Pentecost

May 31, 2020 Pentecost Year A Acts 2: 1-21

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, my strength and my Redeemer. Amen.

Today marks the 50th day after Easter and is the Feast of Pentecost.

It’s the day when the Holy Spirit infused Jesus’ disciples with power, which enabled them to teach and preach their earliest beliefs and then moved them out into the world as Apostles of Christ.

But our reading from Acts today includes a scene of huge crowds gathered,

lots of chaos and noise,

and images of fire –

All things which in the middle of a global pandemic and within a society in turmoil make me anxious and scared at best   . . . hopeless and wanting to hide, at worst.

The racist violence in our country this week has me longing for that same infusion of power, the one which the disciples received by the Spirit, so that maybe I could somehow communicate Jesus’ message of love and reconciliation for ALL people. After all, striving for justice and peace among all people, and respecting the dignity of every human being are the basic tenets of our baptismal covenant, and they are the truth behind the Gospel’s teaching to love God and our neighbors as ourselves. But I found myself wondering, do I have the power, the inspiration to communicate all of that in our world at this time? 

Believe it or not, my search for the Spirit’s guidance and power this week led me to your words.

Maybe you remember, weeks ago, when I asked you to reflect on the times and places you have experienced God’s presence during this pandemic. Many of you responded, offering your own words and visions of God in our midst, and when you did, you were essentially writing your own chapters for the book of Acts, just like Luke, Peter, and Paul, detailing the ways in which you are living lives as Christ’s disciples.

I am beyond grateful for your words, because on this Pentecost Sunday, you have preached to me.

So this morning, I want to share snippets of your poetic reflections, with the knowledge that it is YOUR voices preaching messages of God’s boundary-less love to a world which desperately needs it. It’s you. You are preaching the good news of a God at work in a world God eternally loves.

You acknowledge how difficult things are when you write:

I connect with God when I question.
When the fires of racism and anger rage, when I fear an invisible virus, and when I see death surrounding us, the bravery and sacrificial service of others keeps me from being consumed by grief. It allows me to connect with God, even as I welcome all of my emotions, difficult though they may be.
When tensions arise, they don’t consume me. 
My faith is tested . . . and therefore affirmed. 

Yes! That IS the message of the book of Acts. Thank you.

You also see beauty in the world with your eyes and ears open wide, as you write:

I know that God is among us when I laugh, and when I hear the laughter of others.
I know God’s presence when I hear a familiar voice speaking comforting words of scripture;

when I look into a child’s eyes and connect with my family so far away;
when I hear birds sing their morning arias; when I feel my dog’s soft fur; when I smell the lilacs in the morning air; when I look outside and see the color green cast over every living thing.

And here’s where you speak just like the disciples, moving from darkness into the light, as you write:

In the mornings, when my coffee’s fumes stir my fight, I in turn, trust God’s might.
I honor and remember the dead, but I refuse to hide in fear.
The day’s challenges become the week’s opportunities for unselfish people to care deeply for family, neighbors and strangers alike.
I know God is with me because I see angels here on earth. They are people who feed the hungry, and even offer food for those who have no time to eat. 
I pray. I hope. I love.
We move forward. Or simply move. Because God’s spirit builds strength, ingenuity, and hope, so that when I turn out the light, I realize we are finding a new way. 

You all clearly have access to God’s power and the Spirit’s wisdom – and I can’t thank you enough for your words. And the glory of experiencing Pentecost in this season of unrest, violence, and pandemic is that we are undoubtably living out our own Acts story, right now. And of course, there is no confusion about where our lives of faith are to be lived because there is no huddling, no hiding in our church building right now. We have spilled out into the world, albeit, into our own homes, but that’s where we start. That’s where love begins and where love grows. And then it flows out, as we share it with others, especially with the oppressed and most vulnerable.

The hope of Pentecost is that we know the Spirit moves into the chaos and fire, but ONLY fans the flames of Jesus’ boundary-less love, God’s abiding presence, and the power to change the world.

You have preached that to me and our community today. Thank you.
Now go, preach it to the world.  Amen.