All Together Now!
Children's sermon
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Object:
The account of Pentecost in the book of Acts tells of a crowd gathered from many diverse locations... each hearing in their own languages “about God’s deeds of power.” It is only through the power of the Holy Spirit at work that all of these people are able to understand what is being said -- otherwise, the fact that they speak different, often mutually unintelligible languages generally meant that real communication was difficult, if not impossible. That sounds very reminiscent of the situation we often face in today’s fractured society -- where our divisions (whether political, ethnic, socio-economic, or of many other kinds) make it common practice for us to talk past one another, seemingly disinterested in what those who see things differently think and/or feel. So how can we bridge our differences in language and practice, rediscovering our common humanity as one Body of Christ? In this installment of The Immediate Word, team member Dean Feldmeyer suggests that an easily overlooked detail in the setting of Pentecost provides an important clue -- first we must reverse the process of removing ourselves from one another and living in an increasingly virtual reality. Instead, it’s vital that we come together in one place, fostering real conversation that transforms both speakers and listeners, and allowing the Spirit to infuse our communication with one another.
Team member Chris Keating shares some additional thoughts on we use different, often mutually unintelligible language within different wings/denominations of the church to divide one another and talk past one another (in the same manner as all the different languages present at Pentecost). Chris points out how our church jargon often serves merely to further our divisions rather than our common identity as the unified Body of Christ. It is only when we are open to the workings of the Spirit (rather than focusing on our differences in language and practice) that we are enabled to understand one another -- each in our own languages -- and to sit down together.
All Together Now!
by Dean Feldmeyer
Acts 2:1-21
With Ted Cruz and John Kasich having “suspended” their campaigns, Donald Trump is now the Republican party’s presumptive candidate for president of the United States. Hillary Clinton has a nearly unbeatable mathematical advantage over Bernie Sanders -- and barring a miracle, she will be the candidate of the Democratic party.
All that’s left are the conventions. The Republicans will come together in Cleveland from July 18-21, while the Democrats will gather in Philadelphia from July 25-28.
The big question is “Why?” I seem to remember when the conventions were dramatic affairs, with lots of wheeling and dealing and bargaining and horse-trading to determine who the nominees would be.
Now they are just big celebrations where party enthusiasts traipse out the candidate who has been determined months before in the primaries and the caucuses and bestow upon him/her the mantle of the party’s favor while people throw confetti, release balloons, wear silly hats, whistle, cheer, and act crazy.
Are these big, expensive parties really necessary?
Well, yes, they are.
What the leaders of the political parties know, perhaps instinctively, is that there is much power to be tapped when people come physically together. Being together in one place generates energy.
The very first line of the Pentecost story in the book of Acts reminds us of that truth: “...and they were all together in one place.” It is in that context, set upon that foundation, that the primitive Christian church discovered its great strength.
In the News
There are more kinds of power in numbers than we would often imagine.
* On December 30, 2015, the people of Hamilton, Ohio (just north of Cincinnati) laid to rest 28-year-old firefighter Patrick Wolterman, who was killed in the line of duty when he fell through the floor and into the basement of a burning house.
The people of Hamilton turned out by the hundreds to line the streets as the funeral procession passed by, and more than 3,700 people were in attendance at the memorial service. More than half of those (roughly 2,000 attendees) were firefighters in uniform who came from all over the United States and Canada.
* Last week, Cincinnati firefighter Jordan Pieniazek, 31, was killed on his way to work when a driver crossed the center line and struck Pieniazek, who was riding a motorcycle. The firefighter left a wife and three children, ages 6, 3, and 1.
The crowd at his funeral was not as large as the one for Patrick Wolterman, as Pieniazek was not killed in the line of duty -- but nevertheless, hundreds of firefighters showed up in uniform for the service at Vineyard Church, and even more civilians lined the streets for his procession.
* Dallas police recently released dash-cam footage showing the moment emergency services and bystanders lifted a car off a trapped motorcyclist back in July. When a female motorcyclist collided with a car and became trapped beneath, first responders did not have adequate equipment to shift the car. Police, firefighters, and bystanders collectively lifted the vehicle off the trapped woman, who escaped with only minor injuries.
* About six weeks ago in London, a female pedestrian was hit, run over, and trapped under a taxi just outside the Bank of England. First responders found her alive and tried to make her comfortable while they waited for others to arrive to help them move the taxi off her. But bystander Laura Fares was not about to wait for anyone. She started calling out to passersby and buttonholing men on the street, including a group of ten Spanish tourists, and about 25-30 of them together lifted the taxi off the woman, who was treated for soft tissue damage and released from the hospital later that day.
* On May 5 we observed the National Day of Prayer, which originated in the United States as an official observance on April 17, 1952, when a bill proclaiming an annual National Day of Prayer was unanimously passed by both houses of Congress and signed into law by President Harry S. Truman. The legislation required the president to select a day for national prayer each year.
In 1988 a bill naming the first Thursday of May as the date for the National Day of Prayer was passed by both houses of Congress and signed into law by President Reagan. Upon signing the bill, he said: “On our National Day of Prayer, then, we join together as people of many faiths to petition God to show us his mercy and his love, to heal our weariness and uphold our hope, that we might live ever mindful of his justice and thankful for his blessing.”
Since then, the concept of the National Day of Prayer as a multi-faith event which recognizes the extensive diversity of religious expression in the U.S. has been echoed by each president in their proclamations. For instance, in his 1995 proclamation Bill Clinton said: “I call upon every citizen of this great Nation to gather together on that day to pray, each in his or her own manner, for God’s continued guidance and blessing” [emphasis added].
Coming together in one place is an exercise practiced around the world for sporting events, political rallies, funerals, weddings, worship services, family reunions, rescue efforts, and demonstrations. And we do this because we know, instinctively, that there is power to be found in the coming together of persons united in a common cause -- whether it is the power to lift an automobile off of a wounded person, the power to give comfort to a grieving widow, or the power to influence the governance of countries for changing the course of history.
People who come together in one place have extraordinary power.
In the Scriptures
This Sunday we celebrate Pentecost, which is generally recognized as the birthday of the church of Jesus Christ.
Pentecost was originally a Jewish celebration of the spring harvest. The Hebrew name for the holiday was the Feast of Harvest, and it was sometimes referred to as the Feast of Weeks. Here’s why.
There were two harvest seasons in ancient Palestine. The first harvest was in May, and the second in the autumn (usually around September). The Feast of First Fruits celebrated the beginning of the barley harvest. Fifty days later, the Feast of Harvest celebrated the wheat harvest. (It was called the Feast of Weeks because 50 days equals seven weeks -- so the gap between First Fruits and Harvest was a week of weeks!)
Pentecost (which means 50 days) was the Greek name for the Feast of Harvest or the Feast of Weeks. It was a holiday when the shops and schools were closed, and it was a pilgrim holiday when thousands of people came to Jerusalem to celebrate.
The apostles were in Jerusalem for the same reason everyone else was -- for the party.
The Acts account tells us that “they were all together in one place,” but it doesn’t tell us exactly who “they” were. Historians and sociologists tell us that there were probably about 100-120 followers of “The Way” by this time, so it is unlikely that all of them were in the same house. But a significant number were. Perhaps the “all” just means that all of the followers of Jesus who happened to be in Jerusalem for the feast were together.
At any rate, how many or who exactly they were is not as significant as the fact that they were “all together in one place.” That’s the point here. They were physically together. They were all in the same space.
And it is in this “all together” context that the Holy Spirit is visited upon them with the power of wind and fire. This is the power to speak in a way that can be understood and the power to hear and understand what is spoken.
Speaking and hearing are human activities that are made powerful by the presence of God’s Holy Spirit. And while some will always refuse to hear (“they are filled with new wine”), others will have their ears open and their understanding sharpened by the Spirit in that setting.
The book of Acts keeps a constant tension between two poles. On one end is personal transformation and piety, as in the story of Paul’s conversion on the Damascus Road. The other end is corporate power, as in this story and others where groups of people come together and find themselves struck by grace when people are “together in one place.”
