5.19.24 "Suddenly from Heaven" - Pentecost Day = Westminster Presbyterian Church, Pasadena, CA

 Acts 2.1-11; John 15.26-27; 16.12-15

It’s Pentecost Sunday … 

In our reading today, a Jewish Festival … a celebration of the first fruits … a harvest festival, a spring-time event … a time to kick up the heels and have a good time … giving thanks to God for a new season of life and prosperity.

Jerusalem is a madhouse … 

Tourists from all around the Roman world … every nation under heaven, says the Bible … a cacophony of tongues, clothing and cultures … sort of like downtown LA … food stalls, souvenirs, shouting children, and tired parents … 

The word, Pentecost, means 50 … 50 days … 50 days after Passover.

50 days after the crucifixion of Jesus and his resurrection from the dead … Jesus came to them and taught them for the first 40 days … 

Then, the ascension … with instructions: Wait for the Holy Spirit.

The disciples return to Jerusalem - to wait … they appoint a replacement for Judas, they devote themselves to prayer … they wait.

Wait for the LORD, says the Psalmist; be strong, and let your heart take courage; wait for the LORD!

The LORD is good to those who wait … 

For God along my soul waits in silence, for my hope is from God.

When the Day of Pentecost arrives, the disciples are all together in one place … there is strength in the company of one another …

Suddenly from heaven … a sound of a rushing, violent, wind … flames above each head … and they begin to speak in other languages … 

Here is where the story opens up to a whole new chapter in God’s story … 

The Spirit has always been present … the Spirit hovers over the restless waters, in the darkness of the void … the Spirit comes to the prophets … the Spirit comes to Jesus in his baptism … 

And now the Spirit comes with the gift of language!

Everyone everywhere can hear the Good News of God’s love in their own language … their own tongue, their own culture … 

A tremendous affirmation … every language important to God … God, the creator, of every tongue … every accent, every form and shape of language … precious in the ears of God. 

Not so with us … we hop into an Uber driven by an immigrant, and we have difficulty communicating … in a doctor’s office … at a restaurant … maybe we’re impatient, frustrated, even angry.

It’s okay … patience is needed, and maybe we all can learn a few words from one another … but the point here is for the church, for it’s teachers and missionaries … learn the language of others … but more than just words … its feelings, attitudes, culture and music … a rich anthology of humanity in all of its diversity and creativity.

And if we can’t speak another language, maybe we can at least be mindful … maybe be can give the other person the benefit of our kindness, maybe we can appreciate how hard it is for them, too …

I remember the very first time I was in Europe … for several weeks of study, and how glad I was to return home, turn on the TV and hear English.

I remember my father’s parents, immigrants from the Netherlands … their heavy brogue … was it hard for them? I’m sure it was.

Yes, it’s hard … but the world is God’s world … and the world is a better place with a thousands tongues to sing God praise.

Just like the Bible … the Bible doesn’t speak with one voice; it speaks with many voices … all over the map … 

some see God this way, others see God some other way … 

those who love the laws of faith, and those who love the spirit of faith … 

those who are wary of the stranger, and those who welcome the stranger to the table … 

those who see the practical side of things, and those who dream the dreams … 

those who know how to pick up a shovel and get a job done, and those who quietly sit in prayer and meditation.

Like a choir - with all its voices: sopranos, altos, tenors, bases … a symphony, with all of its instruments; strings and brass, percussion and reeds … an organ with all of its ranks and stops and pipes … 

The best sounds are the sounds of many voices … 

An impossible dream?

Of course it’s impossible!

That’s why we dream dreams.

But think for a moment:  how many impossible dreams have come true because people dared to dream … 

And if not all the dream, then some of the dream … 

even a little of it is more than good … 

and every little bit, every time we realize any of it, the world is better, our souls are better, the light of goodness and happiness shines a little brighter.

It comes down to this: a man learns the language spoken by a woman, and the woman of the man … 

the people of the suburb learn the language spoken by a farmer, and the farmer learns the language of Wall Street … 

we all speak our own language, shaped by culture, race, color, gender, ethnicity, status, education, religion, experience, and work … 

rich and poor, rural and urban, north and south, east and west, gay and straight; the sad and the glad, the weary and the wondering … the hopeful and the distraught … we each and all have our own language.

