Day of Pentecost C May 15, 2016
Gen. 11:1-9Ps. 104: 25-32
Acts 2:1-11 John 14:8-17, 25-17
Today, we celebrate the feast of Pentecost. It is a day that we celebrate the church's awareness of God's omnipresence known as the person of the Holy Spirit.
I would like to pose this question. Was God the Holy Spirit before the feast of Pentecost? Did God develop from being first the Father, and then added God the Son and then finally when Jesus was gone, God added the Holy Spirit to the Divine resume?
Sometimes we are very simplistic in our thinking. We think in a linear and chronological fashion. So, because the Church came to experience God as the Holy Spirit, it would seem that it suddenly made God to be the Holy Spirit.
When an immigrant goes through the process of becoming an American citizen and experiences for the first time the delight of being an American citizen, does that make America suddenly exist? No, it existed before an immigrant took the oath of allegiance and loyalty, even though for the new citizen, America comes into existence in a personal way at the induction ceremony.
In our religion we sometimes treat God as a very weak being, so weak that such weakness defies the definition of God. How do we treat God as a weak being? We treat the progressive human understanding of God by human beings as being the actual development of God as well.
God created and gave freedom. Men and women used freedom to sin. And God is so weak, God is at divine wit's end to know what to do. "Oh, as a last ditch effort, I will send my Son Jesus to try to convince these sinful people to learn how to do what is right and respect me. And then I will let them know that I am a great external wind and an internal breath as the Holy Spirit."
Do you see how it is very easy to make God to be held captive to human history and limit God to how human being have come to understand God?
Now if God appears to be weak, it is because God allows the divine self to be understood in human versions of God. The Bible is written is human language. So the Bible presents us with human versions of God and the versions of God which are found in the Bible have become for us our traditions about God.
Are these version true? Yes, they are in that they are meaningful in helping us deal with the great questions of life. And on this day, the Day of Pentecost, we deal with one of the greatest questions of life. How can unity and diversity co-exist?
How can there be diversity in unity? How can there be unity in diversity? The American system of government is based upon the Pentecost dilemma? E pluribus Unum. From the many one. Ab Uno in plures. From the one many.
How can we delight in diversity and still live together without destroying each other? The poetic Psalm for the Day of Pentecost is a praise of delight for all of the beautiful diversity in creation. "There goes that Leviathan; God made this beast of the sea for the sport of it." God the creator is presented as thoroughly delighting in the diverse beauty of creation. We do too; we love nature and we love the manifold diversity of nature. We love National Geographic's presentations of the diverse beauty of all of the peoples of the earth and all of the oceans, rivers, mountains, plains, forests and animals. The diversity of the world gives us the experience of ecstasy. Can we not shout with the same ecstasy of the Psalmist: ""O Lord, how manifold are your works! * in wisdom you have made them all; the earth is full of your creatures." O, God, I can hardly believe the diverse beauty of all I can experience! But we also know that our National Geographic vision of nature exposes a consequence of the free diversity of nature, namely the competition among the needs of the creatures. There is conflict between natural happenings and human goals. National Geographic often depicts the natural cruelties of nature in predator-prey relationships. Foxes eat chickens; whales consume lots sea creatures, humans eat other animals, humans fight and war with each other, tornadoes demolish houses, earthquakes destroy structures, humanity uses up the resources of the environment and even destroys the environment, lighting strikes people and starts fires.
On the Day of Pentecost we are invited to ponder the Cosmic Question: how can unity comprehend and coexist with such vast diversity within the entire created order of the universe?
But also on the Day of Pentecost, the question of cosmic diversity and unity comes indoors to the human communities of family and religious houses of faith. How can people manifest all of the differences and uniqueness of their personal gifts and live in non-competitive ways for the general good of the community?
In our diversity each person cries, "I am the unique, individual snowflake, different from anyone else, now hear me roar in my uniqueness." But what does the community and family say? "You may be unique but you cannot let your uniqueness harm the uniqueness of the other unique people who share this world and family and community with you."
