"Now Gather, Now Disperse", a sermon by Pastor Fred Kinsey

Readings for Day of Pentecost (C)

• Genesis 11:1-9  
• Psalm 104:24-34, 35b  
•  Acts 2:1-21  

• John 14:8-17, (25-27)

The season of sandcastles has arrived, or is surely about to, when families descend on beaches, and backyard sandboxes, and children fill their buckets and begin to build their towers. We gather and disperse in the great outdoors of summer, and sandcastles are the monuments we leave in our wake.

I remember – just barely-- playing in the sand with my brothers and sister and cousins from Texas, in the summers of rural Wisconsin. I still remember the very spot amidst tall pine trees that we considered our own personal sandbox, and have actually returned to it a few times over the years, half expecting my castles and towers to greet me and come to life!   But, I found no such archeological evidence, and I question now the grandiosity of my creations, so well constructed in my tiny toddler mind! Now, sure only that we had gathered there, and been dispersed, when our moms said it was time to go, pulling us away kicking and screaming, as I recall.

And, I have been to Rhode Island beaches with Kim many times during visits to family there, and seen cities of castles, made all the taller and more impressive on the ocean’s edge, with the help of the salt water, like a mortar or tar substance to strengthen the layers and levels of the towers, as they reached ever higher. Yet they were also endangered by that same sea, as the tide came in, suddenly flooding their foundations or crashing their outer walls, and slowly but surely they were all washed away, despite the objections of scurrying children, determined to patch them up.

“Now the whole earth” gathered together, it says in our First Reading from Genesis 11, “in the land of Shīn’ar,” which would be named the city of Babel. Since they had just migrated there “from the east” after the flood, they all had “one language.” And to express their unity, they begin to “build themselves a city, and a tower in the city,” very tall, saying, “let us make a name for ourselves.”

I suppose we could read into this story something like the building of the Sears, now Willis tower, or else the Twin Towers in NY. But the comparison is only accurate in the sense that “making a name for ourselves” is a deliberate decision to put ourselves at the center of the world, and, consciously or not, to keep God out of the picture. For the real reason the people of one language want to build, comes last in this story’s telling, when they say: if we don’t, “we shall be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.” It seems the city of Babel is mostly motivated by their fear of being dispersed, scattered, losing their unity – their self-crowned sovereignty. A legitimate fear, I suppose, like any child on the beach, afraid the tide is about to wipe out their creation, or their parent is about to pull the plug on their grand kingdom-making plans, in their tiny toddler minds, and scatter them to their homes.

So where is God in this story, we might ask? Actually, God is quite personally present, though, God can’t actually make out the puny little tower from the heavens, it’s worth noting, but must come down to find it. God is not really threatened that the tower would be some kind of stepping stone for humans to come up on the same level with the creator. But God sees what will happen to them, to all the people, if they keep going in this direction – “this is only the beginning of what they will do,” God concludes upon inspection. “So the LORD scatters them, disperses them abroad from there, over the face of all the earth…”

In a sense, they are not yet ready for their mission of being the people of God. So God saves them by scattering them and confusing their speech into many languages, so that they will not continue on their path of making a name for themselves, leading them farther and farther from the name God wants to name them with – chosen. God knows that gathering and scattering is our pattern, but God wants to give it a purpose!

Now, “when the day of Pentecost had come, they were all [gathered] together in one place,” waiting as Jesus had told them to do 10 days earlier at the Ascension. “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.”

And so it has been said that, the day of Pentecost reverses the story of the City of Babel – gathering people of many languages back together in one place, in order to release them, disperse them once again, this time having received an understanding and a purposeful unity, for a mission that God will give them, their mission as God’s chosen people.

