One Love, One Language: Pentecost Year A

One of the blessings of living in an interfaith marriage is coming to know and appreciate the customs and traditions of Judaism. In turn, I can take the things that I see in our "faith parent" and connect them for purposes of deepening the understanding of Jesus for my congregation. It is also good to have been a public radio reporter in my former work life. I still listen to the news, and read news headlines, and follow news podcasts. It helps me to then point to the ways things in Scripture are still speaking to us even here in the 21st Century. Proof positive that the Holy Spirit is still with us, and poking us in the rib cage with sharp elbows, as one of my spiritual directors once said. 

Text: Acts 2:1-21

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Take a moment and imagine this scene.

The city of Jerusalem was full of people.

Jewish pilgrims from every region had come bearing sheaves of wheat for Shavuot…this agricultural festival.

They were bringing the gifts of the first fruits of their harvest to the temple in thanks to God and celebrating the moment when God gave Moses the Torah on stone tablets at Mount Sinai.

Despite the frightening and terrible killing of Jesus two months earlier…the city’s residents had lived with and become accustomed to the brutality of the Roman government.

Shavuot was a chance to carry on with their holiday rituals as normal.

In the home of Jesus’s disciples…they also had gathered with a lot of people.

They entered this celebration with that glimmer of hope that they’d received.

Jesus…who they had thought was dead…had been resurrected.

Their sorrow had been turned to joy.

They’d experienced that God’s Love is more powerful than a Roman cross…and had seen Jesus ascend into heaven.

He’d blessed them and told them that another comforter would be with them soon.

So they huddled together…they prayed and talked.

Maybe another rabbi would show up in this crowded room…another one who would keep them moving in the way of Jesus.

A strong wind suddenly blows through the whole building.

Over each disciple’s head is a flame…a fiery tongue.

And as they feel this rush of air…the disciples find that they’re speaking in a new languages.

They’re using foreign phrases…as they talk about the amazing works of God.

But this wasn’t some incoherent babbling.

The strangest thing happened: people were hearing clear as day one message: “God is love let the whole earth rejoice in it!”

No need for interpreters or universal translators.

Everyone was hearing with the ears of their hearts…the same message in the way they could comprehend and understand it.

As people looked on at this scene…listening to these Galileans speaking so plainly in other languages…the crowd was a mix of wonder …and cynicism.

Naturally there were skeptics who were scoffing at the whole thing:

“Obviously, these guys have been drinking alcohol!”

That’s when Peter jumps to his feet.

“No we aren’t drunk! It’s the middle of the morning and we haven’t been doing shots at 9am!”

They might not have been lit in that way…but they were lit.

Lit up with the knowledge…and the wisdom that had been with Jesus.

They were filled with the same juice that fueled the passion of the prophets.

And they’d been reveling in same the wind that blew over the waters and existed with God from the beginning of time.

If they were drunk on anything…it was the Spirit of God.

And Peter…the guy who had retreated in fear at the time of Jesus’s arrest…was so intoxicated that he was now standing up and speaking with authority.

He told these pessimists that what they were witnessing was the fulfilment of God’s promise as spoken by the prophet Joel:

The spirit has come…and a new promising future is possible for all people.

Even in a time of uncertainty…and living under a Roman government that killed with impunity…God’s Holy Spirit has come and will surround them always.

The Spirit that arrived in the Upper Room continues to be that powerful wind that gives breath to those who need some more encouragement to be bold…and to dream…and have visions of a future not yet realized but is still possible.

It’s the energy that keeps us from sinking into complacency and depression and holds us up when others try to drag us down.

And it’s that force that challenges us to get out of our comfort zone and give us that proverbial kick in the pants to do our part to make a difference.

That’s the spirit of Pentecost.

And there is no time greater than now for us to start showing up…and speaking up.

I was listening to an interview with Bishop Deon Johnson…the Episcopal Bishop for the diocese of Missouri. Some of you might be familiar with Bishop Deon from Facebook. He frequently publishes prayers and intercessions that get shared on social media.

The bishop and his husband…who is Mexican by birth… became unwilling participants in the brokenness of our immigration policy.

They were in Mexico in 2024…at a routine interview for green card holders…when the immigration officer told them that Bishop Deon’s husband was being detained.

They were told that he needed to stay in Mexico for a year…even though he hadn’t lived in the country since he was a child.

As we might imagine…this caused a lot of fear and stress for everyone in the family…the bishop…his husband…and their two children.

They complied…finding an apartment for him in Mexico…and finding ways to keep the family in touch via Facetime.

They lived through the trauma…only to find out at the end of it all that everything they’d just been through had been unnecessary.

