May 20, 2018 – Pentecost Sunday: May God’s words alone be spoken, may God’s words alone be heard. Amen.
This past week, I think many of us experienced a part of the Pentecost story we hear today in Acts: “And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. Then all the lights went out, the disciples grabbed their iPhones, and called the power company to report a full and complete outage.” Okay, so that last part happened to me and many others up where I live, not the disciples, but I think we all did experience that violent wind. And the thing is – it isn’t a comforting experience, is it.
The difference between the storm that hit us last week, and the Holy Spirit, is important – one is destructive, the other creative – neither of them are there to comfort us, but either of them willdisrupt us. And we need to be disrupted folks, for there is a lot of destruction all around us.
St. Paul, in the passage from Romans we heard today, speaks of the whole world groaning in labor pains waiting for redemption, and Lord knows, we are groaning in pain today for what is happening in our world. It is unimaginable to me to be standing here in this pulpit once again speaking about the death of children – killed by children! My God! How we groan in pain!
Destructive winds abound tearing at the very soul of creation – bigotry, violence, misogyny, oppression, poverty, and the abuse of our earth – and we do groan in the pain of what our eyes see, our ears hear, our hearts endure. To see the children locked up in military detention centers for the crime of being in our country – to hear the anguish of women, children, and people of color cut down by guns – to hear the silence that now fills the space where once the sound of an animal, now extinct, could be heard – to feel the heartache of one who is told that their love for another human being makes them unworthy of love themselves.
We are disrupted and shaken amidst the rubble left in wake of the winds of such ignorance, fear, and hate.
We are disrupted – but…we are NOT beaten!
We are disheartened – but not lost!
We are grieving – but not dead!
Because we are the followers of Jesus – a people of hope.
We have not seen the promised land of freedom for all. We have not borne witness to the visions and dreams of prophets young and old. St. Paul was right when he said, “Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what is seen?”
But I tell you this – he missed the mark when he said: “But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.”
Oh, we have been patient, that is true, but my patience wore out a long time ago. I am done being patient. I am trading in my patience for prophesy. I am handing over my patience for persistence. I am kicking my patience down the streets with the boot of my righteous anger.
I hope – but I will NOT be patient.
Nor should any of us who follow Jesus.
We have been in labor pains for far too long – it is time to bring forth that new life! For it is true – we did not hope in vain!! Oh no, not at all. There is another wind whirling everywhere, bursting through the brokenness. Can you feel it? I can, for that wind, that powerful creative and disruptive force, was all over the place yesterday. Can you name it? Oh yes, it is the Holy Spirit, and She was working overtime yesterday, thanks be to God!
Our diocese listened to Her, and elected as our next bishop our first woman, and the first person of color – all in one swoop! It was our diocesan equivalent of The Episcopal Church’s response to that same Holy Spirit in having a woman Presiding Bishop, the Most Rev. Katherine Jefferts Schori (the first in the entire Anglican Communion), followed by the first person of color for our church, the Most Rev. Michael Curry.
I think some of you have heard of them, and well… it seems that a few may have heard Bishop Curry preach at a wedding yesterday – a small little event over in England somewhere.
Well, let’s just say this about what happened in Windsor… there was sure a fierce wind blowing through St. George’s Chapel – that I can tell you! You know, a friend of mine posted on Facebook “Well, that bland English food got a whole lot of Curry!” (with apologies to friends from England). I’ll say this much, if folks hadn’t heard of the Episcopal branch of the Jesus Movement (as Bishop Curry likes to say), if they haven’t heard of us before – they sure know about us now! I just hope they aren’t expecting us all to preach as well as he does! Lordy, that’s a hard act to follow! I thought about just showing a video of him instead of getting up here this morning.
Now, I bring this up – this Saturday of Spirit – to say that we do not hope for what cannot be seen – no, not any longer. We are seeing glimpse of it all around. Visions and dreams – prophetic witness – these all come out of places of despair, injustice, discord – not when all is going just fine. And through the years, the men and women who have shaken the chains of our oppression, who have hammered at the walls of injustice, who have strained against the pain of violence in our streets and in our hearts – they lived in hope – but they were not patient.
Their patience gave way to persistence, and their hope gave power to their vision & dreams. And all of it – all that is, was, and will be, are lifted up in the creative and disruptive wind of the Holy Spirit – a wind that is the very source of new life – the breathe of God – the breathe of love!
