Language of the Spirit

Acts 2: 1-21

May 24 2015

Pentecost

Now, long ago after the time of Noah

and his children, the people

had one language and they lived in one place.

And the people said to each other,

“Let’s make some bricks” and they made some bricks.

And then they said,

“Come, let us build ourselves a city,

and a tower whose top is in the heavens;

let us make a name for ourselves,

lest we be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth.”

That is the story that’s been come to be known as

the tower of Babel. Although it never mentions a tower.

The people wanted to band together

For their own glory, for their own power

and pride and ambition,

They thought they could be like God,

if they could just build an empire big enough to reach the sky.

But God knew that would not be good news for anyone.

So God made them all speak different languages,

so they couldn’t understand one another

and then they couldn’t build the city to reach the sky.

And the unfinished city was called Babel which means confusion.

And the people were scattered and separated

from one another.

  

Now this scattering can be seen as a curse:

God’s punishment for the human penchant

towards despotism and oppression.

It can be seen as a cure:

The separation of languages

has prevented one power from taking over.

And it can  be seen in the long run as a blessing:

diverse languages and cultures make

the world a more interesting place to be.

The richness of humanity is a gift from God.

But like it or not, language and culture

can divide people.

Try as I might, without education and effort,

I cannot understand Swahili, or Cantonese, or Spanish

or the other languages of friends that I have had.

It makes me sad to think,

There have been people that I know

I would have been close friends with

if only I could speak their language and they could speak mine.

If we could have gotten beyond translators

and hand signals, we would have had a deeper relationship.

Language has lead to suspicion,

misunderstandings, and hostility

between people and countries.

And in our time,

language has been used to dominate

to subjugate, to scold and control.

In the early years of our country,

Native Americans were not allowed

to speak their own languages,

or to teach them to their young

in an effort to “civilize” them make them American.

During the world wars, Germans in the US

were forced to hide their own language,

lest they be seen as the “enemy”

And today, although on one hand we claim

to be a proud to be a melting pot,

there is sometimes open hostility to those who speak

different languages than English.

Like that city of Babel,

we want to build our own empires  to the sky

and to do that, we try to enforce uniformity,

and make a name for ourselves,

built on our own pride and prejudices.

But whether some people like it or not,

We live in a multi cultural world

that God has provided.

And one day in the morning, we can be

in a place where everyone speaks English

we can hop on a plane and be somewhere

where everyone speaks French,

or Mandarin, or Hindi, or Arabic,

or any number of languages and dialects and,

there are infinite cultures that go with each one

of those languages and

frankly that symphony is beautiful.

But when the day of Pentecost had come,

they were all together in one place.

And suddenly from heaven there came a sound

like the rush of a violent wind,

and it filled the entire house where they were sitting.

Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them,

and a tongue rested on each of them.

All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit

and began to speak in other languages,

as the Spirit gave them ability.

God is doing a new thing in this era.

Some have said that Pentecost is an undoing of Babel,

but notice this, everyone didn’t speak the same language,

they didn’t all just start speaking English

or some majority language that was convenient

for the dominant culture.

The apostles didn’t make some new language

like Esperanto so that everyone could understand.

It says that they were filled with the Holy Spirit

and began to speak and be understood

in other languages.

No one lost their identity,

they weren’t a homogenous group.

They were all there: Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt, Libya, Romans, Cretans, and Arabs.

But their differences were no longer a barrier.

Pentecost is the sign that diversity is not division.

Pentecost is the sign that unity of humanity is possible.

Pentecost is the unity of the Spirit of all people found in Jesus.

Language and culture doesn’t need to dominate or divide.

We are one in the Spirit of God.

We are scattered over this world

to proclaim God’s peace, understanding and love

Instead of making a name for ourselves,

we build a servant community, to build up one another.

Instead of building a city as a homage

our own ambition and pride, we build a city of God.

And as we do that, we see that God will break down barriers.

When I was a pastor in Texas,

there was an elderly couple who did

ministry for the ELCA with all the churches

along the Texas/Mexico border for the last 25 years or so.

