Birth of Something New 5-28-23
Birth of Something New
Ps 104:24-34; Acts 2:1-21
Ps 104:24-34
O LORD, how manifold are your works! In wisdom you have made them all; the earth is full of your creatures. Yonder is the sea, great and wide, creeping things innumerable are there, living things both small and great. There go the ships, and Leviathan that you formed to sport in it. These all look to you to give them their food in due season; when you give to them, they gather it up; when you open your hand, they are filled with good things. When you hide your face, they are dismayed; when you take away their breath, they die and return to their dust. When you send forth your spirit, they are created; and you renew the face of the ground. May the glory of the LORD endure forever; may the LORD rejoice in his works— who looks on the earth and it trembles, who touches the mountains and they smoke. I will sing to the LORD as long as I live; I will sing praise to my God while I have being. May my meditation be pleasing to him, for I rejoice in the LORD.
Acts 2:1-21
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. Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven living in Jerusalem. And at this sound the crowd gathered and was bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in the native language of each. Amazed and astonished, they asked, “Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? And how is it that we hear, each of us, in our own native language? Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabs—in our own languages we hear them speaking about God’s deeds of power.” All were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, “What does this mean?” But others sneered and said, “They are filled with new wine.” But Peter, standing with the eleven, raised his voice and addressed them, “Men of Judea and all who live in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and listen to what I say. Indeed, these are not drunk, as you suppose, for it is only nine o’clock in the morning. No, this is what was spoken through the prophet Joel: ‘In the last days it will be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams. Even upon my slaves, both men and women, in those days I will pour out my Spirit; and they shall prophesy. And I will show portents in the heaven above and signs on the earth below, blood, and fire, and smoky mist. The sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon to blood, before the coming of the Lord’s great and glorious day. Then everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.’
Prayer – God of all grace, mercy and peace – may the boldness of your Spirit transform us; may the gentleness of your Spirit lead us; may the gifts of your Spirit be our goal and strength, renewing us now and always as something new is being birthed – amen.
Our reading from Psalm 104 for this Pentecost Sunday speaks of God sending forth God’s Spirit in a creative burst that is both productive and new is stirring up all of creation. In our story from Acts, it must have felt like creation all over again, with wind and fire, and something new being birthed. Then there was this amazing experience where people of all nations were speaking in other languages yet understood by everyone who was present in that sudden spirit of newness. In that moment, all people were one in their hearing, if not their understanding of the deeper meaning of what they heard. Despite their differences, they could all hear what the disciples were saying, each in their own language.
Fire, wind and humble Galileans speaking persuasively in many tongues were dramatic signs that God was doing something new that would transform the lives of all those present, and far beyond, in time and place. Maybe it was a little frightening, something people would desperately try to explain away, or to contain with cynical comments that blamed it all of too much wine.
Over the course of time there have been manifestations, remarkable displays of God’s Spirit in the Bible, before, of course, with sound and light and amazing ‘special effects,’ as we call them today. George Lucas and Steven Speilberg have nothing on God’s creative Spirit. But those events, like Moses on the mountaintop and Jesus being transfigured were reserved for only a few witnesses, the most inside of insiders.
Here, at the dawn of a new era, on the birth of a church called to spread good news to the ends of the earth, the display is for everyone. Not just the disciples, gathered in a room, getting themselves together after Jesus is once again departed; not just the holiest or most faithful or the most learned; not just the believers; not just those who were with Jesus on the road or witnesses to the resurrection. No, in this case, at this moment, ‘all flesh,’ not just the people who had heard or known about Jesus, but all people – migrant workers, townies, people who are just passing through, Iraqis, Nigerians, LGBTQ folks, even people from the Carolinas. Young, old; women, men; enslaved and free – all people will be welcomed and all those borders and social conventions that we have constructed to keep us separate from other humans, those walls will no longer have the power to keep someone from God’s living, loving and grace-filled Spirit.
In our Christian tradition, Pentecost brings the 50-day liturgical season of Easter to a close. But it also points forward to the birth of new beginnings. Pentecost is when Christians celebrate the coming of God’s renewing Spirit and the new horizons this opens up in the story of God’s commitment to the world.
With the imparting of God’s Spirit upon all people on Pentecost, dreams and visionary experiences are part of the discussion. These details make some folks nervous. But they should also make us expectant, eager to play a part in the emergence of God’s hopes and dreams for the world. Pentecost is an invitation to dream. When a community of faith quits dreaming dreams, it has little to offer either its members or the wider world.
