Living in coronavirusworld 265: Pentecost

 

5/23

Red is for Pentecost

Time enough for coffee and a blueberry danish and the  Sunday Times before church.  Once again with my friends from Beverley in Brooklyn. And once again virtual from my dining room table. Here's what I had to say, ....

Hey, time to stop and catch your breath…It’s Pentecost ….and we’re going to talk about breath and breathing…

I’ve preached on Pentecost for 45 years.  And almost always preached on the Acts passage…2: 1-21, you know the one that reverses Babel, where people are gathered from all over and all of a sudden there are ”tongues like fire” and everyone is hearing the disciples speaking in their own languages like “hey, now they’re talking my language, like they’re singing my song…” What I came to understand as a miracle of hearing, not of speaking.  

But not this year. I felt this year needed something different. I checked out the assigned Gospel reading in John but once again it came across as circular and convoluted and not on the money.  In the end, the only one that made sense to me  was the “Old Testament” or Hebrew Scriptures or prophetic  lesson in Ezekiel, you  know, the “dry bones” passage as in Dem Bones Dem bones Dem dry bones….

Ezekiel was an almost unheard of combination of prophet and priest, called by God  in a most difficult time for his people. Most likely between 593 and 591 BCE.  In 587 Israel had fallen to Nebuchadnezzer and the Babylonian empire.   Judah carried a way into exile and Jerusalem fallen. The whole people was a good as dead. 

And Ezekiel has visions. Visions so trippy that ancient Jewish commentators said that no one under 30 years of age should be allowed to read the book. He sees his people as a defeated army in a Valley of death. So completely defeated that there’s no one left to even bury the bodies. All that’s left is a valley filled with dry bones.

Then follows that beautiful hallucinogenic vision where bone by bone  then gets reconnected and sinew follows and muscles and flesh, All as Ezekiel prophesies to the bones. But what is really needed to bring them back to life is breath. And so he prophesies to the breath.

We are coming back to life slowly. Bone by bone. Bar by restaurant. School by stadium. (Churches lag behind.) We are venturing out slowly, fearful of giving  up our masks. Vaccines are the magic potion. But it’s not enough,

It’s been a hard year. I don’t need to tell you  how hard. We’ve lost over a half million of us. Nearly the whole earth a valley of  bones. Most of us have suffered at least one personal loss. Most of us went without human touch for over a year.  People like my mom in nursing homes and care facilities may as well have been incarcerated or sent to solitary confinement.

We’ve seen the very supportive structure of our democracy shaken and called into question.  We’ve seen the ugly roots of our systemic racism exposed for all to see and yet denied by so many.  We have survived individually  but we cross the finish line like runners, here it is, out of breath,.

We’ve all heard those words “I cannot breathe” and know that chokeholds take your life by taking away your breath and ironically in the same way, this virus causes death, police violence another pandemic..I can’t breathe…prophesy to the breath,  We need to catch our breath.

I can visit my mom in her residence now. And they don’t worry about time.  I can even take her outside and wheel her around the lake behind where she lives. But since the pandemic, she now must have an oxygen tank. I too, in my late in life asthma, need to carry an inhaler. We talked about how what we used to take for granted is now precious, each breath a gift of God’s grace. (My new renter, a recent covid patient, came to my house with a portable oxygen tank)

Think of all our our words related to breath….we expire when breath...and life... leaves us, Respiration brings us back to life. There’s my favorite…conspiracy, which is literally breathing together. An inspiration enlivens us and leads us to create even as our creator created life by breathing on the water and separating the dry and form the water and then breathed life into Adam, earth man.

Pentecost comes 50 days after Easter. Ten days after the end of the risen Lord’s resurrection time on earth. It comes to inspire us to come together like those dry bones and continue the life of the risen one on this earth. This is the birthday of the church, we together are the body if the risen one. God is there to revive us, recreate us, even as breath began creation.

We need to catch our breath.  We may not know how this happens but we know who.  God is ever near to us as breath itself. 