It is a tension that our churches would do well to observe and hold as well.
In the Pulpit
The phrase “spiritual but not religious” has become popular in the last decade or so, and it tends to be used by those who describe themselves as liking to think about spiritual things but privately, without carrying around all the messy baggage that goes along with living in a community of faith.
For the author of Acts, however, the tension between spiritual and religious, private and corporate, is not an either/or proposition. An authentic Christian faith must contain both.
Yes, authenticity in faith requires private spiritual disciplines like prayer and meditation and contemplation, study, reading, and more prayer. But it also requires us to participate in a corporate expression of that faith where people love one another, care for each other, and reach out to the world, together as one.
In fact, the great commandment to “love one another as I have loved you” is virtually impossible to do in solitude. It requires a community of people who need to love and be loved. It requires human beings who are frail and fragile, sinful and fraught with estrangement. If we were all lovable all the time, there would have been no need for the commandment. But as it is, Jesus says that love is a decision -- and decisions aren’t always easy. Decisions often require an act of will and discipline.
Human beings in solitude cannot forgive or be forgiven. Human beings alone cannot share or be shared with. Human beings alone have only themselves to talk to, a dangerous situation to be in when we know that God often speaks in the voices of the people around us.
In solitude there is no voice to hear, and communication is itself superfluous. There is no need of words written or spoken, for there is nothing to be heard or read. When people are together, especially when they are together in one place, communication occurs -- and communication is no mundane thing to be easily dismissed.
So argues Ursula Le Guin in her essay “Telling Is Listening,” from her book The Wave in the Mind: Talks and Essays on the Writer, the Reader, and the Imagination. Musing on Le Guin’s essay, blogger Maria Popova describes the wonder of real human interaction:
Every act of communication is an act of tremendous courage in which we give ourselves over to two parallel possibilities: the possibility of planting into another mind a seed sprouted in ours and watching it blossom into a breathtaking flower of mutual understanding; and the possibility of being wholly misunderstood, reduced to a withering weed. Candor and clarity go a long way in fertilizing the soil, but in the end there is always a degree of unpredictability in the climate of communication -- even the warmest intention can be met with frost. Yet something impels us to hold these possibilities in both hands and go on surrendering to the beauty and terror of conversation, that ancient and abiding human gift. And the most magical thing, the most sacred thing, is that whichever the outcome, we end up having transformed one another in this vulnerable-making process of speaking and listening.
Indeed, Le Guin depicts human communication in a way that sounds not unlike Luke’s description of that first Pentecost: “Words are events, they do things, change things. They transform both speaker and hearer; they feed energy back and forth and amplify it. They feed understanding or emotion back and forth and amplify it.”
This human act of tremendous courage that is communication cannot be undertaken in something so common as e-mail or in something so truncated and dwarfed as Twitter. It cannot be skyped or mailed or texted.
It is high and holy work that must be done face-to-face between humans who are gathered together in one place. Any other way is second-rate at best, merely the exchange of information.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote an entire book on this subject (Life Together), but he summed it all up nicely in just one brief paragraph:
Let him who cannot be alone beware of community.... Let him who is not in community beware of being alone.... Each by itself has profound perils and pitfalls. One who wants fellowship without solitude plunges into the void of words and feelings, and the one who seeks solitude without fellowship perishes in the abyss of vanity, self-infatuation, and despair.
True, authentic Christianity is both spiritual and religious.
SECOND THOUGHTS
How Is It That We Hear?
by Chris Keating
Acts 2:1-21
Violent, rushing winds raced through the church that day, and suddenly everyone was talking. But this was more than just the typical Sunday morning chatter. Rather, the believers were speaking in new and unexpected ways.
Even the visitors from foreign lands could understand what these backwater Galileans were saying. Seized by the sensational cacophony, the Pentecost festival-goers stood gape-mouthed, confused by what had just happened. How is it that they heard -- each in their own language?
The arrival of the Spirit not only gives birth to the church, but creates a community of understanding. The Spirit breaks down barriers between women and men of all nations, birthing community and bridging gaps. The ability to understand one another is key, and suddenly the distance of language is removed.
Instead of talking past each other, they are talking to one another. Seeking some explanation, they turn to Peter and ask: “What does this mean?”
We won’t be welcoming Parthians and Medes this coming Sunday. More than likely, the bus from Elam and Mesopotamia won’t make it either. Most of us will be speaking the same language, but it’s entirely possible that more than a few won’t have a clue what’s being said. Church jargon quickly becomes Bible-babble and insider jabber. The gift of unity eclipses us -- some folks might even think we’ve been sipping that new wine.
Take, for example, the sort of Christianese that falls from the lips of YouTube comics Tripp and Tyler in a video spoof of the things Christians say. It might warm the hearts of some, but just how many people in the world actually use “fellowship” as a verb? And, as Nadia Bolz-Weber suggests, certain phrases in Christian lingo can sound downright creepy, including “we just want to love up on these kids” and calling the lingering joy of worship a holy “afterglow.”
If a visitor from Pontus were to pull up in front your church on Sunday, could they tell the difference between an apse and a narthex? Would they be embarrassed if you asked them to meet you in the nave? Could they find the transept, or would they wander aimlessly around the ambulatory? Our mix of traditions adds to the confusion: one person’s sacristy might well be a Presbyterian’s kitchen.
I grew up around plenty of folks who might prayerfully declare: “Lord, we just ask that you would give traveling mercies to the Smiths. Pour out your special blessings. We just ask that your will be done, for we just want to echo what others have prayed -- that the Smiths would just come to be blessed by you. Just be with them, Lord.” It took me a while to learn that “just-us” prayers were quite different than prayers for justice.
A graduate from a mainline seminary, however, might translate the same prayer in these words: “God of Abram and Sarai, of Ruth and Naomi, of Paul and Barnabas, whose liminal presence is never far from us, whose heart beats in sacred unity of purpose for us, and who leads us to relationally-rich experiences of personhood, be present to the Smiths as they discern the journey which you have called them to undertake, equipping and empowering them in the days ahead.”
Put plainly, our words do not unite us. Seminarians like to explore the a priori nature of theology, or even its socio-relational context. Among other choices, we might be considered systematic¸ feminist, or constructionist theologians. We make no apologetics for deconstructing a pericope in order to ascertain its rhetorical meaning. Others engage in a hermeneutics of suspicion anytime a text is employed in a devotional context. Mainliners love to live missionally, but blessed are those who find more clear ways of explaining what it means to be faithful.
And if you are Catholic, then there is an entirely different set of terms to explore, some of which aren’t even in Latin.
With all the denominational switching that occurs, a former Methodist might be confused by these Presbyterian announcements: “The PW will hold a fund-raiser for the youth group’s trip to the PYT this summer. Also, please consult the new FOG in order to have a better understanding of how the GA’s ACC might interpret the ruling from the PJC. Members of the PNC will meet with the EP and other representatives from the COM today. Finally, those who have purchased copies of the BOC should pay for them ASAP!”
The gaps of language are not only theological, but generational. You may not know what “on fleek” means, but I guarantee most of your youth group does. And if you think “dope” is something bad, or that “bomb” isn’t a compliment, you might take a gander at Urban Dictionary or consult with someone under 25. And as most middle-aged converts to Facebook have now learned, “LOL” does not mean “lots of love.” Finally, if you are unsure what it means to “hook up” with your “bae,” you should consider not saying a word. Really.
SMH.
Is there any way out of this mess? As the Spirit-filled spectacle baffles the crowd, Peter seizes the opportunity to interpret the event. Luke carefully sketches the emergence of the church here as a prophetic community of faith. Rather than sounding like a standup comic by saying something like “I know, right?” Peter addresses the crowd in clear speech. Empowered by the Spirit, he takes the opportunity to interpret the ancient prophet’s words in a way that speaks to the curious and stirred hearts of those who have witnessed the Spirit’s fiery descent.
