Pentecost 2023

 I love to listen to Science Friday on National Public Radio because I always learn something.  When Sterling was first born I used to go to a weekly new mom’s group over at the hospital and on the way there I would listen to Science Friday.  They had a contest called “The Flame Challenge” in which they asked people to explain a mysterious scientific event in easy to understand terms.  The first challenge was to explain was fire.  What is fire and how does the chemical reaction of fire come to look and feel as it does?

I love fire.  I sometimes say that pyromaniacs can find a good job being a pastor because there are always many candles around and it is a good way to shape our tendencies.  If you love fire, you can be a pastor or a priest and have a good way to use your gifts.  Fire is so fascinating to me, from campfires as a kid, to lighting the candles as an acolyte.  Even now we have a firepit in our backyard so we can enjoy a nice fire now and then.

Fire is power.  It is power that comes from the sun which builds up the trees and plants that we eventually burn.  The sun has the energy and power that is stored by the plant in the woody parts, carbon stored in the trunk and branches of the tree.  And when that carbon breaks down, the heat and light is the sun’s stored energy, shining and giving warmth as it is released.

It is no surprise then that the Holy Spirit would appear as fire, tongues of flame upon the heads of the disciples, power and energy stored from God, released to the community for light and warmth.  God gives the energy and strength, builds up these carbon creatures and sets us to relating to one another.  We have this power from God to communicate, to forgive, to withhold, and to share.  We have the power to decide whether to be in relationship with each other, whether to extend warmth and light.

So we come together on the day of Pentecost, the day the Holy Spirit could not be contained and rushed light a violent wind into all the crowd gathered there in Jerusalem.  We come together, re-enacting that day, speaking different languages, coming from different places, and yet loving God and sharing God’s power, being in relationship with each other, and ready to share that power with our neighbors far and near.

We come together from different backgrounds to worship God.  We bring all our previous experiences and expectations grow out of that.  How do we treat each other?  When we are more reserved, is that our personality, our culture, our fear?  When we are more bold, is that our faith, our privilege or what?  How can we bridge a communication barrier to understand each other’s hearts if not the exact words that each one speaks?  Is it worth the effort to learn each other’s ways, or is it just frustrating? 

We come together in faith, knowing it is challenging. We have each moved worship times and disrupted our normal schedule.  We hear not just in our own language but in one less familiar and we might feel confused or lost at times.  We see faces that are unfamiliar, yet coming to know a little bit since we were just together at Good Friday and Easter. We compromise a little of our usual order of service to bend a little more toward each other. 

And we come, facing our fears, setting aside our comfort, to meet those God has placed on our path.  We come with faith, hope, and love that the Holy Spirit would whoosh into this room and change us, to bring us an understanding beyond language and culture, that God would release that energy within and among us to shine the light—to reveal what needs to be revealed and to give warmth to draw us together.  What needs to be revealed may be hurts from the present or past, times we might have stepped upon each other or bumped up against something that was uncomfortable.  We need our unconscious biases to be revealed the preconceived ideas and prejudices we hold without even knowing it.  We need to take a good look at how we relate to each other and how it could be more equitable and conscious of each other’s feelings.  We need to be honest about the power imbalance of what it means to be in the power group of Trinity, owning and stewarding the building, and the Santa Cruz community, coming to this space and making your own memories here.  And what does it mean to not just share space but share light and warmth?  What does it mean to share the power of the Holy Spirit—the power of relationship, the power of vulnerability?

It is true that Jesus makes us one body, each one important to the whole.  We come together today to check in with the body.  What are the prayers of healing that will be lifted up for this body?  How can we better tend to our hurting members of this body?

And to us, Jesus speaks a word of peace, of wholeness, of Shalom.  For John, he doesn’t wait 50 days to give the Holy Spirit.  He doesn’t waste any time giving the Holy Spirit.  Those disciples need that power right now!  They come together afraid.  Maybe we do, too.  Who will I meet?  Will I offend someone or make a mistake?  Will I be able to understand?  Will I be understood?  To each of us, Jesus extends the peace.  And I see that as the turning point of the whole story.  Suddenly, the power of the Holy Spirit was there and human limitations didn’t matter anymore.  All the “what if” fears went out the window, because the worst had already happened.  Jesus had already been crucified.  Now he is risen, he is alive and he is not back to blame or put up barriers, retaining walls, or to retain our sins.  He is  here to break down walls and let the power and love flow and because of that we all rejoice and we all have hope and we all have the strength to come together and offer that same shalom, that same peace to each other.