After nearly a year…a different immigration official looked at the husband’s record…and said there’d been nothing wrong with his green card status in the first place.

Needless to say… Bishop Deon was understandably angry about the whole thing.

And yet…out of that hardship…not only had the Spirit kept the family together…it had started to do other work beyond their immediate struggle.

Their experience raised the awareness among Missouri Episcopalians to the fears and concerns felt by all their black and brown neighbors…especially those who aren’t native English speakers.

Some congregations moved to organize ways to help immigrants.

It also opened up important conversations with Bishop Deon.

There had been some church members who weren’t happy to have a bishop who is black… gay and a naturalized U.S. citizen.

Hearing that he was solo parenting at this time and needed to get home to his kids….and that’s why he couldn’t do all the typical activities when he would visit a congregation struck a nerve.

It helped soften some people’s hearts as they now saw him not as some scary “other” and fictionalized version of a black gay man…but as an incarnation of God’s beloved…a fellow sibling in Christ.

And the experience…as terrible as it was for their kids… turned their older daughter into an outspoken activist for her St. Louis high school classmates who worried that ICE was coming for them and their families.

The interviewer asked if this immigration trauma had made the bishop question his faith and naturally, he said no, it had not.

Sitting on this side of the experience…Bishop Deon spoke confidently of how his faith was so grounded in hope that it once more showed that resurrection and Easter follows those Good Friday moments.

As he put it…”There will always be those who are more in love with power over others than being in love with God’s Love.” But God’s love…and God’s spirit will have the final say.

And that’s the key thing for us.

When we stick close to that source of Love…and drink from the living waters of God…we not only become the witnesses of Love…but water bearers to those who are thirsty for a church that embodies mercy…compassion…and justice.

And with the power of the Holy Spirit…we are given the strength and the ability and the joy to do our part in making this a better place for everyone.

In the name of our One Holy and Undivided Trinity. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Get Out There! A Sermon for Pentecost with Holy Baptisms

 

What a fantastic way to celebrate Pentecost. We had not one, not two...but six baptisms! Both of which were family affairs. A mom and her two toddlers; two moms and their teenage daughter. All of them came to us through our modest outreach efforts on Ash Wednesday offering "Ashes-to-Go" in the parking lot of the church. 

Don't ever let anyone say that the Holy Spirit is dead.

She's alive...and is still making beautiful mischief while the world feasts on mayhem.

Text: Acts 2:1-21

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What a scene that must’ve been in the upper room that day…the day that the Holy Spirit swept in like a great mighty wind.

All these people…from different regions of the world as they knew it at that time…are in Jerusalem.

The disciples are huddled together…not quite knowing what to do with themselves.

They’d been moved by the words of Jesus.

They’d given up their careers and left their homes to follow Jesus.

They’d just been on an emotional rollercoaster…having seen him killed by the Roman authorities…and then he reappeared to them…resurrected from the dead.

He continued to encourage them…and then left them again to ascend into heaven.

So there they are…sitting there…looking at each other…trying to figure out what they’re supposed to be doing with themselves now.

Suddenly…a great gust of wind throws open the doors and the windows of that room.

The Holy Spirit lights their hearts and minds…and most importantly their mouths…on fire.

They start telling the story of God’s love with such a passion in languages they’d never spoken before.

But others are hearing them.

They understand them.

And what they’re hearing are words that express a universal truth about their true selves:

They are all beloved children of God.

It had to be an incredible moment!

It reminds me of the time when my wife and I were visiting Lourdes in France.  

The grotto of Bernadette is a Roman Catholic pilgrimage site…which isn’t far from where Isabelle grew up.

People from all over the world come to this place…many seeking healing.

When you walk through the plaza as you approach the grotto…it’s like the United Nations of languages.

People are speaking French…Italian…German…Spanish…just lots of other languages all around you.

There’s often a religious service taking place in the grotto…which can also be in whatever is the native tongue of the priest.

We were there in the afternoon…and so the priest was leading people in reciting the rosary…with the Hail Mary and Our Father prayers.

Groups were filing through the grotto as the people prayed.

They were touching the stones of this cave where Bernadette reportedly had had a vision of the Virgin Mary in the 19^th century.

But then…as the service was ending…the priest began chanting the Ave Maria.

And the whole place…in the grotto…and out in the large plaza…people stopped.

And in one voice…they all join in singing the chorus together.

It didn’t matter what nationality they were…or even whether they were Roman Catholic or not…in that moment…we were all made one…in the Holy Spirit…united in this song of praise.