Peter bears witness to what has happened, and provides a framework for interpreting the event. They are not drunk. It may be five o’clock somewhere, but here in Jerusalem it’s just nine in the morning. Rather, these believers have come to see that when lives are shared in common purpose and prayer, God’s Spirit removes all barriers. Luke began his gospel by insisting that with God all things are possible. Here he continues to marvel at the ways God is at work in the world.
One seminary student described this work as building a “dinner church.” Aisha Ansano notes that in a dinner church, “everyone is invited to come early to help cook and set up... there is singing, sharing, readings, and discussion.” Dinner table talk becomes the bonding together of a sacred community.
How might the noise of Pentecost teach us to speak to each other, rather than past each other? What lessons could we draw from gathering the church into a “dinner church”?
It looks like Mesopotamians speaking to Galileans without translators. It could mean those who sit on the “Gospel side” of the aisle will gain new appreciation for those on the “Epistle side.” It might bridge racial and generational divides, closing gaps the world continues to try and widen. Those who lean to the left will lean a bit more to the right so that they may hear and understand their brothers and sisters.
Given time, this work of the Spirit could push open the doors of the church, going wild across the monolingual divides of our world. A Bernie Sanders supporter will share a cup of Earl Grey with a stalwart Tea Partier. A Muslim will feel at home in a largely Christian neighborhood.
We might begin this by stopping and listening to the noise around us, wondering together: “What does this mean?”
ILLUSTRATIONS
From team member Ron Love:
Acts 2:1-21
You may know actress Diane Guerrero better as Maritza Ramos, the name of her character on the television program Orange Is The New Black. In her autobiography In the Country We Love: My Family Divided, Guerrero tells of the trauma she experienced 15 years ago when she came home from school, only to find her parents were not in the house because they had been arrested as illegal immigrants and were going to be deported back to Colombia. Guerrero, having been born in New Jersey, was allowed to remain. She moved in with friends, but the loss of her parents caused her to become depressed -- and she started to drink heavily and cut herself. Eventually she went into therapy and began attending the Boston Arts Academy. Guerrero said, “The arts were a way to find release.” But her real healing began when she became a social activist for the rights of immigrants. Guerrero said of that choice in her life, “I wasn’t happy, and it was because I wasn’t being political.”
Application: The story of Pentecost is a story of becoming active to carry on the witness and ministry of Jesus. It is only then that we will be happy.
*****
Acts 2:1-21
In a recent interview in People magazine, Prince Harry said that one way he filled the “void” in his life after his mother died in a horrible automobile accident was to serve in the military, with two tours of duty in Afghanistan. Of that experience he said, “I was in a $57 million aircraft and felt helpless at times.” He said the plane would be taking him to a battle incident, but 99% of the time the soldier or civilian was already a casualty before he could arrive with his troops. He would say, “So you have Prince Harry in a $57 million aircraft in a helpless position.”
Application: We often feel helpless; this is why we need to be empowered by the Holy Spirit.
*****
Acts 2:1-21
In the theater, the “fourth wall” refers to the imaginary “wall” between the actor and the audience, as the actor performs on a proscenium stage in a three-walled box. In a recent People magazine interview, Sean Hayes -- the Will & Grace alumnus who is now starring in the play Act of God, in which he portrays God -- talked about the “fourth wall” as he discussed why he enjoys theater more than television. Hayes said, “I enjoy the immediacy of the audience’s reaction. You break down the fourth wall.”
Application: The fourth wall was broken down on the day of Pentecost, because everyone who was gathered was able to speak in the same tongue.
*****
Acts 2:1-21
In a recent interview, Today show co-host Tamron Hall shared a story that she has always kept private -- the 2004 murder of her older sister Renate in their Houston home. Years of being involved in abusive relationships finally caused Renate’s death. Though the crime still remains unsolved, Hall is now talking about it, hoping her story will help others. Tamron Hall said, “For a long time I was hesitant about sharing our story, but... if it means I can save a life and help someone.”
Application: The story of Pentecost is a call for us to share the story of Jesus, and hopefully help someone else in the process.
*****
Romans 8:14-17
Prince Harry, the youngest child of Prince Charles and Princess Diana, recently granted an extensive interview with People magazine. Harry, who is fifth in line for the British throne, was 12 when his mother died in a horrible automobile accident while being chased by paparazzi. Harry said that when his mother died it left a “void,” and now he wants to fill that void with his life. He said, “All I want to do is make my mother incredibly proud. That’s all I ever wanted to do. What would she be thinking nowadays?”
Application: As children of God, we should always be trying to make our heavenly Father proud. We should always be asking ourselves, “What is he thinking of us?”
*****
Romans 8:14-17
In 1990 Madonna set out on her legendary “Blond Ambition” world tour. Now, 25 years later, the documentary Strike a Pose recounts that tour. One dancer said that while hanging out Madonna was a regular person, but then she would look into a mirror and she “instantly morphed into Madonna. She knows how to become a mega-superstar just in a look.”
Application: When we become a child of God, we are not to morph into a superstar but a humble servant. We are not to lose being a regular person.
*****
Romans 8:14-17
A book that has received a lot of media attention recently is Five Presidents by Clint Hill, who shares his experiences as a Secret Service agent guarding five presidents over 17 years. Hill may be best known as the agent on the back of John F. Kennedy’s limousine when the president was shot on November 22, 1963. Hill scrambled into the limousine and placed his body on top of the slain president. In sharing stories from the lives of all five presidents, Hill concludes: “Those men were all completely different -- they were only similar in that they had a large ego.”
Application: To be a child of God does not mean we are to act childish.
*****
John 14:8-17 (25-27)
In his book Five Presidents, former Secret Service agent Clint Hill tells about guarding five presidents. With each president, Hill came to realize that the common thing about the new chief executives was that “none of them had any idea what would confront them when they took the oath of office.”
Application: The coming of the Holy Spirit is to prepare us and guide us into the unknown future.
*****
John 14:8-17 (25-27)
A recent article looking back on the life of actress Patty Duke recounted how Duke, who was born in 1946, found herself in a dysfunctional family. Her alcoholic father deserted the family when she was six, and her mother handed her off to two callous theatrical agents. John and Ethel Ross were abusive, controlling, and manipulative. Because of that horrific experience, Duke never learned proper nurturing skills. This is why she acknowledged she was a terrible parent. Patty Duke said, “I was truly a loving mom, but I didn’t have the tools to do the job.”
Application: We have been given the Advocate so we will have the spiritual tools to do our job.
*****
John 14:8-17 (25-27)
The man who introduced us to a generation of singing stars has bidden us farewell. Ryan Seacrest recently hosted the final episode of American Idol, which first aired in 2002. Reflecting on those years, Seacrest said adjusting to live television was one of the most difficult challenges for him. Seacrest said, “It took a few seasons before I embraced the fact that it was a big live show and things were not always going to be perfect.”
Application: Things are not always going to be perfect for us, but we will always have the Advocate to guide us.
***************
From team member Robin Lostetter:
Power in Community
This image, which is often used for union organizing or for class action lawsuits, has always intrigued me, separate from those connotations. From an early age, children learn that even the playground bully can be handled by a group of sufficient numbers.
The first verse of Acts 2 describes the setting in which the Holy Spirit has the context in which to act decisively to share the message across cultural boundaries: “they were all together in one place.”
Although each one of us has the potential for a numinous experience, we recognize that the Spirit moves very effectively within a gathering of the faithful. In this case, the power of the words was fiery! With the collective energy and power of the community, the early church has given us a blueprint for how to act powerfully today -- through community action. When the Body of Christ acts cooperatively, recognizing Paul’s words in 1 Corinthians 12 where the eyes, ears, head, hands, and feet are not in competition but each contribute their own gifts, the Church is most effective. (In the little fish diagram, this would translate to eye and fin and tail!)
*****
“Christian” Language?
In his May 3, 2016 Daily Show monologue, Trevor Noah demonstrated a deep chasm between the language of the Christian community and that of “secular Christianity.”
At 5:50 in the clip linked above, Rev. Rafael Cruz (Ted Cruz’s father) states, “I implore, I exhort, every member of the Body of Christ, to vote according to the word of God...”