Like any good dream, these dreams involve adopting a new perspective on what’s possible, rousing our creativity to free us from conventional expectations. They help us to see that maybe what we thought was outlandish lies within reach. Three years ago, prior to the pandemic, who would have thought Trinity Presbyterian Church would be worshipping together via Zoom? At that time, who would have thought Trinity Presbyterian Church may become the church that worships in the meadow outside the building? Maybe we can find freedom from what binds us. And who would have thought as we enter the season of Pentecost that something new is being birthed right here at the corner of Willow Creek and Clover Hill? Yes, Pentecost is a season of birthing something new.
The Christian faith has a long list of exceptional dreamers, who, like Jesus, insisted that God could make possible things that other people couldn’t see. The last century gave us Martin Luther King, Jr., Dorothy Day, Mother Teresa, Oscar Romero, Richard Rohr and so many others. But dreams need not always be dramatic, and the prophetic task of describing how a new, God-given possibility is coming to life is not restricted to public figures with magnetic personalities. Remember, God promises Spirit to ‘all people.’ It belongs to a whole community, and even when this community’s dreams are smaller, more localized or slower to develop, they can still be renewing and transformative.
Today, we are called to follow Peter’s example, interpreting the present moment in our lives through the lens of scripture, rather than the other way around. We describe our current context as post-Covid and I believe that for the most part, we are. And I for one suspect that our world, the church even, will not be the same as was prior to Covid. Something new is being birthed – change in how we do church is happening and perhaps that isn’t a bad thing.
When you look at churches and denominations today in our post-Covid world it is easy to see that people are participating less than before. What are some of the reasons for that decline? For some, I think that the habit of going to church got interrupted by Covid while for others, I think they see how divided and divisive the Christian church is today in society and don’t want anything to do with it. I asked my niece, whose sister is in church every time the doors open, why she doesn’t go and she said two reasons – one, I totally disagree with what some of the more famous pastors are saying about people of color, LGBTQ people, immigrants, public education getting ‘white-washed’ and I don’t want anything they are preaching; and two, there aren’t any churches that I know of that actually does what Jesus teaches. I have to admit to you, I had to take a deep gulp about those because she is most likely right.
Perhaps there is a blessing and opportunity that has arrived with the passing of the pandemic when it comes to church. We all are aware of the metaphor of trying to turn a ship in a different direction takes a long time. Perhaps the ship named ‘church’ has run aground and can’t sail anymore. Perhaps it is time to disembark and find a new way to set sail, or birth something new. What has become increasingly clear is that the church isn’t going to survive by doing the same things it has always done.
There are a couple of things that I think the ‘big’ church, institutional church, and local churches need to do moving forward. First, I think we need to be authentic in who and what we are. Here at Trinity, we are an older congregation, perhaps not as active as we once were. Trying to recreate ourselves as a new contemporary congregation is not realistic or smart. We are a caring and compassionate community of older adults who are interested in deepening our faith and living that out on a daily basis. We are about faith, grace and fellowship – that is who and what we are, so let’s be authentic in sharing that as our message and as a church. We don’t have to pretend we are a pristine place, though the paint job helps a lot.
Second, the goal of ministry is not to put more people in the pews so we need to focus on a different metric. Jesus didn’t talk about adding more people to the roles; rather Jesus talked about feeding the hungry, which we do quite well through our food pantry. Jesus talked about taking care of those on the margins of life – not just the hungry, but those who are trapped into systemic poverty, structural racism and providing hope for those who feel most hopeless. Somehow we, the institutional, have focused more on adding numbers rather than caring for the numerous.
If our only metric of success is worship attendance then we are doing ourselves a disservice. I would suggest we need to ask ourselves about our congregation interacts with the people outside of it. Where are their opportunities for us to work with other churches to serve our community in any number of ways – we do that to a degree with Common Ground but what is preventing us from partnering with any number of other faith communities to meet the needs of our distinct community. If we, the church, both Trinity and other churches, are not changing the community for the better, then why does it matter how many people sit inside our church, or any church on a Sunday morning?
In a few weeks we will externally begin our journey of transformation, of birthing something new, Trinity Grace Church. And in our leap of faith we can’t rely on doing the things we have done in the past if we hope to make a difference in our community. We will continue the community Bible study; we will continue the Food Pantry; we will continue to offer space to AA and the School of Lexia; we will continue to gather to watch and learn together as we view and discuss ‘The Chosen.’ But what else, what else do we need to do to help change our community – what needs still exist in Mansfield and surrounding areas that we can focus our energy, as little or much as there is, we can focus our time, to make a faithful difference. We have talked about creating a walking path around our campus so that people can safely sojourn while reflecting on their faith and life. We have talked about having another Pups and Popsicles; we have talked about a lot of opportunities in our community. To really birth something new here at Trinity Grace Church in a few weeks, we have a chance to be and do something miraculous, just like that Pentecost morning some 2000 years ago – we just have to be open to the Spirit leading, guiding and blessing our endeavors – may it be so – thanks be to God – amen.