7.21.24 "This I Know" - Westminster Presbyterian Church, Pasadena, CA

 Ephesians 2.11-16; Ephesians 2.17-22

“When I leave church, I want to feel better than when I came in,” my friend said to me …  

Melodie Mariposa performing at
Westminster, 7.21.24

I keep that in mind when I write my sermons and prepare the liturgy … I think of my friends, I think of you … 

And, I think of myself … 

There are times when my spiritual energies are nil … 

the springs of hope and peace run dry … 

writer’s block, spiritual block, the doldrums, the down times … 

the sun dimmed by heavy clouds … 

sadness and weariness overtake my soul … 

lousy memories trigger a flood of regret … 

momentary setbacks - when things just go plumb wrong … knocked for a loop, knocked off balance … set back on my heels …

Old fears that have been with me my entire life … 

Good golly Miss Molly …

St John of the Cross called it “the dark night of the soul” ..

A whole book about it in the 16th Century … for young monks, who were at the top of their game when they entered the monastery … close to God, a deep sense of prayer, lots of joy, peace, happiness … the daily disciplines, the long hours of prayer and work, all of it good … the soul dances light upon the earth …

And, then, one day, it goes south … 

candles burn out, 

joy takes a hike, 

the days become laborious and unrewarding … 

prayers are hard, and go nowhere … 

the soul drags along, tired and weary … 

the young monk becomes discouraged … 

where’s the joy, what happened to my happiness, why now is prayer so hard, so unbearable, and these duties, why now so empty of meaning, where’s my energy, my hope, my peace? 

At just such a time, the young monk is tempted to leave the monastery … 

I’m unfit for this calling, I don’t belong here, I’m too sinful for all of this, I’m not up to it … maybe I was wrong about this, I don’t have what it takes, and what it takes is beyond me.

John of the Cross, tells the young monk: God is preparing a new day for you … 

no one can stay on top of the world all the time; 

there are times when we need to be in the valley of darkness … 

it’s called growing, and growing up, growing out, learning the hard lessons as well as the sweet lessons of life.

John of the Cross tells of a sculptor who throws a tarp over the work-in-progress … to shield the work from prying eyes.

If we watched what God was doing, we’d rush in with our own suggestions … we’d tell God, “Do it this way, do it that way.”

We’d muck it all up with our ideas … 

So God does us an enormous favor …

God conceals the critical work of soul-formation … in the critical moments of life.

When the time is right, God pulls back the tarpaulin to reveal something new … a new chapter in our life.

St. John of the Cross understands a lot of things; his counsel and wisdom comforts the guides the soul.

When all is dark, wait … 

wait for the revealing … 

wait for the light.

Don’t give up, don’t walk away, 

don’t doubt the original calling; 

don’t be too hard on yourself … 

be patient, wait upon the LORD … a new day is coming.

“When I leave church, I want to feel better than when I came in,” said my friend.

We have to be careful … 

The church has sometimes helped people feel better about all the wrong things … 

In the 19th century, across the southern tier of the nation, minsters were cautioned to never bring up the question of slavery …  

“Just preach Christ” … some even stepped into the pulpit to defend the practice:

Enslavement is perfectly fine, the whip is acceptable, treating the enslaved as cattle is all a part of God’s will … God is on our side.

Ministers who raised the question were ousted from their pulpits.

Folks wanted to leave church feeling better about all the wrong things.

In the north, in the midwest, far west, folks went to church to hear the “gospel” … 

it’s ok to hate the Indigenous, 

take their land, break the treaties, 

put their children into specialized schools where their hair is cut, 

their indigenous clothing taken away, 

punished if they speak their indigenous tongue … 

it’s ok; it’s God’s will … and the people leave church feeling better than when they came in.

In Nazi Germany, many churches turned themselves over to German Christianity … Germany First, make Germany great again, Germany over all … large Nazi flags and banners in the sanctuary … the upraised hand, once the sign of blessing, slightly tilted forward, becomes the Nazi salute … Jews deserved to be hated, war is necessary, God is on our side.  

They leave church feeling better - about all the wrong things.

I want to leave here feeling better than when I came, and I want the same for you … but we have to be clear, we have to be sure, that what we feel good about is something good, the real deal, the genuine article …  

Not the wrong things, but the right things … 

And why?

When we feel better about the right things, we change the wrong things … we are the salt of the earth, says Jesus, we are the light of the world.

Here are some things that I find helpful … rooted in Scripture, celebrated in our traditions, confirmed in daily life:

Remember: Joshua orders the trumpets to blow, and the walls tumble down ..