Trevor Noah comments on this at 6:09: “Wow. Every member of the Body of Christ? OK. I mean, I would’ve just said ‘Christians,’ please vote for Ted Cruz.’ I mean, you didn’t have to go into body parts -- it just made it weird. ‘I exhort the inner thigh of Christ to vote for my son, Ted Cruz! And also the weird little middle toe, with the hair on it. I exhort all of it.’ ”
Besides a linguistic divide, this points to the growing number of unchurched in our so-called “Christian” country, and the reality of post-Christianity. Within the Church, the “Body of Christ” has a specific meaning: for the community of faith it is the human manifestation of Jesus Christ’s presence in the world -- the body or organism that is able to continue the ministry begun by Jesus of Nazareth, and for the sacramental or liturgical branches of the Church, able to manifest, evoke, or symbolize the mystical presence of Christ. Paul does refer to body parts, metaphorically, as the hand, eye, ear, hand, head, or foot (1 Corinthians 12:14-27). But his reference is to major functions within the whole body, not equating individuals as a middle toe or inner thigh. The humor of Noah’s joke demonstrates that the symbolic, metaphoric, and communitarian meaning of the phrase is completely lost on his general audience.
WORSHIP RESOURCES
by George Reed
Call to Worship
Leader: O God, how manifold are your works!
People: In wisdom, you have created them all.
Leader: We will sing to God as long as we live.
People: We will sing praise to our God while we have being.
Leader: May our meditation be pleasing to God, in whom we rejoice.
People: Let our souls bless God. Praise be to our God!
OR
Leader: Come and worship the God of all creation.
People: Praise and glory be to our God and Savior.
Leader: Come and share with one another God’s sweet Spirit.
People: God’s Spirit fills us and fills the spaces between us.
Leader: Share God’s love and grace with others.
People: We will take God’s loving grace to all we meet.
Hymns and Sacred Songs
“All Creatures of Our God and King”
found in:
UMH: 62
H82: 400
PH: 455
AAHH: 147
NNBH: 33
NCH: 17
CH: 22
LBW: 527
ELA: 835
W&P: 23
AMEC: 50
STLT: 203
Renew: 47
“Many and Great, O God”
found in:
UMH: 148
H82: 385
PH: 271
NCH: 3
CH: 58
ELA: 837
W&P: 26
“The Church’s One Foundation”
found in:
UMH: 545, 546
H82: 525
PH: 442
AAHH: 337
NNBH: 297
NCH: 386
CH: 272
LBW: 369
ELA: 654
W&P: 544
AMEC: 519
“In Christ There Is No East or West”
found in:
UMH: 548
H82: 529
PH: 439, 440
AAHH: 398, 399
NNBH: 299
NCH: 394, 395
CH: 687
LBW: 259
ELA: 630
W&P: 600, 603
AMEC: 557
“Where Charity and Love Prevail”
found in:
UMH: 549
H82: 581
NCH: 396
LBW: 126
ELA: 359
“Christ for the World We Sing”
found in:
UMH: 568
H82: 537
W&P: 561
AMEC: 565
Renew: 299
“Lord, Whose Love Through Humble Service”
found in:
UMH: 581
H82: 610
PH: 427
CH: 461
LBW: 423
ELA: 712
W&P: 575
Renew: 286
“Sweet, Sweet Spirit”
found in:
UMH: 334
AAHH: 326
NNBH: 127
NCH: 293
CH: 261
W&P: 134
AMEC: 196
CCB: 7
“We Are One in Christ Jesus”
found in:
CCB: 43
“Surely the Presence of the Lord”
found in:
CCB: 1
Renew: 167
“As We Gather”
found in:
CCB: 12
Renew: 6
Music Resources Key:
UMH: United Methodist Hymnal
H82: The Hymnal 1982 (The Episcopal Church)
PH: Presbyterian Hymnal
AAHH: African-American Heritage Hymnal
NNBH: The New National Baptist Hymnal
NCH: The New Century Hymnal
CH: Chalice Hymnal
LBW: Lutheran Book of Worship
ELA: Evangelical Lutheran Worship
W&P: Worship & Praise
AMEC: African Methodist Episcopal Church Hymnal
STLT: Singing the Living Tradition
CCB: Cokesbury Chorus Book
Renew: Renew! Songs & Hymns for Blended Worship
Prayer for the Day / Collect
O God who created us as one people and one family: Grant us the grace to come together to be your children, finding more in unity than in diversity; through Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.
OR
We praise you, O God, for creating us as one people. You made us all from the same dust of the earth. You filled us all with your Spirit, life, and breath. So fill us with your Spirit that we may find the unity with which you have created us. Amen.
Prayer of Confession
Leader: Let us confess to God and before one another our sins, and especially our reluctance to come together in one place.
People: We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. We become so busy that we find ourselves doing other things rather than gathering together for worship. Because you are present with us everywhere, we say we can worship anywhere. And while we can be in meditation and reflection, we can’t duplicate the experience of worshiping with our sisters and brothers. You created us for community, and when we forsake that coming together we are spiritually poorer for it. Forgive us, and call us back together that we may find your blessing in our corporate worship. Amen.
Leader: It is good and pleasant when God’s people are together in worship. Receive God’s love, and share it with those who worship with you as well as with the world.
Prayers of the People (and the Lord’s Prayer)
Praise and glory are yours, O God, for you have called us together into your presence. In faithfulness you come to meet us and dwell among us.
(The following paragraph may be used if a separate prayer of confession has not been used.)
We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. We become so busy that we find ourselves doing other things rather than gathering together for worship. Because you are present with us everywhere, we say we can worship anywhere. And while we can be in meditation and reflection, we can’t duplicate the experience of worshiping with our sisters and brothers. You created us for community, and when we forsake that coming together we are spiritually poorer for it. Forgive us, and call us back together that we may find your blessing in our corporate worship.
We thank you for all your blessings. We thank you for the blessings that we receive through one another as we share in times of worship, discernment, and service. We thank you that we are not alone but are bound together with one another, sharing the same Spirit.
(Other thanksgivings may be offered.)
We pray for one another in our need, and especially today for those who feel isolated and alone. We pray that our loving community may be a beacon to others, calling them to join with you and others as one people. Help us not to babble but to learn to speak with another in truth and in love.
(Other intercessions may be offered.)
All these things we ask in the name of our Savior Jesus Christ, who taught us to pray together, saying:
Our Father . . . Amen.
(or if the Lord’s Prayer is not used at this point in the service)
All this we ask in the Name of the Blessed and Holy Trinity. Amen.
Children’s Sermon Starter
Say to the children, “Let’s play a game of tag.” Then tell each one that they are “it,” and have them go to a separate place -- thus sending each child to play the game alone. Of course, that won’t work. Then call the children back together and talk about how we can do some things by ourselves, but other things require us to be together. We can always pray alone. We can sing alone. We can talk to God alone. But we can’t really worship God unless we are together.
CHILDREN’S SERMON
We’re Going to Throw a Birthday Party!
by Robin Lostetter
Have with you: some tokens of a birthday party -- hats, a large number of candles, colorful napkins, treat bags (filled with heart-shaped candies or messages), or whatever meets the needs of your group
Today is known in the Church as Pentecost. But we know it by another name. Can anyone tell me what that is? (You can give them hints... show a photo of a birthday cake or some of the items you’ve brought, etc. Some of the children will have learned in church school that this is the birthday of the Church, and some churches will have a birthday party theme at coffee hour following worship.)
So if we are going to have a birthday celebration, what do we need? (Their answers, and your props, may include the following)
* a cake
* candles (How many? About 2,000)
* invitations (To whom? Everyone!)
* colorful plates and napkins
* punch (You could even make a reference to wine/grape juice if this is a communion Sunday.)
* songs (You could sing “Happy Birthday” or “I Am the Church, You Are the Church, We Are the Church Together; All Who Follow Jesus, All Around the World, Yes -- We’re the Church Together!”)
* gifts (What we bring for the offering, and offering ourselves -- our talents, our time, our hearts.)
* treat bags (What we take away with us -- love -- in the form of heart-shaped candy or messages.)
