Live a Resurrection Life

Published on by Tina Shippey Category: New Testament, Sermon

the fifth Sunday after Pentecost
July 5th, 2020

Today’s Readings are:
Zechariah 9:9-12
Psalm 145:8-15
Romans 7:15-25a
Matthew 11:16-19, 25-30

If you don’t have a Bible handy, you can click here to find these readings.

I’ve got to say, these last words of Jesus in our gospel reading this morning are some of my favorite verses in the Bible. “Come to me, all you that are weary and carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.” This is such a beautiful invitation to grace. It reminds me of Simeon, the old man at the beginning of St. Luke’s gospel, who, when seeing the child Jesus come, says, “Lord, you now have set your servant free to go in peace as you have promised; for these eyes of mine have seen the Savior, whom you have prepared for all the world to see.” These are words of deep, deep thanks for being rescued, for being set free, for our Savior coming in the tired, lonely, lost moments of life, gathering us up, and bringing us home.

“Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.” Have you ever experienced rest for your soul? I mean, I’ve definitely felt rest for my body. I think we’ve all rested physically – after finishing up a day of work in the yard, after moving house, after traveling long hours in the car where your body is all stiff, and then you step out at your destination and streeeeeech out your tired body. That’s good rest, truly, and a gift from God.

But I don’t mean just physical rest – I mean spiritual rest down to your soul. Have you ever experienced that? I find it myself in the Sacraments, and especially in Confession and the Eucharist. There are beautiful times of rest and silence in our liturgy, times when we can just relax back into God, leave all for that most beloved embrace. I found that rest in Japan, while wandering between the rice patties of my town; I found it while traveling west in South Dakota and Wyoming, especially in the Black Hills and the Grand Tetons; and I find it while camping and looking up at the brilliant stars. But wherever I find it, I know that this rest is from God, for it is not just a rest for the body, nor for the mind or even the heart, but down to my very soul. Here God says, don’t worry, learn from my voice and presence in this moment, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls in me.

God calls us to a lot in this world. God calls us to be servants in a rough and tumble world. We’re called to be followers of Jesus – Jesus, who served the sick, the poor, the lonely, the outcast, and the downtrodden. We’re called to follow a man, who was more than a man, but even still was a man who went without a word to his death upon a cross. And we’re to take up our own crosses, deny ourselves, deny those parts of ourselves that might give us those creature comforts, that might make us feel easy and find and dandy, but to take up our cross, deny ourselves, and follow our Lord and Savior.

And I gotta say, that’s not easy work. It’s hard to deny yourself, right? It’s hard to look at money that I’ve earned with my hard work and say, ‘This doesn’t belong to me. It belongs to God’, then give it to those in need.It’s hard to say, sometime daily, with Jesus in the garden, “But not my will, but your will.” It’s hard to hope, it really is, while living in a world that seems so ready to anger, hatred, bigotry, violence. It’s hard, but that’s the life, and sometimes it seems all we can do in such a life is grin and bear it, have a stiff upper lip, grow our hearts harder so that we can bear that terrible burden of the cross.

And yet our Lord and Savior asked us to take up his yoke, for it is easy and his burden is light. And we can ask, angry and frustrated, ‘Is it really, God? Your yoke is the Cross. Your burden is Death” or we can open ourselves to God and remember that after the Cross came the Resurrection.

You see, we Christians need to understand all things – all things – in the light of the Resurrection. That God Almighty, Creator of Heaven and Earth, did not just die but rose again – that has ultimate meaning. That is the foundation on which we stand. It’s the lens through which we should view all things. The Resurrection is the yeast in our bread, it’s the manure for our garden. It’s the reason we should love our neighbor, even our enemies, for God died and rose for them just as God died and rose for us. God’s Resurrection is in the song of the birds, even the funny cawing of the crows; it’s in the laughter of children, the phases of the Moon, and both the winter and summer storms. And that Resurrection is in you, growing and thriving, giving you strength to do the good work of Jesus Christ and giving you rest, true, soulful rest, an image of our final rest in Heaven, our true home.