Pentecost is the day when the members of the world express a desire for someone who can conduct humanity like a good symphony. I may be a Tuba player who thinks that tubas are the most important instruments in the orchestra and since my instrument is bigger and louder, I should drown all the other instruments out. But then I get angry when the cymbal player begins to drown out my tuba. So what is needed? The symphony needs a conductor who is respected and who can orchestrate harmonies while giving everyone enough "solo" time to adequately express their individual uniqueness.
So why is the Day of Pentecost important? It is important because it invites each of us to come to know God as the Holy Spirit who can whisper, tame and affirm each of our human egos to convince us to be committed musicians in this human symphony of the church so that we can make the good music of the Gospel known to the diverse people of this world. And in making this good music of the Gospel together, we can know personal elation and fulfillment and we can know that we are actually very useful to each other because we are learning how to let our personal uniqueness serve the common good.
This is the miracle and the magic of the experience of the Holy Spirit. We can speak all of the human languages and not compete but cooperate in a unity known as harmony, in a musical score which encourages, applauds and includes enough individual solos to affirm the unique personal gifts of each person.
We celebrate the Day of Pentecost, not as a one time event; we celebrate it as the reality of existence as long as there has been existence. Indeed today, we with the Psalmist believe that God delights in diversity. We share that delight in the truth that we know when we experience beauty.
We also know that diversity presents the challenges of competitions of the systems of nature which in the human community is known as the conflict of egos.
In Jesus Christ, we believe that biggest and best ego of all, the divine ego, was incredibly checked at the door. Jesus dying on the cross, is the ultimate checking the ego at the door. In the Pauline writing, it is written that Christ emptied himself of the divine, took on humanity and died a death on the cross. This has become for us the model of checking the ego and it has also become for us the power to learn how to check our egos to live as a part of human community.
Today on the feast of Pentecost, let us show up for the orchestra of Jesus Christ. God asks us to join the orchestra of Jesus Christ. Can we follow the musical scores found in the revealed divine wisdom of the ages. Can we follow the musical direction of our conductor and Maestro, Jesus? Are we willing to play "solos" when called upon? Are we willing to practice the Christian Gospel until we become so lyrical that we blend with others and we realize that there is a life and breath playing through us?
The life and breath of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
I would like to pose this question. Was God the Holy Spirit before the feast of Pentecost? Did God develop from being first the Father, and then added God the Son and then finally when Jesus was gone, God added the Holy Spirit to the Divine resume?
Sometimes we are very simplistic in our thinking. We think in a linear and chronological fashion. So, because the Church came to experience God as the Holy Spirit, it would seem that it suddenly made God to be the Holy Spirit.
When an immigrant goes through the process of becoming an American citizen and experiences for the first time the delight of being an American citizen, does that make America suddenly exist? No, it existed before an immigrant took the oath of allegiance and loyalty, even though for the new citizen, America comes into existence in a personal way at the induction ceremony.
In our religion we sometimes treat God as a very weak being, so weak that such weakness defies the definition of God. How do we treat God as a weak being? We treat the progressive human understanding of God by human beings as being the actual development of God as well.
God created and gave freedom. Men and women used freedom to sin. And God is so weak, God is at divine wit's end to know what to do. "Oh, as a last ditch effort, I will send my Son Jesus to try to convince these sinful people to learn how to do what is right and respect me. And then I will let them know that I am a great external wind and an internal breath as the Holy Spirit."
Do you see how it is very easy to make God to be held captive to human history and limit God to how human being have come to understand God?
Now if God appears to be weak, it is because God allows the divine self to be understood in human versions of God. The Bible is written is human language. So the Bible presents us with human versions of God and the versions of God which are found in the Bible have become for us our traditions about God.
Are these version true? Yes, they are in that they are meaningful in helping us deal with the great questions of life. And on this day, the Day of Pentecost, we deal with one of the greatest questions of life. How can unity and diversity co-exist?
How can there be diversity in unity? How can there be unity in diversity? The American system of government is based upon the Pentecost dilemma? E pluribus Unum. From the many one. Ab Uno in plures. From the one many.
