Driven Out of the Doldrums

A Reading from Acts, the 2^nd Chapter

 

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.’

The Holy Spirit came like the sound of a rushing wind and appeared like tongues of fire on the disciples’ heads.  To the other people in town for the festival, the disciples didn’t exactly appear like stoic, logical, systematic Lutherans and they didn’t look like reasonable, responsible, prudent and practical Episcopalians either!  NO!!  What they looked like… was DRUNK… and drunk on “new” wine… the cheap stuff!

Now the story doesn’t outline exactly what sort of “DRUNK” the disciples seemed to be that day, and one of the many dangers of the internet is that you can get distracted by a Google search that insists there are 4, no 7, no 10, no 12 or even 15 different types of drunk, and you can get deeply into the third article about the kinds of “drunk” there are before you realize that the KIND of drunk the disciples were doesn’t really matter.  What matters is that the presence of the Holy Spirit CHANGED THEM… and changed them in ways that people from literally ALL OVER THE OUTSIDE WORLD could see more clearly than even the disciples could see themselves! 

They didn’t change themselves.  The Holy Spirit changed them.  Remember where the disciples had been up until now.  There had been Good Friday and the crucifixion, which was no kind of SMALL, insignificant setback for the disciples.  They hid in fear after Jesus’ death, worried that they would be next.  Then Jesus came!  Hard to believe at first.  (It’s not something you see everyday after all)  But after a few visits by their resurrected Lord, things were looking up!  And then with the disciples looking up… Jesus left… again, this time ascending into heaven… but dead or ascended the disciples were left alone… again… waiting in a lonely, less than joy-filled time yet again.  Jesus had promised the Advocate… the Holy Spirit… but between the Ascension and Pentecost it was the doldrums… again.  That place in between what was and what will be, where even the smallest things seem to be oppressive and irritating.  That place where even the air feels heavy and impossible to breathe.  A place without even the lightest, faintest, most fleeting breeze. 

We know a little something about that place.  We know a little something about living in that heavy, impossible to breathe place, in between what was and what will be.  We know a little something about things going not the way we had wanted, expected or hoped and feeling caught in the doldrums. 

This past fall we were so energetic.  As we planned for St. Matthew’s and St. Barnabas to join us, it felt like we were planning a holiday at the beach!!  Packing, planning, making reservations, buying stylish sun glasses and Hawaiian shirts!  And it really was WONDERFUL planning.  Such AMAZING work put into welcoming them.  But even with the very best planning, somehow sand got in the lunch.  Flies flew in the drinks.  The bottle of sunscreen we packed turned out to just be lotion and the beach was closed with sharks in the water.  And the air got heavy… impossible to breathe, and now here we are, in between what was and what will be, seemingly stuck in the doldrums.   

It’s good to acknowledge it.  It’s good to talk about the disappointment.  It’s even alright to rail against our best of plans flying out of our control (and they REALLY were the BEST OF PLANS… the most amazingly compassionate, well thought out and executed plans I’ve seen a church plan and carry out in my whole career!)  It’s alright to rail against those best of plans and all that hard and passionate work flying off the tracks in ways we never saw coming. 

But just like the disciples on that first Pentecost LOOKED DIFFERENT to the people outside their room even though the disciples in their doldrums didn’t feel so different… Just like the disciples didn’t realize that what they were SAYING was being HEARD by other people in words the disciples themselves didn’t understand… I’m here to tell you, Disciples of 209…. The Holy Spirit is HERE on this Pentecost as well!  The Advocate has rushed in and even though it feels like the doldrums, in between what was and what will be, YOU… ALL of you… look and sound very different than the Episcopalians and Lutherans the people outside these walls have ever seen or heard here in Augusta before. 

The disciples didn’t think they were speaking in Phrygian, Pamphylian or Meedish!  They didn’t THINK they were making the impact on the people they were making, but the truth is that through the work of the Holy Spirit… they WERE!  And the truth is that through the work of the Holy Spirit YOU ARE making a HUGE difference here in Augusta as well! 

You see, just like God had more in mind for the disciples than just sitting in the doldrums in some lonely upper room, God has more in mind for YOU as well!  God knows that YOU are not a doldrum people.  And Jesus has sent you the Holy Spirit to fill you again full of energy, plans, hopes and dreams.  The Holy Spirit is continuing to make YOU look different to the people of Augusta and even though YOU may not feel very different… even though it feels more like the doldrums than a holiday for the moment, the Holy Spirit continues to work in, with and under YOU in ways I don’t think you realize or see.  Just like the disciples, no matter how it feels to you, you really do look and sound more amazing to the people in Augusta, than you think you look or sound to yourselves! 

Prince of Peace and St. Mark’s coming together has inspired our city!  This collaboration we are doing, the Holy Spirit has made infectious!  The Holy Spirit is working, so that seeing our collaboration at work, now the Jews and the Catholics have been inspired to come together and do a public supper on the fifth Saturdays.  The Holy Spirit working and the United Way wants to partner with even more of the faith community, first through the warming center, then with Addie’s Attic and Everyday Basics and now with a project to reach out to our new neighbors who have moved here from Iraq.  The Holy Spirit is working and now the Red Barn wants to partner with us to match our diaper drive and the list goes on and on and on!  Unitarians, Muslims, Jews, Methodists, Catholics, Baptists, Congregationalists and Quakers all are doing more together in our community, because the Holy Spirit is working!  And because of that we look different to the people of Augusta!  We look so different it might look to some like we are drunk on new wine and here's the most amazing thing... the Holy Spirit is CHANGING US, at work in us, both when we feel it AND when we don’t.

