Don't Spit Into the Wind

John 20:19-23

When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.”

What’s your favorite Easter candy?  Cadbury Cream Eggs is the correct answer.  Did you know they make Cadbury Cream Eggs year round and freeze them in order to be able to meet the demand during the Easter Season?  Well, now you do.  What’s your favorite Christmas Candy.  Candy Canes are number one in sales.  But honestly, how many of those go uneaten?  Chocolate Santas, I think, are really where it's at!  Now for the hardest question:  What is your favorite Pentecost Candy?  Easter, Pentecost, then Christmas.  Those are the three top Christian Feast Days in order of importance and both Easter and Christmas have candy… so it stands to reason there should be a Pentecost candy.  Right?  But there’s not!  Why is there no Pentecost candy?   

I think it’s because the Holy Spirit just refuses to be domesticated!  The Holy Spirit, and her Coming Out Day of Pentecost, is something the world simply can not tame!   

Everything about the Holy Spirit is impossible to even hold onto let alone tame.  She’s like the sound of a violent wind or like fire… things impossible to contain.  She’s like the wind but not like a cool evening breeze.  Like fire but not the kind confined in a circle of stones.  The Holy Spirit comes out of nowhere, with a force that breaks open locked doors.  She is untamed.  Powerful.  Determined.  She moves with a tenacious purpose.  To those who seek to manipulate Scripture and use the Divine for their own hateful devices… that makes the Holy Spirit… dangerous.  Because… She simply won’t have it!

Last Sunday on the National Mall there was a celebration of manipulating Scripture and using the Divine for hateful purposes that would have made the Prophet Amos sick all over again.  They didn’t talk about Jesus, let alone the Holy Spirit.  They misrepresented and manipulated scripture to justify working in direct, violent opposition to the Gospel’s call to heal the sick, lift up the broken, feed the hungry, calm the chaos, and raise the dead. 

They celebrated a litany of ongoing blasphemies against the Holy Spirit:  terrorizing the foreigner, misusing the military, demonizing peacemakers, taking away food from the hungry and health care from the sick, and gleefully condemning people to death with nonchalance and bravado.  

But wait.  It is actually so much worse than just that.  Because this movement runs full speed into the warning of the prophet Isaiah, “Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter.”  If the Holy Spirit is Wind, what they are doing is spitting right into her face!  And THAT is what Jesus himself called an unforgivable, eternal sin.  But here is the Good News:  The Holy Spirit simply will not have it!  The Holy Spirit remains uncaged, untamed, and She will simply NOT HAVE ANY OF IT!  A Holy Fire is coming!

  

On that first Pentecost, the Holy Spirit blew Her way into this world to take over the work that Jesus began, leading and motivating the faithful to continue doing justice, continue loving kindness, and continue walking humbly with God.  

On that first Pentecost the Holy Spirit blew into the world so that you and I would always have a wild, untamed, unbroken, undomesticated, riotous, ungovernable force leading us more deeply each day into this Holy Work we’ve been given.  

On that first Pentecost the Holy Spirit blew into this world to lead us from the front by giving us the gifts and tools we need to be about God’s work in the world AND, when necessary, to lead us from behind, lighting a holy fire under our nether regions to get us moving again when we find ourselves opposed, oppressed, and overwhelmed.  

On that first Pentecost the promised Holy Spirit came and that same Holy Spirit continues to blow and burn today, unfettered by frail, small men in expensive suits… 

On that first Pentecost the Holy Spirit blew into this world and remains undaunted by tiny, tired, insecure men who erect golden statues to themselves… 

On that first Pentecost the Holy Spirit blew into this world and remains untamed by fearful men who continue to drive our nation deeper into idolatry, heresy, and continually tell us we should just sit down and shut up because God is on their side.  

On that first Pentecost the Holy Spirit blew into this world to lead us neither in sitting down nor in shutting up, but to lead us into the untamed, faithful work that God… Father, Son, and Holy Spirit… has given us to do… the work we have each promised to do in our Baptisms:  

To renounce the devil and all the forces that defy God.  

To renounce the powers of this world that would have us rebel against God.  

To renounce the ways of sin that draw us from God.

To boldly go out and do God’s justice with Holy Spirit Fire.

To Love God’s Kindness launched by a Holy Spirit Wind.

To Walk Humbly with God, but unafraid in the world.  

We have been CALLED to love God and love our neighbor voraciously until justice rolls down like waters, and righteousness runs like an ever-flowing stream.  

We have been SHOWN by Jesus what that looks like, caring for the Least, the Lost, and the Last.

And we have been GIVEN the power of the Holy Spirit to do that work with an untamed, unquenchable, holy FIRE!  On THIS Pentecost, we say COME Holy Spirit COME!… and come as always… with an untamable FIRE!  Amen.    