Remember: the Prodigal Son returns home …

Remember: the Lost Sheep is found.

Dear friends:

Be not afraid, though there is plenty in this life to scare the wits out of us.

You are loved, you are forgiven … all the way to eternity.

You will do it … you’ve come through so much already, you’ll come through whatever life throws at you … when you’re down, it’s only for a season … if you can’t see God, God sees you, and God is hard at work.

Remember, you have friends … here they are, sitting with you … you have Moses and the Prophets … you have the Apostle Paul and the Holy Spirit … in the center of it all, you have Christ.

You don’t have all the answers, but you don’t need all the answers … 

You have courage, you get up in the morning and face the day … one step at a time is maybe all you can do, but you’ll do it … you’ll face the day, you’ll make it through …  

You have faith in Christ … enough to move a few mountains and change the world.

Don’t expect too much of yourself …   

But expect enough of yourself to push yourself into new regions of life and work … take a few chances.

In your search for God, you will sometimes find God … and then, remember, God always finds you.

When you’re knocked down, God will lay down beside you … when it’s time to get up and try again, God will be at your side …  

You have love in your heart … remember that.

Keep in mind those who love you … they’re not wrong … even when you’re not so lovable, you’re still worthy of love, you always have gifts, you’re a person of importance … you are someone’s link to life.

To leave here, and feel better, than when you got here.

Hallelujah and Amen

June 12, 2011, "The Glory of Many Tongues" - Pentecost Sunday

Acts 2.1-11

How big is God?

We used to play a little game with Josh …

We’d ask, “How big is Josh?” and he’d raise his hands as high as he could, and we’d say, “Sooooo big!”

How big is God?

God is “soooooo big” …

Big ideas …

And big risks.

When God announced to the heavenly creatures God’s plan to create the universe, I believe there was immediate applause and cheering … it’s a big idea, and heaven was ready for it.

And then God announced the creation of a very unique creature – a creature in God’s own image – a strange amalgam of dirt and spirit … a mortal with divinity in its DNA … a critter with its feet on the ground and its head in the sky.

And when God made that announcement, I think heaven held its breath … this was going to be a big risk! … can dirt hold divinity; can divinity be embodied in dirt?

Can there be a creature that walks on the face of the earth and holds it’s head high, high enough to see heaven?

I think the angels held their breath.

They knew it was going to be risky.

But God is very creative.

God is soooo big.

Big ideas.

Big risks.

Well, it wasn’t long before heaven’s worst fears came to pass.

Adam and Eve plucked the apple and walked away from God.

And God walked right along with them.

God walked them out of the garden, and God made clothing for them …

They’d need good clothing.

It was going to be a long journey.

From here to eternity.

God walked with them all the way.

But things went from bad to worse.

Violence and war, murder and greed.

This little creature, with divinity in it’s DNA, made all the wrong choices …

And God said, Maybe I made a mistake.

So let it rain.

Rain and rain and rain some more.

Gonna wash them right outta my hair.

But there’s one man – Noah.

Noah, build me an ark.

Take some animals, two-by-two.

Because I wanna start over.

And you and I and the animals in the ark will start a new world.

Well, we all know how that worked.

After the flood, Noah plants a vineyard, makes wine and gets flat-out drunk and passes out in his tent, buck-naked – an embarrassment to the family.

And things only get worse.

In the turning of a few pages, the descendents of Noah become rich and powerful …

They speak one language … and God knew, then and there, that one language wouldn’t work … one language creates power, but the wrong kind of power …power to build towers to heaven.

From the beginning, God wanted humankind to spread out upon the earth … care for God’s Big Garden, nurture it, protect its creatures, enjoy it.

But, here they are, speaking one language and building a tower to heaven.

So God confuses their language.

Humankind is capable of many sounds … the human mouth, the larynx, the lungs and throat … there’s no end to the sounds we can make.

Like someone’s iPod playlist … from Rachmaninoff to rap … from Beethoven to the Beatles …

The Wycliffe Bible Translators have identified nearly 7000 languages …

That day, on the plains of Shinar, God decided that humankind would do better with a confusion of tongues: many languages, many sounds, to give full expression to the glory of language.

One language can no more express the wonder of life than one form of music can express the musical scale. Praise the LORD with trumpet and harp and tambourine and dancing and cymbals …

Praise the LORD with many languages, many tongues, many sounds.

All of this to match the wonder and glory of God.

God’s big ideas.

How big is God?

Sooooo big.

Big enough to love the whole wide world.

When God called Abraham and Sarah, God called them for the sake of the whole wide world.

To be a blessing to all of humankind.

To undo the damages of sin.