His name was Bill and he was a retired pastor, and his wife was Ann.

The funny thing about them was that

neither one of them spoke Spanish very well.

We asked him about this on a pastors trip.

He said that the language barrier made him try harder,

he had to really look at people and understand them.

He said that to do ministry,

the important thing was not to have the Latino tongue

To do ministry there, you just had to have a Latino heart.

The language is not important, it’s just the heart.

God is doing a new thing today.

God is opening our hearts and minds.

God is removing barriers.

God is pouring out God’s Spirit on all flesh

And with God’s love and grace,

we will all be saved.

God, Please Keep Us Weird

John 17:6-19

May 17, 2015

Sometimes I read John’s gospel and I just want to say, 

“What?” And this is one of those times.

Jesus speaks a lot plainer in the other gospels.

In John’s gospel it sounds more like poetry than stories,

a little like a freshman in college

who is excited about their first philosophy class.

John can make you a little dizzy.

But if you take it slow, diagram the sentences,

it does make sense eventually.

This is at the end of Jesus last long discourse

to his disciples. At the last supper.

The very next moment he is arrested and taken away.

This part is a prayer, an open conversation

between Jesus and God.

He is praying for the disciples before he leaves them.

He asks God to protect the disciples.

To keep them united.

To make them one like God and Jesus are one.

Jesus knows that the world will be dangerous for

his followers because as he says,

“They are in the world, but they do not belong to the world”.

They are in the world, but they are not of the world.

We hear this phrase a lot as Christians,

but it can still kind of be a vague statement.

  

Some people take it to mean that we should

separate ourselves from the world completely.

That we should isolate ourselves and only be involved with people

who share our religious beliefs and views.

Others believe that we shouldn’t get involved in current

events or politics, shouldn’t run for office, shouldn’t vote.

That we should leave those things to other “less holy” people

and keep ourselves clean.

I don’t think either of those things are what Jesus meant.

Jesus says in this prayer that he has sent his believers into the world,

just like Jesus was sent into the world.

Not to be separated from the world, but to be in it.

Jesus even says to God that he is not asking God to

take us out of the world at all.

What I think Jesus does mean is that his people were in the world,

engaged in the world, but they were a little different than normal.

They might have actually looked like everyone else at first glance,

but after a while, people noticed that followers of Jesus were a little different.

Jesus is saying that his followers were a little off normal.

In other words, Jesus is saying that his followers were weird.

  

Not just any kind of weird though.

We had this guy come out to our

house in Texas who poured a concrete slab for us.

And he never wore any shoes.

He did everything barefoot. 

He bent a nail in a board for us with the sole of his right foot. 

That was weird.

But it’s not the same kind of weird that I’m talking about.

Not this kind of weird.

And I’m not talking about dyed hair and beards weird,

or dipping your pizza in ranch dressing weird

or walking around in a Darth Vader costume weird

or climbing mount Everest weird.

I can certainly appreciate that weirdness.

But that’s not what I’m talking about.

I’m talking about divine weirdness.

A weirdness that separates 

us from the systems of this world.

A weirdness that puts us outside so we could look

objectively at what was really going on.

So the first Christians were still a part of the world,

still part of the politics and the money.

They followed the laws, 

they did everything that other people did.

But they were weird.

I told you last week about the way relationships

outside of family were in Jesus time.

People would have relationships with other people

based on exchange. What that person could offer.

A rich person would befriend a poor person

they could get honor and accolades from them.

A poor person would then lower themselves

and honor the rich person because they

would give them things - money, shelter, food.

Relationships outside of family were based on

what people could get from each other.

But the followers of Jesus stood out from the rest of the world.

They had real friendships with each other

across lines of status, class, gender and race.

People of a higher class were friends with people

who were of a lower class, and they didn’t shame them

didn’t demand accolades or honors.
Didn’t demand to sit in the best seats.

They respected each other just because

they were brothers and sisters in Christ.

They were weird.

And this weirdness disrupted the whole system.