That sense of being swept up in a single a voice and singing in joyful praise of God is how I imagine what it must have been like to be in that upper room at that moment.

Filled with the Holy Spirit…these followers of Jesus have something like a new life breathed into them.

Look at Peter.

I think many of us can relate to Peter as that disciple who wants to follow Jesus…and gets it right sometimes and falls short in so many other ways.

Peter raises his voice …and begins a soliloquy about Jesus.

The Spirit is stirring him up…and he’s speaking with that level of confidence and eloquence like he’d never had before.

If we remember way back into Advent…we heard how John the Baptizer had promised that while he was baptizing with water…the one that was coming would baptize the people with fire.

Well…here it is…just as he had promised!

And with this baptism…it’s time for those who had been worried and afraid…those who had been wondering what to do…to put aside any doubt or fear…and get out there.

Their hesitations…are literally and figuratively burned up and blown away.

They’re free…and liberated to proclaim proudly…who they are and whose they are.

It’s out of the Upper Room and into the streets…and beyond!

Thomas went to India.

John went to Turkey and Greece.

Peter went to Rome.

Matthew to Syria.

This fledgling ragtag movement of love…compassion…healing and mercy that Jesus had been leading has taken off…and the church has come into being. Hallelujah and Happy Birthday to the Church!

And just like any birthday…this is not a one-and-done event.

Birthdays keep coming.

The Spirit keeps lighting up more people…bringing more and more into this practice of love.

Think about all those we’ve seen throughout time who have shown courage and strength despite whatever obstacles get thrown in their way.

We can see the fruits of the spirit at work through religious leaders like Howard Thurman…and Martin Luther King, Jr….and even the Philadelphia Eleven.

We can witness how the Spirit gave courage to leaders in civil rights like Rosa Parks and Marsha P. Johnson.

We know the presence of the Holy Spirit when we look to those people who fill us with hope…the people who gives us encouragement…the people who remind us that when God surveyed all of creation… God called it all good.

This is the work of the Holy Spirit…to keep us moving…stretching…and embracing the good that is in us and confirmed through the waters of baptism.

Today…we are blessed to be baptizing Anna, Brandi, Madison, Aureila, Ridley and Brittany.

Through these waters of baptism we are both welcoming you into the Body of Christ…that big…amazing…and very diverse Christian family.

And we are confirming what has been true about each of you all along: you are beloved children of God…valued and precious in God’s sight.

Each one of us who has been made part of the Christian church…no matter what denomination or orthodoxy…are made one through baptism…all singing that same song of praise to God…who is Love everlasting.

And that’s the message that needs to leave here and be taken out into the world.

The Holy Spirit is that person of the Trinity that keeps nudging us toward living lives that reflect Christ’s love….and Christ’s mission to care not just for ourselves but others.

And—I need to warn y’all—the Spirit is pretty relentless in the pursuit of us and getting us to get out there.

As one of my spiritual directors here in the diocese used to tell me, “The Holy Spirit has got some mighty sharp elbows, and she doesn’t mind sticking you in the ribs when it’s necessary!”

Let’s go! Let the Spirit be the guide! And let’s make God’s love be the core of our beings.

In the name of our One Holy and Undivided Trinity.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On Fire: A Sermon for Pentecost 2024

 

I am stunned I was able to get this sermon written!

Almost immediately after driving home from Valdosta after last Sunday's service, I was back in a car, making the 14+ hour trip to Austin, TX. We were burying my father-in-law's ashes, having a short visit with my wife's brother and other friends, and then immediately turning around to make the same trip back to Florida. We timed our departure on Thursday to get ahead of another violent storm system. And, as it happened, we got out of the Houston area about four hours before the weather went downhill and strong 100+ mile an hour winds blew out glass windows in the Houston downtown area. 

Adding to the complexity was a full Saturday that started with the commemoration of Mary Turner, a pregnant 19 year old black woman who was lynched on May 19, 1918 after she protested the lynching of her husband, Hayes. Her killing was horrendous. The white mob hunted her down, hung her upside down at bridge between Lowndes and Brooks counties, doused her in gasoline and lit her on fire. Someone also cut open her womb, and her eight month-old baby dropped to the ground crying. The mob stomped the baby to death, and then shot up Mary Turner. Their bodies were buried in a shallow grave, marked by a whiskey bottle and cigar. No one was ever held to account for this crime against humanity.

While Turner's great granddaughter was on hand to tell the ugly truths, our backdrop was a mural at Christ the King in which Mary Turner is depicted as a Tree of Life. For most of us, that was the basis of our comments.

These experiences all were playing in my head as I pressed on to finish this sermon. See what you think.