THAT is the Good News of Pentecost!  The Advocate is at work in us and HAS BEEN at work in us since our Baptisms, both in the times we feel it, BUT ALSO through the times when it doesn’t.  The Advocate is continuing to light fires and fan the flames of the Gospel through each and every one of us at the Church at 209!  My prayer for us is that like Saint Peter, we too might quickly come again to that joyful, energetic place where we again realize what the Holy Spirit is doing through us… That soon, we too would be blown out of the doldrums and into the unknown future God is calling us toward, filled with joyful anticipation for our Lord’s great and glorious day!  Amen. 

Don't Poo-Poo the Woo-Woo

The Holy Gospel According to St. John, the 17^th Chapter

Jesus prayed, ”I ask not only on behalf of these (disciples), but also on behalf of those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one. As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. The glory that you have given me I have given them, so that they may be one, as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become completely one, so that the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.

Father, I desire that those also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory, which you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world. “Righteous Father, the world does not know you, but I know you; and these know that you have sent me. I made your name known to them, and I will make it known, so that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.”

“As you Father are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us.”  What the heck does THAT mean?  What is this St. John mystical woo-woo stuff?  Is there any way to make sense of this stuff without the use of mind altering substances?  The mystics love this stuff… They say that it shows that we are all somehow cosmically connected to God.  They say that the truth of our reality is that as much as we all feel like individuals, THAT is an illusion.  We are, NOT in fact individuals but parts of a universal whole. 

Our egos, our brokenness, our sin, our fear, our humanity or whatever else out there makes each of determined to struggle to be individuals… to separate ourselves from each other and God, thinking that if we can be truly independent, truly free from needing anything from anyone else we will finally be happy.  Some folks chase that illusion their whole lives but eventually… hopefully… each of us finally figures out that we will only really find peace when we allow ourselves to fall back deeply into that universal wholeness of God like you fall into a deep, squishy feather bed after a long day of hard work.  And you know, as mystically woo-woo as all that sounds, I have to admit that there is something in all of that mystical woo-woo that I find to be the truth.  Like a fish swims in water, God is the One in whom we live, move and have our being.  To be independent from God and one another leaves me feeling like a fish out of water, gasping and sucking and fighting for breath!  It’s only in that divine ocean that we have life.  It is only in that divine ocean that we swim with one another as we were made to swim. 

The trouble with John’s Gospel and things like this being so mystically woo-woo is that we often tend to leave them ONLY in that mystical woo-woo sort of space.  We can admit that there is some great truth in all the woo-woo, but we hold it captive and keep those ideas prisoner only in those dark, candle filled spaces filled with smoke and spiritual practices. 

I don’t mean to poo-poo the woo-woo... the dark, candle filled places or spiritual practices.  They are powerful ways to help connect us with God, but this prayer of Jesus is not JUST about some mystical woo-woo… it is not JUST meant to be something that connects us spiritually and individually with the God in whom we live and move and have our being.  This prayer isn’t JUST a prayer that we all connect spiritually, but that we might ALSO realize that we are all very much physically connected with one another in the very practical, very physical, very day in and day out ways that we all live in this life as well. 

Jesus is praying here that we disciples come to realize that as we physically care for, support and give life to our neighbors, that too is part of being One with God and Christ.  Jesus is praying that we come to realize that your neighbor’s day to day needs… the needs for something to eat, a place to sleep, the need for human companionship and support are needs that God is calling ME to meet for you!  You are MY responsibility!  And MY needs… the spiritual for sure, but also the routine day to day, physical, keep the heat on and commute to work things are things that God is calling YOU to meet for me. 

Jesus is praying that we come to realize that without each of us active and involved and giving in one another’s lives, we will not be whole… we will not have life… we will live like fish out of water!  Jesus is praying that we all come to understand that I am, only because WE are. 

As Americans the idea that “I am, only because WE are” is not something we easily embrace.  We are supposed to be rugged individuals after all!  We’re supposed to all be like John Wayne!  Rough and ready people who always have and always will make it on our own, owing nothing to anyone else, ever! 

When I lived in Colorado, out on the plains, the ranchers would say they needed nothing from anyone.  Except when they helped each other at harvest.  Except when their hay caught fire and needed the fire department.  Except when they needed a tractor… except when they needed a road to get their stock to market, except when they needed a market for their stock, except, except, except. 

The truth is we DO need each other. We can’t live without each other.  That is the way God created us to be and Jesus prayed that we would come to understand that so that we might have life and have it abundantly.  Here in this church, we are interconnected and dependent on one another.  We are connected spiritually with each other and dependent on one another for our spiritual life and growth for sure, BUT we are also connected to each other in very physical, practical, day to day ways as well.  We are asked to give our time and our money and our talents and our energy not just as a spiritual response to gift of being One with God, but also because that person sitting next to you, or behind you, or across the room from you needs a place to physically gather here with you, and you with them!  They need to talk with you, share with you, hold you, pray with you, serve with you, be alive with you or else neither you nor they will be whole! 

There is much talk these days out there in the world about “makers” and “takers,” about people called “us” and other people called “them,” about those who belong and those who do not.  Jesus’s prayer is that we come to realize that all those words that divide and degrade and demean are not things that lead to life.  Hate and racism and fear and exclusion are not God’s way and do not lead to abundant life. 

Jesus’s prayer is that we come to realize that as we embrace the mystical Oneness of God we might also embrace the earthly Oneness we have with one another and Jesus is asking us, as his disciples, to model that Oneness here in this place and then show that different reality, that Truth to the world.  May Jesus’s prayer be fulfilled in us.  May we embrace the spiritual Oneness we share with God and Christ.  May we fall deeply into the Divine where we are Spiritually ONE and may we ALSO live deeply, physically, inclusively, lovingly, passionately, generously and overtly as ONE in our physical lives as well so that the world may know the REAL life they have been given in God and that they too might begin to live that life abundantly.  Amen.