Readings for June 18, 2017, the Second Sunday after Pentecost

• Exodus 19:2-8a and Psalm 100  
• Romans 5:1-8  
• Matthew 9:35-10:8, (9-23)

"Shout It Out," Pastor Kinsey 
Psalm 100 tells us to, shout it out – don’t hold back!  Though many of us have messages in our head from the past telling us, “Keep your voice down,” “Keep it under control,”  “Don’t raise a ruckus” – Psalm 100 is all about letting loose and speaking up.  “Make a joyful noise to the Lord,” the Psalmist declares.  “Worship the Lord with gladness; come into his presence with singing.” 
 
Indeed, Psalm 100 was all about getting ready to, “come into God’s presence,” a song to be sung, to “Enter [the Temple’s] gates with thanksgiving, and [God’s] courts with praise,” as verse 4 says. 
 
And if you check out Hymn #883 in our books, “All People That on Earth Do Dwell,” you will see, that it’s a hymn of Praise and Thanksgiving, which is based on the words of Psalm 100.  Its tune is called, “Old Hundredth!” and is often used as a Gathering, or Processional Hymn.  But never was there a more famous occasion when it was performed in recent times, than at Queen Elizabeth’s coronation service at Westminster Abbey in 1953 – and one of the first events of its kind ever televised, which of course, you can find on YouTube today.  Entering the Abbey’s courts with praise, took a long time, and to make it loud and celebratory, Ralph Vaughan Williams created a spectacular arrangement for trumpets, percussion, and organ.  The Queen was, oh so young, and probably terrified!  Not to mention, she was still mourning her father’s death, which had unexpectedly catapulted her to the throne. 
 
And this processional song, Old Hundredth, was one of the most memorable moments of the day.  Though the Queen was stone faced somber with fear and trembling – the music and singing, lifted the moment to its proper height, with loud and jubilant praise, for the people of God, and for the new Queen, a symbol of God’s goodness to them: “Give thanks to God, bless God’s name,” Psalm 100 concludes.  “For the Lord is good; God’s steadfast love endures forever, and God’s faithfulness to all generations.” 
 
As beautiful as this hymn of praise for God’s goodness is, how do we take that message, and it’s feeling of wonderful exhilaration, out into the world with us?  How do we share this good news with our neighbors and the world? 
 
This is what Jesus asks his disciples in our Gospel lesson.  His greatest concern, was always the going out, not the coming in.  “As you go,” he says, “proclaim the good news, ‘The kingdom of heaven has come near.’  Cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons.”  Unfortunately, he had no trumpets, no percussion, and no Westminster Abbey organ accompaniment!  The sending out is not quite as full of pageantry, as the coming in!  “See,” said Jesus, “I am sending you out like sheep into the midst of wolves; so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves.”
 
And Jesus then reminds them of the dangers and sacrifice ahead of them, though it is surely different for us, though still a challenge that will take us out of our comfort zones.  The good news is, that we have some good news, to invite people to, both in the message of salvation, and in our community welcome, here at Unity! 
 
The message of salvations’ Good News, is that, “Since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,” as Paul says.  A message that was renewed and shouted loudly, exactly 500 years ago, when Martin Luther, an obscure Augustinian monk in feudal Germany, grabbed the Reformation torch and lit the world on fire, after his personal discovery in Paul’s Letter’s, how we are, justified by faith, and not by our  own good works.  He had been torturing himself to obtain God’s mercy, and anguishing over scripture, to please a wrathful God.  But when he realized that God was good, God was merciful, full of lovingkindness for God’s Creation, and that our worship could be full of the praise found in Psalm 100, and not in self-flagellation, and being guilt ridden, his eyes were opened!
 
Paul’s message, and interpretation of the Christ event, was clear!  We are justified – that is, made sin-free, made acceptable, saved – not by what we do or don’t do right or wrong – but, by faith, through Christ’s faithfulness, to the God of covenant and promise.  And so, the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross is not a ransom, paying our safe passage to the next life, as much as it is a New Covenant, reviving the First Covenant with Abraham and Sarah, Moses and Miriam, a righting of the Ark, and stabilizing of God’s world, which we celebrate at the banqueting table of the Lord. 
 