Texts: Acts 2:1-21; John 15: 26-27, 16:4b-15

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So after all the wild weather we’ve been enduring…not to mention in other parts of the country and Canada… for me to start talking about a mighty wind blowing through that upper room…and tongues of fire…might feel a little….eehhh….I dunno… some might say “triggering”?

Recent weather craziness…and even future storms aside…today is not a disastrous day.

This is really a time of exuberance and fun. 

We like to call this Pentecost Sunday…” The Birthday of the Church.”

Only the birthday candles on this cake are ones that no one can extinguish.

Because the Holy Spirit is on fire and lighting up every person in the room!

This is a day of excitement…and celebration…as we think about the Spirit’s extremely dramatic entry…a show of such power and flair so as to leave no doubt:

God is here and ready to get us up off the couch and into the streets!

If we’ve been paying attention to Jesus’ last will and testament that he’s giving us in John’s Gospel…we can hear Jesus promise that one of the big reasons he needed to ascend into Heaven was to make way for this amazing multi-colored force.

There’s a Spirit that’s about to come blowing in…and it’s gonna push the disciples out of that hiding place in Jerusalem to go out and do the work that still needed doing.

Because the work of the Spirit is never done.

Beyond those doors of the upper room…there were people who wanted to meet this God who loves beyond all measure without boundaries and borders and special requirements.

There were so many people who had yet to experience what it means to feel that love and care for them without demanding anything in return for the kindness except to receive it and believe it to be real.

And so the Spirit…not worrying about or stopping for a locked door and or sealed windows…just blows on in…and begins firing up this room full of people.

Suddenly…they find that the Spirit is giving them the words to speak.

Foreigners are extolling the wonders of God not in their own native languages…but in those of the other.

In all of that babbling…individuals are picking out the sounds and the phrases that spoke directly to them.

They’re hearing their heart language…coming from someone not of their own kind.

These are no longer foreigners from this country or that province…

Now they are all fellow sojourners.

Soon…this Spirit is going to lead them to have amazing encounters with random strangers…people racially and religiously different from themselves.

Out in the world beyond the upper room…they discover there’s a hunger to know the story of God through the life and teachings of Jesus.

They’ll be lead into truths that they didn’t even know they didn’t know before all this happened.

And when they run into trouble…this Holy Spirit will give them the courage to speak up…even with their voices tremble and their knees knock.

It’s oh so incredible and…

Oh…wait a minute.

Hang on here.

I’ve been talking like this Holy Spirit business is some passive event…something that we just read about every 50^th day after Easter Sunday.

Ahhh…but this Spirit…this vision of God we sing about…and raise our prayers and praises to every Sunday…has been with us all along.

And the coolest part about this incarnation of the Holy Trinity…it absolutely doesn’t care about our concepts of time and spatial limitations.

This Spirit seriously doesn’t care about the artificial boundaries we keep erecting to keep ourselves separated from each other.

It’s ready to blow away the fear and the need to control that has perpetuated racism…classism…ableism…homophobia…and misogyny.

Talk about the stuff that really needs to be blown apart and burnt up!

The Holy Spirit doesn’t have time for dragging people down.

This is a Spirit of upward mobility in the truest sense…lifting up people who have been heavy burdened and beaten down…by the judgment and doubt of the world. 

Filling them with the hope that comes from believing in a God of love…justice… and mercy.

And to make that happen…it’s ready to flip on the power switch in us.

Because it’s through our experiences with this part of the Trinity that we become people others see and think, “I wanna have whatever it is that they’re having!’

I’m reading a book co-authored by one of the priests in our diocese, my friend the Rev. Kimberly Dunn…who serves at St. Paul’s in Augusta. The book is called “Experiencing God.”

Kimberly initially started out writing this book as a paper for one of her seminary classes.

But then Dean Ian Markham of Viginia Theological Seminary decided this needed to be a bigger work with many voices from across the Episcopal Church chiming in with their stories as Episcopalians having genuine spirit-filled encounters with God.

And—yes—Episcopalians can have mystical experiences.

Some of them small…some of them times filled with ecstatic wonder.

All of them moments where God’s presence is so real….so intimate…that some might want to dismiss it as just the product of a delusional mind.

But these supposed flashes of delusion are so powerful…that they’ve made the person having the experience…sit up and take notice and make changes in their lives that radically took them in a more Godward direction.

A direction of truly seeing the connectedness of all people to this amazing source of love that is God.

These times of feeling the deep presence of God is what sometimes is the kick in the pants to go out and bring this understanding of the depth of God’s love to our friends…families…and communities.