Close with a prayer, thanking God for sending the Holy Spirit and starting the Church, and thanking God for your particular church [and for any partner or mission church you’re in relationship with], and for all the churches worldwide.
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
The Immediate Word, May 15, 2016, issue.
Copyright 2016 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.
All rights reserved. Subscribers to The Immediate Word service may print and use this material as it was intended in sermons and in worship and classroom settings only. No additional permission is required from the publisher for such use by subscribers only. Inquiries should be addressed to or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., 5450 N. Dixie Highway, Lima, Ohio 45807.
Team member Chris Keating shares some additional thoughts on we use different, often mutually unintelligible language within different wings/denominations of the church to divide one another and talk past one another (in the same manner as all the different languages present at Pentecost). Chris points out how our church jargon often serves merely to further our divisions rather than our common identity as the unified Body of Christ. It is only when we are open to the workings of the Spirit (rather than focusing on our differences in language and practice) that we are enabled to understand one another -- each in our own languages -- and to sit down together.
All Together Now!
by Dean Feldmeyer
Acts 2:1-21
With Ted Cruz and John Kasich having “suspended” their campaigns, Donald Trump is now the Republican party’s presumptive candidate for president of the United States. Hillary Clinton has a nearly unbeatable mathematical advantage over Bernie Sanders -- and barring a miracle, she will be the candidate of the Democratic party.
All that’s left are the conventions. The Republicans will come together in Cleveland from July 18-21, while the Democrats will gather in Philadelphia from July 25-28.
The big question is “Why?” I seem to remember when the conventions were dramatic affairs, with lots of wheeling and dealing and bargaining and horse-trading to determine who the nominees would be.
Now they are just big celebrations where party enthusiasts traipse out the candidate who has been determined months before in the primaries and the caucuses and bestow upon him/her the mantle of the party’s favor while people throw confetti, release balloons, wear silly hats, whistle, cheer, and act crazy.
Are these big, expensive parties really necessary?
Well, yes, they are.
What the leaders of the political parties know, perhaps instinctively, is that there is much power to be tapped when people come physically together. Being together in one place generates energy.
The very first line of the Pentecost story in the book of Acts reminds us of that truth: “...and they were all together in one place.” It is in that context, set upon that foundation, that the primitive Christian church discovered its great strength.
In the News
There are more kinds of power in numbers than we would often imagine.
* On December 30, 2015, the people of Hamilton, Ohio (just north of Cincinnati) laid to rest 28-year-old firefighter Patrick Wolterman, who was killed in the line of duty when he fell through the floor and into the basement of a burning house.
The people of Hamilton turned out by the hundreds to line the streets as the funeral procession passed by, and more than 3,700 people were in attendance at the memorial service. More than half of those (roughly 2,000 attendees) were firefighters in uniform who came from all over the United States and Canada.
* Last week, Cincinnati firefighter Jordan Pieniazek, 31, was killed on his way to work when a driver crossed the center line and struck Pieniazek, who was riding a motorcycle. The firefighter left a wife and three children, ages 6, 3, and 1.
The crowd at his funeral was not as large as the one for Patrick Wolterman, as Pieniazek was not killed in the line of duty -- but nevertheless, hundreds of firefighters showed up in uniform for the service at Vineyard Church, and even more civilians lined the streets for his procession.
* Dallas police recently released dash-cam footage showing the moment emergency services and bystanders lifted a car off a trapped motorcyclist back in July. When a female motorcyclist collided with a car and became trapped beneath, first responders did not have adequate equipment to shift the car. Police, firefighters, and bystanders collectively lifted the vehicle off the trapped woman, who escaped with only minor injuries.
* About six weeks ago in London, a female pedestrian was hit, run over, and trapped under a taxi just outside the Bank of England. First responders found her alive and tried to make her comfortable while they waited for others to arrive to help them move the taxi off her. But bystander Laura Fares was not about to wait for anyone. She started calling out to passersby and buttonholing men on the street, including a group of ten Spanish tourists, and about 25-30 of them together lifted the taxi off the woman, who was treated for soft tissue damage and released from the hospital later that day.
* On May 5 we observed the National Day of Prayer, which originated in the United States as an official observance on April 17, 1952, when a bill proclaiming an annual National Day of Prayer was unanimously passed by both houses of Congress and signed into law by President Harry S. Truman. The legislation required the president to select a day for national prayer each year.
In 1988 a bill naming the first Thursday of May as the date for the National Day of Prayer was passed by both houses of Congress and signed into law by President Reagan. Upon signing the bill, he said: “On our National Day of Prayer, then, we join together as people of many faiths to petition God to show us his mercy and his love, to heal our weariness and uphold our hope, that we might live ever mindful of his justice and thankful for his blessing.”
Since then, the concept of the National Day of Prayer as a multi-faith event which recognizes the extensive diversity of religious expression in the U.S. has been echoed by each president in their proclamations. For instance, in his 1995 proclamation Bill Clinton said: “I call upon every citizen of this great Nation to gather together on that day to pray, each in his or her own manner, for God’s continued guidance and blessing” [emphasis added].
Coming together in one place is an exercise practiced around the world for sporting events, political rallies, funerals, weddings, worship services, family reunions, rescue efforts, and demonstrations. And we do this because we know, instinctively, that there is power to be found in the coming together of persons united in a common cause -- whether it is the power to lift an automobile off of a wounded person, the power to give comfort to a grieving widow, or the power to influence the governance of countries for changing the course of history.
People who come together in one place have extraordinary power.
In the Scriptures
This Sunday we celebrate Pentecost, which is generally recognized as the birthday of the church of Jesus Christ.
Pentecost was originally a Jewish celebration of the spring harvest. The Hebrew name for the holiday was the Feast of Harvest, and it was sometimes referred to as the Feast of Weeks. Here’s why.
There were two harvest seasons in ancient Palestine. The first harvest was in May, and the second in the autumn (usually around September). The Feast of First Fruits celebrated the beginning of the barley harvest. Fifty days later, the Feast of Harvest celebrated the wheat harvest. (It was called the Feast of Weeks because 50 days equals seven weeks -- so the gap between First Fruits and Harvest was a week of weeks!)
Pentecost (which means 50 days) was the Greek name for the Feast of Harvest or the Feast of Weeks. It was a holiday when the shops and schools were closed, and it was a pilgrim holiday when thousands of people came to Jerusalem to celebrate.
The apostles were in Jerusalem for the same reason everyone else was -- for the party.
The Acts account tells us that “they were all together in one place,” but it doesn’t tell us exactly who “they” were. Historians and sociologists tell us that there were probably about 100-120 followers of “The Way” by this time, so it is unlikely that all of them were in the same house. But a significant number were. Perhaps the “all” just means that all of the followers of Jesus who happened to be in Jerusalem for the feast were together.
At any rate, how many or who exactly they were is not as significant as the fact that they were “all together in one place.” That’s the point here. They were physically together. They were all in the same space.
And it is in this “all together” context that the Holy Spirit is visited upon them with the power of wind and fire. This is the power to speak in a way that can be understood and the power to hear and understand what is spoken.
Speaking and hearing are human activities that are made powerful by the presence of God’s Holy Spirit. And while some will always refuse to hear (“they are filled with new wine”), others will have their ears open and their understanding sharpened by the Spirit in that setting.
The book of Acts keeps a constant tension between two poles. On one end is personal transformation and piety, as in the story of Paul’s conversion on the Damascus Road. The other end is corporate power, as in this story and others where groups of people come together and find themselves struck by grace when people are “together in one place.”
It is a tension that our churches would do well to observe and hold as well.
In the Pulpit
The phrase “spiritual but not religious” has become popular in the last decade or so, and it tends to be used by those who describe themselves as liking to think about spiritual things but privately, without carrying around all the messy baggage that goes along with living in a community of faith.
For the author of Acts, however, the tension between spiritual and religious, private and corporate, is not an either/or proposition. An authentic Christian faith must contain both.
Yes, authenticity in faith requires private spiritual disciplines like prayer and meditation and contemplation, study, reading, and more prayer. But it also requires us to participate in a corporate expression of that faith where people love one another, care for each other, and reach out to the world, together as one.
