Living in conavirusworld 69: Pentecost

5/31

Martin Luther King, Jr. Houses

It’s been three months since I’ve preached a sermon.(https://west-parkpress.blogspot.com/2020/03/first-sunday-in-lent-temptation.html) I am back with the Beverley congregation.  Not even on ZOOM , but on old school conference call.  Not many members  have enough tech for ZOOM.  And doing this by conference  call is even more challenging  than ZOOM. The strange thing is, when I begin  to preach I can feel as if I am in their pulpit back in Brooklyn. And when I say the words of the Eucharist, I can see them in front of me in a way that I could not if I were seeing them on ZOOM. I can feel myself with them.

Here is my sermon for Pentecost:

It’s good to be with you all this morning, It’s hard to believe that it’s been three months now. That we went through all of Lent. Actually thought we might be able to have Easter. And now the 50 days of the  Easter season have passed as well and today is Pentecost.   How the world has changed since last we were together. Who had any idea that something infinitesimally small could shut down the whole world. That masks would become daily wear. That the President would  try to force churches to open and churches in faith and conscience would choose to stay closed. That over 100000 fellow citizens would die. That there would be hospital tents in Central Park and freezer truck morgues on our streets.  And now another trilogy of brutal murders of black people by police have taken place. Breonna Taylor, Ahmad Arbery and  Floyd George. And unbelievably, those words, I can’t breathe again.And now protests and fires and violence break out all cross the country. My boys were in Prospect Park last night…..And most bizarre, many of those arrested in Minnesota seem to be white people from out of state. Take a deep breath. What a 3 months. 

I know Sunday mornings should be a time to seek refuge from the troubles of the world, but by the very way we’re meeting, the world can’t be ignored. And the word of God always comes in context…and this is our context as we receive the word of God. 

Today is Pentecost.  The day we celebrate receiving the Holy Spirit. I should pause for a  moment and remind us that the Holy Spirit did not just arrive for the first time at Pentecost. It was at Jesus’  Baptism. And it’s been here since day 1 when the breath of God, ruah, blew across the waters and brought dry land, and when the breath of God blew into clay and earth man, Adam was created. We need to figure out what is special about this visitation of the Holy Spirit. We know that Jesus had earlier promised that we would not be orphaned.  That the Holy Spirit would be our comforter, our Advocate, our sustaining power.  So what’s going on here? 

Let me pause for a moment and say that the holiday Christians call Pentecost already existed as a Jewish holiday, called Shavuot in Hebrew and Pentecost in Greek. It took place 50 days after Passover, (that’s what Pentecost means, counting 50…..) and it celebrated the receiving of the Ten Commandments.  Moses went up to Mount Sinai, surround by smoke and fire, He was there for, what else, 40 days and 40 nights. Then 10 days later brought the 10 commandments to the people. (After of course, an unfortunate incident with a golden calf…) So there has to be some significance for this incident happeninhg on this day.  Like if the 10 commandments were foundational for our Jewish brothers and sisters, the receiving of the Holy Spirit is our foundational focus.  And the two are integrally related.

Pentecost has sometimes been referred to as the birthday of the church.  Once in the 80’s, the church tried a campaign to market Pentecost as the party, with whistles and noisemakers, red banners, the whole works. (I like the red part, by the way…did you ever wonder why there’s a tradition of red doors on churches? (Like West Park?) A sign of the Holy Spirit. ) So what’s the story? 

They’re all gathered together to celebrate Pentecost….in one place…wouldn’t we like that? People from all over the near East. And the was a wind and tongues of fire appeared over the heads of the disciples….and then, and then, everyone heard God being spoken about in their own language…Let’s be clear…this is not ecstatic speech, glossolalia, speaking in tongues. This is speaking in known intelligible languages, Was this gift of speaking or a gift of hearing? At one level, I believe the disciples had to have been able to hear the others before they could speak their language.   The response of the people is like when you say, Now you’re talking my language…

The disciples had to learn to talk about God in ways people coil understand…

To what end?  In Peter’s response to the accusation that they are just drunk, hey it’s just 9 in the morning, he quotes the prophet Joel. The apocalyptic scene Joel paints is familiar. We are in the middle of days of blood and fire and smoky mist.  Though the sun shines bright and it is spring, we live through the darkness of virus, the reality of death and fear. Peter says that God’ spirit will be poured out on all flesh. All. The whole world has suffered with this virus, surely we can feel the connection with others no matter where they are.  These are hard days, We need visions and dreams, We need to  be able to see what a better world might look life like, feel like. Poets, preachers, performing artists of all kinds, we need you to prophesy. 