But we can learn to listen … we can learn something of the other … we can learn how to learn from one another … 

and realize, the stranger over there is pretty much like me, and I’m pretty much like them … 

I get up in the morning with mussed hair and things on my mind … 

I sometimes see things clearly, and then I’m in a fog … 

I love deeply, yet there are times when darker thoughts and bitter feelings have play … 

we’re more alike than we are different … 

different we are, but at the core of our being: 

we want to love and be loved … 

we have great ideas and profound ambition … 

we want to be with friends, and have a decent meal … 

we want to lay down at night and feel safe … 

we want to get up in the morning, and have some toast and peanut butter.

What we do best is what we do in the strength and goodness of others … 

We’re stronger, together …  

Have you ever tried to tie a shoe with one hand?

How much better with two hands … together, we make the world better.

Suddenly from heaven …

The need for Pentecost … and we can help … 

we can help humanity tear down the walls and ease the tensions …  

when we make the faithful trek to this place, to worship the God and Father of our LORD Jesus Christ … 

and if we’re bedfast and homebound, if the flesh is no longer able, but the spirit is willing, we make the trip within ourselves … 

it’s the same trip … we walk with Christ in Galilee, we walk with him in the streets of Jerusalem, we sit at Table with Christ, and we hear his voice … and beside us, and all around us, the saints of bygone days, the angels of heaven, and the voices of the earth.

The church has done much good on all of this, but more is needed … more must be done … let there be peace on earth, and let it begin with me.

Suddenly from heaven! 

Whatever happened that day, I’ll leave to your imagination …

Hallelujah and Amen!

"Trinity Sunday" - Palms Westminster Presbyterian Church

Proverbs 8.1-8; John 16.12-15

For thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory.

In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.

Grace, mercy and peace.

Faith, hope and love.

Guilt, grace, and gratitude.

The widow, the orphan, the alien.

Morning, noon and night.

Past, present and future.

Height, width and depth.

On your mark, get set, go.

Three coins in the fountain.

The Three Stooges and the Three Musketeers.

And a three-point sermon.

Huey, Dewey and Louie.

The three little pigs.

Goldie Locks and the Three Bears.

Porridge, too hot, too cold, and just right.

Month, day, year.

Three temptations in the wilderness.

Three crosses on a hill …

Jesus with Elijah and Moses.

Peter, James and John.

The lost sheep, the lost coin and the lost boy.

Noah had three sons.

And then there were Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego

And we three kings of orient are.

A priest, a rabbi and a minister, too.

Lots of things come in threes, it seems.

Today is Trinity Sunday … a celebration of the majesty and goodness of God … 

The Three-in-One God, God in Three Persons.

The God and Father of our LORD Jesus Christ, who both send to us the Spirit of Truth, the Comforter, the Advocate, the Teacher, the Holy Spirit, 

It’s Trinity Sunday, dear People of God.

Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Creator, Redeemer and Giver of Life.

What does the Trinity give to us?

I believe in God the Father, Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth.

We live in a God-hallowed world, a world created by the loving word of God, declared good by the word of God … all the creatures of this earth … great and small … the very life of every human being … all of it, good, all of it, sacred, all of it, from the hand and heart of God.

The God of Creation … who gives to us this world as our world, and commands us to care for it, to tend the garden, to oversee and guard its life.

The whole of the Creation Story is our mandate to pay attention to the earth … to love it as a precious gift from God, something to be cherished and preserved, guarded and maintained, honored and loved … God created us to be stewards, caretakers, of sea and sky, earth and air, and all the creatures, great and small.

Let there be no doubt that the God of Creation calls us to pay attention to what’s going on these days … human pride and greed fill the air with carbon dioxide … the oceans with plastics and pesticides … threatening the wellbeing of animals and humans all across the globe … even as Wall Street cheers its obscene profits and wallows in its wealth … at the price of destroying God’s good earth.

Some would say: “We can’t destroy God’s earth.”

Oh, yes, we can … we have that kind of power, because it’s the power God gives to us, to use, for good, or for ill. 

Don’t be fooled by the false prophets who proclaim peace when there is no peace.

Some would say: “God will never allow that.”

Well, that’s what the folks of Jerusalem said even as Nebuchadnezzar pounded down the city gates and hauled the people off to captivity. 

Again, false prophets … false prophets proclaim false security, lulling the people into irresponsibility, believing in their own privilege rather than taking up their responsibilities.

Whatever God’s ways are, we are fools to think that God will never allow the consequences of our foolish behavior to come to pass … 

Whatever God’s purposes may be, they include this earth … and woe to those who would so casually use the earth for their own advantage, their own momentary gain, at the expense of the polar bear and the elephant.