Luther tried his dard-est to win God’s favor by working hard to atone for his sins, but he only felt mired deeper in guilt by the day.  Paul’s Good News message opened his eyes to a new way, a new fork in the road.  We have obtained access to God’s grace, through faith, not our own merit.  This message of freedom, releases us from sin and guilt, so now we can boast of what God has done for us, and all we can, or need, do, is worship God with praise and thanksgiving. 
 
That’s the message we celebrate in this 500th anniversary year of the Reformation – a unique and powerful message, which is definitely worth sharing, in a world yearning for truth, and justice, and peace. 
 
When we show Christ’s love and grace in our lives, we have something genuine and holy, that is attractive, something to invite others to.  Now, we just have to invite!
 
I can’t forget what Dave Daubert told at the Synod Assembly workshop on Outreach, last weekend.  That, on average, Lutherans invite someone to worship once every 23 years!  That really caught our attention!  Can that really be true?  And that means, Daubert told us, that for the Lutheran who’s at retirement age, they may just have one more invitation left in them! 
 
Whereas, if you think about it, friends who just want to get together and have dinner or a summer picnic, invite pretty much every week.  So, what are we afraid of, in our church inviting?  Fear of rejection, certainly, in any number of ways, often keeps us from inviting.  That’s real!  But Daubert says, think of it more like inviting your friend out to dinner, or a baseball game.  Sometimes there’s good reasons people will turn us down.  It dosen’t mean you have to stop inviting them.  Daubert says, he grew up in an unchurched family, and he only went to his first worship service after dozens of invitations from his college friends – invitations, by the way, not to a Lutheran church, but a Pentecostal one – though he is a Lutheran today. 
 
We have something really important to share, the gift of God’s grace  and peace in Christ Jesus.  And we know, the sacrificial gift of the cross, is nothing if it is not connected to Jesus’ life and teaching – that what Jesus lived and taught, is the same message he entrusted to his followers: we “proclaim the good news, that the kingdom of heaven has come near.”  That is, it has come near in the person of Jesus.  And who Jesus is, was shown in the same things he asks us to do – praying for the sick, to raise up the hopes of the down-trodden, and lives of the outcast, and to meet and greet everyone with God’s peace.   
 
Like Luther’s time, 500 years ago, we too live in a time when the message has been twisted and lost its punch, yet its transformative news, is sorely needed.  The kingdom and realm of God is ours, to embody, and employ.  In the gift of the Holy Spirit, we are the Body of Christ in the world, with the power to heal and make people whole, and to bring peace to every one we encounter. 
 
Where that message is clear… the church will thrive, and God’s world will find peace, and be a safe place, for all.  And that’s worth “shouting out,” and blowing the trumpet for! 

Readings for the Day of Pentecost, June 4, 2017

• Acts 2:1-21 
  Filled with the Spirit to tell God’s deeds
• Psalm 104:24-34, 35b 
  Send forth your Spirit and renew the face of the earth. (Ps. 104:30)
• 1 Corinthians 12:3b-13 
  Varieties of gifts from the same Spirit
• John 20:19-23 
  The Spirit poured out

Fear, Fire and Coming Out, Pastor Kinsey
If you’re a life-long resident of Chicago, you may never have had the opportunity to sit around a camp-fire!  But fire is as old as humans.  For tens of thousands of years, humans gathered around fire for light, warmth, protection, community, and better food.
 
When I was a pastor in rural Michigan, I found that camp-fires are a way of life, still.  Half our parishioners were loggers, and there was always plenty of wood for a weekend gathering around the fire. 
 
Our youth retreats would inevitably include a camp-fire, as well as a fire for Sauna – a cultural tradition of the Finnish people there.  And the youth were experienced in fire building.
 
But they were also youth!  And youth are natural risk-takers, who push the boundaries, that we as the adults in the room, were called upon to enforce.  Making s’mores, for example, those delicious treats made by roasting marshmallows over the fire, could easily turn into burning sticks that were used to scare their friends with - by poking them at each other!  Evening devotions, which included lighting candles from the fire, could become an opportunity for dripping wax over fingers and floor.  Stoking the sauna fire could make for dangerous sparks and even logs rolling out of the fire box, threatening to ignite the whole building! 
 