They have been waiting patiently – well, fearfully too – behind closed doors in that Upper Room in Jerusalem. But they don’t make the same mistake of trying to make a name for themselves. They don’t begin to build a sandcastle, or tower, to memorialize their own name and satisfy their fears. Instead they pray together, and they gather for the purpose of what Jesus promised them, to receive the gift of the Holy Spirit, which gives them what they need for that day, the gift of other languages, but also a monument for all time, and for us in our day, a message and a mission God was bestowing on them, with Jesus the anointed one, the self-giving risen one, at the center. Even in their diversity, they were united by the spirit’s power to give them understanding and a message that, in Peter’s words, “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.” And so all of us on this Pentecost Day are strengthened and unified, not by making ourselves infamous in sandcastles and monuments to ourselves, but to the extent that we are chosen and raised up and Sent with a purpose, by the power of the Spirit.

Can this help us as we are dispersed and sent out from this place? Are we better equipped to recognize the ones who ”babel” today, and who desire to make a name for themselves, whether politicians or corporations, individuals and even churches? Are we ready to recognize those leaders who react out of fear, making decisions that blame others, or even attack them? Are we ready with a message of salvation, very near – on our lips, that comes from the loving forgiveness we know in this powerful wind of Pentecost? Has this been a place of gathering for socializing on Sundays, but unclear about the Sending, the vision and mission we have been chosen to enact the rest of the week out in the community?

The Holy Spirit empowers us and Sends us. In these times, in this post-Christian world, we already know how it is no longer enough to believe in our hearts, and hide it away from our lives. How even if we keep our noses clean, it’s not enough, because the systems we live and participate in, contain the same self-centeredness that need transformation by the Spirit. Living out our faith, being sent by the Spirit, experiencing renewal in the church based on the words and deeds of Jesus, is fueled by the blowing wind, increasingly louder and more insistent, burning in our hearts so that it can no longer be contained there, but now rests visibly on our heads, like on the disciples, “a smoky mist,” compelling us to take responsibility for all our actions, individually and institutionally, to make God’s world into the vision of peace and justice, he died for.

Pentecost reverses the city of Babel story – and now it is safe to gather as one people, united in diversity. Here at Unity, we are united in our diversity too. And we continue to make it a safe place to gather, and to invite in other partners to this Community Center, a center for life and a diversity of languages. Immigrants from the east, speaking in languages from Africa and Asia and the Middle East, gather here; and residents from uptown and downtown, from north and south, east and west.

How can we build our sandcastles, to the glory of God, instead of monuments to our own glory? In what ways can our vast diversity in this neighborhood unite us and make us stronger, now that God has filled us with the power of the Holy Spirit? Does the water of baptism make us stronger, like the mortar of our childhood sandcastles? Can we build on the gift of the Holy Spirit that gathers us for praise and prayer, and scatters us back out to feed the community as Jesus feeds us here at this table?

Every week we are gathered in to hear God’s word and share Christ’s supper, and then Sent out by the Spirit to joyfully share the good news. Gathered and dispersed, gathered and dispersed, we pulsate like the oceans tides, and the powerfully creative winds, blowing through the pine trees of our lives. Breath in this breathe of life, deeply, and share it with the world!

"What does Oneness Take?"   a sermon by Pastor Fred Kinsey

Easter 7C Readings:

• Acts 16:16-34  
• Psalm 97  
• Revelation 22:12-14, 16-17, 20-21  
• John 17:20-26

If there is “oneness” in the church, the world will know God’s love, argues the Evangelist of John’s gospel.  And then the actual oneness of the world to which we are called, in Christ, has possibility. 

So what does it take to have oneness?  How does the world perceive the church today?  Do we love one another? 

On this Mother’s Day, oneness just seems to feel more possible!  Statistically, Mother’s Day is the third best attendance day of the year, they say, after Christmas and Easter.  We can’t help but feel good when we’re centered on “one” thing, celebrating Mom’s, in this case.  We’re more together.  On the same page.  After all, everyone has a mom!  Even Harley riders, “love mom!”  Though, everyone’s experience of who mother is to them, varies, of course.  Being “mothered,” teaches us love and sacrifice, strength, leadership, and vulnerability – just to name a few traits we learn, that are a part of all of us.  And, even when we lose our mothers, it never completely ends the relationship, but often makes it, still more complicated. 

