Pentecost Sunday

June 4, 2006

Acts 2: 1-21

Joining the Dance

Elizabeth Macaulay

I went to Jamaica ten plus years ago. It was a trip intended to be relaxing and exotic and pure fun.

Our three children were stowed with good folk, and we were free.

It was amazing. We were transported into another world. The resort we were staying at was three hours drive from the airport, on a narrow road with a stack of luggage behind us threatening us with being smooshed at every bump. We laughed half the way and worried the other.

We arrived. It was all that we had hoped. And more.

The more was this. We were people who had mustered the wherewithal to travel across the world. And we were there being served by people who had so little, people who couldn’t even imagine the rich life we live while taking so much for granted.

And there was also this. The word for the day and for the week and for noon and midnight seemed to be this: PARTY!!!!!!! There was alcohol flowing and the smell of ganja in the air and the music of parties and dancing throbbed late into the night. Fun. But not for a woman who had recently come to grips with her own chemical dependency.

So we watched as those around us partied hard. And we felt in our souls the discomfort of saying “no” so many times to the people who were peddling goods in order to earn a small portion of our abundance. And we felt too the discomfort of being lumped into all that is often negative about being an American tourist.

We carried within ourselves a sense of shame by association, and we carried a sense of being the victims of prejudice: we weren’t like THOSE tourists. Our jumble of emotions were uninvited guests on our vacation.

Until we were checking out of the resort.

As I was signing my Visa receipt, the desk clerk spotted my necklace. There was a cross on it.

And her whole demeanor changed. She smiled broadly and said: Oh, you are Christians! Barriers dissolved instantly.

No longer were we a part of a despised mass.

Through the symbol seen around my neck, we shared a language.

And for the first time all week, I felt known - beyond the stereotype. I was more than a barely tolerated “other”. I was a sister in the Spirit movement of Jesus the Christ.

Today we celebrate Pentecost: the birthday of the church.

Today we celebrate that some two thousand years ago, into a room of huddled and frightened disciples, the dance of the Holy was made manifest in flame and wind.

Today we celebrate that in the city of Jerusalem - a city of people as diverse as any we could find today - the power of the Holy Spirit became greater than the power of fear.

Today we celebrate that the Spirit of God speaks a language we may not think we know: but we do.

If we allow ourselves to be Spirit led people.

Last week the United Methodist Movement of Jesus in this state called Minnesota met for our Annual Conference. I sat at table with Lois Finseth, our Lay Delegate, and with Carrie Christensen, a child of this church and student of theology. I sat in the same room with Roger Parks and Ruth Phelps (who retired this year) and Loren Grage and Jim Mineheart, with Bishop Sally Dyck and with Carol Zaagsma and with many others who share the same language and symbols and who love this movement called Christianity.

We dealt with many items of church policy. One of them made headlines in the newspaper.

We dealt with the issue of how it is the church will minister to and with persons who are gay, lesbian, transgendered and bisexual.

We heard many voices on the issue. We listened respectfully to each other. We prayed. We asked for an awareness of the Holy Spirit and for a spirit of wisdom and grace to be welcomed and listened to in our hearts.

And we voted on these issues. We voted to send on to the next General Conference our recommendation that all persons created by God be welcomed to our churches, welcomed into leadership, and welcomed to honor their relationships through services of holy union, regardless of their sexual orientation.

Now, I know that there are people here this morning who picked up the paper and read that article and cheered, because they believe that the delegates at Annual Conference voted using the teachings of their faith and the wisdom of their hearts to guide them.

And I know that there are people here this morning who picked up the paper and read that article and wondered how they could stay in a church that could affirm full inclusion of GLBT persons of faith.

I want to tell you that I believe that this church. This movement begun through the teachings and power of Jesus our Christ. This Body called to witness to love and justice and holy living. This church we share as United Methodists and as Christians.

This church is large enough to hold and hear us all.

Because the Holy Spirit rushed into a room in Jerusalem thousands of years ago and made it possible for those who NEVER thought they would understand each other: Partheans, Elamites, residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Capadocia.

These people so vastly different from each other were swept by the Holy Spirit. And they became able to hear the words of Jesus. They threw back their flame dancing heads and bore witness to the power and presence of Jesus. They shared his vision. Shared in a spirit of wonder and celebration. Spoken and felt in their bodies and more powerful than the fear that had kept them bound.

Here’s the thing. Pentecost teaches us that the Spirit of God makes it possible for us to open ourselves to understand people we never imagined we could:

Jamaican resort workers can see Christ in barely tolerated Americans.

United Methodists in Minnesota can sit in a room together and seek the Spirit’s leading as they listen to each other’s hearts.

And people convinced that a homosexual lifestyle is sinful can see Christ in their gay and lesbian brothers and sisters.

What Pentecost teaches us is that the Holy Spirit is dancing in our midst and ALL are invited into that dance.

So what? Who cares?

We must care. It’s why we exist.

Listen. There are people outside the walls of this church literally dying to hear the message and the hope of the gospel. They are people like us: lonely, scared, shame filled, hopeful, beautiful and sure that there is more to life than a paycheck.

These people desperate to join the dance of the Spirit need for us to get out of our fear huddled rooms where we pick at and fixate on our differences.

The so many are waiting for us to move out of our churches and into the community with our belief that we have life to share.

The antidote to the loneliness and despair and emptiness. The message of Jesus Christ that NOTHING can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus.

And who needs to hear that message the most?

Jesus knew the answer to that. He came to preach intentionally to those who were outcast and pushed away from polite company and he preached good news to the poor and he preached the ethic of love.

And that’s news worth sharing. To all people. With all people. Through all people.

On Thursday evening Tyler Christiansen was ordained Elder in the United Methodist Church. Gathered in the service of worship were those who had disagreed on the conference floor about significant issues. But those issues were smaller than the celebration of the power of the Holy Spirit that had called Tyler and those ordained into ministry. And it was less powerful than the power of the covenant we share as ministers of the gospel of Jesus the Christ. As the bishop laid hands on Tyler, she called upon the Holy Spirit to dance through his ministry and through him into the church.

I pray that he and you and I will all know the Spirit’s presence as we embrace our ministry. A ministry born on that long ago Pentecost Sunday when frightened disciples became willing to let go of their fear of differences.

A ministry in which all join in the Spirit dance.

Amen