Again: not just by talking about it. But through actions.

Through truly caring and taking necessary items to the homeless shelter.

Feeding medical students coming to the area to provide services to our migrant farmworker population.

Giving rides to people for their doctor’s appointments.

Even sitting in silence…doing centering prayer…and waiting for that still small voice to speak:

You are loved.

You always have been loved.

And I will always love you.

Now…we need to go share that love without hesitation.

In the name of God…F/S/HS

Light Up the World: Pentecost Sermon for Year C

 

I could have kept addressing the gun violence problem in the United States. I could have brought up Pride month. I chose instead to stick to the inspirational message of getting out there and being the light of Christ in the world. 

So, I guess I addressed gun violence AND Pride after all. Quit hiding. Quit waiting for someone else to be the change we want to see in the world. WE need to participate and take action!

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Prayer: O God, take our minds and think through them, take our lips and speak through them, take our hearts and set them on fire for Jesus’ sake. Amen. (adapted from William Sloane Coffin, Jr.)

 

Happy Pentecost! 

And Happy Birthday to the Church! 

We call this “the church’s birthday” because of that intense scene we had in our First Reading from the Book of Acts. On this occasion, where the followers of Jesus are all huddled in the upper room, the long-awaited Holy Spirit blows in with the most dramatic flair. 

Previously nervous and somewhat tentative disciples find themselves caught up in a passionate exchange of praising God in whatever native tongue they spoke…or even perhaps some second or third language they knew.

The one common theme in all of this crazy cacophony of sound is that it was all praise of God. 

A God of Love. 

A God of Compassion for the world. 

A God that no longer wanted them hiding in fear of their oppressors. 

This was the very early church, before Constantine had his vision that Christ would help him win a battle and veered the church off in the direction of being exclusively a chaplain to the rich and powerful instead of a comforter and advocate to the afflicted and powerless. 

So it’s no small matter that the Holy Spirit took their minds and thought through them…their lips and spoke through them…and definitely set their hearts on fire for Jesus’ sake. And nobody exhibits this drama better than our beloved biblical ancestor, the apostle Peter.  

I know I’ve poked fun at Peter and his way of seeming to understand Jesus but always falling just a little short of the mark. 

I love Peter, I really do. 

Peter represents us… the today followers of Jesus…so well. We all have a little bit of Peter in us. We’re all likely to be ready to say we love Jesus…but when faced with the risk of our own skins…figuratively speaking…we can just as likely fall back into silence and complicity. It’s a very rare person who likes to be the odd ball or the unpopular one. And it’s common for those who are in the minority to take a “let’s just keep our heads down and hope nobody notices us” approach to life. 

It’s survival mode. 

But that’s what the Holy Spirit is blowing up in blowing in to the upper room. No more mere survival. 

It’s time to live, to thrive, and to reach out and not hunker down. 

So let’s get back to Peter. 

He denied knowing Jesus at that fateful hour in the courtyard where his friend was being interrogated. 

Peter was scared. The cock crowed after his third denial, and he was plummeted into a sense of remorse and shame. 

Upon Jesus’ resurrection…we have the epilogue in John’s Gospel where Jesus takes his friend Peter aside and offers him forgiveness and redemption for the betrayal with the whole “Do you love me? Feed my sheep” discussion. Jesus also charges Peter with the weight of his impending responsibility to be a leader…letting him know that the days of doing whatever he wanted were over because someone was about to “fasten a belt around his waist and lead him where he did not wish to go” (John 21:18d). 

In the text, there’s this sidebar that Jesus was warning Peter of the type of death he was about to endure and legend has it that Peter was also crucified, but asked that it be upside down. 

But the predicted death of Peter was not just the literal, physical death of being killed. 

Peter was also about to die to self-centeredness and become fully alive in Love. 

We can hear that in this beginning of his testimony to those who were not part of the babbling crowd. 

To the outsiders, the disciples speaking in many tongues appeared drunk. 

It’s interesting that the sneering “others” in the text declare that the disciples are “filled with new wine.” In one way, they were! 

Think about what Jesus reportedly said…and it’s in both Matthew and Mark’s Gospels…that ”no one pours new wine into old wineskins” (Mark 2:22; Matthew 9:16-17). 

This was a literal truth because if one did put new wine into an old wineskin it would burst during the fermenting period. But the new wine of the Holy Spirit had already been poured into the new wineskins of Peter and the disciples. 

Jesus had done all the preparation work with them to get them ready to receive the new wine of the Spirit. His ascension gave them those 10 days to let the wine ferment and be ready for the great uncorking by the Holy Spirit. 