I believe in God the Father, Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth.

And in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our LORD, conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary.

The God of Creation is also the God of Covenant … the God who comes close to us, who takes up our cause, walks with us, talks with us … and bears our burdens.

The whole of the Judeo-Christian Story is centered in a God who addresses us with compassion and mercy … who pays a visit to Abram and Sarai, to create a new family upon the face of the earth … and when things go awry, and the family ends up in Egypt, enslaved by the proud and the powerful, God hears their cry and set’s the captive free.

We celebrate the Second Person of the Trinity, Jesus Christ our LORD, conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary … the God who becomes a human being; the human being who is God …

To seal the bond of love … to show us the way of life.

He is our Savior … doing what we couldn’t do, and doing it for all of humanity, because God’s love is for all the world.

He is our Teacher … revealing to us the ways of life … three years of eloquent teaching and three years of courage … challenging the proud and the powerful, overturning their tables and confounding their expectations … those rich and powerful people expected Jesus to be on their side, and when Jesus choose the side of the poor and the oppressed, the powerful people of Jerusalem got angry, roused a mob, arrested Jesus, took him to Pilate, forced Pilate’s hand for the death sentence … that’s how the rich and the powerful dealt with Jesus.

But in all of that, the work of God … what it means to live life, the life of God … sometimes full of danger … not always easy, choosing the right and resisting lies and deceptions.

Throughout the ages, women and men have heeded the call of Christ, the call to courage, to withstand the onslaught of lies and bigotry … many Christians have suffered and died as their LORD did … it doesn’t always end easily, but it always ends well … for no matter what, in life and in death, ’tis better to have served Christ and lost the world, than to gain one’s life and lose one’s soul

To believe in Jesus Christ is to follow in his footsteps … and no time has ever been more important than now for the church of Jesus Christ to give ear to his teaching, and to embrace his way of life … to set before the world an example of grace, mercy and peace; faith, hope and love; kindness, care and compassion.

In Christ, we belong to God, and in Christ, God gives to us life … life enduring, life always … life incorruptible … life everlasting …

I believe in Jesus Christ …

And I believe in the Holy Spirit … the deep and powerful presence of the Father and the Son … in the life of the church, in your life and in mine, here and now, in this place, and forever … the life of God - in a flower blooming, a bird singing, a whale breaching … the life of God in a child crying, a mother weeping, a father in despair … the life of God in a politician who tells the truth, a minister who preaches the whole counsel of God, a teacher who inspires a child to reach for the stars … the life of God in a kindly hand upon your shoulder, a gentle word to bring comfort, a smile to brighten someone’s day … all of it, and more, the life of God, the Holy Spirit.

The same Spirit that hovered over the dark waters of a formless void … the Spirit of wisdom … the Spirit of Mary’s Womb, the Spirit of Pentecost, tongues of flame, and the miracle of language … oh, how I love that story … everyone’s tongue, everyone’s language, honored by God … they didn’t have to learn another language to hear the Gospel, because God speaks their tongue, and the Spirit enabled those disciples of the Upper Room to speak the languages of the world.

We live in a city of many languages, and here in Palms Westminster, many tongues … and sometimes, for White People, it’s frustrating, and some folks demand that everyone should speak English … “if ya wanna be an American, speak American, and if you don’t, go back to where ya’ came from.”

Maybe some of you have heard that.

Well, thank God for Pentecost and the Holy Spirit … the Spirit of many languages, the Spirit of every tongue, because God is the God of every tongue, and God honors all the languages of the earth.

Our schools need to be multilingual.

We need to honor every language.

We need to be patient with one another.

And we need to learn some other languages, too.

Whatever the language, God be praised.

Whatever the tongue, Glory to God.

My little granddaughter now lives in Amsterdam, and she’s learning Dutch … and who knows how many other languages to follow … she’ll be multicultural, multilingual, and she’s multiracial, too.

I love how that represents the magnificence of God’s world … a large and glorious world full of diversity and color, tongues and ways of life, a world full of food and music, dress and design … all of it celebrated by God.

Because God is a family, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

God is neighborhood, a community, a town.

God is diversity.

God is female and God is male; God is young and God is old.

God is every color and every shape.

And everything in between.

God is light, God is love, God is hope.

I believe in God the Father.

I believe in Jesus Christ the Son.

I believe in the Holy Spirit.

Hallelujah and Amen