I still don't get it....

It's mid-May and still 40 at night and 60 in the day.

Where is global warming?

I have on a shirt, a sweater and a jacket. 

And I'm still cold.

I don't get it....

 

I don't get it...

 I get lots of 'spam' calls on my cell and home phone.

I get lots of trash on email.

I don't get where all this stuff is coming from.

Make them stop!!!

One more Pentacost sermon

PENTECOST 2016

          Fear always says “no”.

          If you’re going to remember anything I say this morning—remember this: FEAR ALWAYS SAYS “NO.”

          And remember this as well: GOD SAYS “YES” TO US….

                                      ****

          Jesus’ friends were gathered in the same room they’d been using to hide. How many were there isn’t clear. The book of Acts says 120—though that number may be high. They huddled together, still frightened that the Temple authorities might be after them, still grieving in some way—though they had seen the Risen Lord time and again—and, most…most of all, terribly, wrenchingly lonely.

          Jesus had promised them they would be clothed in power. Jesus had promised them he would send an Advocate to be with them. Jesus had promised them they would be baptized in Fire. Jesus had promised them he was already preparing a place for them.

          But the promises seemed like so much pie crust to the disciples. They were still waiting for the promises to be fulfilled. They were frightened. And they were so lonely—so profoundly lonely.

                                                ****

          That image…that metaphor…that paradigm of being crowded into a lonely, frightening room rings true for us today.

           Fear haunts us these days. And though we huddle together in our fear, we are still so profoundly lonely. Fear speaks but one word and that word is “NO”.

          Our faith teaches us to be hospitable to strangers—but our Fear says “no” and we distrust those who are different from us and seek to keep people from Mexico and Muslims out.

                   Our faith teaches us that we are to be peacemakers—but our Fear says “no” and we demonize people half-a-world away and wage deadly war against them.

         

          Our faith teaches us to share our gifts with those in need—but our Fear says “no” and we live in the richest nation in the history of human kind where the gap between the rich and the poor gets wider every day.

          Our faith teaches us that “a little child shall lead us” and that we must become like children to enter the Kingdom of God—but our Fear says “no” as millions of children go underfed, undereducated and neglected in our midst.

          Remember this: Fear always says “NO”.

                                      ****  

There is no easy or simple way to explain it, what happened in that closed and fearful room on the first Pentecost—it happened like this: one moment the room was full of fear and the next moment the room was full of fire and a mighty wind fanned the flames until the fear was burned away and all that was left was hope and joy and those formerly frightened people “found their voices” and left their hiding place and spoke words that transformed the world.

We need the Fires of Pentecost to burn away our fears and the Winds of Pentecost to blow away our loneliness. We need the Spirit to give us our voices so we may proclaim the “Yes” of God to this world.

Fear always says “NO”—but God always says “Yes”….

We need a Pentecost. We need to know that God says “Yes” to us. That God calls us to wonder and joy and love and compassion and hospitality. And not just in the “big things”—God’s “Yes” to us is about “little things” too. God’s “Yes” to us is global, universal, total.

This is a poem by Kaylin Haught titled God Says Yes to Me. It is a Pentecost poem, whether she knew it or not.

I asked God if it was okay to be melodramatic

          and she said yes

          I asked her if it was okay to be short

          and she said it sure is

          I asked her if I could wear nail polish

          or not wear nail polish

          and she said honey

          she calls me that sometimes

          she said you can do just exactly what you want to

          Thanks God I said

          And is it even okay if I don’t paragraph

          my letters

          Sweetcakes God said

          Who knows where she picked that up

          What I’m telling you is

          Yes Yes Yes

          What Pentecost is about is God saying “Yes” to you and you and you and you and you and all of us.

          What Pentecost is about is the Spirit coming so we are never, ever, not ever lonely again.

          What Pentecost is about is Fire burning away Fear.

          What Pentecost is about—and listen carefully, this is important—Pentecost is about God saying to you and you and you and you and you and all of us:

          Sweetcakes, what I’m telling you is Yes Yes Yes.

 

 

 

 

 

Another one

 There are a lot of these! I've been a priest for a long time and Pentecost comes once a year....

PENTECOST 2006

 

          The lesson from Acts today ended two verses too soon. We heard all about the wind and fire and falling of the Spirit on the disciples. We heard all about how everyone from the known world at that time understood the disciples, no matter what language was their own tongue. Great drama. Remarkable story. Yet the lesson ended two verses too soon.

          The two verses that came after all the excitement on the first Pentecost in Jerusalem was simply this: Acts 2. 12-13…

          All were amazed and perplexed, saying, “what does this mean?” But others sneered and said, “They are filled with new wine.”

 

          Two first hand reports on the events of the very first Pentecost—and they are very different.

          One report is: “what is going on here? What does this mean?” And the other is, “these guys are drunk….”

 

          There is a saying a dear friend of my uses when she thinks she truly has something to contribute to the conversation. What she says is this: “I’m not just a guy at a bar….”

          There are lots of insights and opinions you can get from a “guy at a bar”. Some of them are wondrous and helpful and most of them are “filled with new wine” and not worth much.

          There are lots of people who think Christians like us are “filled with new wine” and that what we have to proclaim makes next to no sense. However, there are more folks out there who are asking “What does this mean?”  They are wondering about the good news of God’s love. They are pondering the teachings of Jesus. They are engaged in the questions and the inquiry of how to find “meaning” for their lives.

          And Pentecost is the day that compels us to move into the world and spread the news, to invite others to the journey and the joy, to share the wonder of God’s love.

          On Pentecost, when the fire fell and the wind blew, the disciples were blown out of hiding into the streets of Jerusalem. And whatever they said was heard—clearly and without translation—because they were speaking of the Spirit of the God that loves us all best of all.