Remember these words of Jesus Christ. Read them often. Print them out and stick ‘em next to your mirror in your bathroom. Read them to your children and to your children’s children. Rest in them, rest in Jesus Christ. Rest in life, and love, and Resurrection.

Patience and Thanksgiving

Published on by Tina Shippey Category: Epistle, Old Testament, Sermon

the Third Sunday after Pentecost
June 21st, 2020
Happy Father’s Day

Today’s readings are:
Genesis 21:8-21
Psalm 86:1-10, 16-17
Romans 6:1b-11
Matthew 10:24-39

If you don’t have a Bible handy, you can click here to access these readings.

Back in late March, I saw a meme on Facebook. It was a little picture of a far road, and there were chickens all running across it. The road was thick with them, and they were all rushing out in the same direction. And the little caption was, “what we’ll look like the day quarantine is over.”

And I thought, yup, probably. We’ll all be rushing back to our normal lives with this dire thirst. It will be like a dinner bell rung for a troop of hungry children, or like the start of the Belmont Stakes, where all the doors are suddenly flung open and a dozen or more horses and their riders rush out onto the track. It’ll be pandemonium!

And in some ways, yeah, it has been; but in others, not. We here at St. James, and at many of the churches in Coquille, are taking it slow. We’re being cautious and thoughtful. There are some people here in the church building, and there’s a camera here for people to continue to watch at home. We’re celebrating the Lord our God in Morning Prayer. We’re building things up, slowly. We’re taking baby steps. We’re looking towards the time when we can all join together again and celebrate the Eucharist, but we’re taking our time. And we’re trying, oh we’re trying so hard, to be patient.

As Christians, and especially as Christians who worship God in the liturgy and through the Church Year, we know about patience. I mean, we just got finished with Lent a little bit ago. And we know what it means to wait upon the Lord. Jesus is coming back, sometime, but the man himself told us that we won’t know when. -You’ve got more than enough to do already- Jesus said. -Heal the sick, proclaim the Good News, be good to one another. Don’t worry about when I’m coming back. Be patient. Take it easy. Chill out.-

But asking you all to be patient might be kinda like asking poor Hagar to be patient. Hagar, who was cast out from all she knew, thrown into the wilderness with only a bit of water and bread, all on her own in a world that doesn’t treat women on their own too kindly. We may feel: yeah, patience is fine for Lent, or for Advent, but what about now? Times are rough. I don’t want baby steps. I want that well of water God shows to Hagar. I want our usual life back. I want salvation now.

Now, we’re not exactly Hagar, but we can learn a lot from her. One, we can see that things that we do have. We have ample food and water. Our church community is pretty healthy. Coquille is a pretty safe place when compared to the rest of the world, and even for those online who aren’t living in Coquille, we have doctors, nurses, and medical staff working around the clock to help us. We’re in pretty decent shape, and we have a lot to be thankful for.

There is something else, though, that we can learn from Hagar and her story, and that is that patience is not something we muster on our own. Christian patience, like all true things in life, is sharing in the life of God. Patience isn’t just another way to say ‘grin and bear it’. Patience isn’t setting a firm jaw against adversity. Patience is a lot less about our muscles and a lot more about opening our eyes to the life of God around us. Patience is much less about saying, “I just can’t wait until Jesus comes” and a lot more about asking God, “Show me your life that is all around me.”

St. Paul says it well in his letter to the Romans: we’re not shackled to sin anymore. Sins all around us, and we often fall into it, but sin and death isn’t our lord and master anymore. God is. Jesus is. Jesus died to sin once and for all; he is now alive to God. And we, through faith and our baptism in God’s name, we’re linked up to that life. We’re submerged into it. That life is the air we breathe, the blood coursing through our bodies. It’s the language we Christians speak (or should be speaking), it’s the food we eat, the water we drink. God’s life is now our life.

So I want to end this sermon by being thankful. I’m thankful that we can have in-person worship, that our county is healing from the virus. I’m thankful that, all this time, Lisa has come in to help me with everything, and I’m thankful for Bill who was able to join her. There’s life in all this, the life of God.