Up and Away

Luke 24:44-53

Jesus said to the eleven and those with them, “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you—that everything written about me in the law of Moses, the prophets, and the psalms must be fulfilled.” Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures, and he said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Messiah is to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day and that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things. And see, I am sending upon you what my Father promised, so stay here in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high.”

Then he led them out as far as Bethany, and, lifting up his hands, he blessed them.  While he was blessing them, he withdrew from them and was carried up into heaven.  And they worshiped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy, and they were continually in the temple blessing God.

Last week we heard Jesus promise that we would not be left orphaned.  We heard everything was changing, BUT, even with absolutely everything changing… we were promised… that we would NOT be left orphaned.  This week, in the Ascension, Jesus goes up…  but he also goes… AWAY.  I have no idea how the disciples felt in that moment, but if I was them… I might have been struggling not to feel… well… orphaned.  I know the promise to not leave them orphaned was over in John’s Gospel and here we are in Luke, and maybe I shouldn’t hold Luke to a promise made in John… but the fact remains… Jesus has gone up… but he’s also gone… very much… AWAY.  

Yes, Jesus told them, “I am sending you what my Father promised”.  But that was a future promise, not a right-then reality.  And yes, Jesus told them to “stay in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high” but that too was a future promise, not a right-then reality.  I don’t know how those disciples felt, but if it had been me, I think, in spite of the promises, I might have felt a bit worried about the future and honestly, a little bit orphaned.

I think we can relate to that feeling these days… The feeling of Jesus being gone, not only UP… but also AWAY.  Jesus feels distant these days.  Life feels pretty… well… orphan-y.  Jesus’ promise that we too will always have an Advocate… that’s good.  The promise relayed through Julian of Norwich that “All will be well, and all will be well, and all manner of thing will be well”… that’s good too.  But both of those promises feel, these days, not just distant but disturbingly distant.   

You know what I’m talking about.  Just one of the countless stories that leaves us feeling orphaned these days, is the Trump administration’s refusal to use money that Congress has already appropriated for $3 malaria vaccines and $4 vaccines against cervical cancer in international aid.  Just from withholding those two vaccines, an estimated 600,000 people will die unnecessarily.  These stories, and they are legion these days, leave us all feeling overwhelmed… helpless… hopeless… and frankly… like Jesus has gone away and left us orphaned.  I do my very best to hold onto the promises that we will NOT be left orphaned… and that all WILL be well… but I’m finding it hard.  I’m finding it hard.  Maybe you are too.  

After the Ascension but before Pentecost, the Disciples were left in a horrible “In-Between” time… In-Between Jesus going “up” BUT also “away”…  and the coming of the promised Holy Spirit.  So how did the Disciples do it?  How did they live in that horrible “In-Between” time?  Maybe we can get some insight from them for how WE can live in our horrible “In-Between” time too?  

The Disciples were told to return to Jerusalem.  Long term, the promise was that they would be clothed with power from on high and would be going out to Judea and Samaria, and eventually to the ends of the earth, but for then… for that moment, for that horrible “In-Between” time, Jerusalem is where they were told to go and stay… worship and work… and… wait.  

I think maybe a version of that is where we are being called these days.  I don’t mean literally going to Jerusalem!  That actually seems like a terrible idea right now.  No, I mean maybe what we are called to do in our “In-Between” time is to do what the disciples did.  Live and worship, work and wait… close to home.  Not forever.  But until the Spirit comes… and I do believe that the Spirit always comes… and at the same time it is okay to admit, right now, the Spirit feels pretty distant.  

I think maybe to manage that faith and those feelings we need to embrace the 2026, Sheffield, Lutherpalian version of “being in the Temple continually blessing God.”  I don’t think that means ignoring the non-stop bearing false witness, the literal golden statue idolatry, or the deadly inhumanity being done by our government.  Not at all!  But what it does mean is living in such a way that we do not become overwhelmed, daunted, or paralyzed by the enormity of our world’s current grief.  It means doubling down on doing justice, loving kindness, and walking humbly… close to home.  

So we do what we do!  Hot Dog Church, Life Share Movie Night, Pride, and the AT… the things we’ve already been given the power to affect right now… and we focus on doing those things very, very well.  I think it means making Sunday morning a priority not just because we need others in our life, but because others also are needing us to trudge with them through these really awful, nearly debilitating “In-Between” times.  I think it means keeping our eyes open for opportunities to use our patented Christ Trinity brand of “Sneaky Compassion” to care for our neighbors, doing things like helping a young woman get a wheelchair van while helping a beloved member keep getting the care they need, all in one fail swoop!    

