Sunday's Sermon

 

PENTECOST 2022

        Today is the feast of Pentecost, when the Spirit fell like fire and wind on the disciples, just as Jesus promised in today’s Gospel.

        “I have said these things to you while I am still with you. But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send to you in my name, will teach you everything, and remind you of all that I have said to you. Peace I leave you with; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid.”

        So, on this day, the Spirit came and the disciples, according to Acts, took the Spirit to the people and all who heard them, heard them in their own language.

        So, my question is: did the disciples speak in multiple tongues or did the Holy Spirit give all the people the power to hear in their own language?

        The Spirit is powerful.

        I remember a hymn from my childhood in the Pilgrim Holiness church that went like this: “Come on Holy Spirit, but don’t stay long. Come on Holy Spirit, but don’t stay long.”

        Pilgrim Holiness people did not speak in tongues, but, from time to time, someone in the congregation would be ‘slain in the Spirit’.

        I remember my fear and horror as people I knew fell to the floor as the Spirit touched them.

        That’s why they didn’t want the Holy Spirit to ‘stay long’. Everyone would have been on the floor!

        Today the Fire falls and the Wind blows in the area where we are.

        Don’t be ‘slain’, but do open your heart to receive the Spirit as it comes to our midst.

        The lesson from Genesis tells us of a time when all the people in the world spoke the same language.

        They built a city with a tower to be one with God.

        Yahweh was concerned about what all they might do, so God came down and confused their languages, so they could not communicate easily with each other.

God know that God did a good job!

There are hundreds of languages in the world and we have difficulty understanding each other.

Translators at the U.N. are often unable to accurately translate some of the words of one language into another. How would “pull the wool over your eyes” make sense in Chinese or Russian or the languages of Africa?

Can you imagine all the people of the world speaking the same language? I can’t.

But the Holy Spirit can come and give us ears to hear and hearts to understand.

Let the fire fall on you this day.

Let the wind blow through your soul.

Be still and know the Spirit in your heart and God within you.

Be still and know.

Amen.

       

Guns and children

I've put off posting about the tragedies in Buffalo an Texas because I am so heart-broken, so angry and so disappointed with our elected representatives.

If I were in charge (would that I were!) I would require the giving up of all guns that are not specifically for hunting (though I don't like those either).

Like New Zealand, we would pay people for their guns and then destroy the guns.

And we would have laws that made crimes of any kind committed with a gun would face life in prison--any gun!

The police would have guns until a year without a crime with a gun involved had passed. Then the police would be limited on having guns.

Weird and unbelievable to me is that many supporters of guns also want to outlaw abortion.

Let all children be born so they can be shot and killed.

Makes sense?

I think not.

 

 

Last Weeks Sermon

Easter 7 2022

        Paul and Silas were beaten and thrown into prison--in today’s reading from Acts—for healing a slave girl who had a spirit of divination.

        (Having such a spirit possessing you might seem like a good thing. It would let you make lots of money on the stock market and in sport’s betting. But you’ll also know when those you love are going to die and know when the next school shooting would take place and be helpless to do anything about it.)

        When an earthquake (sent by God?) opens all the doors to the prison and removes the prisoner’s bonds, no one leaves.

        The jailer woke up and considered killing himself because of the trouble he’d be in, Paul talks to him and he turns to God and is baptized. He also sets Paul and Silas free and takes them to his house to eat and meet his family.

        That’s the first point I want to make: we need to set each other free. Free to be ourselves when we thought we couldn’t be.

 

        In John today, Jesus talks about how we are all “ONE”.

        I dare say we don’t think we are “ONE”.

        We live in a nation that seems more divided than at any time since the Civil War.

        We are divided by our opinions and don’t think we can come together and listen with compassion toward those who don’t agree with us.

        But Jesus insists we should be “ONE”.

        Remember these words from the pledge of allegiance: “ONE Nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.”

        I didn’t realize until I was reading about the Pledge for this sermon, that the phrase ‘under God’ was added in 1956 by President Eisenhower because of his concerns about what he considered ‘god-less communists’.

        He had no intentions of becoming ‘ONE’ with communists.

        In our oh-so-divided nation and world, it doesn’t seem possible to ‘free each other’ to become ONE across our differences.

        Yet that’s what God calls us to do.

       

        In a small step toward that end and after talking with the Wardens and two of members of Trinity, we decided to hold a monthly series of discussions around sensitive topics.

        The point of the discussions will be to ‘listen’ to each other—really ‘listen—even across whatever differences we have…no, not ‘even’…”intentionally listen”, intentionally and with compassion one for the other.

        Our vocalist, Jordon, will become our moderator for these talks and keep us on track and check that we are really listening to each other.

        Our hope is that we may FREE each other to share sincerely about our opinions, so that we might in that way—by talking and listening—become more ONE in spite of our differences.

        Be sure to invite friends you may disagree with. Let them know that will be treated with respect and compassion and truly, truly ‘listened to’.

        The first session will be June 12 and will be dedicated to an honest discussion of Gun Control.

        In the future we will discuss Abortion, GLBTQ rights and immigration.

        Be there to listen and be listened to so that we might FREE each other and become more ONE.

 

 

 

 

Lacrosse balls

 We have over 30 lacrosse balls on our front porch, collected from our front yard.

Until the other day we had no idea where they were coming from.

I thought maybe kids were playing in the First Cong parking lot and hitting them our way.

Which made no sense since they would have had to cross the two story houses across our street.

Plus no other yard had any.

Then a few days ago, Bern woke up really early and walked Brigit early.

On her way home see saw a small gray car that slowed and threw one on our yard.

We have no idea who's doing it or why.

Or what it means.

If anything.

I've thought about reporting it to Town Hall or the police, but what would I say.

I'm dumbfounded about it.

None of them have hit our house so they are harmless.

God knows what it means.

Well,  maybe God knows, but I've no idea.

Going tao Northford

 I have Sunday off tomorrow.

So I'm going to St. Andrew's, Northford to preach and celebrate for Bryan Spinks so he can go to Emmanuel in Killingworth.

Those are two of the three churches Bryan and I rotated around for 7 years.

Looking forward to seeing old friends there.

Where I am today

 I'm struggling with whether or not to go on Saturday to cast my vote for the next bishop of CT.

Being in the same room with 500 people, even in an auditorium for 6 or 7 hours seems to me to be a potential super-spreader of Covid, even though we'll all be masked.

I've been asthmatic since my childhood.

And though it is under great control due to the Zolair shots I get every other week, it is a pre-existing condition that could be damaged by the virus.

The Bishop has given priests the option not to attend. Which I appreciate--it is usually 'required'.

So I'll wrestle with it this week and decide by Friday.

Wish me luck.

The reason why

 Why are there two Sunday sermons this week?

Because I shared my first sermon with the people in my Wed. group and sent it to them by email. 

All but two (2 women, by the way) told me not to preach it.

Trinity has had lots of liberal/conservative debates in the past and wanted to avoid another.

So, I relented, knowing they knew the parish better than I did.

(Besides that, since Bern prints out my sermons since my computer needs intervention, told me it was too political!)

I'm not resentful for being censored, but I do wonder where the lines are in the sand around Trinity.

Oh well, I like the second one too, where I lay out the division but don't take a side.

We'll see.