To rebuild human community.

To restore creation and make it safe for all of God’s creatures.

Genesis 12 – the Big Idea.

The Big Plan.

The Big Risk.

Abraham and Sarah.

Blessed to be a blessing.

For the entire world.

God is satisfied with nothing less than the whole wide world, every creature, great and small – the far-flung stars and you and me who bear God’s image.

When Jesus is born in Bethlehem, God initiates a new strategy … but it’s the same Big Idea … full of Big Risk, and full of world-sized love.

Paul’s letter to the Ephesians …

Paul’s letter to the Romans …

The mystery and the music of the Book of Revelation … it’s the world that God loves, and wants … to make it new … to make it good … nothing lost, and no one left behind.

God hasn’t given up the Big Idea.

And God won’t give up.

God won’t give up until the day is won and creation healed.

Jesus initiates a new chapter in God’s Big Idea … and it’s a Big Risk that Jesus takes … a risk big enough to cost him his life on the cross … to prove to the world that love is greater than all of Rome’s military might, that love is better than all the religion humankind can create … that love alone can save.

On Pentecost Day, the city of Jerusalem was filled with pilgrims … from throughout the Mediterranean World, many tongues and languages and sounds.

I imagine the streets of Jerusalem that day.

Like Brooklyn, New York.

Or downtown LA.

A dozen blocks, a dozen languages and dialects.

When the Holy Spirit came to the faithful … with tongues of flame for all of them … they were empowered with the mystery of language.

They went out and proclaimed a message of hope, that in Jesus the Messiah, God had initiated a new chapter for all of humanity … a message for everyone … in their own tongue.

On Pentecost Day, God affirms the glory of many tongues.

The pilgrims in Jerusalem heard the gospel in their own language.

God didn’t create a new language for Pentecost.

Nor did God use a single language that day – it would have been quite a miracle if everyone had understood the gospel in Hebrew, or Greek, or Latin.

But that would have been a small miracle.

No, the real miracle is a big miracle - everyone heard the gospel in his or her own tongue.

I think of missionaries – and Bible translators – who endeavor to translate the Bible into everyone’s language.

As of 2005, at least one book of the Bible has been translated into 2,400 languages … but there are nearly 7000 languages in the world, so there’s lots of work ahead of us.

God thinks big.

God loves language.

After all, it was the power of language by which God created the heavens and the earth.

And Jesus is called, the Word of God.

For centuries, the church of Jesus Christ used Latin as the language of worship and for translating the Bible.

But one language is too small.

When the Reformation came, Christians rediscovered God’s love of language … people began to worship in their own tongue; the Bible was translated into many languages.

No doubt, many languages are a challenge.

One language makes things easier.

But one language is too small.

The lesson of Genesis 11, the Tower of Babel, helps us understand some of God’s purpose … God decides, then and there, on the Plain of Shinar, that we’d do better with many tongues …

And on this Pentecost Day, here at Calvary, we celebrate the glory of many tongues.

We use English as our “mother tongue.”

Of course.

This is America.

But we celebrate the diversity of language.

And culture and style, too.

How we sing, the clothes we wear, the foods we love.

God is the source of diversity.

God creates the ox, and God creates the butterfly.

God creates you, and God creates me.

God speaks and loves every language of the world.

Several weeks ago here, Ann Marie said Good Morning in four or five different languages.

Today, we heard the LORD's Prayer in variety of tongues … but we all felt the beat: it’s the same prayer, and it’s the same God, and it’s the same message of hope and compassion.

On Pentecost Day, the church of Jesus Christ was given the opportunity to show the world a better way … a celebration of diversity … culture … language … for this is real power of real love … big love … to love one another as God loves us … God comes to us and speaks our own language!

And that’s the miracle of Pentecost!

Calvary Presbyterian Church is Pentecost Church.

Blessed with many tongues and cultures.

Because God thinks big and God takes big risks.

God has given something wonderful to us.

God entrusts us with something mighty big.

Sure, diversity challenges us.

We don’t always understand one another.

We bring different gifts to the Table.

Different styles, different ways of praying.

But we all love the LORD.

And it’s the LORD whom we seek to honor.

Here in this place.

Calvary Presbyterian Church.

Calvary on the Boulevard.

We show the world a different way.

A better way.

A bigger way.

God’s way.

It takes a lot of work.

And a lot of patience.

And a lot of prayer.

But we are blessed today.

Blessed by God.

Who thinks big.

And takes big risks.

A God of many tongues.

O for a thousand tongues to sing

My great Redeemer’s praise,

The glories of my God and King,

The triumphs of His grace!

Amen and Amen.