I’m thankful that, even though we’re all tired of Zoom and online coffee hours and Facebook streaming, I’m thankful that we have those things. God was in them. God was in the fact that we could still do all this stuff, and do it well, even if it wasn’t perfect. God is in the fact that things that aren’t perfect can still have God’s life in them. I know pretty well that I’m not perfect, and I’m thankful each and every day that God’s around to help me not make a complete fool out of myself.

And speaking of Zoom and online meetings, I’m thankful that I’ve gotten to see so much of my colleagues and our bishop these past few months. Being so far from Portland we didn’t get to see them often. I’ve seen them more than ever before.

I’m also pretty thankful that people all around the country get to see the inside of our church here in Coquille. I think it’s pretty stunningly beautiful (something else to be thankful for), and I’m happy that we get to share it with folks far, far away. There’s life – God’s Life – in the beauty of this building, and there’s life – Holy Life – in being able to share it.

So today’s lesson: it’s pretty simple. Live a life of thankfulness. Search out and find the holy waters in the world, just as God is seeking you out. Be thankful for that water, that Life, and be thankful for every step of the way. Be thankful.

God’s Call to Love

Published on by Tina Shippey Category: New Testament, Sermon

the second Sunday after Pentecost
June 14th, 2020

Today’s readings are:
Genesis 18:1-15, 21:1-7
Psalm 116:1, 10-17
Romans 5:1-8
Matthew 9:35-10:23

If you don’t have a Bible handy, you can click here for these readings.

      Maybe it’s because I wrote this sermon right after breakfast, but I feel like the church year is kinda like waking up in the morning. Think about it. Our calendar begins in Advent, in December, when things are still dark and cold and you just want to pull the blankets over your head and go back to sleep. Then we wake with Christmas and hear the call of God in Epiphany to start a new day in the Good News of Jesus Christ. Then there’s that groggy time, Lent, when our bodies are waking up and we’re praying that God direct us to the new day.

      Then there’s Easter: breakfast, where we sit down with our loved ones, or sit down alone with a nice, quiet cup of coffee, and feel new life pour into us. And, finally, Pentecost, when we turn our eyes to the day at last and go to do the good work of God in the world. In other words, Ordinary Time.

      Now, I like this image because it reminds me of some really important things. Each morning – each morning – we hear the voice of God again. Each morning is an Epiphany, for each morning we wake again to God’s creation and God’s presence in our lives and in the lives of those we meet.

      It also reminds me that, just like we often skimp out on breakfast, we also skimp out on Easter. Easter in our calendar isn’t just a quick morning celebration but fifty whole days, just like breakfast should be (as much as possible) nice and drawn out, full of good cheer or quiet moments, whatever the Good Lord provides. Easter is part of a balanced diet.

      And this image also reminds me of that forgotten time between Pentecost and Advent: ordinary time. Green time. Ho hum time, as we kinda think of it. It’s the season of the church that we’re beginning just now. There’s nothing special about ordinary time. There are some high holy days in it, sure, but nothing like Easter, no Christmas, not even the feast of the Epiphany.

Well then, we often think, ordinary time is when we can rest and relax, maybe, it’s that seventh day of Creation where we rest with God, but instead of just doing it one out of seven we do it for half the year. Mmm, comfy, kind, summery and autumny ordinary time.

      But, if we remember the image of the church calendar, ordinary time isn’t when we slip back into bed after breakfast, or our afternoon siesta, or evening when we lay all our work, good or ill, at the feet of God. Ordinary time is the sunshine of the bright day, the driving to work, or continuing projects we were working on yesterday. It’s seeing folks in our lives, whether they’re folks we want to see or folks we really wanted to avoid. Ordinary time is getting stuck in traffic and having to find something to do while sitting in a hot car. Ordinary time is running across someone in need and having to decide, right then and there, what would Jesus do – and do I really feel like doing that today? Ordinary time is ordinary because it’s, well, ordinary.