In fact, the great commandment to “love one another as I have loved you” is virtually impossible to do in solitude. It requires a community of people who need to love and be loved. It requires human beings who are frail and fragile, sinful and fraught with estrangement. If we were all lovable all the time, there would have been no need for the commandment. But as it is, Jesus says that love is a decision -- and decisions aren’t always easy. Decisions often require an act of will and discipline.
Human beings in solitude cannot forgive or be forgiven. Human beings alone cannot share or be shared with. Human beings alone have only themselves to talk to, a dangerous situation to be in when we know that God often speaks in the voices of the people around us.
In solitude there is no voice to hear, and communication is itself superfluous. There is no need of words written or spoken, for there is nothing to be heard or read. When people are together, especially when they are together in one place, communication occurs -- and communication is no mundane thing to be easily dismissed.
So argues Ursula Le Guin in her essay “Telling Is Listening,” from her book The Wave in the Mind: Talks and Essays on the Writer, the Reader, and the Imagination. Musing on Le Guin’s essay, blogger Maria Popova describes the wonder of real human interaction:
Every act of communication is an act of tremendous courage in which we give ourselves over to two parallel possibilities: the possibility of planting into another mind a seed sprouted in ours and watching it blossom into a breathtaking flower of mutual understanding; and the possibility of being wholly misunderstood, reduced to a withering weed. Candor and clarity go a long way in fertilizing the soil, but in the end there is always a degree of unpredictability in the climate of communication -- even the warmest intention can be met with frost. Yet something impels us to hold these possibilities in both hands and go on surrendering to the beauty and terror of conversation, that ancient and abiding human gift. And the most magical thing, the most sacred thing, is that whichever the outcome, we end up having transformed one another in this vulnerable-making process of speaking and listening.
Indeed, Le Guin depicts human communication in a way that sounds not unlike Luke’s description of that first Pentecost: “Words are events, they do things, change things. They transform both speaker and hearer; they feed energy back and forth and amplify it. They feed understanding or emotion back and forth and amplify it.”
This human act of tremendous courage that is communication cannot be undertaken in something so common as e-mail or in something so truncated and dwarfed as Twitter. It cannot be skyped or mailed or texted.
It is high and holy work that must be done face-to-face between humans who are gathered together in one place. Any other way is second-rate at best, merely the exchange of information.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote an entire book on this subject (Life Together), but he summed it all up nicely in just one brief paragraph:
Let him who cannot be alone beware of community.... Let him who is not in community beware of being alone.... Each by itself has profound perils and pitfalls. One who wants fellowship without solitude plunges into the void of words and feelings, and the one who seeks solitude without fellowship perishes in the abyss of vanity, self-infatuation, and despair.
True, authentic Christianity is both spiritual and religious.
SECOND THOUGHTS
How Is It That We Hear?
by Chris Keating
Acts 2:1-21
Violent, rushing winds raced through the church that day, and suddenly everyone was talking. But this was more than just the typical Sunday morning chatter. Rather, the believers were speaking in new and unexpected ways.
Even the visitors from foreign lands could understand what these backwater Galileans were saying. Seized by the sensational cacophony, the Pentecost festival-goers stood gape-mouthed, confused by what had just happened. How is it that they heard -- each in their own language?
The arrival of the Spirit not only gives birth to the church, but creates a community of understanding. The Spirit breaks down barriers between women and men of all nations, birthing community and bridging gaps. The ability to understand one another is key, and suddenly the distance of language is removed.
Instead of talking past each other, they are talking to one another. Seeking some explanation, they turn to Peter and ask: “What does this mean?”
We won’t be welcoming Parthians and Medes this coming Sunday. More than likely, the bus from Elam and Mesopotamia won’t make it either. Most of us will be speaking the same language, but it’s entirely possible that more than a few won’t have a clue what’s being said. Church jargon quickly becomes Bible-babble and insider jabber. The gift of unity eclipses us -- some folks might even think we’ve been sipping that new wine.
Take, for example, the sort of Christianese that falls from the lips of YouTube comics Tripp and Tyler in a video spoof of the things Christians say. It might warm the hearts of some, but just how many people in the world actually use “fellowship” as a verb? And, as Nadia Bolz-Weber suggests, certain phrases in Christian lingo can sound downright creepy, including “we just want to love up on these kids” and calling the lingering joy of worship a holy “afterglow.”
If a visitor from Pontus were to pull up in front your church on Sunday, could they tell the difference between an apse and a narthex? Would they be embarrassed if you asked them to meet you in the nave? Could they find the transept, or would they wander aimlessly around the ambulatory? Our mix of traditions adds to the confusion: one person’s sacristy might well be a Presbyterian’s kitchen.
I grew up around plenty of folks who might prayerfully declare: “Lord, we just ask that you would give traveling mercies to the Smiths. Pour out your special blessings. We just ask that your will be done, for we just want to echo what others have prayed -- that the Smiths would just come to be blessed by you. Just be with them, Lord.” It took me a while to learn that “just-us” prayers were quite different than prayers for justice.
A graduate from a mainline seminary, however, might translate the same prayer in these words: “God of Abram and Sarai, of Ruth and Naomi, of Paul and Barnabas, whose liminal presence is never far from us, whose heart beats in sacred unity of purpose for us, and who leads us to relationally-rich experiences of personhood, be present to the Smiths as they discern the journey which you have called them to undertake, equipping and empowering them in the days ahead.”
Put plainly, our words do not unite us. Seminarians like to explore the a priori nature of theology, or even its socio-relational context. Among other choices, we might be considered systematic¸ feminist, or constructionist theologians. We make no apologetics for deconstructing a pericope in order to ascertain its rhetorical meaning. Others engage in a hermeneutics of suspicion anytime a text is employed in a devotional context. Mainliners love to live missionally, but blessed are those who find more clear ways of explaining what it means to be faithful.
And if you are Catholic, then there is an entirely different set of terms to explore, some of which aren’t even in Latin.
With all the denominational switching that occurs, a former Methodist might be confused by these Presbyterian announcements: “The PW will hold a fund-raiser for the youth group’s trip to the PYT this summer. Also, please consult the new FOG in order to have a better understanding of how the GA’s ACC might interpret the ruling from the PJC. Members of the PNC will meet with the EP and other representatives from the COM today. Finally, those who have purchased copies of the BOC should pay for them ASAP!”
The gaps of language are not only theological, but generational. You may not know what “on fleek” means, but I guarantee most of your youth group does. And if you think “dope” is something bad, or that “bomb” isn’t a compliment, you might take a gander at Urban Dictionary or consult with someone under 25. And as most middle-aged converts to Facebook have now learned, “LOL” does not mean “lots of love.” Finally, if you are unsure what it means to “hook up” with your “bae,” you should consider not saying a word. Really.
SMH.
Is there any way out of this mess? As the Spirit-filled spectacle baffles the crowd, Peter seizes the opportunity to interpret the event. Luke carefully sketches the emergence of the church here as a prophetic community of faith. Rather than sounding like a standup comic by saying something like “I know, right?” Peter addresses the crowd in clear speech. Empowered by the Spirit, he takes the opportunity to interpret the ancient prophet’s words in a way that speaks to the curious and stirred hearts of those who have witnessed the Spirit’s fiery descent.
Peter bears witness to what has happened, and provides a framework for interpreting the event. They are not drunk. It may be five o’clock somewhere, but here in Jerusalem it’s just nine in the morning. Rather, these believers have come to see that when lives are shared in common purpose and prayer, God’s Spirit removes all barriers. Luke began his gospel by insisting that with God all things are possible. Here he continues to marvel at the ways God is at work in the world.
One seminary student described this work as building a “dinner church.” Aisha Ansano notes that in a dinner church, “everyone is invited to come early to help cook and set up... there is singing, sharing, readings, and discussion.” Dinner table talk becomes the bonding together of a sacred community.
How might the noise of Pentecost teach us to speak to each other, rather than past each other? What lessons could we draw from gathering the church into a “dinner church”?
