Grant us your peace, we pray, as justice
and love pour down upon the yearning earth. Amen.
I want everyone to
sit tall in your seats, as you are able. Feet flat on the ground.
Hands on your lap.
Close your eyes,
think about the readings you’ve heard today, and open your mind to any imagery
that might show up.
Now, take a deep breath in….and let it
out.
And again, deep breath in….and let it out.
Let’s do that one more time,
deep breath
in….and out.
Excellent! How do you feel after that?
What kind of
images came to you?
Those deep breaths in and out? That’s what
the church year is like.
We spend six months of the year, hurrying
about in high holiday mode as we muscle our way through Advent, Christmas,
Epiphany, Lent, and Eastertide,
taking deep breaths and holding them in as
we come into each holy season,
praying that we
get everything right.
And then the other half of the year we get
to sit in Ordinary time.
And I don’t mean “humdrum” time. I mean a
time to exhale,
a time to reflect
on all that happened in the other six months,
a time to grow
into the lessons we heard and learned.
Next week we will celebrate Trinity Sunday
as the final day before we exhale and head into Ordinary time.
But first, there
is today, Pentecost,
the fiftieth and the
last day of Eastertide,
and the birthday
of the church.
Luke tells us that the community of
disciples is gathered because of the Festival of Weeks (Shavuot).
Jesus had promised the arrival of the Holy
Spirit not long after his departure and sure enough, on the festival day
itself, the Holy Spirit arrives.
The scene is spectacular and chaotic:
a violent, rushing
sound like wind, evoking imagery of the creation in Genesis 1;
and then “divided
tongues, as of fire” – not a fire that destroys, but rather like the fire that
Moses encountered at the burning bush, which was “blazing, yet it was not
consumed” in Exodus 3.
You see in these verses wind (or spirit)
and fire, and as each person was touched by these, we are reminded of the
waters of baptism.
Air, fire, water.
Three of the four ancient
elements.
But where is earth? Well, we are earth!
Human beings, the
“adam”, the dust from which we are all created.
We, as earth, are
incomplete without the other three elements.
God as Holy Spirit comes as fire, air, and
water so that the dust can be moistened, the air breathed in, and the divine
spark put into us so that we can become who we fully are – the messengers of
God.
The Spirit’s immediate effect is
linguistic: many are empowered “to speak in other languages,” and at the same
time, each person hears each testimony in their native tongue.
Think of a meeting at the United Nations,
in which everyone hears the proceedings (through a headset) translated into
their language.
The upshot of all of this is a sense of
togetherness and unity: diverse as they are, everyone understands and can
communicate. Accordingly, they’re dazzled, bewildered, and taken aback: “What
does this mean?” (Acts 2:12).
As if to answer this question, Peter
stands and speaks. He cites the prophet Joel, adapting those ancient words to
illuminate the present:
the final and decisive chapter of history
has arrived, the dawn of God’s joyous Jubilee that Jesus declared early in his
ministry, and now comes the long-promised “pouring out” of the Holy Spirit upon
“all flesh”.
Jesus both heralded and inaugurated this
new era, and the Spirit will empower a community through whom the movement’s
message of healing, liberation, and joy will go out to the ends of the earth.
In other words, the church is born!
But what is the church? To put it simply,
the church is the people.
Not a building, or a specific membership or group of people, not a gathering in a specific location.
God’s people. All of them.
And the first act of God’s Spirit at
Pentecost honors the diversity and individuality of the believers.
God wants the Good News to be heard by all
people and in all languages, especially in God’s mother tongue, which is love!
This radical new community about which
Joel speaks and which Peter says is realized in the earliest Christian
community is remarkably inclusive.
It is gender
inclusive: “your sons” and “your daughters” (2:17); “servants – both male and
female” (2:18).
It is age
inclusive: “your young people” and “your old people” (2:17).
And if we are to
take seriously the opening (“all people”) of this citation, then this community
is also destined to be ethnically inclusive.
Diversity is a blessed feature of the
Christian life.
And we have all been joined by our Baptism
into communities of faith that look for – and expect! – the Holy Spirit to come
along side us and shake things up,
preparing and
equipping each and all of us to share the disruptive, surprising, and
life-giving word of grace of the God who will not rest until all people enjoy
abundant life.
Breath means new life;
new life means
growth and change.
The Spirit is breathed onto us to protect,
to challenge,
to provoke,
to push,
and to call us
into action.
The church is on a mission, God’s mission,
to love and protect our neighbours as much as God loves and protects us.
The church’s ministry begins with the gift
of the spirit, not for the sake simply of the church, but for the whole world.
The Spirit mobilizes us, the church, and
opens up new horizons for ministry.
The Spirit makes visible and tangible
God’s promise to be present, to empower, and to compel testimony.
We, as witnesses, testify about God who
interjects God’s self into diverse cultures, languages, and life situations
making God’s presence felt, heard, and seen, and compelling us to interpret, as
best we can, what we have felt, heard, and seen.
And this is what we will spend “ordinary”
time doing.
To close for today, I’d like to share Malcolm
Guite’s poem called Pentecost.
Today
we feel the wind beneath our wings
Today
the hidden fountain flows and plays
Today
the church draws breath at last and sings
As
every flame becomes a Tongue of praise.
This is the feast
of fire, air, and water
Poured
out and breathed and kindled into earth.
The earth herself
awakens to her maker
And is translated
out of death to birth.
The
right words come today in their right order
And
every word spells freedom and release
Today the gospel
crosses every border
All
tongues are loosened by the Prince of Peace
Today
the lost are found in His translation.
Whose
mother tongue is Love in every nation.
Almighty God, your Spirit brooded over primordial waters, breathed life into dry bones, appeared as flames over the heads of praying people. Breathe on us afresh; stir us to speak, hear, and act as Spirit-filled people. Amen.
Thank you Rev. Theo!
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