They weren’t drunk on spirits; they were drunk on THE Spirit! 

Peter’s opening statement recalls the words of the prophet Joel. We might remember these same words as they are often part of the readings we do on Ash Wednesday. 

Peter raised his voice. He proclaimed with boldness…to the men of Judea…the people of Jerusalem…the city that has the reputation for killing the prophets…that in the last days…God will pour out God’s spirit upon all flesh. Your sons AND daughters will prophesy. Young men will have visions. Old men will dream dreams. And—oh—the Spirit will be upon not just those of an inner circle. This fire is going to light up inside the slave, the free men and women (Acts 2:17-18)…this is going to be a bonfire of bold witness…coming to reorient the world toward more unity…so that every tongue will speak in the language of Christ’s love.  

Peter has gone from being a wobbly-kneed foal to a galloping thoroughbred…deeply steeped in the Jewish tradition and Hebrew Scriptures and well-versed in the language of love to speak with authority and reason. 

And he and the other disciples are fired up and ready to quit hiding in the upper room and go meet the people, speak their language, and teach them this language of love they learned from Jesus. 

This is the wonder and power of this day…passed on to us. 

Just like Peter and the disciples, we have heard the words of Scripture. 

We have sung the hymns that reinforce those words. 

We are re-membered into the Body of Christ every week when we partake in the bread and wine of our Eucharistic feast.  

Now is the day and this is the time that we take all of that with us out of this place…and carry it out into the community around us. 

Be the light and love of Christ not just while you’re inside these four walls. 

This message of Jesus…

to bring good news to the poor in spirit, 

sight to those blind to the needs of the community, 

release to those who remain captive to any number of addictions, 

and freedom to anyone still feeling the crush of oppression…

that’s the important life-giving work we’re all called to do in our every day lives. When we are charged at the end of the worship to “Go in peace to love and serve the Lord” there is a joy in that moment. 

There is excitement in that possibility. 

There is the potential to keep the Spirit rolling and growing and introducing new people to the sweet spirit that is in this place.  

And that’s why we say, “Thanks be to God!” and Happy Birthday to the church. 

In the name of God…F/S/HS. 

I Can't Breathe: Pentecost in the Pandemic

We're on fire in America. In Minneapolis. Nashville. Washington, DC. We're on fire. 

On Pentecost, the story is that the Holy Spirit arrived in the Upper Room in Jersusalem in a rush of wind and settled on each of the people in that room with "tongues of fire." That fire gave them the burning energy to proclaim to the world the glory of God and the story of Jesus and his ministry. That fire drove them out into the world that was no less dangerous for them than it was before the mighty wind gust blew open the windows and doors of their hearts and minds. With that powerful spirit inside them, surrounding them, lighting them up...they went out into the streets, into the countryside, off to distant lands to bring a new way of relating to the God of Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Rebekah, Jacob, Rachel and Leah. They were on fire.

Fire has the ability to rage. It burns. It destroys buildings. 

Fire has the ability also to purify. A welder's fire brings metal to metal to form a bond. The heat of a fire on a stove can melt butter, sizzle oil, boil the water. 

Right now in our country, with a deadly pandemic showing no mercy to anyone and disproportionally taking out those who cannot afford to stay home, we have fires burning inside and out. They are both the fires of destruction and the fires of purification. And they stem from a spark lit in Minneapolis with a white cop kneeling on the neck of a black man in handcuffs. George Floyd was pleading, "I can't breathe." And those were the words of his dying breath. That breath of spirit leaving him has lit up this nation and revived a part of the "normal" in America that I had prayed would not come back.

This spark, this ember, has been burning and igniting fires for centuries in this country...all the way back to colonial Virginia when wealthy landowners figured out that they needed to sow seeds of distrust between indentured whites and African slaves. Bacon's Rebellion of 1676, which burned Jamestown to the ground, was the beginning of the move for the white ruling class to set up legal distinctions between "white" and "black" people. By giving "white" indentured servants land and convincing them that they really had more in common with the ruling class than their fellow poor Africans, they were able to divide and conquer more easily. Aside: Nathaniel Bacon was no hero either as his motive to make a militia of black and white servants was motivated by hatred of the indigenous tribes of Virginia and a power struggle with his wealthy white relative who was Governor at the time. A hundred years later, a Revolution, and a nation was born...but the fire of racism was, and still is, burning.