It looks like Mesopotamians speaking to Galileans without translators. It could mean those who sit on the “Gospel side” of the aisle will gain new appreciation for those on the “Epistle side.” It might bridge racial and generational divides, closing gaps the world continues to try and widen. Those who lean to the left will lean a bit more to the right so that they may hear and understand their brothers and sisters.
Given time, this work of the Spirit could push open the doors of the church, going wild across the monolingual divides of our world. A Bernie Sanders supporter will share a cup of Earl Grey with a stalwart Tea Partier. A Muslim will feel at home in a largely Christian neighborhood.
We might begin this by stopping and listening to the noise around us, wondering together: “What does this mean?”
ILLUSTRATIONS
From team member Ron Love:
Acts 2:1-21
You may know actress Diane Guerrero better as Maritza Ramos, the name of her character on the television program Orange Is The New Black. In her autobiography In the Country We Love: My Family Divided, Guerrero tells of the trauma she experienced 15 years ago when she came home from school, only to find her parents were not in the house because they had been arrested as illegal immigrants and were going to be deported back to Colombia. Guerrero, having been born in New Jersey, was allowed to remain. She moved in with friends, but the loss of her parents caused her to become depressed -- and she started to drink heavily and cut herself. Eventually she went into therapy and began attending the Boston Arts Academy. Guerrero said, “The arts were a way to find release.” But her real healing began when she became a social activist for the rights of immigrants. Guerrero said of that choice in her life, “I wasn’t happy, and it was because I wasn’t being political.”
Application: The story of Pentecost is a story of becoming active to carry on the witness and ministry of Jesus. It is only then that we will be happy.
*****
Acts 2:1-21
In a recent interview in People magazine, Prince Harry said that one way he filled the “void” in his life after his mother died in a horrible automobile accident was to serve in the military, with two tours of duty in Afghanistan. Of that experience he said, “I was in a $57 million aircraft and felt helpless at times.” He said the plane would be taking him to a battle incident, but 99% of the time the soldier or civilian was already a casualty before he could arrive with his troops. He would say, “So you have Prince Harry in a $57 million aircraft in a helpless position.”
Application: We often feel helpless; this is why we need to be empowered by the Holy Spirit.
*****
Acts 2:1-21
In the theater, the “fourth wall” refers to the imaginary “wall” between the actor and the audience, as the actor performs on a proscenium stage in a three-walled box. In a recent People magazine interview, Sean Hayes -- the Will & Grace alumnus who is now starring in the play Act of God, in which he portrays God -- talked about the “fourth wall” as he discussed why he enjoys theater more than television. Hayes said, “I enjoy the immediacy of the audience’s reaction. You break down the fourth wall.”
Application: The fourth wall was broken down on the day of Pentecost, because everyone who was gathered was able to speak in the same tongue.
*****
Acts 2:1-21
In a recent interview, Today show co-host Tamron Hall shared a story that she has always kept private -- the 2004 murder of her older sister Renate in their Houston home. Years of being involved in abusive relationships finally caused Renate’s death. Though the crime still remains unsolved, Hall is now talking about it, hoping her story will help others. Tamron Hall said, “For a long time I was hesitant about sharing our story, but... if it means I can save a life and help someone.”
Application: The story of Pentecost is a call for us to share the story of Jesus, and hopefully help someone else in the process.
*****
Romans 8:14-17
Prince Harry, the youngest child of Prince Charles and Princess Diana, recently granted an extensive interview with People magazine. Harry, who is fifth in line for the British throne, was 12 when his mother died in a horrible automobile accident while being chased by paparazzi. Harry said that when his mother died it left a “void,” and now he wants to fill that void with his life. He said, “All I want to do is make my mother incredibly proud. That’s all I ever wanted to do. What would she be thinking nowadays?”
Application: As children of God, we should always be trying to make our heavenly Father proud. We should always be asking ourselves, “What is he thinking of us?”
*****
Romans 8:14-17
In 1990 Madonna set out on her legendary “Blond Ambition” world tour. Now, 25 years later, the documentary Strike a Pose recounts that tour. One dancer said that while hanging out Madonna was a regular person, but then she would look into a mirror and she “instantly morphed into Madonna. She knows how to become a mega-superstar just in a look.”
Application: When we become a child of God, we are not to morph into a superstar but a humble servant. We are not to lose being a regular person.
*****
Romans 8:14-17
A book that has received a lot of media attention recently is Five Presidents by Clint Hill, who shares his experiences as a Secret Service agent guarding five presidents over 17 years. Hill may be best known as the agent on the back of John F. Kennedy’s limousine when the president was shot on November 22, 1963. Hill scrambled into the limousine and placed his body on top of the slain president. In sharing stories from the lives of all five presidents, Hill concludes: “Those men were all completely different -- they were only similar in that they had a large ego.”
Application: To be a child of God does not mean we are to act childish.
*****
John 14:8-17 (25-27)
In his book Five Presidents, former Secret Service agent Clint Hill tells about guarding five presidents. With each president, Hill came to realize that the common thing about the new chief executives was that “none of them had any idea what would confront them when they took the oath of office.”
Application: The coming of the Holy Spirit is to prepare us and guide us into the unknown future.
*****
John 14:8-17 (25-27)
A recent article looking back on the life of actress Patty Duke recounted how Duke, who was born in 1946, found herself in a dysfunctional family. Her alcoholic father deserted the family when she was six, and her mother handed her off to two callous theatrical agents. John and Ethel Ross were abusive, controlling, and manipulative. Because of that horrific experience, Duke never learned proper nurturing skills. This is why she acknowledged she was a terrible parent. Patty Duke said, “I was truly a loving mom, but I didn’t have the tools to do the job.”
Application: We have been given the Advocate so we will have the spiritual tools to do our job.
*****
John 14:8-17 (25-27)
The man who introduced us to a generation of singing stars has bidden us farewell. Ryan Seacrest recently hosted the final episode of American Idol, which first aired in 2002. Reflecting on those years, Seacrest said adjusting to live television was one of the most difficult challenges for him. Seacrest said, “It took a few seasons before I embraced the fact that it was a big live show and things were not always going to be perfect.”
Application: Things are not always going to be perfect for us, but we will always have the Advocate to guide us.
***************
From team member Robin Lostetter:
Power in Community
This image, which is often used for union organizing or for class action lawsuits, has always intrigued me, separate from those connotations. From an early age, children learn that even the playground bully can be handled by a group of sufficient numbers.
The first verse of Acts 2 describes the setting in which the Holy Spirit has the context in which to act decisively to share the message across cultural boundaries: “they were all together in one place.”
Although each one of us has the potential for a numinous experience, we recognize that the Spirit moves very effectively within a gathering of the faithful. In this case, the power of the words was fiery! With the collective energy and power of the community, the early church has given us a blueprint for how to act powerfully today -- through community action. When the Body of Christ acts cooperatively, recognizing Paul’s words in 1 Corinthians 12 where the eyes, ears, head, hands, and feet are not in competition but each contribute their own gifts, the Church is most effective. (In the little fish diagram, this would translate to eye and fin and tail!)
*****
“Christian” Language?
In his May 3, 2016 Daily Show monologue, Trevor Noah demonstrated a deep chasm between the language of the Christian community and that of “secular Christianity.”
At 5:50 in the clip linked above, Rev. Rafael Cruz (Ted Cruz’s father) states, “I implore, I exhort, every member of the Body of Christ, to vote according to the word of God...”
