[Propertalk] Pentecost a 2017 - part 2

Wed May 31 15:57:58 EDT 2017

Part two for Pentecost.
Bob
 Oh, wait! Right here, in our own congregation’s recent history, the
congregation and clergy of First United Methodist Church right here in
Albany gave us shelter; gave us spiritual encouragement; welcomed us
into their house; gave us the keys, and invited us to do what we were
used to doing, no matter if it differed from what they did; no matter
that it might have looked and sounded unusual to them. They welcomed
us so that we could establish our roots again, and swing our
thuribles, and chant our psalms and prayers, and splash Holy water
around. Or whatever it is that we do.

	 Jesus’ friends got together many times since His resurrection and
ascension. They even met with Jesus some of these times. But there’s
not much talk about witnessing, about telling their story to others,
about really engaging with people to tell them of the limitless and
unbounded Love of God. It would seem that much of their times was
spent among themselves, not really looking beyond their own immediate
needs.

	 This wasn’t necessarily a bad thing. They had to get their
bearings. They had to put together their theology – to come up with
an idea of what their relationship was with God. And they had to
process what Jesus had been saying about Him disappearing and some
Advocate being sent to them by God.

	 Who knows, they may even have had to draw up some sort of a very,
very rudimentary understanding about Apostolic Succession, and
Apostolic Tradition, although they’d NEVER have put it in those
terms.

	 But it was only fifty days after the resurrection of Jesus that
things began to fall into place and they found their minds opened up
to what were the basics of the Gospel teaching. It took time, in other
words. It wasn’t simply overnight that they discovered what to say
and how to say it. If they’d opened their mouths much before what we
call Pentecost they’d probably have blown it. They couldn’t have
guessed the limitlessness of God’s Love. It was only when they made
themselves fully open to the Power of god taking over their lives; it
was only when they allowed God to open their eyes and guide them in
their every step that they became ready to put the call to be apostles
into gear. In the Power of the Spirit, they began to talk about God
and how God became visible in Jesus.

	 However, what they began to talk about WASN’T theories and dogmas
like Apostolic Succession. As the Methodist and Episcopalian study
team stated; as we ALL need to recognize, it was the way that Jesus
wants to draw people together; it was the way that God’s Love never
excludes ANYone, that was and should remain the focus of Jesus’
Church on earth.

	 Oh, of course, we need to come up with a few definitions now and
again. We DO struggle with trying to know God and to understand God.
Just WAIT till next week, the Feast of the Most Blessed Trinity!

	 But the Love of God, the Call of God to come together is placed on
our hearts as well as our minds. The Love and the Call grow out of the
Peace of Christ which He extended to everyone. THIS is what it all
boils down to. As crazy as it sounds, whichever Pentecost story you
follow: the one from John’s Gospel which describes the gift of the
Spirit coming on Easter evening to bring calm and reassurance, or the
one from the Book of the Acts of the Apostles, which talks about the
fifty-day waiting period; as crazy as it sounds, the apostles
responded to the gift of the Spirit by going out to engage people
where they were, on the people’s own terms, however they dressed,
however they related to one another, however they spoke.

	 The message of Pentecost is, curiously enough, the message of
Christmas, and the message of Easter. Imagine that! God is consistent!
The message of each is that it makes not the slightest difference what
our external characteristics are. And, if we happen to be a little –
or a lot! – different from one another, God accommodates us right
there and then.

	 As the apostles discovered, they were given the gifts precisely so
that they could fulfil God’s heart’s desire – to reach everyone,
to invite everyone, to involve everyone, with no exceptions.

	 The invitations are given to us, Jesus’ Body, to deliver – NOW. 

	 Don’t worry! God will be sure that we’ll know how to speak, how
to be welcoming. Peace WILL be with you! Peace WILL be with me! God
WILL lead us to do what we have to do!

	 Just leave that Apostolic Succession stuff to those to whom God is
entrusting it. Our job is to talk. And to listen. And to welcome. And
to heal. Everywhere. All the time. So we need to be ready. You and I
never know when our Pentecost call may come, or where.

	 “Chris Parker was there, reportedly, because it was a good place
to beg. Stephen Jones, 35, was sleeping nearby. Now, both homeless men
are being praised as heroes after the Manchester Arena bombing.

	 “As Manchester and the rest of Britain were trying to come to
terms with the country’s deadliest [1] terrorist attack [2] in more
than a decade [3], the two men are being hailed on social media [4]
for their selflessness and courage.” 4

	 Probably we all know the rest of the story, how they set to work
immediately, bringing some peace, some comfort, some hope to the dying
and the injured, reminding them, reminding us, as Chris said, “Just
because I’m homeless doesn’t mean that I haven’t got a heart.”
And, I might add, just because he’s homeless doesn’t mean that he
doesn’t have God’s Spirit. And same can be said of those on the
MAX train in Portland, and of those in Kabul last Wednesday.

	 The Spirit speaks many languages, in so many different situations,
for so many reasons.

	 The work, the Love of the Spirit is limitless – and now, that is
ours.

	NOTES:

	[1] A Gift to the World: Co-Laborers for the Healing of Brokenness. 
The Episcopal Church and The United Methodist Church.  A Proposal for
Full Communion - Sixth Draft -
http://www.episcopalchurch.org/files/documents/a_gift_to_the_world_0.pdf
[5]

	2 Liturgy of Holy Baptism, The Book of Common Prayer, page 308

	3 _“A Gift to the World”,_ Op cit., lines 114-127 

	4 “_They Went to Manchester Arena as Homeless Men. They Left as
Heroes.” _By DAN BILEFSKY [6] MAY 24, 2017
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/24/world/europe/homeless-hero-manchester.html?smid=fb-nytimes&smtyp=cur
[7]

Links:
------
[1]
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/23/world/europe/manchester-arena-attack-ariana-grande.html
[2]
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/23/world/europe/manchester-arena-attack-ariana-grande.html
[3]
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/23/world/europe/manchester-arena-attack-ariana-grande.html
[4] https://twitter.com/CouldbeYue/status/866969595810385922
[5]
http://www.episcopalchurch.org/files/documents/a_gift_to_the_world_0.pdf
[6] https://www.nytimes.com/by/dan-bilefsky
[7]
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/24/world/europe/homeless-hero-manchester.html?smid=fb-nytimes&smtyp=cur

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://stsams.org/pipermail/propertalk_stsams.org/attachments/20170531/3df3ec0d/attachment.htm>