      But Jesus calls us to the ordinary. Jesus calls us to the ho-hum parts of life and calls us from within the ho-hum parts of life. I’ve preached on this a lot, and for those watching today from Coquille, you’ve probably heard this all more than a few times. It’s the hobbit sermon: that God is in the good, simple things of the world. That digging in the garden and walking down the street, just in themselves, can be an act of faith and love and godliness. There are gardens in heaven, probably, vast gardens that need to be tended by folks who love the sun and dirt. There are early morning walks in heaven. Tea time in heaven is at 4:00, and God’s always there to sit down with you and breathe in the warm, fresh air.

      But I want to say something a little further this morning. Ordinary time is not only important because we find the presence of God in the ordinary but, also, because we find the call of God in the ordinary. The Christian life is rarely lived in high adventure and while doing important things. Some of us are called to that sort of work, but, even for folks like Michael Curry, our presiding bishop, whose words of love calm and guide literally millions, even for him, the fullest work of his Christianity is done while standing in the line at the supermarket, in walking down the street, in simple, honest, ordinary prayer.

      Jesus tells the disciples, “I’m gonna send you out into the world”, and, yeah, sometimes we’re called to heal the sick and even cast out demons, but often it’s to stand at the table at Senior Meals downtown, waiting for someone to come up so you can scoop some lasagna onto a paper plate. Not too glorious, but good, good work. Often it’s to sit at the food back at Holy Name, waiting for someone hungry enough to come by for a bag of food. With each bag you give you have changed someone’s life. Often following Jesus is in wishing someone else ‘peace’ and really mean it.

      What do we want our world to look like? What do we want our communities to look like? Whether it’s here in Coquille or wherever you’re listening from right now, or your state or your country – what do you want your community to look like? Another way to say this and get at the heart of what I’m asking is: how do you want your kids or your grandkids to see your community? Where do you want them to grow up?

      These are good questions to ponder, and it is here in ordinary time that we figure out ordinary ways to answer them. And to ground ourselves in our Scripture and the Life of the Spirit to have even the hope of answering them.

But Jesus asks a follow-up question. Jesus is good at that, right? Just when you’ve got it figured out, here he comes with something that just drives that question home. Jesus asks us, great, that’s your community that you want. Now, how do we make sure that everyone, everyone, can get the peace, joy, safety, and love that we want in our community? How do we make sure that ‘ordinary’ for everyone – no matter your age, race, color, identity, whatever – to make sure that ‘ordinary’ for everyone is not hatred, anger, and fear, but calm mornings and laughter with our neighbors? How do we welcome those who have never known peace into a world where love is normal?

      As my dad used to say, that’s the question of the day. That’s the question of the season. Because Jesus didn’t call us into this life so we could wipe our hands off and be done with it all. No, Jesus called us to join in his good work of searching out the lost sheep and bring them home. So let’s keep our ears open to that call and keep our hearts ready and willing to give ourselves, just as Jesus gave himself, to those in need.

Fear and Love

Published on by Tina Shippey Category: Uncategorized

Trinity Sunday
June 7th, 2020

Today’s readings are:
Genesis 1:1-2:4a
Psalm 8
2 Corinthians 13:11-13
Matthew 28:16-20

If you don’t have a Bible handy, you can click here to read these lessons.

            Happy Trinity Sunday, everyone! Today is the feast of the Trinity, the three in one, the one in three, the all for one and one for all. It’s the feast of not just the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, nor just the one single God who lives and moves and has our being, but all of them together: the Trinity, that group that is not a group but a single Being; that’s not a single Being but a community of Love and Life.

            We often get lost in trying to explain the Trinity. Is God a single God? Yes. Is God revealed to us in three different persons? Yeah. Doesn’t that make God three gods? No, there’s just one God. You can go round and round all day with that.

            The thing is, the Trinity is a mystery. And not a mystery like Sherlock Holmes solves but a mystery of love. It’s the kind of mystery that we encounter in our relationships – our marriages and our friendships. It’s like the mystery in another person, that sacred mystery that we can never wrap our heads around just who a person is and what makes them tick. And it is our work as friends, spouses, human beings, and Christians to live into the mystery of another person, of Creation, and of God.

