Readings for the Feast of Pentecost
Friday and Saturday of this weekend, Ed MacVaugh, Mary Snead and I joined about 150 other people at Turf Valley in Ellicott City for our annual diocesan Convention. And the preacher for the opening Eucharist was Bishop Chilton Knudsen – our assistant bishop since September. And our opening lesson was this well-known passage from Acts describing what happened on Penetecost.
She told a story of her high school youth group of St. Anne’s in Annapolis making a field trip to a synagogue in Washington DC. And she shared, and this was important for us to know, that as a teenager she suffered from a severe condition that almost all of us go through – and some of us never overcome – called – the “Know it All” syndrome. You know – that belief that there is nothing new under the sun. Period.
So on this trip as their group gathered to learn about the Hebrew faith and worship –the rabbi invited them to come back and join them in their celebration of Pentecost. At this Bishop Chilton eagerly raised her hand (in that way, I sadly know all too well) and said – You celebrate Pentecost? That’s so great – that must be like when we do a Seder. How cool that you take a Christian feast and replicate it in your synagogue – like we do at Passover.
On the convention floor – that sparked one of those collective – oooooh. Because we all knew what she would say next – smiling, the rabbi graciously explained that Pentecost is a Jewish Feast. Fifty days after Passover the faithful made their way to Jerusalem to celebrate the feast of Shavuot or Weeks, giving thanks for the harvest.
And Bishop Chilton did learn something new that day – one - that she didn’t know everything there was to know – and two – that before it was as Pentecost – it was Shavuot. Just as before we said Peace – Jesus said – Shalom.
Gathered in that upper room – a few weeks after Jesus told them – do not be afraid when I’m gone – those disciples were terrified. When we call Pentecost – the birthday of the church – I think we trivialize what took place. Birthdays tend to be joyful occasions – a big party. In that upper room it was anything but. To be clear those disciples – were hiding out.
And it’s not like there was this ecstatic sweeping through of the Holy Spirit – and then all of a sudden the church – as we know it – was born. Those disciples experienced what Jesus meant when he said – my peace I give you, but I don’t give you peace as the world gives. It’s peace of another kind entirely – it’s the peace of Shalom – of restoration – of wholeness – and it always includes people being stirred up – and some people sneering, judging the validity, the value of God at work.
It’s the courageous peace that surpasses understanding – that moves people past fear to participate in the restoration – the Shalom – of the world.
That’s what is most interesting to me about Pentecost. Something happened. I don’t know if it happened exactly the way the author of Acts describes it – but if you look at the disciples before Pentecost – and after Pentecost – they are transformed.
Philip stands with Jesus before Pentecost as says – ok, we’ll believe if you show us God. Peter stands with Jesus before Pentecost and says – I can’t do what you ask me to do – I can’t heal – I can’t trust – I can’t even tell someone I know you because I’m so terrified of being found guilty by association. Thomas says before Pentecost – how can we follow you Jesus when we do not know the way?
And Jesus, consistently, responds to all their insecurities and demands by saying – you do have faith – you can follow me – do not be afraid. And then he dies – appears to them, eats with them after the resurrection – and guess what, they are still afraid.
Until this happens. That experience completely changes Peter! Gone is the denying disciple – and in his place is a person unafraid to stand up in front of those who are sneering at him. Risking more than just ridicule – Peter is risking the same fate as Jesus – in claiming that God indeed has now reversed the curse of Babel – and fulfilled the promise to all God’s people – having poured out the Spirit upon all flesh.
After Pentecost – Peter and those disciples - don’t set out to build a church – they simply set out to do what they saw Jesus doing all along. For the Book of Acts – as we’ve been studying in a weekly bible study – is simply a book of the disciples imitating Jesus.
Meeting people who are different – meeting people who disagree. Listening to their story – and then sharing their own. Sitting down to eat with people – accepting hospitality from strangers. And again and again choosing to cultivate relationships of mutual transformation.
Out of that are born households of God – where people come together to pray that the Spirit will continue to be present and empower them to do the work God has given them to do.
Today is our Annual Meeting – when we come together to hear about the work God has given us to do. The work we have done – and the work that is ongoing. We work to create this household of God – to raise money – to craft a budget – to put on worship – to design programs – to care for our building and our grounds.
We work to go into the world and bring in Shalom. Through relationships with other faith communities like St. Luke’s, Carey Street or resource centers like Paul’s Place. Through Habitat for Humanity in Sandtown and Govins. Through Neighbor-to-Neighbor and ACTC in our county. Through micro-lending and macro-dreaming – we work to overcome fear and anxiety – of people and places.
It is holy work – and it is hard work. And the hardest part of all of it – what we do here – and what we do out there – is being in relationship. Mutually transforming relationships. Where we speak from the heart – and listen from the heart – open to the truth that the Spirit of God really has been poured out among all people.
Recently I listened to an story told by Rachel Naomi Remen. She doctor who promotes integrative medicine and a best-selling author. In her book, My Grandfather’s Blessing she shares a story from the Jewish tradition that explains one of the highest Jewish moral commandments – known as tikkun olam which translates – “the repairing of the world.” For this is God’s intention for all God’s people.
"In the beginning, there was only the holy darkness…the source of life. And then, in the course of history, at a moment in time, this world, the world of a thousand, thousand things, emerged from the heart of the holy darkness as a great ray of light. And then…there was an accident, and the vessels containing the light of the world, the wholeness of the world, broke.
And the wholeness of the world, the light of the world was scattered into a thousand, thousand fragments of light, and they fell into all events and all people, where they remain deeply hidden until this very day.
According to her grandfather, the whole human race is a response to this accident. We are here because we are born with the capacity to find the hidden light in all events and all people, to lift it up and make it visible once again and thereby to restore the innate wholeness of the world."
Our annual report is quite literally the Acts of this group of Apostles. Apostles means – ones who are sent. And our report shares the ways we have been sent to restore the innate wholeness of the world. However – I have a feeling our reports maybe aren’t quite as – dare I say – honest – as the stories in the book of Acts. We don’t include the conflicts in committees, because of course they happen – we don’t include our fear of going into the city, because it is a place very different from where we live. We don’t include the way we sneer – and yes, sometimes all of us do – at the puzzling, anxiety-provoking ways God stirs up the spirit in our community and in our own lives.
And just like with those first apostles – those can be stumbling blocks. But they, that work, can also be an invitation of God. All of us are called to continuously ask – how am I bringing my light into the world in the name of Christ? What are the reasons – what are the fears I have about being in relationship with people I know – and with people I don’t. Am I living into what we pray together every Sunday – going now into the world in peace, with strength and courage to love and serve God with gladness and singleness of heart?
Relationships with each other – and with those we have yet to meet – take strength and courage - and are the ways we grow in our relationship with God. It is only through each other that we can be made whole. It is only through each other – as agents of reconciliation in Paul’s words – that we bring restoration into our world.
Our community is incredibly blessed – through the people, gifts and relationships we share. With what we have we are capable of doing so much more than we could ever ask or imagine.
May God continue to pour out the Holy Spirit in our lives so that with the courage of those first apostles we can see our visions and dream our dreams for the wholeness God intends for all of us. Amen.
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