This new fire...fueled by the taking of George Floyd's life...is destroying buildings. And it is having the power to purify. I am witnessing an awakening of some of my fellow white people to realize that we have always had one advantage: we aren't black. We aren't immediately deemed "suspect" when we walk into a store. We can drive, walk, jog, check out things in our neighborhood without having to worry that there will be some misunderstanding or misread about us. It is a sobering realization. But it is one that, once that fire is lit within, can help to purify the soul to do the work of repairing the breach. 

The Holy Spirit is often represented as the wind or the breath of our souls and bodies. And as long as the George Floyds of America gasp that they cannot breathe and have their breaths taken away, none of us can breathe freely. Time to let that other image of the Holy Spirit...that fiery tongue...rest on white America to call out for an end to this madness of our own making, acknowledge the cries of the unheard, and purify the soul of this country. May I have the courage to do this work.  

 

Pentecost and the Presiding Bishop

The Most Reverend Michael B. Curry preaching. Photo: BBC 

The Holy Spirit is on fire, baby, in the form of a wedding sermon that shook up the stodgy ol' Church of England but good.

There have been countless articles, and critiques, of our Episcopal Church's Presiding Bishop Michael Curry and his message that he preached at the wedding of England's Prince Harry and American actress Meghan Markle's wedding in St. George's chapel at Windsor. I don't plan to do any more analysis of the brilliance he brought with his standard message of "God is Love, and Love can change the world!" If you listen to ++Michael Curry enough, you know that he will take you on a journey and the path will always lead back to his main, constant, absolute point: we are the products of a loving, life-giving, liberating God who intends for us to make Love be the cornerstone of our lives and this world. Always.

I could also talk about the significance of having our Presiding Bishop, an African-American, preaching before the royalty and upper crust of a one-time colonial empire which had enslaved his ancestors...and those of the bride's as well. Of course, ++Curry did bring up slavery in his sermon and did note that the slaves, in the midst of their pain and suffering, knew that Love would set them free because "There is a balm in Gilead that makes the wounded whole. There is a balm in Gilead that heals the sin sick soul." Note: these are lyrics of a spiritual and those of us who are big fans of our PB know he will pull out that quote at some point if given the opportunity. I had to laugh when the Diocese of Fort Worth began circulating on Facebook a Michael Curry Bingo Card because we all know some of his trademark images and lines and we know them so well because they resonate (or should resonate) as true to the message of Jesus.

It certainly was on my mind that a real significance, and power, of Bishop Curry preaching at the royal wedding is the posture of the Episcopal Church within the broader Anglican Communion. We are in something like a "time out." We were sent to our room without any supper by the primates of the Anglican Communion in January, 2016, because of the ongoing angst about our church's decision to honor and celebrate same-sex couples who wish to be married in the church. The Archbishop of Canterbury, both present and the former, have balked at allowing marriage rites for same-sex couples in the CoE. And then there are all the African countries whose bishops are tacitly, if not publicly, supporting governments that crack down on queers and put them in jail. So, to then allow our Presiding Bishop to have the pulpit at such a public and watched event all over England and the world was...how shall I say this? Hmmm...Perfect.

And it was perfect. Because what Bishop Curry did was bring to the ceremony the infectious power of God's love which under girds all the human emotion of love that brought the prince and this biracial American woman together. It was perfect because he didn't hold back from raising his voice in jubilation about Love. It was perfect because there were those faces in the crowd who were stone cold to this style of preaching sitting next to people who were smiling and enjoying a taste of what it means to be an Episcopalian in America. I had to laugh because I could see how desperately our very animated Presiding Bishop wanted to get out from behind that lectern and be right there in the congregation as he proclaimed Love over and over again. As he brought up the discovery of fire and how that changed civilization, I could sense that the fire fueling him in this moment was the same Spirit that got into the apostles on Pentecost and had them all babbling in languages they didn't know but were reaching the ears of those desperate to hear a message of hope and Good News. And he was bringing that message to the watching world and to people all over who are living in edgy and uncertain times due to the distinct lack of Love in our politics.

Did Curry succeed? Well, they did a parody of him on Saturday Night Live that night. And, whether they knew it or not, even by making a joke of his repetitious use of the word "Love," they still were giving a nod to Curry's theme of the redemptive power of God's love. And that is a success, in my opinion. It might have been for yucks, but if it caught the comedians attention...that's a point for ++Curry and a score for Jesus.

If you are ever within even a day's drive of a place where PB Michael Curry is preaching, you really should make it a point to go. In the words of the old Dunkin' Donuts slogan: he's worth the trip!

Come, Holy Spirit

 The vote is official: 62-percent of the electorate in Ireland has approved marriage equality for the Emerald Isle, making them the first country in the world to approve by popular vote a constitutional change in favor of lesbians and gays getting married. It was such an overwhelming majority that the opposition leaders conceded defeat before all the votes were in because the writing was so clearly on the wall.