Even the tradition of Mother’s Day was born of conflict, I discovered.  Julia Ward Howe’s idea of Mother’s Day was completely mission oriented – what can mother’s, what can women do, that is unique for them?  In 1872 she rallied women to a “Mother’s Day for Peace,” having delivered a Proclamation called, an "Appeal to womanhood throughout the world," in support of, disarmament, if you can even imagine.  Women, who so often bore the brunt of war back home when husbands were away fighting, and the consequences of conflict when they returned, and also when they didn’t, were the perfect ones to promote, pacifism, she argued.  That was Julie Ward Howe’s mission. 

But then Anna Jarvis came along a generation later, in 1908, to create a Mother’s Day more like we have today, simply wanting to fulfill her own mother’s wish, of honoring Mothers once a year, on their special day, with a personal hand-written card.  And President Wilson made it official in 1914.  But for Anna Jarvis, the holiday soon became too commercialized.  And in 1948, after speaking out against Mother’s Day for some 30 years, she was arrested, ironically, protesting the very holiday she had helped create! 

Last Friday, I hope you noticed, was the 127th anniversary of – wait for it! – “corporate personhood” in America.  That’s right!  And a small, but important organization, Move to Amend, organized rallies of protest around the country to begin the nationwide process of repealing its most notable example, the “Citizens United” decision.  I’ve been waiting for this – this spark of protest and hope!  It was the Supreme Court decision, Santa Clara Co. vs. Southern Pacific Railroad, back on May 10, 1886, that first opened the door to allowing corporations to be classified as “persons,” resulting in one of the most obvious reasons we are so divided as a people today.  Corporate personhood is legal, but morally and ethically compromised, especially as we can see how it has snowballed into the greed and excess we know today.  Our groaning word-less prayers to the Holy Spirit surely are aimed at this evil spirit of divination walking among us, this global-landless-nation-unto-themselves, a 1% that is virtually irreproachable, which is slowly but surely, imprisoning the rest of us, and tearing us apart.  Working for oneness, if that is our mission as believers, is under threat, in so many ways.  But because corporations never die, but legally have a quasi-eternal life of their own, it’s sort of like watching a zombie movie.  And it’s time that we order it, in the name of Jesus Christ, to come out, and unbind us all. 

We see this dynamic of slave and free, oneness and division too, in the story from Acts in our First Reading.  Paul and Silas are making new relationships in Philippi, and it’s a tough slog for Paul, starting from scratch, in the diverse society of Greece.  But God has led the way for Paul and his companions to meet a woman named Lydia, the business woman and proprietor of purple cloth, who receives the Word, and joins the Way.  Having invited Paul into her home, and with her resources – as, she probably had some means, as a seller of the cherished royal and expensive purple cloth – she provides a mission start congregation for all those who are responding to Paul’s message of salvation.  Lydia probably was unmarried, but she gives birth to something equally important, the First Christian Church of Philippi!

But it is also here in Philippi, that Paul, not unlike Jesus in Jerusalem, will be severely beaten and thrown into jail, and almost lose it all.  It happens as a fluke, it seems. When Paul, intending to do good – although, he’s personally just irritated, and “had it up to here” with the slave-girls’ schtick, which actually nails who Paul & Silas are, with her shouts all over town, “These men are slaves of the Most High God, who proclaim to you a way of salvation”!  She is not wrong.  But Paul, again, acting in the Jesus-like way of casting out demons, ordered the spirit of divination, in the name of Jesus Christ, to come out of the slave-girl.  But the girl, with a talent of fortune-telling, brought her owners a great deal of money.  In other words, they used her, for their own personal financial gain.  It was legal, but certainly by our standards today, not ethical, moral or acceptable, especially as followers of Jesus. 

So Paul, does what he can, unbinding the slave-girl from her possession.  Unfortunately, she is doubly imprisoned!  As far as we know, the slave-girl, now released from the evil spirit of divination, is still slave to her ruthless owners.  What will they do to her, now that they have lost this source of income?  We see what they are capable of in lashing out at Paul and Silas, calling in favors from their friends in high places in city government, having them stripped, flogged and thrown into prison together, in solitary confinement.  It was a near death experience. 

