Dive Deeply

John 16:12-16

“I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth; for he will not speak on his own, but will speak whatever he hears, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. He will glorify me, because he will take what is mine and declare it to you. All that the Father has is mine. For this reason I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you.

”A little while, and you will no longer see me, and again a little while, and you will see me.”

Andrei Reblev is the “writer” of the icon on the front of your bulletin. It’s from the 15th century and it’s called The Hospitality of Abraham. It tells the story found in the Book of Genesis, of Abraham welcoming three men he saw traveling near his tent. It’s a great story, even if you only see what’s on the surface. But there’s SO much more below the surface! This story has also long been understood by Christians as a visit from one God, in three persons. Which is why this icon is also known as The Trinity.  

Some folks, when they encounter mysteries like the Trinity… mysteries with a bottomless, unknowable depth below the surface… they figure if they can’t ever know THE answer, why even ask the first question? But that was not God’s intent with this Divine Mystery. This Mystery was and is meant to be an invitation for us to dive in more deeply, not in a frustratingly futile attempt to find an unfindable bottom, but to experience more and more of the Divine, the deeper in we dive! This icon… like the Trinity itself, invites us to do just that. To dive in more and more deeply. So, let’s dive in!

The Gold figure on the left is the Father. The source of all things. Gold is the color of perfection and fullness. The blue figure in the middle is the Christ. Blue, because the sky and the sea connect with one another in that color just as the Christ connects heaven and earth, humanity and divinity… his two fingers extended further making that point. The green figure on the right is the Holy Spirit. Green because the Spirit is the One who allows all things to grow with Divine transforming light. On the table is one shared chalice and the way the figures sit, the way their eyes and hands are directed… everything in the icon is meant to flow around the table as the three eat and drink in a circle of infinite, mutual hospitality.

Now, notice how the Spirit’s hand is pointing to the open space at the table. Richard Rohr thinks (and I like his thinking) that this is the Holy Spirit pointing at that space as an invitation for you and me to take a seat at the table! The Holy Spirit is inviting, offering… has intentionally made room for... you and me to join the Holy Trinity in their Holy Communion… to be their guest! Now, dive just a little deeper. You might as well… you’re already in this far! Do you see the little rectangle in that open space, just beneath the chalice on the table? Art historians have found glue residue in that little rectangle and their theory is that when this icon was originally written, there was a piece of mirror glued to that place so that as you looked at the icon you would not just IMAGINE yourself in that space but actually SEE yourself in Communion with the Holy Trinity! 

You and I, and by extension… all of creation… are MEANT to see ourselves at this table… eternally caught up in the ever flowing relationship of hospitality, generosity and wonder, that is the Holy Trinity! Could it be that this icon… that the Holy Trinity… that God… might be better understood… might even be MORE FULLY understood, as an embodied, ever moving, ever flowing relationship of invitation and hospitality that makes room for and sweeps you and me and all of creation up into their relationship... their hospitality including you and me as intimately as friends are included around a table sharing a meal?

It begins at that table but it goes deeper still... with that sweeping flow around the table, you get the sense of that flow having a rhythm to it… a melody, even a harmony to it. It’s as if it flows around the table gaining momentum until it simply can no longer be contained at that table or even within the icon. Suddenly you become aware that this isn’t just a Divine meal we’ve been invited to but it is also a dance! Suddenly we are swept up beyond the table and into a Divine dance, plucked from the sidelines where we had been awkwardly sitting alone. First shown to our place at the table and then swept up and swirling around one another, all constantly flowing as a whole around the entirety of the space, flowing now beyond even the bounds of the icon into every place, in every time and through every molecule of creation… in, with and under all things! 

The Hospitality of Abraham, the Holy Trinity, the Table of Thanksgiving, the Divine Dance… God has made a space for each of us and for all of creation. It is a space created very much on purpose, with intentionally and without condition… a place for the person YOU see in the mirror every morning. A place to get caught up in the swirling flow of Divine love, relationship, and infinite hospitality. A place for us to then become even further swept up into the Divine Dance and to move beyond the confines of an icon… out into the world, bringing that invitation to new people in new places, around new tables and to new dances. The Mystery of the Trinity has been intentionally made, Father, Son and Holy Spirit as an unconditional invitation for all of creation to dive ever deeper into the Divine Mystery, diving, then feasting, then caught up in infinite hospitality and unconditional love, and then dancing more and more and more deeply into all of creation until the day come when all of creation has been fully swept up into the Holy Trinity for eternity and beyond. Amen. 

Thar Be Dragons

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.’

Today is Pentecost. The second holiest day of the Christian year.  It’s celebrated fifty days after Easter Sunday and marks God’s gift of the Holy Spirit. Most years, I confess, Pentecost is NOT on my mind on Easter Sunday. Easter itself is usually plenty for my little noggin to process on Easter Day! But this year, when I got home after a wonderful Easter Sunday, my attention was violently shifted… shifted to the news of nearly 300 people being killed by the bombings in churches in Sri Lanka.  

