those discerning the call of the Holy Spirit: “When the Spirit says, ‘Go,’ you better go.” It was as simple as that. And yet, it was never as simple as that. I know this because there were several occasions in my church where the Holy Spirit did not provide a clear path for us or offer a simple answer to complex decisions, disorienting trials, or numerous conflicts and disagreements.

In Acts, the Holy Spirit’s community-forming power bore fruit. People were empowered to proclaim, prophesy, interpret, and witness. The church followed the Spirit’s unexpected and surprising call to spread the good news. Their work was neither easy nor free from conflict, but the Spirit of God continued to work in and through them. It was never the promise of the Holy Spirit that God’s people would always agree, that faithful discernment would always lead to the hoped-for outcome, or that beloved members of the church would always remain.

The church in Acts confronted just such a challenge when Paul declared to the Ephesian elders that “as a captive to the Spirit, I am on my way to Jerusalem, not knowing what will happen to me there, except that the Holy Spirit testifies to me in every city that imprisonment and persecutions are waiting for me” (Acts 20:22-23). Paul declared that he must do the ministry he received from Jesus to bear witness to the good news of God’s grace. “When the Spirit says, ‘Go,’ you better go.” The elders prayed for him and cried with him. Paul demonstrates what it means to yield to the call of the Spirit, to allow oneself to be used for the singular purpose of God’s liberating aims for all, and to find one’s way to their purpose, even when it doesn’t look like what they expected. And at each subsequent stop on the journey, in Caesarea and in Tyre, Paul keeps faith with the call of the Spirit to go to Jerusalem.

One scholar made the profound observation that “Jerusalem is not only a place but a state of mind.” Like Jesus before him, Paul set his face toward Jerusalem. “When the Spirit says, ‘Go,’ you better go.” But when Paul got to Tyre, he had to confront the real possibility that the Spirit’s call wouldn’t be simple and far from clear. The saints in Tyre testified to Paul that, through the Holy Spirit, they had been told that Paul should not go to Jerusalem. But Paul was not dissuaded. “When the Spirit says, ‘Go,’ you better go.” How could the Holy Spirit lead people to completely different ideas about the way forward? How do they know who is right? Can the Spirit be the source of chaos and conflict? No, because there is no chaos. Everyone in the church remained faithful. And though the saints at Tyre disagreed with Paul about going to Jerusalem, they remain committed to their relationship with their brother, gathering as a community to pray for him and to send him off on his journey.

When Paul arrives in Caesarea, the prophet Agabus doesn’t even say, “Don’t go to Jerusalem,” but demonstrates the danger that awaits him. He takes Paul’s belt and binds his own hand and feet, and testified that the Holy Spirit told him that when Paul got to Jerusalem, the religious leaders would bind him and hand him over. All the saints around Paul begged him not to go to Jerusalem. Paul would not be persuaded. He’s not only ready to be bound but also to die for the name of the Lord. The saints relented, “The Lord’s will be done.” When the Spirit says, ‘Go,’ you better go.

As I stand here, saying farewell to Plymouth, I feel a little like Paul. You know how I lived among you over the last four and a half years, setting foot on this campus during the COVID shutdown, seeking to create community with you through Zoom meetings on computer screens, and slowly gaining a place in your hearts. I did not shrink from doing anything helpful, proclaiming a message of God’s desire for justice and liberation for all of creation. I have endeavored to lead by teaching and preaching what it means to loose the bonds of injustice and let the oppressed go free. I assumed the prophetic mantle to unleash our moral imagination, hoping that the enduring wisdom of our spiritual and biblical forbears would inspire us to create a world where God’s abundance ensures there is bread for the hungry, homes for the unhoused, and wholeness for all of creation.

And now, as a captive to the Spirit, I am on my way to my Jerusalem, not knowing what will happen to me, except that the Holy Spirit testifies to me that there is a work for me to do in another setting at a different level. What awaits me when I leave you is unclear. My choice to engage the public, not from the perch of a minister, but through electoral politics, is fraught, confusing, polarizing, and, as we know all too well from what happened last week, dangerous. And yet, you have given me the faith and confidence to yield to the Spirit’s call and move ahead with all the uncertainty that entails, aware of the threats and the potential for failure. “When the Spirit says, ‘Go,’ you better go.” I don’t know what is ahead but my Jerusalem awaits. I felt it when I went home to say goodbye to my mother. For some inexplicable reason, we drawn to make pilgrimage even as we prepared for the funeral. We visited Fannie Lou Hamer’s grave and the Emmitt Till memorials, and the Spirit’s call became deafening.

As my tenure as Lead Minister of Plymouth Church comes to a close, I hope we remember that this ministry belongs to God, is authored and anchored in Jesus, the head of the Church, and guided and comforted by the Holy Spirit. At one time or another, we have all been guilty of forgetting that our callings and vocations were born within God’s definitive revelation in and through Jesus, and prompted by the power of the Holy Spirit. So when the Holy Spirit says go, we go. We yield to the call and the prompting of the Holy Spirit even when it is scary, difficult, or uncertain. We cannot go back. We cannot resort to old ways of thinking and doing things. We are beckoned forward.

Just as it was with the church in Ephesus, this is a critical period in the life of our church. As we have seen with the COVID shutdowns, emergency church repairs, or challenging financial times, a lot could go wrong. Difficulties and challenges await. Even in our success and faithfulness, we remain vulnerable to threats to our faith, unity, and well-being. However, please be aware that the gospel, the church, and the ministry do not begin or end, rise or fall, with me or any pastor, or any member of this church. Keep watch over yourselves and all seekers, sojourners, and neighbors who may come through these doors. Be alert for good-sounding theology that convinces you to reject, judge, or control God’s people who are seeking beloved community. Be careful of smooth-talking people who try to convince you that God’s reign is built up by subtraction or division. Whatever you do or decide, if it does not build up God’s body, God is not in it. Be God’s church, through and through, without fear or hesitation.

Paul and the elders and churches in Ephesus, Caesarea, and Tyre learned that when God’s prompting and revelation are contested and the way forward is unclear, perhaps disagreement about the way forward is an invitation to deeper faithfulness and deeper commitment to God’s work. While there we those who, by the Spirit, discerned that persecution lay in wait for Paul, in their concern and their love for Paul, perhaps they forgot that the Spirit must also go to Jerusalem, that the Spirit must inspire in Jerusalem a people to proclaim, prophesy, interpret, witness, and mission. I’m going because that Spirit says go, and I have every confidence that the Spirit awaits me in my Jerusalem, wherever that might be.

Faithfulness and discernment feel like gifts of the Spirit to lead us forward. In gathering, praying, and trusting the Spirit’s movement in our midst, I pray that we find our voice to declare together in unity, even in our grief about the ending of this season, “The Lord’s will be done.” We have been formed by and inherited a timeless, liberating grace, captured and captivated by the Spirit of the living God, which sends us out to testify to God’s grace. This ministry continues, and by the power of the Holy Spirit, Plymouth Church will remain united with God, the Son, and the Holy Spirit in going where God sends. May it be so.