But then, Paul & Silas begin to sing hymns from the bowels of the prison.  And that’s when resurrection begins to happen.  Like the earthquake at Jesus’ crucifixion, the earth moves and breaks open the chains of all the prisoners, and they are free!  Or are they?  They are free to go, so why don’t they?  If they escape, Roman law says that the Jailer is responsible, no matter what, and his punishment is execution.  And so this Jailer decides it’s better to commit suicide.  And just as he is about to fall on his sword, Paul shouts out that, no one has left, don’t worry, all accounted for – in effect, saving his life! 

The Jailer then goes to Paul, and like the first witnesses of Jesus’ resurrection, is trembling with fear and amazement.  And overcome by the power of God, becomes a follower of Jesus.  The Jailer hosts Paul and Silas at his own home, washing their wounds.  And Paul, in turn, washes his whole family in baptism – and the spirit of the Most High God, makes them one, as they dine at table together.  And so the young church there is expanded now to, Second Christian Church of Philippi.   

Those who once were imprisoned, Paul & Silas, the slave-girl and the Jailer, are now freed.  And those who took their privilege of freedom for granted, her owners and the town’s authorities, look more like the enslaved.  It’s a gospel story in miniature, from suffering and near death, to resurrection new life, baptism and meal.  The lowly are lifted up, and the mighty brought low, as Luke says. 

But I can’t help but think of the slave-girl, left behind.  For Paul, and Luke the writer of Acts, she is not a concern, in a time when slavery in the Roman Empire is still legal.  But in our country, having been through that malaise in our own history, it seems unconscionable that there is no hope for her to be freed.  We know that the power of the Holy Spirit continues to call us into action.  The civil rights era, of course, has deep roots in the African-American, and other, churches.  And today, we see how far Marriage Equality has come.  It’s something our congregation, and many in the Church, stand behind, where even a few years ago, such a thing was as invisible and expendable as the slave-girl. 

So tomorrow, perhaps inspired by the Holy Spirit, the spirit of the Most High God, we will see the scales fall from our eyes, and begin to recognize our enslavement to “corporate personhood,” and begin to throw off the chains that hold us captive, and separate, and continue to pray for a greater oneness, that might ignite our faith in action. 

Until then, we continue to sing hymns of praise and pray to God, that we, with a faith like Paul and Silas, a faith that never dies, a faith that never runs from conflict, and even reaches out to our enemies - is a faith for us - because we are confident that it comes from the Holy Spirit, that is always blowing and at work, to transform the world and set us free.   

The Sixth Sunday of Easter (C)
Acts 16:9-15
John 14:23-29
Pastor John Roberts

Bringing Christ Home

I stood in my father’s hospital room and looked at him. 
He had already been in a coma for two days.  There would be four more. 
I wanted him to wake up.  Yes, because I wanted him to come back to us alive and healthier. 
But also because it had been awhile since I had said “I love you.” 
I tried to remember when it was that I had said those words to him. 
My father and I were very different men. 
Neither of us said those words to the other very often. 
I said them to my mother often but dad was just not that kind of man. 
At least that’s what I kept telling myself. 
He didn’t wake up though. 
And I have regretted not saying those tender words enough to him ever since.

My twin sons never got to know either of my parents. 
But I did my best to tell them about their grandparents;
who they were and how I think they would have loved them so dearly. 
And to this day, every conversation my sons and I have with each other
ends with those words I never got to say to my dad one more time. 
I love you.

The words of today’s Gospel reading come from the last days Jesus had with his disciples
before his arrest and crucifixion. 
Again and again, Jesus warns them that there will be a time soon when he will not be with them. 
Again and again, he tells them to love one another. 
Love one another just as he loved them. 
Love one another like a servant who washes feet. 
Love one another so much that you’re willing to lay down your life for one another because there
will be times when you can’t love one another. 