They visited people in prison, they took food to hungry people,

they gathered together in each others homes

for no specific monetary reason, just to worship God.

They let women lead their communities.

They sang songs together. They forgave each other.

They didn’t participate in the power structure that oppressed others

and developed their own power structure that built people up.

They were weird.  Divinely weird.

Now somewhere during these last 2000 years,

Christians have lost a little bit of their weirdness.

We started to become normal.

to become adjusted to the world and not only

comfortable with it, but to love it.

We actually started to become the world instead

of the weird ones in it.

Christians and Christianity actually became the power structure,

a structure reflected the world more

than the teachings and life of Christ.

We lost a lot of our weirdness.

Christians started to be the ones that oppressed instead of set free.

We defended Crusades, Inquisitions, slavery, McCarthyism, segregation.

We defined being Christian as being absolutely normal,

as being completely totally conformed

to this world and it’s laws and rules,

instead of being uncomfortable with them.

Christianity basically rejected weirdness.

So for the past two thousand or so years,

you really couldn’t tell a Christian apart from anyone else.

But now, thankfully,

we have started to bring weird back.

We have again become mal-adjusted to the conforms of society.

We have become mal-adjusted to the sight of war and poverty.

We have become un-comfortable with the world that says

that there is no place for forgiveness and vulnerability

that the only way to deal with others is stubbornness and inflexibility.

We have become un-comfortable with the world that says

financially stable people are the only ones valuable to society.

We have become uncomfortable with the rules

which tell us that it’s all about us and our money

and our house and our family.

With the nudging of the Holy Spirit,

we have become a little weird again.

In the world, but not of the world.

Welcoming the homeless and the stranger.

Offering forgiveness instead of judgment.

Not doing what will give us power or money or recognition

but doing that which helps everyone

in our city including the weak and poor,

not just the rich or elite.

  

When other people look at us through squinted eyes

and say, “Gethsemane people are a little weird”

we can say, “Thank you very much!”

Then we will know that we are on the right track.

Then we know we’ve become the voice that this community needs.

In the world, but not of the world.

The divine weirdos.

And that is Jesus prayer in a nutshell.

“God, you gave me these people

and we made them weirdos.

I love these weirdos.

Some people are going to have problems

with them because they’re weirdos.

So please protect them.”

And that is the point of this prayer.

Jesus is leaving. Leaving us alone.

And Jesus is concerned like a parent leaving

their child alone for the first time.

He’s taught them all he can,

now the rest is in God’s hands.

We are Easter People.

Shaped by the life, death and resurrection of Jesus.

We should be weird. Divinely Weird.

And being divinely weird is a hard job.

But it’s Jesus call to us to, his little flock.

And it is our prayer:

“God we are yours and you are ours,

please protect us in this world and

please keep us weird.”

Love is the Fruit

John 15:1-8

May 3, 2015

The vine grower removes every

branch that bears no fruit.

and every branch he prunes to make more fruit.

It is apparent from these words of Jesus that

fruit is the objective of sharing our life with Jesus.

God hopes for fruit.

To get right to the point,

Jesus doesn’t just want us to be followers

or just believers, or members, or worship attenders.

Jesus wants us to abide in him.

Not just wave hello from afar and

have a safe, comfortable platonic, relationship with Jesus.

Jesus wants us to live with him.

We shouldn’t just be vines on the plant.

Jesus wants us to make a commitment of heart and soul.

And when we have that commitment, we will bear fruit.

But what is this fruit?

I would say it is obvious that Jesus is not talking

about farming or growing grapes or anything else.

I’m also pretty sure that it is not about any kind

of tangible thing either like good works,

or prayers, or attendance at church functions,

the number of converts to Christianity,

or even hours of service to our neighbors.

I think that the fruit that Jesus talks about

is a much less tangible thing,

This fruit much harder to quantify and identify.

but you do know it when you taste it.

 Today we’re also heard from 1^st John,

A letter to a believers in the late first century.

Most scholars agree that this letter

is written by the same person who wrote the Gospel of John.

So Gospels are written as a story about Jesus,

and the letters, or epistles are theological reflections on being Christian.

