[Propertalk] Pentecost a 2014

[robertpmorrison at charter.net]

This was drafted yesterday and set aside for a funeral homily and the 
funeral this morning.

Happy Spiriting!

Bob

THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH OF ST. ALBAN, ALBANY                   	      THE 
DAY OF PENTECOST: WHITSUNDAY
ACTS 2:1-21							               8th JUNE, 2014
1 CORINTHIANS 12:3b-13						 PSALM 104:25-35, 37
JOHN 20:19-23

	“Mobula rays are often seen off Baja, but this year is one for the 
record books. Exactly why they’re here is not known, but tens of 
thousands of rays have come together in an epic gathering, quite 
possibly the largest school ever filmed. With wings at over two metres 
from tip to tip, why not fly? (And fly they do, launching themselves out 
of their native element into the rarified air over their home, a scene 
of uninhibited delight, each flight ending with a school-childish 
splash. Maybe they were just showing off!) And then they vanish, as 
quickly as they appeared.” 1

	 A “National Geographic” reporter added, “I wonder what they're 
actually doing...it almost seems like they're celebrating. “

	I watched the video of that huge school and it was really amazing to 
see those great winged creatures rush through the water, in their native 
element, swerving this way and that, keeping in contact with all the 
rest of the group. Then, all of a sudden, seemingly randomly, different 
rays would rush towards the surface of the water and launch itself into 
the air with complete abandon, moving its sides ever so slightly in 
order to make the most of the flight, before, finally, after what seemed 
like a long time, it slipped back into its watery home again. Then, the 
whole experience would be repeated, as if discovering a new, exuberant 
way of living.

	To me this spoke of the experience of the disciples, having been 
gathered once again in that upper room, possibly still unsure how they’d 
be treated in the city streets, whether they’d be ridiculed, or 
harassed, or even arrested and executed. They’d narrowed the confines of 
their safety net. Their home had become relatively small and they were 
unsure how to deal with things beyond the absolute necessities of 
sleeping, eating, drinking and a few other matters.

	Then, with the rush of that wonderfully freeing wind of the Spirit, 
they spilled out on to the streets, feeling that they needn’t ever fear 
anything again, that they could accomplish, almost effortlessly, what 
they were beginning to understand was God’s call to them.

	Mechtild of Magdeburg, a medieval mystic, a Beguine – a laywoman in a 
religious order - from northern Europe who lived in the thirteenth 
century, put it this way:

Effortlessly,
Love flows from God into man,
Like a bird
Who rivers the air
Without moving her wings.
Thus we move in His world
One in body and soul,
Though outwardly separate in form.
As the Source strikes the note,
Humanity sings --
The Holy Spirit is our harpist,
And all strings
Which are touched in Love
Must sound. 2

	I wonder whether there was still a slight degree of awkwardness on the 
part of those disciples, whether or not they wondered what was afoot, 
what lay ahead of them. I wonder whether they anticipated running into a 
crowd numbering in the thousands, and being in a position to talk to 
them, never mind convince them about who Jesus was and what Jesus would 
do for them. I wonder.

	But, if they did wonder – in the sense of curiosity – I think it’s 
highly likely that they were FILLED with wonder as the Spirit welled up 
within them. Just like the mobula rays off Baja, they launched out of 
their comfort zones so that they could look around and make their mark 
on another world, in such an exhilarating way.

	That’s part of the wonder of living in and with the Spirit. It can be 
such a new feeling that it COULD be scary. Yet, in the midst of 
adrenaline rushes, we discover that God’s power within and alongside us 
can help us to accomplish marvellous things. Which is good, because God 
doesn’t have arms, and legs, and so on, in the world other than ours.

	Think back, if you will, to the Prayer of Jesus, which we heard last 
Sunday. The over-riding theme was that of

Jesus’ request that all of His followers be filled with love, would 
experience love in the exact same way that Jesus and His Father did. And 
God took Jesus at His word. God poured out so much love in such a 
laughing, fiery way that the disciples’ lives were enflamed. They were 
SO filled that their lives were changed for ever. They were filled with 
such passion and such insight that every encounter of love became an 
encounter with God. The Spirit so transformed their lives, the Spirit so 
transforms our lives, that we learn to see God all around us and 
experience the passion of God in every expression of love given us and 
given by us.

	What we celebrate today is the ability to see the human face of God, 
once revealed in Jesus, and now revealed in all those around us.

	THIS is why Pentecost is such a time of joy that it feels completely 
right to celebrate Baptism, to celebrate Confirmation and Recommitment, 
on this day, marking new beginnings and the affirmation that God’s love 
for us and all creation becomes coupled with our love for one another, 
with our desire to ensure that the other will experience nothing but the 
best in life.

	THIS is why the disciples couldn’t contain themselves and HAD to tell 
anyone and everyone that God wasn’t just incredibly powerful, but was 
passionately, single-mindedly, loving.

