The Feast of Pentecost – June 5, 2022: May God’s words be spoken, may God’s words be heard.  Amen.

Today is one of the most important Sundays of the Church.  In fact, Pentecost & Easter were central to Christian communities for centuries.  But, it seems in modern times that Pentecost has been lost to many in the church.  It is such an important celebration, but the timing being as folks begin to head outdoors for mini-vacations, means that is lost on many.  Sadly, as one pastor put it, “To me personally, as religious observances go, Easter rates a 10, Pentecost an 8 and Christmas a 6. But the average member of my church would probably say Easter was a 10, Christmas an 8 and Pentecost a 3.” On the other hand, at least it hasn’t received the over commercialization either – so there is that I suppose – no Pentecost gift giving elf or bunny to worry about, not to mention that there aren’t a whole lot of Pentecost cards in the Hallmark stores wishing you a windy day of fire dancing on your heads. 

Still, you may have noticed over the past few years, I love this day (something about dancing up and down the aisle to Billy Joel’s “We Didn’t Start The Fire,” my first Pentecost here probably gave that away).  It speaks a lot about your sense of humor that you did not rue my installation as your Rector.  And, while I won’t be dancing in the aisles this year, I will share with you why this day is so amazing, and why it boggles my mind that it doesn’t ignite the same fire within us (sorry – couldn’t resist) that Easter and Christmas does. 

The story goes that the apostles are in this moment of transition.  Jesus has finished his farewell tour, and has ascended into heaven.  He is no longer physically there to guide them.  And the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, that Jesus promised to send – that Spirit of Truth hasn’t arrived yet.  And when the Holy Spirit does arrive – well, She really makes an entrance!  A violent wind filled the house where the apostles were gathered, tongues of fire appeared among them and on top of their heads, and they began to speak in other languages, as they had the ability. Now THAT must have been a sight…or maybe it was a sound.  Either way, this was no slight breeze wafting in the air, but a force to be reckoned with. 

Now, back when I was a campus chaplain, I remember a student of mine asking one day… “Chaplain, I get the idea of God, and of Jesus, but what is this Holy Spirit thing?  I don’t get that?”  See, that’s why I loved being a campus chaplain, you get very real questions – the kind some folks in church are afraid to ask because they think they should already know the answer. 

“What is this Holy Spirit thing?” 

Well, specifically, Spirit in the Greek is pneuma – a gender neutral noun, and in Hebrew it is Ruach – a feminine noun.  We didn’t make the Holy Spirit a boy until we latinized the Hebrew and the Greek.  No matter the language, the meaning of the word is: breath, wind, or Spirit.  So, another translation might be Holy Breath or Holy Wind.

Let’s try it in the Creed: We believe in the Holy Breath, the giver of life. That makes sense, right?  God breathes life into our very being.  Or in the blessing:  In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Wind.  Holy Wind kinda makes sense too for this third person of the Trinity when you think about it, right? We don’t see the wind, but we see the movement of creation – of trees, grass – we feel it on our face – we see the birds who coast on it in the air.  And Jesus spoke about the Spirit in his discussion with Nicodemus saying “The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes.” 

So it is with God – Creator, Christ, and Spirit.

And one of the reasons why this Pentecost story is so very powerful – is that very idea of the Holy Spirit as the breath of God – giving new life to these earliest followers of Jesus.  Now, When the apostles in Acts were filled with the Holy Spirit, one thing that happened is that they began to speak in other languages.  Now there are some folks today who believe that the point of Pentecost is to speak in tongues, or at least in some other languages.  There is nothing wrong with that, but that, I think, misses the larger point. 

Now how many of us have wanted to learn a new language?  I love learning languages, but unfortunately, they fade because I don’t use them regularly.  When we learn them, say for a trip, it isn’t just so we can ask “Wo ist die Damen-Toilette?” or “Quanto costa?” – to know where how to find the ladies room or how much something costs. It is also so we can know what is being said to us too, right? We want to be able to understand as much as we want to be understood.   This is key to this story, so let’s get back to it.

Christians today sometimes forget why those apostles were in the room in the first place.  Pentecost is Greek for 50th day – and it was a prominent feast in the calendar of ancient Israel celebrating the giving of the Law on Sinai. That’s why they, being good and faithful Jews, and a whole lot of others, were there in Jerusalem. 

Gathered in the city were people from all over because Pentecost was, and is, the Jewish Festival of Weeks, or Shavu’ot.  They were from differing nations, cultures, and languages.  And the Spirit was directing the earliest followers of Jesus to throw wide the doors – not by making all of the people throughout Jerusalembecome like the apostles – but by giving the apostles the ability to communicate directly with them.  This is so important, and often missed.

God was making it clear that the first step for any newly birthed church was to break down the barriers between people – not expect them to figure out how to be more like us – but allow them to be their uniquely created selves – inviting them in just the way they are. Because all of them – no matter what language they speak – are beloved by God. 

The miracle of Pentecost wasn’t that they could speak a new language, or at least, that isn’t the entire miracle.  It was that they could now listen to ones who spoke differently than they did. This is a story that is as much about listening than about speaking – and that has a lot to teach us today.

At my seminary, there is a quote that hangs on the wall.  It was by the feminist theologian and former professor Nelle Morton, who said “We empower one another by hearing the other to speech.” 

“We empower one another by hearing the other to speech.” 