            Holy mysteries aren’t things you figure out; you live into them. So how do we live into something like the Trinity? I mean, I know kinda how to live into a friendship – you hang out, talk about things you both like, stuff like that. For a marriage, we live into one another by sharing our lives, our homes, our hopes and dreams. We give up ourselves to the other person, in sickness and in health, for better or for worse, so that our lives become intertwined.

            But how do we live into the Trinity? How do we live into the beating heart of the universe, the source of all Life and Love and Hope, all Goodness and all Truth. I mean, it boggles the mind! But Jesus Christ invited us into that Life, into the Life of the Trinity. That was, really, why he came to us to begin with.

            Now, different Christians answer this call from Jesus differently. For some, it’s about the music. It’s about lifting up their hands and their voices and singing with Jesus. For some, it’s about service to others, about giving their time and their hope to help the poor, the suffering, the outcast. For others, it’s about the Sacraments, about aligning our lives with these mysterious gifts from God, and especially through Communion. But whatever the case, whether you got your hands up in the air or your knees bent down, it’s about community. It’s about entering into community with one another and community with the Trinity, who is a community of Love, the Father’s love for the Son, the Son’s love for the Father, and the Holy Spirit breathed out between them in love.

            For us Episcopalians, that community is based on a few things, but one important foundation is our Baptismal Covenant. You might remember this from the baptisms we had last year. And we say it every now and again throughout the church year to remind ourselves what we promised when we became adult Christians and Episcopalians. And during those baptisms, we promised to raise Cooper and Fiona, as a community, into those promises, until they can make those promises themselves as adult members of the faith. And this covenant, it forms our community, directs our community, and all of it to the service and love of God, who is the perfect community, three in one and one in three. That community is the basis of our lives as Christians.

            But there is something that can break that community apart, and it is fear. The Bible warns us about this fear all the time. Jesus tells his disciples often, and through them he tells us, do not be afraid. When angels come to Mary, or to the shepherds on Christmas, or to the women at the tomb, they’re always saying, “do not be afraid.” And they do this because they know how fear can break things apart. It can break apart communities, and it can break apart relationships. It can make us feel like God is miles, miles away. Fear makes us alone.

            There is a lot of fear around nowadays. I can’t read the news without hearing about fear, and that fear leading to violence and hatred. And that fear is close to home. Just this past week, there were rumors that protesters were coming to Coquille, and many of our neighbors came out to counter protest. Some brought their guns. And these acts caused even more fear, fear of seeing armored cars and assault rifles on our peaceful streets. And all these fears risk breaking our community apart.

            But it is our job as Christians (and, I think, our job as human beings) to see past fear. What is at the heart of these fears? For those who came to counter protest, beneath their fear of others was a love for Coquille and a desire to protect their town. And those who were afraid of seeing our city armed to the teeth because of a rumor, beneath that fear is also love for our town, a love of little old Coquille, where we don’t have to lock our doors and where we can stop to talk to our neighbors even if we don’t know them.

            What unites us is our love for Coquille, our town, our home. And even deeper than that, we’re united by our shared humanity; and even deeper than that, what unites all us humans, regardless of creed or color or whatever, is that God loves us, each of us, and loves us so much that he came down to be with us just to tell us he loves us. And to bring us all – all of us – to our true home. And love for that home should help us see through fear to the humanity in others.

            But if we continue to look with eyes of fear, or to act through fear, that community is broken. A community – be it a town or a church or a country or the whole human race – a community cannot live if it is afraid of each other. It will break. It will fall apart.

            Se what do we do with our fear? Pick up a gun and head to the streets? No, Peter tried to use a sword, but Jesus stopped him. Violence solves nothing. Arming ourselves is nothing to be proud of.

            So, then, should we go and gather flower petals and toss them at those who are angry and afraid, because peace and love and all that? No, that’s just a stunt. It doesn’t actually see the other person. No, we are to see the fear of others, and our own fear, and ask, “What is beneath that fear?” What do you love so much, what pain do you have, that makes you so afraid? Or that makes you so angry? And when we ask this question of others, we should be ready to listen. And the next question on our lips should be: what can I do to help so that you aren’t afraid anymore?