And here’s where the Pentecost miracle coms in,. Our country has never been more divided. Since the Civil War at least. (Well, and 1960s…) Forget learning to speak Spanish, French, Chinese, Russian as important as those are to  global understanding.  It’s a bigger miracle to be able to speak to one another across our current divides. Can whites and blacks, billionaires and subsistence workers, Sanders supporters and Trump supporters, conservative evangelicals and progressive Christians, you see where this is going…can all these hear the word in their own native tongue?  Can we listen well enough to even be able to hear one another, talk to one another, that would be a miracle. ( I read the other day never question why someone believes what they  do. Ask how…)

So that’s the prophetic life with the Spirit.

But I have to end with the comforter, the advocate…as we are gathered here today, how are you doing? What are you feeling? Anxious about? Afraid about? Have you lost someone you care about? Are you worried about someone? Can we hear each other in our own unique personal languages? Can we reach through this void and give each other a virtual hug even as pray for one another and break bread with  another? 

Receive the gifts of the Holy Spirit, in Jesus’ name Amen

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On 116th Steret, the virus has claimed another victim.

116th corona victim

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No family meeting this week. There are solidarity marches in Berlin. I want to hear about them.  My younger sons are heading to the protest in Prospect Park.

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There is a vigil at St.Paul & St. Andrews.  I go. Walking from Harlem to the deserted ghost town streets of the Upper West Side  Meet my friend Rabbi Steve and his wife.  

Rabbi Steve and Carol

We have sung  together here for Interfaith Thanksgiving services.   People fill the West End block north of 86th and then most of the next block as well.  Every person has a sign and a candle.

with sign and candle

Pastor K Karpen reads the name of each black person killed by police since 2017. Twenty six names. Each name read slowly and distinctly . Follow by the toll of a bell and silence as the bell echoes. It is quiet. Solemn. Moving. And disturbing.

Pastor K reads

Why does this not stop? Why? We can’t pray it away. That’s why the streets are in turmoil.  

fillng the streets

After the last name has been read, Cantor Ari from B’Nai Jeshurun leads us in Hinay Matov… "Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brothers and sisters  to dwell together in unity!" And Halleluia. And We shall overcome.  I see my friend Kate and her husband Jeff. She leads our monthly meal with the homeless shared here. I’m glad she’s found a home here. With the sounds of songs sung low, and in harmony, I start to make my way home. 

There’s no people of color here, someone says. There’s no people of color on the Upper West Side says another. Well except for public housing, say someone else, and we’d just as soon not admit they’re here….

This issue runs very,very deep. Very deep. 

First Reading Acts 2:1-21

1When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. 2And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. 3Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. 4All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability.

5Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven living in Jerusalem. 6And at this sound the crowd gathered and was bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in the native language of each. 7Amazed and astonished, they asked, “Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? 8And how is it that we hear, each of us, in our own native language? 9Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, 10Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes 11Cretans and Arabs — in our own languages we hear them speaking about God’s deeds of power.” 12All were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, “What does this mean?” 13But others sneered and said, “They are filled with new wine.”

14But Peter, standing with the eleven, raised his voice and addressed them, “Men of Judea and all who live in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and listen to what I say. 15Indeed, these are not drunk, as you suppose, for it is only nine o’clock in the morning. 16No, this is what was spoken through the prophet Joel:17  ‘In the last days it will be,God declares,
     that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh,
          and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,
     and your young men shall see visions,
          and your old men shall dream dreams.18  Even upon my slaves, both men and women,
          in those days I will pour out my Spirit;
               and they shall prophesy.19  And I will show portents in the heaven above
          and signs on the earth below,
               blood, and fire, and smoky mist.20  The sun shall be turned to darkness
          and the moon to blood,
               before the coming of the Lord’s great and glorious day.21  Then everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.’”