I’m not sure how you are. How dry you might feel. I’m not sure how Beverley Church is, how its bones  are doing, I know our denomination, like so many institutions, is gasping for breath.  Pentecost is our time to catch our breath. Jesus may not be here in the flesh, but he has left us the Holy Spirit, the spirit that has been there since the beginning of time, 

It’s here. Now. It’s time to catch our breath,  Breathe….

Let the people say, Amen. 

Ezekiel 37: 1-14

1The hand of the Lord came upon me, and he brought me out by the spirit of the Lord and set me down in the middle of a valley; it was full of bones. 2He led me all round them; there were very many lying in the valley, and they were very dry. 3He said to me, “Mortal, can these bones live?” I answered, “O Lord God, you know.” 4Then he said to me, “Prophesy to these bones, and say to them: O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. 5Thus says the Lord God to these bones: I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live. 6I will lay sinews on you, and will cause flesh to come upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and you shall live; and you shall know that I am the Lord.“

7So I prophesied as I had been commanded; and as I prophesied, suddenly there was a noise, a rattling, and the bones came together, bone to its bone. 8I looked, and there were sinews on them, and flesh had come upon them, and skin had covered them; but there was no breath in them. 9Then he said to me, “Prophesy to the breath, prophesy, mortal, and say to the breath: Thus says the Lord God: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live.” 10I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood on their feet, a vast multitude.

11Then he said to me, “Mortal, these bones are the whole house of Israel. They say, ‘Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost; we are cut off completely.’ 12Therefore prophesy, and say to them, Thus says the Lord God: I am going to open your graves, and bring you up from your graves, O my people; and I will bring you back to the land of Israel. 13And you shall know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves, and bring you up from your graves, O my people. 14I will put my spirit within you, and you shall live, and I will place you on your own soil; then you shall know that I, the Lord, have spoken and will act, says the Lord.”

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.’”

Living in coronavirusworld 68: Of black lives. Central America. Shavout. (#wewillgetby #wewillsurvive)

5/29

                                                             We will get by.  We will survive.

It feels like we’re in another open season on black lives.   First the jogger, Ahmand Arbery, and then with a chilling sense of deja vu, Floyd George dies gasping the words, I can’t breathe. This in a context where black and brown people are dying at a rate twice that of the general population in  coronavirusworld. And predictably, the explosion of rage at a reality that alway comes back. These stories are so familiar, we struggle to remember the names and keep them order. Each one seems definitive as if they should be the last, but there they are again. And with the explosion of rage, the clucking of tongues and wagging of fingers saying this is not the way. Until a president says Where there is looting, there will be shooting…. One can be by principle against violence and at the same time understand that in the face of this rage, silence is the most appropriate response. As long as there is no owning of the problem of continued white privilege, no confession of its deadly oppression, no acts of amends let alone reparations, no engaged commitment to deconstruct the institutional architecture of white privilege, we have nothing to say. Absolutely nothing. 

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Our Presbyterian national work group on Central America meets to discuss what next. We worked for two years on a report to be made at this summer’s General Assembly and now that report …as well as all other social justice  actions…are put off until 2022.  At one level, we’re okay with this. Our report was BC, before corona. The tendencies, dynamics, social trends have been  exacerbated and brought to painful new levels in the pandemic. In similar, but also unique ways in each setting. Where do we stand today?

* Honduras has had approaching 5000 cases and 250 deaths. They have had lockdown.  Increasing authoritarianism on the part of the government.

* Guatemala. The government has declared total weekend lockdowns. The first time they did this with only 3 hours notice. Some had no time to get home. Most badly hurt are those working in the informal market of food and goods. Believing the the virus in Guatemala was largely fueled by infected persons deported back to Guatemala from the US, there are no longer flights to or from the US with the exception of continuing deportation flights. Communities are so frightened of returning persons that there are  “literally lynchings”.  The country that so honored migrants and the importance of their remisas that statue was erected in Salcalja in the highlands now violently rejects the returnees.

el migrante

The US embassy arranges ways for US citizens to get out. And Guatemalans with papers  are stranded in the US. 