Last June, closer to home, Chicago police officer Jennifer Jacobucci was driving on the Kennedy when she noticed smoke pouring from a home in Logan Square.  She hopped off the expressway, ran into the burning building and helped four people, and one dog, get out.  She, and later one of the firefighters, were both briefly treated at the hospital for smoke inhalation.  But, thanks to Officer Jacobucci’s fast action, no one else was injured, even though it was a fast spreading fire, which left it, and the neighboring structure, uninhabitable. 
 
Fire can be destructive or life-giving; tragic or cleansing. 
 
On the Day of Pentecost – a celebration for the first wheat harvest, and later the giving of the Law, to Moses and the chosen people – the Holy Spirit arrived in Jerusalem in a confusing and powerful burst of wind and fire.  Fire has a long history in the bible, too.  Moses had heard God speak from a burning bush that was not consumed.  The Israelites were led by a pillar of fire out of slavery in Egypt all the way to the Promised Land.  John the Baptist predicts that fire will consume the chaff, or, un-believers. 
 
But on this Day of Pentecost, when the disciples were holed up and hiding, in the upper room in Jerusalem, what they see is divided tongues of fire that rested on each of the disciples, and as many as 120 other followers. 
 
The Holy Spirit is our advocate, our companion, our guide.  And this outbreak of the Spirit empowers the disciples to overcome their fear, the fear that has kept them behind locked doors since the crucifixion, resurrection and ascension of Jesus – afraid for their lives! 
 
Now they receive a gift – not a weapon to defend themselves, but the gift of the Holy Spirit to speak in other tongues – and they come out to share the good news!  They speak in every language of the people in Jerusalem, which turns out to be from practically every nation of the known world.  This is not glossolalia, or speaking in tongues, which is not a language of a country or people, but an ecstatic utterance that needs a special interpreter.  No, they speak in the language of the Jews who live in Jerusalem from so many different lands! 
 
And who, then, are these people who hear the good news?  Sometimes they have been misinterpreted as pilgrims, come to Jerusalem for the festival.  But a closer reading finds they are residents of Jerusalem, living there, immigrants from other countries.  The diaspora of Jews was a fact of life already, even before 1st century Israel.  And these are those of Jewish descent that have moved to Israel for the first time, maybe for work, maybe for faith and heritage – we don’t know, for sure.  But what we do know is that on Pentecost, they are united in their diversity, by the gifts given to the disciples from the Holy Spirit. 
 
It is the “divided” tongues of fire that bring unity!  And this is the message we celebrate today, on the Day of Pentecost, the first Sunday in Pride Month.  It’s a message clarified and articulated by LGBTQ theologians and people of faith.  That the sign of divided tongues, causing the disciples to speak in the language of every foreign resident in Jerusalem, gives them unity!  In their broad diversity – the vast differentness of cultures and peoples, gender division of male and female, if not gender fluidity, and sexual orientation – ALL, are made one.  The divided-individual tongues of fire, bring a wide rich-rainbow assortment of people together, enabling the diverse crowds to experience the one united message of God. 
 
And on this Day of Pentecost, when the disciples had been holed up in the Upper Room, afraid for their lives, it was the explosive entrance of the Spirit that pushed them past their fear and propelled them out into the streets.  And we’ll celebrate this, outside, after worship today, sharing our message with the neighborhood and world, in a Blessing, with a bit of Glitter + Fire.
 
At this moment in history, when our polarization and fear of difference is newly erupting in waves of nationalism and xenophobia, we have a gift from the Holy Spirit that propels us out past our fears – our faith is the gift, our trust, in the One who brings us together and sets our hearts on fire, to tell the truth and the good news.  Our diversity is what makes us stronger!
 
The long history of God working in our world is slowly but surely transforming the divisive and destructive forces in our world, through the Holy Spirit’s purifying fire, into a sign of inclusion and unity.  Even the wind and fire that initially came to Jerusalem in such a sudden, perplexing and fearful way on Pentecost, were transformed into tongues of fire, that don’t consume - like the burning bush - and gather the various and diverse people, to hear God’s word and share in God’s community, creating the church. 
 
Bringing people who are created wonderfully and differently, together, is what the power of the Spirit does!  Unity is not created by fearfully casting out this diversity, but by calling and enlightening of the many to stand together as God’s own chosen people.  We are created for diversity.  And diversity makes us stronger in the Spirit, together! 
 
Come Holy Fire – transform us into your people, and fill us with your love!