It is rare that we get two types of writing from one writer in the bible.

I’ll take that back, the gospel of John and three letters of John

are the only time in the bible we get both

the story and the reflection from one writer.

So the second reading for the day

really helps us to understand the gospel reading.

And John says in his letter:

God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God,

and God abides in them. 

(you see why people think this and the gospel

were written by the same person?)

We love -  because God first loved us. 

Those who say, ‘I love God’, and hate their brothers or sisters,

are liars; for those who do not love a brother or sister -

whom they have seen, cannot love God whom they have not seen.

I would say that the fruit of the vine

that Jesus in this gospel is talking about is love.

Love is the fruit.

  

And the word for love that John uses in his letter is agape.

As bible people tell us, there are three

different words for love in Greek –

one for romantic love,

and one for love of a person you like that is not romantic

like a friend, or a family member.

And the third which is agape.

That is the love that we have for people that we

don’t necessarily like, that we may have serious problems with,

maybe we don’t even know.

It’s Love that reaches out beyond a person’s faults,

beyond our own hang ups, beyond differences,

to respect another person, have compassion, understanding,

and honor and treat that person as a child of God.

Agape is the love the Martin Luther King, Jr. said he had

for the segregationists who hit civil rights protestors with fire hoses.

Not condoning what they do, but loving them anyway.

That love, Agape, is the fruit.

And If we say we love God, but do not

have agape for our brothers and sisters,

then maybe something isn’t connecting.

As Jesus said in the gospel, maybe our vines still need pruning.

This week is one of those weeks where

seem like the world is falling apart.

This is the kind of week that tests our capacity for bearing fruit.

There’s that terrible tragedy that keeps unfolding in Nepal

Ninth-grader Tremaine Holmes
shakes hands with Captain Erik Pecha Sait Serkan Gurbuz/Reuters

with more than 7,000 dead so far.

And the unrest in our own country 

in the streets of Baltimore where yet again another young man of color was killed by police, and protests turned into riots.

  

Now even though Nepal is thousands of miles away. Even though we will never meet those people, Reading about them and hearing on the news, we have compassion for them, we have love.

Many have rightly responded with gifts and prayers.

But  maybe it’s easier for us to have love compassion

for innocent victims of natural disasters.

But when it comes closer to home,

when it’s not a natural disaster,

and where clearly not all parties are totally innocent

can we still feel love?

The news media seems to want to dismiss

our brothers and sisters of East Baltimore as “thugs”

They focus on the fact that they destroyed

so much of their own neighborhoods,

and burned down their own neighborhood business.

But we don’t have to condone someone’s actions

to understand them.

Can we regard them as brothers and sisters?

Can we love these people, our people? Agape love.

Can we love our brothers and sisters

and have compassion for the plight of

those who have watched many of their own

killed by police without any recourse?

Can we have love and understanding for people

who have seen so many of their own incarcerated

and then released without jobs in neighborhoods

without any economic development or hope.

Martin Luther King said that

“A riot is the language of the unheard”.

Can we understand what it’s like to be so unheard?

And can we also have love for our

other brothers and sisters,

the police officers who are part

in this mess of a justice system?

Can we understand what it must be like

to be hated and abused by the neighborhoods that they serve.

Where they are trained to show contempt and to react in fear.

Where they are often punished by the system

and by colleagues and other citizens for showing compassion.

Even though we may not condone their actions,

can we understand them?

Can we love them?

Where is your love and compassion wanting?

Which vine do you have to ask God to prune?

Which hang up, prejudice, fear

does God need to help you out with?

I have my own list for myself.

Jesus never said love would be easy.

Bearing fruit takes lots of work.

John says “We love because God first loved us”

God loves us. Agape love.

Beyond our own faults and fears and actions.
Beyond our deeds or lack of love for our brother and sister.

God loves us. God is love.

And the fruit of God is our fruit.

And the promise of Jesus to his disciples

and to us is that God will help us to bear more fruit.

And the fruit that we bear,

will glorify God.