We live in a horrible “In-Between” time where the foreigner, the poor, the hungry, and the sick are not just ignored but under assault with cruelty and death, all in a bid to appease a Nebuchadnezzar complete with golden idol.  Because of that, we need to take a page from those disciples and draw closer to one another for help in holding onto the promises that we will NOT be orphaned and the promise that all manner of thing will be well.  We need to do that until the promised Holy Spirit comes again to send us out, once again, to the ends of the earth.  And here’s the Good News… that Holy Spirit?  She will most certainly come!  Hang in there!  Amen.  

Saint Tony of Everett

John 14:15-21

”If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever. This is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, because he abides with you, and he will be in you.

”I will not leave you orphaned; I am coming to you. In a little while the world will no longer see me, but you will see me; because I live, you also will live. On that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. They who have my commandments and keep them are those who love me; and those who love me will be loved by my Father, and I will love them and reveal myself to them.”

In Seminary, Tony Everett taught Pastoral Care.  Most of the class was about what we SHOULD do as pastors.  However, one memorable part was about “What we should absolutely NOT do as a Pastor.”  This part is best remembered among alumni for his repeated, admonishing quotes which have become know here in the Berkshires as “The Wisdom Sayings of Saint Anthony.”  These include memorable classics like:  “If you’re thinking about it… DON’T”  “If you’re doing it… STOP!”  “No matter what, it’s ALWAYS your fault!”  

Now, St. Anthony’s Wisdom Sayings weren’t all dire warnings.  Some were just solid reminders for eager Pastors who would soon want to go out and change the world.  The most often invoked saying like that was this:  “Change... is hard.”  Change is hard.

                                   

Today’s lesson was set at the Last Supper and there, Jesus told the disciples that literally EVERYTHING was about to change.  Jesus ALSO told them at that very same Last Supper that absolutely NOTHING would be changing.  THAT… for some reason, left the disciples confused!  Go figure!  

What Jesus was trying to get the Disciples to understand is that while God’s unconditional and unlimited love for all of creation was NOT changing, the METHOD God would be using to deliver that unconditional love WAS changing.  The change from Jesus as that METHOD (which the Disciples thought worked just fine for them thank you very much!) to some new fangled METHOD called “The Advocate” aka “The Paraclete” aka “The Holy Spirit” was extremely confusing.  The Disciples didn’t like it.  Why?  Because… Change is hard!

We all know that feeling.  We all get attached to particular METHODS of delivery for God’s love.  A particular liturgical setting, a favorite translation of the Bible, hymn language we grew up with, how people dress, a particular congregation’s manner and culture.  When those things change… we, like those Disciples, don’t like it.  Why? Because St. Anthony of Everett was right… Change is HARD!

 

But here’s the uncomfortable truth:  Change is what God does.  Constantly.  Since the very, VERY beginning God has always been changing up the METHOD used to deliver Divine love.  At first that METHOD was the creating all things!  From there God changed the METHOD in order to get God’s people across the Red Sea.  Then God changed the METHOD to include Commandments, then Judges and Prophets and Kings.  Then God brought in a WHOLE new METHOD called Jesus.  Which a few people loved but a lot of people HATED!  Then God sent the Holy Spirit and then God called Saints and Mystics and then went completely off the rails making Lutherans and Episcopalians, changing hymnals and prayer books and Bible translations and even the Lord's Prayer!  Oh my God, God!  Stop with all the change already!  

God's love is constant.  But how that love gets delivered?  That changes ALL THE TIME!  When I was in Colorado, I started a thing called “Bibles and Brews.”  It met in a startup craft brewery with about a dozen people.  We shared a meal, checked in with each other, prayed for one another, and talked about scripture.  Almost all the people who came to Bibles and Brews had been deeply hurt by a church somewhere.  Almost all said they would NEVER set foot in a church building ever again.  But I was so deeply tied to the METHOD of “church building”… as THE delivery METHOD for God’s love, I just couldn’t see that God had changed the METHOD of delivery from a church building to a brewery, all so these people could once again receive God’s love!  I just couldn’t see it!  I kept trying to get them to go back to church!  Why?  Because… Change is hard!  

The truth is, it is simply God’s M.O. to change delivery METHODS so that more and more people might receive God’s unlimited love.  The question for us then is not, “When will God stop all this change?” but rather how can we deal with the never-ending changes God is continually making?  Because even though it is God who is making the changes… Change is STILL hard!  

Well the disciples adapted to that change by locking themselves in a room.  So, that’s a choice.  The other option would be to do what Jesus suggested and follow Jesus’ commandments to love God and love our neighbors… to tie ourselves tightly to what God is delivering… God’s unlimited, unchanging love... but for the sake of our neighbors, loosen up how tightly we tie ourselves to any particular METHOD of delivery.  Tony Everett said that the way to do that was to lean more deeply into prayer, rely more closely on one another within our community, and have plenty of patience along the way, because… you guessed it… Change is hard!   Amen.