* El Salvador is a mixed bag of increased authoritarian control, “for the good of the people.”  Numbers and data seem accurate and transparent but the government wields greater control.

* Costa Rica had a spike last week, but has had only 1000 cases, 10 deaths and 12 hospitalized. The biggest issue is being a neighbor to an out of control Nicaragua. A ban has been placed on transportistas, trucks going through the country with goods from or to Nicaragua, There are also several hundred Nicaraguans stranded in Costa Rica. The government has worked very hard to quell anti-nicaraguan emotions on the part of the public and Nicas organized a Gracias demonstration.  Costa Rica has also detained Salvadorans. Working very hard to control its borders. Honduras too has closed  its border to Nicaragua making it a pariah country. 

* Our workers from Nicaragua say that it is too painful to talk about. No protocols in place. In cities like Masaya, the public hospitals are a disaster. Two Baptist pastors have died. Numbers are non-existent. Death certificates do not identify cover casualties. Nothing in place. The well off are sequestered and people try to improvise, but there is simply no real response. Long time Moravian pastor and activist Norman Bent has died. 

W e struggle to understand Ortega’s behavior. His closest ally Cuba has engaged strenuously in treatment, prevention and research. Even Venezuela has a plan in place.  It seems historically bizarre that Ortega’s closest models seem to be Brazil’s Bolsonaro and Donald Trump.  The newly born again Christian Daniel’s wife and co-President Rosario at first proclaimed “God will protect us.” Some believe she actually believed that. Then there was the claim that because Nicaragua was a young country and covid19 affected the old, there was nothing to worry about. Then the economic argument that Ortega’s base worked in the informal economy and could not afford to be quarantined.  Then claim Golpistas set the virus loose. And some believe there is a cynical plan here to “cull” the population of weak and vulnerable people who only drain society. (Ortega's base?) There has been a recent papel blanco claiming that they are pursuing a Swedish model seeking herd immunity. So all over the map. And bodies continue to pile up, removed in the middle of the night, taken to mass graves. Not yet like Guayaquil, where corpses filled the streets, but getting there. 

Our friend Dennis gives us a quick overview of South America. Brazil is a total “shitstorm.” Sao Paolo has 500 deaths a day. Twenty thousand now dead. Chile is spinning out of control because of the complete private nature of the health care system. In Peru, people are fleeing Lima and heading back to el campo bringing the virus with them.

Meanwhile, due to falling income, the PCUSA is cutting its budget by 20% and the future of mission partners is uncertain. 

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My friend Steve asked me to preach for his Shavout service. Here’s what I had to say:

It’s exciting to be with you on Shavuos. This weekend the Christian community celebrates Pentecost. Shavuos is 50 days after Passover. Pentecost is 50 days after Easter.  (That’s what the Greek word means …counting 50…)Shavous celebrates the receiving of the 10 Commandments.  Pentecost celebrates the receiving of the Holy Spirit. I always have got to remind my folks that the Holy Spirit didn't just show up fo sth first time 50 days after Easter. That it had been there since day one when the breath of God, ruah, blew across the waters and separated the dry from the seas. And when the breath of God blew into clay and made earth man, Adam. It’s always been there. But the point is, whoever wrote the Pentecost story in the Christian scriptures clearly believe there was a direct connecton between the 10 commandments and the Holy Spirit. 

Now about those 10 commandments.  What I would give for leaders who took them as principles  to live by. Not a list of things to do. They are lo, that is no, don’t. Not do….And here’s the thing. I have come to think that the first commandment - no other gods- is central. Definitive.That every other commandment is a variation of, illustration of the first.   They are all about making something else, something not God, into an idol the takes our attention and takes us off the path. Coveting, envy, adultery lying, theft, even murder….are putting something else above God. Making  something else your God. Maybe keeping focus on these basic principles becomes all the more important during a time like this where we are truly responsible  for one another. So happy Shavuot, And shabbat Shalom.