          It is no different for us. God’s love compels us “into the world”—into the streets and out of our hiding places. God’s love commands us to include everyone in the Hope and Wonder of the Kingdom. We are driven—as individuals and as a community—into the world to spread the news of God’s remarkable Love.

 

          We do that as a community quite well. There is always room for improvement, but I’d say we, as the people of St. James, have opened ourselves to the world in life-giving ways.

 

          As individuals…well, I’m not sure. But I know this: Pentecost commands us to go into all the world and proclaim the good news of God’s love.

          I’m inviting you as individuals to go into the world—out to the streets of Jerusalem—and tell others of God’s love.

          I don’t mean you need to get a floppy Bible and stop people on the street as ask them it they are saved. But I do mean, just like the wonderful love song from My Fair Lady that says “don’t talk of love—SHOW ME”, each of us need to “show” the world compassion and inclusion and a commitment to justice and equality. So that the world might wonder: “what does this mean?” and we might be able to tell them….

         

A Pentacost Sermon (more to come...)

 

PENTECOST 2020

Welcome to Pentecost! This is the day the fire fell and the wind blew and the Spirit began the church.

Pentecost was a Jewish holiday commemorating the Spring Harvest. It was one of the most important holy days and people came from around the known world to celebrate in Jerusalem. For Jews, Pentecost was 50 days after Passover (‘pente’ is 50 in Latin). For Christians today, it is 50 days after Easter.

My early years were spent in the Conklintown, West Virginia, Pilgrim Holiness Church. They did not speak in tongues. Pilgrim Holiness was a break with the Wesleyan Church which had broken from the Methodist Church—each break declared that ‘we are holier than those we left behind’.

No tongues, but they were ‘holy rollers’! During prayers people would be ‘slain in the Spirit’ and fall to the floor quaking. That was very unsettling to the children, as you can imagine, seeing people lying on the floor, twitching.

But the Pilgrim Holiness people had a hymn that went—“Come on Holy Spirit, but don’t stay long!” These were people who appreciated the power of the Spirit.

Another thing they did was ‘testify’. They would stand up and tell how God had touched their lives—give ‘testimony’ to the power of the Spirit.

I want to ‘testify’ today about my spiritual journey.

When I was 14, my cousin, Mejol, locked me in her room with a Bob Dylan album and a copy of Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger. My Spiritual journey began that day.

When I was a sophomore in college, I had an hour between classes on Tuesday and Thursday. I didn’t want to go to the library but I found a church a block from campus that was open all the time. So, on Tuesdays and Thursdays I would go there and sit in the silence to read. But one day, before I could get out, a funeral began. They used the Episcopal Burial Office and I had never known a church could be so solemn and formal, yet joyous in a way. There was lots of standing and sitting and kneeling and I couldn’t get it right at a funeral for a stranger. When it ended an older woman behind me touched my shoulder. She said, ‘don’t worry, young man, we never know when to knell or stand either.”

Only a few weeks later, I was in the student union with a friend and a big, red-headed man came over to talk. He invited us to a party at his house that night, so we went. He was the Episcopal chaplain to the university and the ‘party’ was the Eucharist around a huge table. After the service, we all finished the wine. I knew I had found my ‘church’!

I went to Harvard Divinity School on a Rockefeller Fellowship two of my professors nominated me for. It wasn’t in my plans. I was going to get a Ph.D. in American Literature, but it kept me out of Viet Nam because Divinity Students were the only ones eligible for a deferment in 1970.

After two years we moved back to Morgantown so Bern could finish college. The next Episcopal Chaplain had ‘house church’ in the attic of Bern’s and my third-floor apartment. Every one who came was under 30 except the chaplain and a woman in her 70’s named Mariah Cartledge. Once at what we called ‘coffee hour’ but was really ‘wine hour’ and even ‘pot hour’ for some since the service as on Wednesday night, Mariah came to me and said, “Jim, when are you going back to seminary and getting ordained?”

Being even more of a smart aleck then than I am now, I answered: “Mariah, when God tells me to.”

Not missing a beat, she replied, “Jim, who do you think sent ME?”

My blood went cold. I called the bishop the next week and he said, “I’ve been waiting to hear from you.”

God speaks in mysterious ways. Through Dylan and Salinger and my cousin. Through being in a church for a funeral for a stranger. Through two different college chaplains. Through Mariah.

God speaks in many tongues—different ways to different people. BUT GOD SPEAKS.

(Together in a room, the twelve gathered, missing their Lord, and the Fire fell and the Wind blew and the church was born!)

I want to invite you to get in touch with ‘WHY YOU’RE HERE’. I don’t mean on the zoom call, but why are you in the place where you are in your life.

How has the Spirit moved you? How has God spoken to you?

When and where did the fire fall in your life? When did the wind roar? How did God’s still, small voice sound in your ear.

It can be something small, almost incidental.

It can be that someone…or something…touched your soul.

Maybe the breath of God breathed into your fear and confusion.

Maybe, as if by accident, something moved you and warmed your heart.

Maybe it was a gradual thing, over years…a longing in you, some itch you couldn’t scratch.

St. Augustine said we all have a ‘God-shaped empty place’ within us that only God can fill it up.

“My soul is restless, Lord, until it rests in thee…”

Reinhold Niebuhr wrote, “faith seeking understanding….”

That’s what I’m asking of you. Let your faith ponder where it came from and seek to understand how the fire fell in your life. How the wind blew. How God spoke to you ‘God-shaped empty place’.

What GOT YOU HERE? Not just today, but ultimately.

Fire and Wind a still small voice…

Happy Pentecost.