That bombing had, of course, followed the shootings in the synagogue in Pittsburg in October and in the mosques in New Zealand in March. The natural, very normal response in the wake of this sort of terror, is to lay low, stay inside, and not go out! But right there on that Easter Sunday afternoon, all I could think about was the very first Pentecost when the disciples, who had hid in equally justifiable fear, were blown out of their safe upper room by the Holy Spirit… out into the streets to gather people from all over the world and become the Church.  It would not stop swirling in my head.  

Three days later it was St. George’s day.  St. George is the saint who killed a dragon.  A dragon who had demanded human sacrifices.  Was it a literal dragon?  I think St. George’s dragon was actually much bigger than just a single, literal dragon.  I think his dragon was a symbol for the Evil in his world.  These days Evil has taken on new names… names like “Gun Violence,” “Racism,” “Greed,” and “Climate Change.”  But regardless of their names, these modern dragons still demand the sacrifice our young.  Aye, thar still be dragons.

So with all of that swirling in my head and the inability to stop it swirling I wrote a thing. Maybe it’s a poem?  Someone with an English major rather than a Biochemistry degree might help with that, but whatever it is, I shared it on Facebook and it seemed to resonate with folks so I wanted to share it today as well because I think it shows how the power of Pentecost was not only meant for the disciples or saints named George, but the power of the Holy Spirit... the power of Pentecost is also for US… TODAY as well!  So here it goes… 

It is not like Evil to make a mistake.                                                                                                       Yet that is what he has done.                                                                                                                   He has shown his hand.                                                                                                                       With Pittsburgh, New Zealand, Sri Lanka.

It was greed that did it.                                                                                                                             It was Evil treating us all as equals that tore off his mask!                                                              You can see it now, can’t you? Tell me you can see it too!                                                               Tell me my Jewish, Muslim and Christian neighbors;                                                                   Give me a knowing smile, my Hindu, Sikh and Buddhist friends;  

Tell me that this choking smog is lifting for you as well.                                                              Give me a sign that you too can see the thick poisonous vapor,                                                    that has covered the earth, forever like a shroud;                                                                             Tell me that you too can see it,                                                                                                           thinning now through translucency,                                                                                                             fading into transparency.                                                                                                                     Can’t you see more clearly now?

Can’t you see that Evil doesn’t care which ritual you use?                                                            Evil doesn’t care about doctrines or denominations,                                                                     liturgies or litanies, what we sing or what we wear.                                                                           Evil doesn’t care for one of us more than another.                                                                           Evil only cares,                                                                                                                                        that you stay at home,                                                                                                                                lock the door,                                                                                                                                                and hide,                                                                                                                                                           in fear.

Evil knows that when we are alone,                                                                                           regardless of our faith,                                                                                                                                we all drown,                                                                                                                                                    in exactly,                                                                                                                                                       the same way. 

Alone is the only place,                                                                                                                               Evil can slowly, methodically, torturously,                                                                                          replace the breath, the wind, the spirit in our lives                                                                          day after day, drip by drip,                                                                                                                                          with the dirty, murky, dank and putrid,    

liquid-darkness… of fear.

Alone is where liquid death fills our lives dram by dram,                                                                  until the last, fleeting whisper                                                                                                                     of wind, of breath, of spirit...                                                                                                                passes across our lips,                                                                                                                                   in a single, tiny,                                                                                                                                              final, lonely,                                                                                                                                               bubble.

But we’ve now seen Evil’s hand!                                                                                                                 We now see the madness of his method!                                                                                                 We see clearly how easily Evil is undone!                                                                                                       It is now SO clear! You see it, don’t you?                                                                                                  All each of us needs to defeat Evil once and for all,                                                                                 is to unlock the door,                                                                                                                                    walk one door down,                                                                                                                                     and be with each other.

THAT... is the full and unreacted message of Pentecost! By violent wind, flame, or through the waters of Baptism… HOWEVER IT HAPPENS... the Holy Spirit has given us the power to go out the door, walk down the street and BE WITH THE OTHER.  THAT’s the dragon’s weak spot.  THAT’s Evil’s Achilles heel.  By the power of the Holy Spirit, NOW WE KNOW! Whether we’re given the power to speak in tongues, a sword and lance, or hot dogs, lobster rolls and chicken salad… whether we go out the door to the sound of a violent wind, a midivil chant or to a Beatles tune… whether it is out into the streets of Jerusalem, on our trusty charger to the roads of England or out to a set of rainbow Adirondack Chairs in Sheffield.  The message of Pentecost is that the un-doing of the world’s greatest Evils... Evils that often feel overwhelming and invincible... Evil’s ENTIRE UNDOING is just as simple (and just as hard) as walking out the door and being with one another in the world. 

Locked away in dark upper rooms, castles or even in our churches... living in fear... THAT isn’t how we were created to live and it’s certainly not the faithful way to live on this side of the resurrection! On this Pentecost, God has once again sent the Holy Spirit to whisper into our hearts, light a fire under our backsides and to blow us out into the world! 

So on this Pentecost, let us once again, with the power freely given to each of us by the Holy Spirit in our Baptisms... Let us together, once again, step out into the world, not only to bring it the kindness, compassion, love and empathy it desperately needs, but also knowing… KNOWING we have the power to undo every evil and slay every last one of the world’s most terrible dragons.  Amen.