            In our Baptismal Covenant, which we’ll say together in just a few short minutes, there are two questions. They are: Will you seek and serve Christ in all persons, loving your neighbors as yourself? and Will you strive for justice and peace among all people, and respect the dignity of every human being? These questions, and our answer that “I will, with God’s help,” they’re at the heart of our faith as Christians and as Episcopalians. And they’re at the heart of how we are to live in this world as followers of Christ.

            So will you? Will you put down your fear and see the humanity in the other person? Will you put down your fear, your weapons of words or bullets, and see to and live into the dignity of the other person? Will you live as Christ asked us to and follow the two great commandments: to love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your spirit, and with all your mind; and to love your neighbor as yourself. For in these two commandments is the gate to true community. And it is the gate to eternal life.

Happy Birthday, the Church! (and thank you Holy Spirit!)

Published on by Tina Shippey Category: Feast Day, New Testament, Sermon

May 31st, 2020
Pentecost

Today’s readings are:
Acts 2:1-21
Psalm 104:25-35, 37
1 Corinthians 12:3b-13
John 7:37-39

If you don’t have a Bible handy, click on this sentence to find these readings.

       Happy Birthday, the Church! Today is Pentecost, which means that it’s the Church’s birthday! It’s the day when we celebrate the founding of the Church, and the founding of the Church not just by human hands but by the coming of the Holy Spirit, the Comforter, the Fire, and the Light, to guide us wayward and confused folks into a life lived as Christ’s Body in this world. It’s on this day, just short of two thousand years ago, that all of this began.

       You can learn a lot about something from its beginnings. You can learn a lot about something from how it’s made, when it was made, and what sorts of things went into it. First impressions are important. I remember when we brought Gwen into her school just before she started pre-school, and all the teachers had their doors decorated in fun colors and with silly animals. Going to school for the first time can be tough for a kid, and that first impression is important. One of the reasons the transition into school life was good, I think, was because the door, and inside that door the teacher, and the room, was so welcoming.

       So when we sit down and wonder, what is the Church, who are we as the Church, it’s important to remember what we’re founded on. And this is a particularly important question these days. For the past few months, what we usually know of as church sure didn’t look like church. We’ve been watching our worship services online, and few of us have received the Sacraments at all, be they the Eucharist, Baptism, Reconciliation, and so on. And as we move on into these times, and even as we begin in-person worship again, church might still look pretty different, and I don’t mean just what we do on Sunday mornings. This is a good time to reflect on what we are as the Church. What does it mean to be the Church? What does it mean to be the Christian Church, capital C? What does it mean to be the Anglican or the Episcopal Church? And what does it mean to be St. James Church in Coquille, Oregon?

       Luckily, we’re not beginning at square one. God may have created the world out of nothing, but we’ve got two thousand years of history (and, really, more than even that) to stand on. And we’ve got Pentecost. We don’t, and we shouldn’t, try to reimagine the Church from the ground during in these difficult times. The Church isn’t something that we’ve built; it’s something that the Holy Spirit gave us two thousand years ago.

       So, then, what does Pentecost tell us about the Church? Well, quite a lot. Too much for a single sermon, that’s for sure. Too much for a whole life, or even two thousand years of life, because the grace and the love and the joy that was spilled out by God upon the disciples, that the Holy Spirit himself, the third person of the Trinity, gave to all humanity, that grace and love and joy is more than we can possible imagine. It has taken two thousand years to even catch a glimpse of what the Church, founded by the Holy Spirit, can and should do in the world. And we’ll never get to the bottom of it, because there’s no bottom, no end, to a life lived, in community, as the Body of Christ, living that life of love another day and yet another day.