Every year the Church makes us examine those times when the love and peace of God are interrupted
by loneliness, fear, or even despair. 
The two great festivals of God’s beauty and power, Easter and Pentecost,
are separated by the Ascension of the Risen Jesus. 
For the disciples, it must have felt a bit like God had been teasing them
with the presence of the Risen Jesus. 
They’d gotten through the doubts they all had shared at the beginning with Thomas. 
They finally believed that it was their Jesus who had led them to the
shores of Galilee to have breakfast with them. 
They were beginning to feel comfortable to have him appear and then disappear and appear again. 
But on the mountain of Ascension, they were told by the angels that they would never see him again. 
They tried hard to remember those stories Jesus told them about the coming of the Holy Spirit. 
But they knew that hadn’t happened yet. 
For 10 days, Jesus was just absent.  God was absent.  They were lonely again. 
Fear started to crack their faith again. 
They were in between the good, faith-filled, beautiful and powerful times.

We know all about those in-between times;
the time between careers, between homes, between jobs, between relationships,
between healthy and healthy again; the time between the simple faith of our Sunday School childhood
and the complicated, sometimes doubting yet strong adult faith we have now;
the time between the certainties of yesterday and the promises of tomorrow. 
We know what it’s like…….. to know that we have faith……. and yet to fear inserting our faith into daily life situations.

Paul and his companions knew all about this too. 
Armed with new Christian faith and the zeal he had always had for God,
Paul and his companions taught the Gospel throughout Asia Minor
but in the 3 verses preceding today’s First Reading, we are told that the Spirit of Jesus
kept them from going to Phrygia, Galatia and Mysia. 
They went to Troas….and there Paul had the vision described in the First Reading. 
“Come to Macedonia and help us,” the man in the vision said. 
So Paul, and Timothy, and most likely Luke and probably a few other companions left immediately for Macedonia; through Samothrace and Neapolis to Philippi. 
And on the Sabbath day, they went out by the river, where they had supposed there was a place of prayer
and met Lydia. 
Now Lydia is described as “a worshipper of God……from the city of Thyatira and a dealer in purple cloth. 
The first detail tells us she was probably Jewish (there were many Jews who lived outside of Palestine).  
The second detail tells us she was not at home but in the big city of Philippi probably to sell her purple cloth. 
And that detail tells us she was probably somewhat wealthy. 
A wealthy, Jewish woman is the first one in Macedonia to receive the good news about Jesus the Christ. 
And she and her entire household were baptized. 
And her home became home base for Paul and his companions. 
She brought Christ home and from her home, Christ was brought home to hundreds.

I will not leave you lonely, Jesus told the disciples. 
I will give you an Advocate with the Father. 
I give you the peace which the world cannot give. 
I am with you always to the ends of the earth. 
I have prepared a place for you. 
I am the way, the truth, the life. 
I am the good shepherd; I know my own and my own know me. 
I am the vine……….you are the branches. 
And you will love me and keep my word,
and my Father will love you, and we will come to you and make our home with you. 
And that home will be here:
listening to the Word; sprinkled with baptismal water; fed at the heavenly table
with bread and wine, body and blood. 
And that home will be in your homes and in your workplaces and in your schools. 
And that home will be in the silence of your cars as you travel. 
And that home will be in the homes of your relatives and your friends as
you share meals and laughter and tears and hope and comfort. 
And that home will be in the hospital rooms of those you love, even those
you haven’t said “I love you” to in a very long time. 
And because I make my home with you wherever you might be, Jesus says to us;
through whatever circumstances you experience;
you will have my peace, the peace which the world cannot give;
the peace which is oh so much more than the absence of strife;
it is holy; it is wholeness; it is like a city that has no need for sun or moon to shine on it,
for the glory of God is its light; and its lamp is the Lamb.

When you hear the last words of today’s liturgy, listen very carefully. 
Go in peace, this peace that can only come from the Risen and Ascended Christ. 
Share the Good News in all the places where the blessed and holy Trinity makes a home for you. 
Go to your Macedonia to find your Lydia
and in the Spirit of the Risen Christ make a new home for God and God will make a new home for you.