[Propertalk] Pentecost 2016 - 1

[Robert P Morrison]

I have to split it again!
Bob
First part:

	THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH OF ST. ALBAN, ALBANY PENTECOST c 

	ACTS 2:1-21 15th MAY, 2016 

	ROMANS 8:14-17 PSALM 104:25-35, 37 

	JOHN 14:8-17, 25-27 

	 Happy Mother’s Day! 

	 No, I’m not slow – well, not on account of this, anyway. But,
yes, Happy Mother’s Day!  

	 It’s easy to let things slip by one, and if it’s been a while
since you used your Hebrew or Greek, you may have recessed it in your
mind, but all references in the Bible to the Spirit are feminine.
There can be all sorts of reasons for this, and I don’t know if any
other religions have a similar linguistic inclusivity – but then,
Christianity is unique in its adherence to the understanding of God as
Trinity, with each Person being equal yet not confused with one
another in the Godhead. If you can wait, though, Deacon Peggy will
tell us all about this next week. For today, it’s sufficient to
recognise, to praise, to accept God the Holy Spirit as the Divine
feminine. 

	 So, Happy Mother’s Day! Mother’s Day, not just because God is
feminine, but because we celebrate today as the Incarnation of the
Church, the rebirth of the human and Divine relationship after all the
roadblocks humans tried to throw in God’s way. This is the
celebration of our re-formation in the Image of God as the sisters and
brothers of Jesus, and our empowerment to continue the work of Jesus
in the world. 

	 It’s the Spirit’s coming to us, and all on earth, to help enrich
our lives and help us deal with our daily experiences; it is the
Spirit who gives both life and meaning, who draws us closer and closer
each day to understand the loving care of Jesus and the passion of the
Father; it’s the Spirit who carries us when we need that special
protection and nourishment; it’s the Spirit who dusts us off and
sets us back on the right path with a word of encouragement and
comfort. 

	 So – Happy Mother’s Day! 

	 Of course, just like Mother’s Day, just like being a parent, there
aren’t any guarantees – either for the parent or the child. So
much has to be taken on trust that there won’t be anything to
overwhelm us completely. 

	 Think back, if you will, to your very early years. You were a pretty
happy child. You had some degree of confidence, and you liked playing
outside. But you had to stay in your own garden. Neither you nor your
mother were ready for that neigbourhood exploration. 

	 I’m sure that worked well for a fair length of time. If you were
Claude Monet’s child, you had all those winding paths, those
wonderful, exotically coloured floral borders to explore and to
examine. You had trees to climb. And, if you were really responsible,
you had the lily ponds to ponder.  

	 Whether you were Monet’s child or not, though, you had a pretty
good place to play, with such a great situation in which to mature and
develop your imagination. And you could always run home if you fell
and scraped your knee, or just needed something to drink. 

	 Happy Mother’s Day, Indeed! 

	 But then came the day – possibly you can’t remember whose idea
it was – but you found yourself outside your garden. All of a
sudden, you had this mixture of excitement and uncertainty. You
weren’t sure how much you could do; how safe you’d be; what might
be round the next corner; and what might be expected of you in terms
of behaviour and responsibilities. 

	 If you were that child, the feelings would have been confusing, no
doubt, and you might have glanced back to make sure that your mother
was standing by the gate in case you got into something a bit
challenging. 

	 And if you were that mother – or father, they did this too! – if
you were that mother, you’d stand anxiously wondering how much to
intervene and how much to let your child discover and develop on her
or his own. 

	 The emotions, the concerns, the potential for joy and success and
for uncertainty and confusion were present equally. 

	 Sometimes, your own garden, with the gate shut, especially if you
lived in Giverny in that artist’s paradise; sometimes, your own
garden looked pretty good, pretty safe, a lot less challenging. 

	 But you knew back then – you know still – that, sooner or later,
you and I, as children or parents, HAVE go out on to the street and
down the road, whether it’s to school, or a friend’s house, or to
a store. And when you go, when you come upon other people, when you
encounter questions and have to make decisions, how will you cope?
Your mother may not be right beside you, but, nine times out of ten,
she’ll have talked to you, prepared you, so that if you don’t know
how to react, you can think things through logically and find a way to
cope. 

	 Thank God for mothers! 

	 And, if that sort of thinking feels familiar, then you’ve had the
rich experience of having someone care for you and back you up with
some confidence and a bit of expertise. 

	 THAT’S what it was like for the early apostles. They’d been
trained in the security of their own area. They’d had someone to
look out for them, and they’d done reasonably well. 

	 Oh, they’d made their mistakes. We ALL do that! But they’d
recovered. 

	 Then came the time when they left their places of comfort and
security and, lo and behold, they had the power and the instinct not
simply to cope, but to flourish. They were able to interact with
others. They were able to talk to them in ways that they could
understand. They were able to tell them of their own experiences in
their own gardens, and relay to them the surprising knowledge that
what they’d been taught, what they’d lived, applied not just in
their own gardens but everywhere they went.
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