       But I do want to point out something so very important about Pentecost. It’s the languages. It’s the wealth and breadth of all those languages and, specifically, all those personal languages proclaiming the Good News and Love of Jesus Christ. If you have ever traveled abroad, you know how important your own language is. For what the disciples were speaking weren’t just a bunch of different languages, as if the Holy Spirit went down the list of a bunch of classes you could take at college. You know, like, “Well, Peter, you’ve got Arabic; James, you take French; the other James has German; John, sorry, I know it’s a tough one, but you’ve got Irish. But buck up, you can do it; Bartholomew, you take Swahili”, and so own. You see, each of those languages they spoke was the home language, the mother tongue, of someone in the crowd. It was like one of the disciples started speaking French, but not just French from Paris but the dialect of some guy who was born and raised in some little village out in the middle of nowhere; it’s like that someone didn’t just speak English but spoke Jersey.

       I mean, pretty much everyone there that day could probably speak Greek, or at least make it out with a struggle, so that if the disciples proclaimed the Good News in Greek, most of the folks would have gotten it. But that’s not the point. For these people were abroad, away from the land they knew. And when you’re abroad, you’re in a strange land, and nothing’s familiar, even the food, even the bathrooms, and from dawn until dusk you’re surrounded by differences. And even if those differences are wonderful, it gets tiring after a while.

But then imagine this. Imagine that you’re one of these people in Jerusalem. You’re far from home, you’re yearning for just something that’s familiar – anything. And then suddenly, suddenly, you hear your own language spoken, and not just by someone trying it out but by someone fluent, who knows it, as you know it, from the first day you were born – your heart is moved to its depths. And oh, it’s not just someone reading off a list of stuff to do, or sometone making a crude joke. What this person is saying, in that language that touches your heart, is the most amazing and wonderful news that you have ever heard. And this message, this message of love and hope, this message that you’ve loved and you’ve hoped for down in the depths of your heart, maybe this message that you could barely admit to hope for because it’s just too good to be true, that God loves you, that God loves the whole world and will go to the ends of the earth and back just to tell us about that love, that this message is proclaimed in your own language. Two hearts: the longing for home and the message of love, they meet on this day of Pentecost. Nor is this message just for anyone, but it’s for you, and you, and you. This is the miracle of Pentecost, that the hope of the world isn’t just something you can look up in a book, but that’s it’s personal, it goes to the heart of our hopes and longings. And it is here that the Church, the community of the faithful, the very Body of Christ, is born.

       This says something so very important about the Church and about our lives as Christians. God speaks to our hearts, to the things that we care about and love the most. Most of us were converted, or stepped into a deeper conversion to God, because we heard a voice calling to us from something we loved. God spoke to me through good stories and the natural world, two things I already loved; and God has continued to speak to me through family, my children, my good friends, food and travel and laughter. You don’t gotta get rid of those things in order to become a Christian. But through those things God speaks to us, and turns us more fully to God’s light through them. And as God does this, those beautiful things become only more and more beautiful, until all our lives shine with the glory of God.

       But there’s something else, too, and it’s one of the biggest lessons of Pentecost: the Church isn’t just for us. Just as we follow the example of Jesus Christ, who is God, so too do we, the Church, which was founded on Pentecost, follow the example of the Holy Spirit, who is also God. We’re to go outside of ourselves, outside of what we know and serve others from where God has touched them. We don’t proclaim the Good News in our own language or from our own experiences alone, but from the hurts, needs, hopes, and loves of those we serve. So that when we serve the world in Christ’s name, we’re not just doing what makes us feel good and happy but that we’re answering that call from God within each and every person who we meet. And this can be tough sometimes, because it requires patience, an open ear, and an open heart to the experiences of others.

       It’s tough to do sometimes, but, in the end, what a gift, right? What a gracious and beautiful gift, that we are given the privilege to serve God’s voice in the life of those around us. It is a humbling gift, truly; you can’t be proud when you do this work. You can’t think you’ve got all the answers. And it can be a hard gift sometimes, especially when the world is hurting so deeply, and those in front of us see only darkness and despair. But even still, what a gracious and beautiful gift, to be able to serve in God’s Name, the Gospel, that most glorious Good News, that before all else you are loved and that salvation is a free gift. And our work, now, two thousand years later, it’s the same as it was two thousand years ago: to listen to the love of God singing out through Creation, to serve that voice and that love, and to live together, together, with the love of God upholding it all.