How can we delight in diversity and still live together without destroying each other? The poetic Psalm for the Day of Pentecost is a praise of delight for all of the beautiful diversity in creation. "There goes that Leviathan; God made this beast of the sea for the sport of it." God the creator is presented as thoroughly delighting in the diverse beauty of creation. We do too; we love nature and we love the manifold diversity of nature. We love National Geographic's presentations of the diverse beauty of all of the peoples of the earth and all of the oceans, rivers, mountains, plains, forests and animals. The diversity of the world gives us the experience of ecstasy. Can we not shout with the same ecstasy of the Psalmist: ""O Lord, how manifold are your works! * in wisdom you have made them all; the earth is full of your creatures." O, God, I can hardly believe the diverse beauty of all I can experience! But we also know that our National Geographic vision of nature exposes a consequence of the free diversity of nature, namely the competition among the needs of the creatures. There is conflict between natural happenings and human goals. National Geographic often depicts the natural cruelties of nature in predator-prey relationships. Foxes eat chickens; whales consume lots sea creatures, humans eat other animals, humans fight and war with each other, tornadoes demolish houses, earthquakes destroy structures, humanity uses up the resources of the environment and even destroys the environment, lighting strikes people and starts fires.
On the Day of Pentecost we are invited to ponder the Cosmic Question: how can unity comprehend and coexist with such vast diversity within the entire created order of the universe?
But also on the Day of Pentecost, the question of cosmic diversity and unity comes indoors to the human communities of family and religious houses of faith. How can people manifest all of the differences and uniqueness of their personal gifts and live in non-competitive ways for the general good of the community?
In our diversity each person cries, "I am the unique, individual snowflake, different from anyone else, now hear me roar in my uniqueness." But what does the community and family say? "You may be unique but you cannot let your uniqueness harm the uniqueness of the other unique people who share this world and family and community with you."
Pentecost is the day when the members of the world express a desire for someone who can conduct humanity like a good symphony. I may be a Tuba player who thinks that tubas are the most important instruments in the orchestra and since my instrument is bigger and louder, I should drown all the other instruments out. But then I get angry when the cymbal player begins to drown out my tuba. So what is needed? The symphony needs a conductor who is respected and who can orchestrate harmonies while giving everyone enough "solo" time to adequately express their individual uniqueness.
So why is the Day of Pentecost important? It is important because it invites each of us to come to know God as the Holy Spirit who can whisper, tame and affirm each of our human egos to convince us to be committed musicians in this human symphony of the church so that we can make the good music of the Gospel known to the diverse people of this world. And in making this good music of the Gospel together, we can know personal elation and fulfillment and we can know that we are actually very useful to each other because we are learning how to let our personal uniqueness serve the common good.
This is the miracle and the magic of the experience of the Holy Spirit. We can speak all of the human languages and not compete but cooperate in a unity known as harmony, in a musical score which encourages, applauds and includes enough individual solos to affirm the unique personal gifts of each person.
We celebrate the Day of Pentecost, not as a one time event; we celebrate it as the reality of existence as long as there has been existence. Indeed today, we with the Psalmist believe that God delights in diversity. We share that delight in the truth that we know when we experience beauty.
We also know that diversity presents the challenges of competitions of the systems of nature which in the human community is known as the conflict of egos.
In Jesus Christ, we believe that biggest and best ego of all, the divine ego, was incredibly checked at the door. Jesus dying on the cross, is the ultimate checking the ego at the door. In the Pauline writing, it is written that Christ emptied himself of the divine, took on humanity and died a death on the cross. This has become for us the model of checking the ego and it has also become for us the power to learn how to check our egos to live as a part of human community.
Today on the feast of Pentecost, let us show up for the orchestra of Jesus Christ. God asks us to join the orchestra of Jesus Christ. Can we follow the musical scores found in the revealed divine wisdom of the ages. Can we follow the musical direction of our conductor and Maestro, Jesus? Are we willing to play "solos" when called upon? Are we willing to practice the Christian Gospel until we become so lyrical that we blend with others and we realize that there is a life and breath playing through us?
The life and breath of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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