The labor pains we bear are for the birth of one thing – God’s love. Bishop Curry, in his sermon yesterday said
““This love, this is the way of Jesus. And it’s game changer.
Imagine our homes and families when this way of love is the way.
Imagine our neighborhoods and communities when love is the way.
Imagine our governments and countries when love is the way.
Imagine business and commerce when this love is the way.
Imagine our world when love is the way.
No child would go to bed hungry in such a world as that
Poverty would become history in such a world as that.
The earth would be as a sanctuary in such a world as that.
We would treat one another as children of God, regardless of differences.
We would learn how to lay our swords and shields down by the riverside to study war no more.
There would be a new heaven, a new earth, a new world. A new and beautiful human family.
The very dream of God”
Indeed – “The very dream of God.”
This Jesus movement is founded on hope, and bears forth love. It is very much a game changer. And the change begins in something we will do today when we baptize little Henry Snow McAllister.
Our life in Christ begins in this moment – in baptism. The vows made on Henry’s behalf are the essence of who we are – a people rooted in hope, living in love, and doggedly persistent in justice. Henry will grow up in a community of faith that will nurture him in this – he will come to know that all people are beloved children of God. He will be taught here that no matter what a person looks like, where they are from, what language they speak, how they vote, or who they love – they are his sisters and brothers – loved by God always and for all time. And, he will know that he is loved too. He will come to truly know the words our Presiding Bishop likes to say “If it’s not about love, it’s not about God!”
This baptism, as all baptisms do, gives us hope.
But hope, without action, isn’t hope at all, but hopelessness. And the people of God, the people of Jesus, the people of the Holy Spirit can never live in hopelessness! There’s a powerful wind moving all over the world folks, and it will change us, change the world, if we stop fighting it, and move with it. It’s the wind we heard about this morning with the disciples of Jesus, it is the wind we experienced throughout the centuries luring us to new life, it is the wind that blew through us yesterday, that fills us when we gather to share in the body and blood of Christ, it is the same wind that will alight upon the baby baptized today. It is the Holy Spirit – and She is on fire today folks. She is coursing through our souls, ready to light us on fire too – if we just allow it, and when we do, we experience the power of God’s love – we are filled with hope! Filled with hope – and, we act to make it a reality!
St. Peter, in quoting Joel in Acts that we heard today, was not drunk at all, but downright on the money – because in baptism, God pours out Her Spirit upon all flesh, and our sons and our daughters shall prophesy, and the young shall see visions,
and the old shall dream dreams.
Visions and dreams are a start, a response to the hope we have in Christ, but they are not enough.
Bishop Curry is right when he calls us the Episcopal Branch of the Jesus Movement, and a movement doesn’t stand still! We move folks! We move!
And this Thursday evening, I will move right alongside him and other faith leaders in Washington, DC as we reclaim Jesus at a church service followed by a march to the White House, and a candlelight vigil. We are on the move – making it clear that the Jesus Movement doesn’t stand still, and will not sit on the sidelines patiently waiting for change – we will BE the change!
We, the people of Jesus, are grounded in hope, rooted in God’s love, and alive in the Spirit. Folks, we are a force to be reckoned with!
We are not patient – but we are persistent, and we are going to not only have visions and dreams, we intend to give them voice, to birth them to life!
Yes, give birth from our labor pains to a new way of being – to a new heaven and a new earth – to abiding knowledge of God’s love.
The visions and dreams borne out of our labor pains, borne of our hope, call us to prophesy – to speak, to act, to live the love of God.
When we do – when we love as Jesus loved…
There are no chains of injustice we cannot break.
There are no walls of oppression we cannot tear down.
There are no prisons of poverty we cannot burst open.
There are no governments that can stop us, no armies that can defeat us, no tyranny that will divide us.
For we are armored with God’s love, strengthened in our union with Christ, and lifted up by the power of the Holy Spirit.
We are a Pentecost people – a wind of change blowing through the world, ready to set it on fire – to ignite all of creation with the restorative power of God’s all inclusive love.
Thanks be to God!
Amen.
Picture: Ed De Guzman – Painting posted on 27 June, 2014
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The Rev. Diana L. Wilcox
Christ Church in Bloomfield & Glen Ridge
May 20, 2018
The Feast of Pentecost & Baptism
1stReading – Acts 2:1-21
Psalm 104:25-35, 37
2nd Reading –Romans 8:22-27
Gospel – John 15:26-27; 16:4b-15