“The people have spoken,” Irish Senator Fidelema Eames, an outspoken opponent of the referendum campaign, told the English newspaper The Telegraph. Eames says all the polling had shown support for the referendum but added that some of the No voters were afraid to express themselves because they felt intimidated by the other side.

 In both Dublin and Cork, people reported seeing rainbows in the sky, a sign that even the heavens were rejoicing in this amazing moment.

The Anglican Church of Ireland, however, was not as excited by this development. In a news release put out today, the Church remained firm in its opposition to marriage for same-sex couples:

The archbishops and bishops of the Church of Ireland wish to affirm that the people of the Republic of Ireland, in deciding by referendum to alter the State’s legal definition of marriage, have of course acted fully within their rights. 

The Church of Ireland, however, defines marriage as between a man and a woman, and the result of this referendum does not alter this. 

The church has often existed, in history, with different views from those adopted by the state, and has sought to live with both conviction and good relationships with the civil authorities and communities in which it is set. Marriage services taking place in a Church of Ireland church, or conducted by a minister of the Church of Ireland may – in compliance with church teaching, liturgy and canon law – continue to celebrate only marriage between a man and a woman. 

We would now sincerely urge a spirit of public generosity, both from those for whom the result of the referendum represents triumph, and from those for whom it signifies disaster.

Disaster? You would have thought this public exercise of democracy had been a terrorist attack.

The Church of Ireland is not alone in the Anglican Communion in holding this type of attitude about the advent of marriage equality. Even in the United States, where 37 states have adopted marriage equality, there are Episcopal dioceses that are slow to change or are flat out refusing to reflect the reality that is around them.

This stuff was very much on my mind as I served at St. John’s 12:10pm service on Friday. The Gospel lesson was from John 21, the portion right after Jesus has prepared a fish breakfast on the beach. He takes Peter aside and quizzes him:

 "When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, ‘Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?’ He said to him, ‘Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Feed my lambs.’ A second time he said to him, ‘Simon son of John, do you love me?’ He said to him, ‘Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Tend my sheep.’ He said to him the third time, ‘Simon son of John, do you love me?’ Peter felt hurt because he said to him the third time, ‘Do you love me?’ And he said to him, ‘Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Feed my sheep." --John 21:15-17

I thought about that mantra, “Feed my sheep; tend my flock; feed my sheep” and reflected on the state of affairs for the LGBTQ+ faithful. There are those sheep who are there, week after week sitting in the pews, waiting to be fed. There are many who have been scattered and haven’t heard the call to come home or, in some cases, they have come home only to be run off again because the shepherds left in charge haven’t tended to them, but instead used their crook to strike them. Not many are going to stick around a place where they’re going to get beaten up in the name of God. They are in need of shepherds who will feed them and tend to them and be willing to be led into places where the shepherd may not want to go but has to if he or she is going to tend to these “other sheep.”

A prayer that has been on my lips this week is the Thomas Tallis piece my choir at St. Thomas will be singing this Sunday:

“If ye love me keep my commandments and I will pray the Father will give you another comforter that he may bide with you forever e’en the spirit of truth.”  

If we keep the commandment to love one another as we are loved by God, then that love must continue to extend. One of the complaints I have heard from those who are “Millennials” is that we, who call ourselves Christians, are hypocrites. We say we love and God is love, and then we fight against marriage equality or letting lesbians and gay men adopt kids, including their own! They see that as judgmental because, well, it is. And there’s been so much time and effort put into keeping the LGBTQ+ community out that they aren’t anxious to come back in and neither are their many straight ally friends.

So here we are on the eve of Pentecost, and the Church of Ireland is using words such as “disaster” to describe the reaction of those on the losing end of the referendum, and making sure everyone knows that just because secular law is changing, their canons have not changed. Are they not sensing the power of that blowing wind?

As we prepare for the arrival of the Holy Spirit, I would hope that those who have such fear of the change that is bringing about marriage equality in places such as Ireland might remember that the promise Christ gives to all of us at the end of Matthew’s gospel is that he will be with us always to the end of the age. His presence is not absent in these votes or these changes or in the years of struggle that got us to this new place. The Holy Spirit has blown a new wind into the Emerald Island. That same wind is blowing across this nation, and it is even reaching into states such as Florida which cannot withstand the hurricane of change that is coming. Resisting the reality that is to come and is now here is futile, and only serves to feed the belief that the church is irrelevant.

Come, Holy Spirit. Breathe new life into these places and give them the courage to live into a gospel of love and freedom.