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The day ends with West Park Open Mic. I confess a month into this, I still find ZOOM a bit elusive. (They did just add an update…). I sing I shall be released to honor Dylan's 79th birthday and Ripple for the Grateful Dead . I’m wearing a Grateful Dead Steal Your Face t-shirt with a mask on the skull. The legend reads # wewillgetby.  #wewillsurvive.

Pentecost: Hope in the Spirit

5/20/18

Back to Oakdale

Oakdale Presbyterian Church is a congregation in a small town that is part of the fast growing expansion of the airport business, commercial and residential development.  

Time for my  annual  visit to the Oakdale Church where I rediscovered my call to parish ministry 14 years ago. It's hard to believe it was that many years. But visits these last three years have renewed my relationship with this resilient community. I am profoundly moved that they have weathered the storm of theological ideological controversy and division  and have come out the other side with new spirit and hope. Their feeling of community and acceptance is easily felt and the congregation is visibly growing in its diversity, a true expression of God's embracing love.  I'm also glad that I have another chance to play and sing with my friend Dan Hanczar who helped me bring music back to my life again during my time there. A new set of guitar strings was his gift when I left for New York City. 

I look out at many congregants wearing Pentecost red. 

After the reading of the scriptures,(see below)  Dan and I play "Blowin in the Wind" and I said that when I was in high school, my pastor had explained that the song was a good expression of the Holy Spirit and Pentecost. That has always stayed with me. (Though my pastor called him Bob DY-lan.) But as I have been doing since the Parkland shootings, I pause at the end to say that the students have shown is that maybe Blowin in the wind isn't enough. Maybe it has to be the answer is not blowin' in the wind, but the answer is in our own hands...and so I have us sing that together.

And then it was time for my reflection...

Red is the color of the day...

It's great to be back here again.  Especially on the Sunday of Pentecost. Which is ,you know, the birthday of the church. (Not you Oakdale guys, I mean the church.) One year the Presbyterian Church (USA) tried to make it a big event--called it the party. Sent out packages with noise makers and decorations and...well, it didn't go over so well. Presbyterians don't really roll that way much.

This year's' kind of special because we have a convergence of the Christian Pentecost, the Muslim Ramadan and the Jewish Shavuot. (Now Shavuot and Pentecost are always connected because Shavuot is the original pentecost...what everyone in Acts was coming to Jerusalem to celebrate. Shavuot...the feast of weeks.(7 weeks +1 day) ..50 days after Passover...like for us, Pentecost is 50 days after Easter.  Shavuot was at first an agricultural holiday.  Then later became a celebration of the giving of the law on Mt.Sinai...and for us, the visitation of the Holy Spirit...we might want to reflect a bit on why God (or Luke?) chose to bring in the Holy Spirit on the day that was set aside to  celebrate the giving of the law on Sinai. In both cases, we have this fire and smoke imagery...BUT...the Law, the Holy Spirit, how are they connected?

The last several days have impacted my sermon. I mean we always preach in the context of what's going on in the world around us.  And this year's Ramadan was ushered in with the US moving its embassy in Israel, massive protests in Gaza, at least 60 dead and hundreds wounded. That was on  my mind.  Then after an all night bus ride to Pittsburgh, the TVs in the Greyhound Station greeted me with the news of yet another school shooting.  The 22nd this year. Think about that. 

I was so angry. Like why even bother to report this? It's not really uncommon anymore. It's not like anything is going to change. By now we can all almost write the script. Starting with "thoughts and prayers." 

And then yesterday, to my surprise,  I found myself mesmerized by the Royal wedding. And I wondered, whoa, what's up with that? And wondered why Americans got so involved with this event in England.  Is it old memories of where we came from? (I remember Ruth Gordon in Harold and Maude saying, Oh, I don't miss kingdoms so much, but oh, the kings....)

