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Whitsunday -- Day of Pentecost
May 15, 2005 Sermon
by Rev. Sue Deetz, Deacon
As hard as I tried to stay
away, this event from Acts brought me into the land of the Prophets. I
couldn’t help it, the “rush of a violent wind” and “divided tongues as
of fire,” cry out their voices. I’m talking primarily of the 8th Century
BCE prophets- Isaiah, Micah, Amos, and Hosea. While each one had a
slightly different task, they were basically called to speak God’s
message of the need to worship THE God, the one and only, and calling
people on the social injustices of the times. It was a point in history
that was ending a long stretch of peaceful times and the beginnings of
another round of violent times. The communities were overrun by
corruption, exploitation, and other socioeconomic injustices. The tribal
and family systems were breaking down, it was no longer possible for
individuals to provide for their own basic needs, a system of dependence
on the powers and principalities emerged. Particularly in the time of
Hosea and Isaiah, it was popular to worship other gods, making it all
the more urgent on the part of the Prophets to deliver God’s message.
They were a bizarre bunch, and they sure had a tough job, those
prophets. They resorted to all kinds of strange behaviors and their
language was appalling. Even by today's standards I couldn’t stand here
and repeat some of their graphic and colorful speeches. When talking of
God, their speeches were frequently peppered with talk of ‘showers of
fire’ and ‘ great clouds of brightness with fire flashing forth
continuously’. Their messages were often of the ‘in your face’ kind, and
people didn’t always listen to them, in fact, or, as in the case of
Jeremiah, chased into exile. So when the appearance of the Holy Spirit
is described as “a sound like the rush of a violent wind”, or “divided
tongues as of fire”, the shout of the Prophets ring in my ears. There’s
no mistaking, Christ has just risen, and we have become disciples to
carry on the work of Christ in the world.
There’s another piece to this event that catches my attention. It’s this
whole idea of different languages. The people are all gathered to
celebrate the
Feast of Weeks, one of 3 festivals the
people gather together for during the year. The other 2 are Passover and
(I think) the
Festival of Booths. They have been
coming together for this harvest festival for centuries, often traveling
long distances, we heard many of those places listed in the reading. I
suspect they looked forward to getting together, catching up on the
news, seeing old friends, and having a great big potluck meal. Having
come from all those places, they must have been speaking all those
different languages all along. So it surely couldn’t be just about the
speaking of languages. I think it’s the hearing that we are called to
do. How many times have we come to a pot luck dinner, sat with those we
are most comfortable with, and only hear the voices we already know?
It’s really much easier that way, and more relaxing for sure. Have you
sat off to the side and just listened to the different voices in the
room? Where do you find yourself? Really, we all speak many different
languages. There’s the language of our own families, language of our
ancestors, the language our teenagers speak when they text on their cell
phones or instant message on the computer. I was thinking about our
local languages yesterday when I was coming in from Park Point, when I
got bridged. I don’t know many back home that would know what that was.
Or how about parking on the ‘upper side’ of the street when your street
is flat? There is also a language of oppression, language of fear, and a
language of comfort. This noisy event talks of ‘hearing in our own
native languages.’ The spirit came and filled them with the desire to
‘hear’ one another, not necessarily understanding the other language,
but hearing each other. And hearing God within each other. With all
these people talking in different languages, and the sound of rushing
wind, and flame like images coming from above, it all seems so noisy,
how do we hear one another? Amidst all the clamor, today’s gospel may
bring some relief. According to John, Jesus comes back to the disciples,
reassures them, offers them peace, and quietly, gently, breathed the
Holy Spirit into them.
When the Neighborhood Partnership Committee chose this date for the site
visits in the neighborhood, we thought May would be a good time for good
weather. Well, that didn’t happen, but it must have been the spirit
working because we got Pentecost, the birthday of the church! What
a perfect time to take a look at what we are doing in the neighborhood.
Right after the (10:00) service, the tour begins. You will visit the
computer lab next door, it’s open 20 hours a week for use by our
neighbors, Scott, who runs the lab, will be there today to talk with you
about how it is used, and the personal side of our work there. The kids
in the Mind 2 Mind after school program uses it an additional 20 hours
per week. You’ll also visit the community meeting space that St. Paul’s
renovated, it offers a place for those in the neighborhood to organize,
meet, and have a voice. Then there’s Little Treasure’s Center, a
nontraditional day care and preschool for families at risk. It is
nontraditional in the sense that it provides a safety net for families
in times of change, they can count on the child care to continue through
the changes. As with all of our programs, it’s hard to describe this
center, you’ll just have to see it to catch the spirit of it. The tour
ends up in the Parish Hall with a look at our latest collaborative with
ECS
and Patch (you’ll learn about those, too), Neighborhood Connections,
it’s one of those programs designed to get to know each other, hearing
one another. As you are touring, try to imagine what these sites and
programs would look like come Mon., Little Treasures full of children, a
room full of adults working together in the meeting space, the computers
in use at the lab, and later, a van full of children tumbling in after
school to work on their homework. We are but a small corner of the
church, imagine these kinds of things happening all over the diocese,
nationwide, and all over the world. During lunch, Frank Vardeman, the
executive director of ECS will talk with us about the work of the church
at the Diocesan level. All of these programs are part of a worldwide
network of the church doing Christ’s work in the world called Jubilee
Ministries.
Whether it be by noisy violent winds, or the quiet breath from Jesus,
the Holy Spirit has called us to this place. Today we are anointed by
the tongues of fire, by the shouts of the prophets, and by those around
us, each speaking from the heart of God in their own language. On this
Pentecost day, we anointed ones are called as one voice to do Christ’s
work in the world, sometimes quietly, and sometimes with the rush of a
violent wind, and divided tongues like fire, resting on each of us.