That is what God is doing on Pentecost, and what God is doing now.  God empowers us by hearing us into speech, so that we may in turn hear others in the same way.  Forcing us to widen the circle – to move out into different places – to be the body of Christ we were meant to be. So this moment – this first Pentecost of the church – it isn’t about languages really, or at least not JUST about that, but about drawing the circle wider – being inclusive of all of God’s creation.

It is a lesson for our church today, if you have been paying any attention to the heated debate over what is commonly called “open communion,” the practice of welcoming everyone to the Eucharist, not only the baptized. In other words – what I do here every Sunday, and no – that is not the tradition of the church, even if many practice it.

Now, unless you are a regular reader of Episcopal News Service, and I hope you all will become one if you are not, you may not be aware of a resolution that is coming up (again) at our General Convention.  Heck, you may not even know about General Convention, that it is happening this year, and that I am a diocesan deputy to it.  The General Convention, our 80^th, will consider all sorts of matters of the church, and of the world.  There is an article I wrote for the diocese about it, which explains and invites you into this meeting in ways that are possible for everyone. (A link to the article is at the end of this sermon text)

Anyway, a resolution before both Houses – the House of Deputies (made up clergy and laity) and the House of Bishops – is C028, which is to repeal that part of our Canon that restricts the sacrament of the Eucharist to the baptized.  A recent article in the Episcopal News Service (a link to the full article is at the end of this sermon) concerned a group of 22 theologians who oppose this measure, asserting that “the link between the sacraments of Holy Baptism and the Holy Eucharist is central to The Episcopal Church’s historical understanding of sacramental theology and that it should not be portrayed as “exclusive or inhospitable.”[1]

That’s when the fireworks really started going off. 

One priest, who I will not name, posted on Twitter that “Unlike Baptism, Holy Eucharist is therefore not intended for “all people” without exception, but is rather for “God’s people” understood above as a common body united by a common faith.” 

Another, fired right back with “The fundamental mistake in this Episcopal theological insider baseball statement is to discriminate between “all people” and “God’s people.” That distinction is the source of the greatest evils in the history of Christianity: All people ARE God’s people. Start your theology there. Start every theology there for God’s sake. For the sake of humanity. For the sake of the planet…”

Still others point out that they aren’t about to check baptismal cards at the altar rail, or try to determine, even if baptized, that a person is reconciled one to another, or to God, before approaching.

The thing is, this is an important dialog to have.  What I love about our Anglican identity is that we are rooted in Jesus Christ, and connected across our divides by holding to our via media – our middle way.  We are, after all, the only catholic and protestant denomination because we are willing to live in the tension of disagreement, but still come to the table – to Jesus – as a full family.  So, in that spirit, that Holy Spirit, I hope we will find our way once again to common ground. 

Yet I will say this – While you know where I stand on this, I do not practice open communion here lightly.  I believe there is indeed a very strong connection between the two great sacraments of the church – baptism and the Eucharist.  Just to give a bit of catechism, a sacrament is an “outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace.”  The water, oil, and light of baptism, the bread and the wine – they are the outward and visible signs of the spiritual grace of loving relationship – of communion – with God in Jesus Christ.  To offer one, without teaching about the other, should not ever happen.

So, if one is to offer both sacraments freely, and I think they should, then both must be viewed not as a stand-alone – but as bound together to make one wholly a part of the body of Jesus Christ.  That is why I preach often about baptism, and why I have seen the sacrament of the Eucharist lead to some of you sitting here today being baptized into the body of Christ.  In fact, there are several of you that have told me that you chose to worship here because for the first time you felt included, welcomed, and specifically mention the invitation for all to receive the grace of God found in the sacrament of the Eucharist as being fundamental to your desire for a deeper relationship with God in Jesus Christ.

It is also true that if God does not wish the Eucharist to be the real presence of Christ for someone who is receiving it, my giving it to them will not change that – God is in charge of every sacrament of the church.  To think of it as being something the priest does is to commit “magic hands” thinking – something the church determined was a heresy when the Donatists in the 4^th and 5^th centuries, argued that Christian clergy must be faultless for their ministry to be effective and their prayers and sacraments to be valid.  Lordy, if that were true, no priest would ever have effective prayers and there would be no sacraments of the church.

All this to say that no matter where a person – clergy or laity – stand on this issue, they are still our good and faithful sisters and brothers in Christ – so let us be Pentecost people and “empower one another by hearing the other to speech.” For there are so many problems we face in the world today – racism, sexism, heterosexism, poverty, addition, depression, violence in our streets that kill children, and war across the world that destroy whole nations of peoples.  Jesus needs the church to breath in the Holy Spirit, to hear the voices of others, to speak their language, and to explode out into the world to act in his name as the apostles did so long ago.

Imagine it – a Pentecost world where we are heard, yes, but where we listen to those who think, vote, look, love, speak, and believe, differently from us.  Lord knows that in this time of deepening divide in our country, in our church, and all around the world, where people tend to yell over one another, or go to a weapon and kill before stopping to listen – we need this gift of Pentecost now more than ever. 

And, it is there for us. 

It is – and the world waits in hope that we open ourselves to it. 

Amen.

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[1] Episcopal News Service Article

Article on General Convention

The Rev. Diana L. Wilcox
Christ Church in Bloomfield & Glen Ridge
June 5, 2022
The Feast of Pentecost – Year C
1st Reading – Acts 2:1-21
Psalm 104:25-35, 37
2nd Reading – Romans 8:14-17
Gospel – John 14:8-17