Trevor Noah comments on this at 6:09: “Wow. Every member of the Body of Christ? OK. I mean, I would’ve just said ‘Christians,’ please vote for Ted Cruz.’ I mean, you didn’t have to go into body parts -- it just made it weird. ‘I exhort the inner thigh of Christ to vote for my son, Ted Cruz! And also the weird little middle toe, with the hair on it. I exhort all of it.’ ”
Besides a linguistic divide, this points to the growing number of unchurched in our so-called “Christian” country, and the reality of post-Christianity. Within the Church, the “Body of Christ” has a specific meaning: for the community of faith it is the human manifestation of Jesus Christ’s presence in the world -- the body or organism that is able to continue the ministry begun by Jesus of Nazareth, and for the sacramental or liturgical branches of the Church, able to manifest, evoke, or symbolize the mystical presence of Christ. Paul does refer to body parts, metaphorically, as the hand, eye, ear, hand, head, or foot (1 Corinthians 12:14-27). But his reference is to major functions within the whole body, not equating individuals as a middle toe or inner thigh. The humor of Noah’s joke demonstrates that the symbolic, metaphoric, and communitarian meaning of the phrase is completely lost on his general audience.
WORSHIP RESOURCES
by George Reed
Call to Worship
Leader: O God, how manifold are your works!
People: In wisdom, you have created them all.
Leader: We will sing to God as long as we live.
People: We will sing praise to our God while we have being.
Leader: May our meditation be pleasing to God, in whom we rejoice.
People: Let our souls bless God. Praise be to our God!
OR
Leader: Come and worship the God of all creation.
People: Praise and glory be to our God and Savior.
Leader: Come and share with one another God’s sweet Spirit.
People: God’s Spirit fills us and fills the spaces between us.
Leader: Share God’s love and grace with others.
People: We will take God’s loving grace to all we meet.
Hymns and Sacred Songs
“All Creatures of Our God and King”
found in:
UMH: 62
H82: 400
PH: 455
AAHH: 147
NNBH: 33
NCH: 17
CH: 22
LBW: 527
ELA: 835
W&P: 23
AMEC: 50
STLT: 203
Renew: 47
“Many and Great, O God”
found in:
UMH: 148
H82: 385
PH: 271
NCH: 3
CH: 58
ELA: 837
W&P: 26
“The Church’s One Foundation”
found in:
UMH: 545, 546
H82: 525
PH: 442
AAHH: 337
NNBH: 297
NCH: 386
CH: 272
LBW: 369
ELA: 654
W&P: 544
AMEC: 519
“In Christ There Is No East or West”
found in:
UMH: 548
H82: 529
PH: 439, 440
AAHH: 398, 399
NNBH: 299
NCH: 394, 395
CH: 687
LBW: 259
ELA: 630
W&P: 600, 603
AMEC: 557
“Where Charity and Love Prevail”
found in:
UMH: 549
H82: 581
NCH: 396
LBW: 126
ELA: 359
“Christ for the World We Sing”
found in:
UMH: 568
H82: 537
W&P: 561
AMEC: 565
Renew: 299
“Lord, Whose Love Through Humble Service”
found in:
UMH: 581
H82: 610
PH: 427
CH: 461
LBW: 423
ELA: 712
W&P: 575
Renew: 286
“Sweet, Sweet Spirit”
found in:
UMH: 334
AAHH: 326
NNBH: 127
NCH: 293
CH: 261
W&P: 134
AMEC: 196
CCB: 7
“We Are One in Christ Jesus”
found in:
CCB: 43
“Surely the Presence of the Lord”
found in:
CCB: 1
Renew: 167
“As We Gather”
found in:
CCB: 12
Renew: 6
Music Resources Key:
UMH: United Methodist Hymnal
H82: The Hymnal 1982 (The Episcopal Church)
PH: Presbyterian Hymnal
AAHH: African-American Heritage Hymnal
NNBH: The New National Baptist Hymnal
NCH: The New Century Hymnal
CH: Chalice Hymnal
LBW: Lutheran Book of Worship
ELA: Evangelical Lutheran Worship
W&P: Worship & Praise
AMEC: African Methodist Episcopal Church Hymnal
STLT: Singing the Living Tradition
CCB: Cokesbury Chorus Book
Renew: Renew! Songs & Hymns for Blended Worship
Prayer for the Day / Collect
O God who created us as one people and one family: Grant us the grace to come together to be your children, finding more in unity than in diversity; through Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.
OR
We praise you, O God, for creating us as one people. You made us all from the same dust of the earth. You filled us all with your Spirit, life, and breath. So fill us with your Spirit that we may find the unity with which you have created us. Amen.
Prayer of Confession
Leader: Let us confess to God and before one another our sins, and especially our reluctance to come together in one place.
People: We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. We become so busy that we find ourselves doing other things rather than gathering together for worship. Because you are present with us everywhere, we say we can worship anywhere. And while we can be in meditation and reflection, we can’t duplicate the experience of worshiping with our sisters and brothers. You created us for community, and when we forsake that coming together we are spiritually poorer for it. Forgive us, and call us back together that we may find your blessing in our corporate worship. Amen.
Leader: It is good and pleasant when God’s people are together in worship. Receive God’s love, and share it with those who worship with you as well as with the world.
Prayers of the People (and the Lord’s Prayer)
Praise and glory are yours, O God, for you have called us together into your presence. In faithfulness you come to meet us and dwell among us.
(The following paragraph may be used if a separate prayer of confession has not been used.)
We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. We become so busy that we find ourselves doing other things rather than gathering together for worship. Because you are present with us everywhere, we say we can worship anywhere. And while we can be in meditation and reflection, we can’t duplicate the experience of worshiping with our sisters and brothers. You created us for community, and when we forsake that coming together we are spiritually poorer for it. Forgive us, and call us back together that we may find your blessing in our corporate worship.
We thank you for all your blessings. We thank you for the blessings that we receive through one another as we share in times of worship, discernment, and service. We thank you that we are not alone but are bound together with one another, sharing the same Spirit.
(Other thanksgivings may be offered.)
We pray for one another in our need, and especially today for those who feel isolated and alone. We pray that our loving community may be a beacon to others, calling them to join with you and others as one people. Help us not to babble but to learn to speak with another in truth and in love.
(Other intercessions may be offered.)
All these things we ask in the name of our Savior Jesus Christ, who taught us to pray together, saying:
Our Father . . . Amen.
(or if the Lord’s Prayer is not used at this point in the service)
All this we ask in the Name of the Blessed and Holy Trinity. Amen.
Children’s Sermon Starter
Say to the children, “Let’s play a game of tag.” Then tell each one that they are “it,” and have them go to a separate place -- thus sending each child to play the game alone. Of course, that won’t work. Then call the children back together and talk about how we can do some things by ourselves, but other things require us to be together. We can always pray alone. We can sing alone. We can talk to God alone. But we can’t really worship God unless we are together.
CHILDREN’S SERMON
We’re Going to Throw a Birthday Party!
by Robin Lostetter
Have with you: some tokens of a birthday party -- hats, a large number of candles, colorful napkins, treat bags (filled with heart-shaped candies or messages), or whatever meets the needs of your group
Today is known in the Church as Pentecost. But we know it by another name. Can anyone tell me what that is? (You can give them hints... show a photo of a birthday cake or some of the items you’ve brought, etc. Some of the children will have learned in church school that this is the birthday of the Church, and some churches will have a birthday party theme at coffee hour following worship.)
So if we are going to have a birthday celebration, what do we need? (Their answers, and your props, may include the following)
* a cake
* candles (How many? About 2,000)
* invitations (To whom? Everyone!)
* colorful plates and napkins
* punch (You could even make a reference to wine/grape juice if this is a communion Sunday.)
* songs (You could sing “Happy Birthday” or “I Am the Church, You Are the Church, We Are the Church Together; All Who Follow Jesus, All Around the World, Yes -- We’re the Church Together!”)
* gifts (What we bring for the offering, and offering ourselves -- our talents, our time, our hearts.)
* treat bags (What we take away with us -- love -- in the form of heart-shaped candy or messages.)
Close with a prayer, thanking God for sending the Holy Spirit and starting the Church, and thanking God for your particular church [and for any partner or mission church you’re in relationship with], and for all the churches worldwide.
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
The Immediate Word, May 15, 2016, issue.
Copyright 2016 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.
All rights reserved. Subscribers to The Immediate Word service may print and use this material as it was intended in sermons and in worship and classroom settings only. No additional permission is required from the publisher for such use by subscribers only. Inquiries should be addressed to or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., 5450 N. Dixie Highway, Lima, Ohio 45807.