Bishop Michael Curry's sermon blew me away....he truly spoke of the power of love...both interpersonally and societally...

He said:
When love is the way, unselfish, sacrificial, redemptive, when love is the way, then no child will go to bed hungry in this world ever again. When love is the way, we will let justice roll down like a mighty stream and righteousness like an ever-flowing brook. When love is the way, poverty will become history. When love is the way, the Earth will be a sanctuary. When love is the way, we will lay down our swords and shields, down by the riverside, to study war no more. When love is the way, there's plenty good room, plenty good room, for all of god's children because when love is the way, we actually treat each other well, like we are actually family.

And he spoke of Jesus' response to the question as to the most important commandment; to love God with all your heart soul and strength ...and to love your neighbor as yourself..

NOW...this leads me back to my main concern today...HOPE...certainly the Israeli -Palestinian conflict and gun violence challenge our sense of hope. But to be honest, I don't think too many of us spend too much time each week worried about issues like that. Most of us are just trying to do the best we can to get by the best we can and be decent to others in the meantime...

I love that image in ACTS that creation has been groaning with labor pains. That the stressful and painful things we see around us are the birth pangs of something new coming into being, being born . Even if I can't see it. Jim Wallis always said that hope is believing despite the evidence and having the courage to work to make the evidence change. 

And I was moved to learn that those Parkland students have accomplished a lot in Florida. New minimum age, requirement to buy from a licensed dealer, etc. It's a clear sign that things are not always as hopeless as they seem. 

I've come to believe that hope is one of the two most important spiritual qualities, the other being joy..but that's another sermon....

Look I know that usually  when we use that word its like this...
At lunch yesterday, I said, I want to go to the Pirate game...I sure hope it doesn't rain. 
Do you think they'll win?
 I hope so...

But hope so much more profound. It's not optimism, like everyday in every way everything is getting better...because you know what? It's not...Hope is an active commitment rooted in your willingness to believe that you know in whose hands lies the future...

Hear Paul again because this is what I'm after...

For in hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what is seen? 25But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.

26Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words. 27And God, who searches the heart, knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.

We all know what that's like...to feel we have no words sufficient, but only sighs. And sometimes even moans. That's where the Holy Spirit is, alive within our deepest emotions. 

And I want you to see the Holy Spirit as our agent of  hope, as our defender, our advocate. By Biblical tradition, Satan is the accuser, the prosecuting attorney, the one who tells you you're no good, you can't make it, so why try?..The Holy Spirit is our advocate, the one who stands up for us, strengthens us, sustains us. 

When I lead worship, I use those words about prayer every time...sighs too deep for words...friends, yes most of us do know sighs like that....

The fifty days of Easter are about the Risen One's presence with us between Easter and Ascension. Pentecost is all about  What do we do  without Jesus' physical presence...
Today we celebrate Pentecost...the manifestation of the Holy Spirit, not just to inspire, but to sustain us...

I remember the words to this old hymn...
My hope is built on nothing less
Than Jesus Christ, my righteousness;
I dare not trust the sweetest frame,
But wholly lean on Jesus’ name.
  On Christ, the solid Rock, I stand;
All other ground is sinking sand,
  All other ground is sinking sand.

So today we celebrate the gift of the Holy Spirit and give thanks for the Hope we bear, the hope we share...And for this we say, Amen.

Love to play with Dan and Jamie

Following the sermon, Dan and conga player Jamie Frey and I do Eric Bibb's "Don't let nobody drag your spirit down..."

There are hugs. And good words. Enough to last until the next visit. And then the gift of tickets to the Pirates. An opportunity to practice hope. (Insert smile emoji here.😄)

It has been good to  be here...as always....


   



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, 

Second Reading Romans 8:22-27

22We know that the whole creation has been groaning in labor pains until now; 23and not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly while we wait for adoption, the redemption of our bodies. 24For in hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what is seen? 25But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.

26Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words. 27And God, who searches the heart, knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.