	Of course, this CAN be scary. To encounter God, to encounter Jesus’ 
sisters and brothers around us, and to begin to understand how much love 
can transform us and draw us into relationships of trust, of hope, and, 
above all, of joy; this CAN be scary, especially when we find that 
there’s no end to Jesus’ humourous pleasure in filling us with the power 
that He asked His Father to give us.

	But we, just like those first powered disciples, are called on to 
launch out into new ventures, new relationships, to form new plans, and 
to reach more and more people with the good news of God’s love and 
expectations, and hopes. The Holy Spirit, as Mechthild posited, may be 
our harpist but we, individually and collectively, are the strings which 
God wishes to hear resonating in such tones of love that we become 
emboldened ambassadors for Jesus.

	Sometime Bishop of Alaska, Steven Charleston, wrote, “Light the flame 
of your imagination. Do not be confined to the narrow vision of cautious 
minds, but fling wide the doors of your own curiosity. Trust your 
creative spirit, let it out of the sheltered confines of polite 
spirituality, allow it to run free into the distant fields of wonder. 
You were born to be a thinker, a maker, a dreamer, a fashioner of what 
has never been seen before. You have had this talent since childhood and 
you know it. You grew up living both here and in places far beyond, 
places where the very light is different, where music unknown calls the 
vagabond soul to wander. Take the risk. Be yourself. And watch the stars 
start to move.” 3

	Watch the stars start to move! Was Bishop Charleston thinking of those 
stars which aligned over Bethlehem, shouting about the birth of Jesus? 
Or was he thinking behind that to the stellar movement within the first 
seconds, minutes, hours of creation itself?

	When we ever think about the possibilities, suddenly our imaginations 
take off. We start to think of familiar things in a new way. We become 
willing to risk flying out of our customary “safe” environments and to 
take wing,, reveling ourselves as Gods children who’ve been liberated to 
begin to accomplish the unexpected, the previously unimaginable, the 
formerly seemingly, but no longer, impossible.

	How scary IS this? On the one hand it can frighten us so half to death 
that we may jump into Pentecostal newness before we realise what’s 
happening. But, on the other hand, it can so fill us with joy when we 
recognise the power of the love that God has for us.

	DO we have struggles today and tomorrow?. Of course we do! This 
weekend’s commemoration of D-Day speaks to us of that. Yet such a 
commemoration also speaks of the dedication which God seeks from us, the 
Beloved Ones, the dedication, and the commitment, and the hope, which 
enable us to do things way beyond what’s been called “the line of duty”.

	As Mechtild put it:

		And God said to the soul:
		I desired you before the world began.
		I desire you now
		As you desire me
		And where the desires of two come together
		There love is perfected. 4

	The wonderful gift, of which we’re reminded this morning, and which is 
renewed within us at every encounter we have with God, is the love that 
strengthens us, that builds us up, that challenges us, that prods us to 
open wider our eyes, our ears, our minds, our hearts to all the 
possibilities which lie before us and which are there for our 
spirit-guided longing to recognise and accept.

We are to “Light the flame of (our) imagination. (We are) not be 
confined to the narrow vision of cautious minds, but fling wide the 
doors of (our) own curiosity. Trust (our) creative spirit(s).”

Fr. Mychal Judge, the priest who was the first on-ground fatality at the 
Twin Towers on 9/11, had a daily prayer
which speaks to this Pentecost courage with which God blesses us.

	Lord
	Take me where you want me to go,
	Let me meet who you want me to meet
	Tell me what you want me to say,
	and keep me out of your way. 5

NOTES:

  1	Commentary on video “This Looked Like A Bird At First. Then I Zoomed 
In And ...”  - Distractify 
http://news.distractify.com/fun/over-10000-of-these-ocean-creatures-mysteriously-gathered-and-then-they-took-flight/?v=1 
or http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=74mdJUaRNaA

2	“Effortless” by Mechtild of Magdeburg –  English version by Jane 
Hirshfield – whose only surviving work was published under the title 
“Das fließende Licht der Gottheit” (The Flowing Light of Divinity) 
described her visions of God. 
http://www.poetry-chaikhana.com/blog/2010/03/12/mechthild-of-magdeburg-effortlessly/ 
Quoted also by Suzanne Guthrie in “At the Edge of the Enclosure” 
http://www.edgeofenclosure.org/pentecostabc.html

3	Bishop Steven Charleston, quoted on Facebook at May 23 entry at 
https://www.facebook.com/gracemorganton, et al.

4	“union of desires”  Mechtild of Magdeburg, translated by Oliver 
Davies, quoted by Suzanne Guthrie, op cit.

5	The Rev. Mychal Judge O.F.M. d. 9/11/2001 
http://saintmychaljudge.blogspot.com/ quoted in Suzanne Guthrie, op cit.


Robert P Morrison
Interim Vicar
The Episcopal Church of St Alban
PO Box 1556
Albany OR  97321   541-921-1076 (cell)
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