Immediate Word

• The Holy Scripture is No Cob Job by Mary Austin -- The Pentecost story in Acts is really a story about miscommunication -- and God’s investment in understanding.
• Can these malls live? by Chris Keating -- This Pentecost, take a moment to listen to Ezekiel. Watch as he maneuvers through the valley of dried up bones. Then begin to wonder, “Can these bones live again?”
• Sermon illustrations by Ron Love, Dean Feldmeyer and Tom Willadsen.
• Worship resources by George Reed that focus unity in spite of our differences; new life.
• Using Your Voice -- Children's sermon by Bethany Peerbolt -- The disciples’ experience of being filled with the spirit and suddenly being able to speak other languages is a great way to show how everyone has their own voice given to them by God.

The Holy Spirit is No Cob Job
by Mary Austin
Acts 2:1-21

As the parent of a teenager, I sometimes have to turn to the Urban Dictionary to understand what’s being said at the dinner table. It feels like learning another language – but one that I should never actually attempt to speak, lest I get it dramatically, embarrassingly wrong. Certain words have been banned outright including “totes,” and “adorbs.”  My husband recently admitted to signing his texts to this same teenager with LOL, thinking he was conveying “lots of love.” Um, no. Even speaking standard English in the same family, parents think they’re saying one thing, and teenagers hear a different message altogether. Move out of the family, and into the world, and the opportunities for miscommunication multiply.

The Pentecost story in Acts is really a story about miscommunication – and God’s investment in understanding. In a cosmopolitan city, with people from so many different nations, there are dozens of languages being spoken in a cloud of discordant sound. The Spirit arrives, and gives the untaught disciples the ability to speak in the languages of the people around them. Adding to the mystery, the people watching the arrival of the Spirit misunderstand what they’re seeing.  They blame spirits, instead of seeing the work of the Spirit.

Language can unite, or divide, us – or both at the same time. God doesn’t care much that we speak the exact same language, but is deeply concerned that people understand both the holy and one another. We seek sameness of language, even when we know it’s impossible, and all the while God is seeking deeper understanding between us.

In the Scriptures
With the gift of so many languages, God reveals (again) that God is not interested in making us all the same. Instead, God invests divine energy in building bridges between us. Instead of getting the bystanders to all understand the same language, the Spirit reaches out in a gesture of hospitality, and allows each person to understand in the language that’s comfortable for them. The Spirit reveals herself to be the universal translator! In the same way that God has worked since the creation, God opts for variety. God chooses to keep the many languages and customs of the early church, instead of shaping everyone into the same language. 

Pentecost, fifty days after Easter, is often called the birthday of the Christian church. This story gives us a parallel to the opening of Luke’s gospel, and to the birth of Jesus. The Spirit that broods over the water at Creation makes her appearance here, too. This new birth is only starting with the church. Building on the prophecy of Joel, Peter is announcing a whole new age. 

This is a gift with purpose. Tongues “as of fire” appear over their heads, signifying the gift of the Spirit. By the power of that Spirit, Jews from the all over the world, gathered in Jerusalem for Shavuot, the Festival of Weeks, hear about God’s grace in the languages of foreign lands. This is not just the birthday of the church, but the sending out of the community into the world. The people who have been gathering in locked rooms are given a gift to connect them with the rest of the world, and are sent out into it.   

In the World
Language is a means of unity in the Spirit breaks in with this gift. We need language for important things in life, and yet the words are never quite enough for the most deeply important topics.

A hugely painful article in the New York Times reveals the miscommunication involved between college students as they negotiate the tricky territory of sexuality and consent. It’s hard to get words and feelings to match up – to say what we really want to say. As one woman remembers, “The first time I had sex, the implication was that I would say yes. Not because I had to under some form of coercion, but simply because it was the polite, lady-like thing to do.” Another woman shares, “Here is what you say: “No, no, no, no. Do I have to? Please stop.” Here is what you can never forget that you finally say: “It’s fine.”

Race is another area where we find it hard to speak the same language. In an interview with Krista Tippett, scholar and author John Powell said that “race is like gravity. And I like to use that metaphor, because — what scientists say is, all of us have weight. And so we would think we might all be experts in gravity, but scientists say there are probably 12 people in the world that really understand gravity. And I would say, there's only a few more in the world that understand race, but it's actually incredibly complex, once we start peeling it back.” Powell adds, “I'm old enough to have been born “colored.” And then I became a “negro.” And then I became “black.” And then I became “African-American.” And then I became “afro.” And people are just, now, confused — “So, what are we?” And part of the confusion — and each of those terms are significant. But also, race is deeply relational. And it's interesting, if you go back and think about how “whiteness” was early defined in America, it was defined largely as “not-black”.”

Powell notes that we don’t have the right language to talk about race, and so we try not to. “So one of the things about language is, language is never quite right, but neither is not-language.”

The words we use for race try to illuminate, and often end up dividing us. “White privilege” sounds like an attack to some white people, and just simply a description of reality to people of color. Who is actually the more dangerous person when white people call the police about black or Native American people who are taking a campus tour or taking a nap?
As a US embassy opens in Jerusalem, evangelical Christian and peace activists, Jews and Palestinians, all seem to be speaking different languages about the move. For their part, evangelical Christians are praising the move by the President. “Millions of evangelical eyes were on Trump, waiting to see if he would keep his campaign promise to move the embassy, longtime Pastor John Hagee told Fox News ahead of the president's official announcement. "I can assure you that 60 million evangelicals are watching this promise closely because if President Trump moves the embassy into Jerusalem, he will historically step into immortality," Hagee said.” The embassy opening came amid Palestinian protests along the Gaza border, as Israeli soldiers killed more than 50 Palestinian protesters, and injured several thousand others. While some rejoice at the symbolic move (the former embassy in Tel Aviv remains open, and the ambassador will work from that building part of the time) others see it as an act of aggression.   Both “the Palestinians and the Israelis claim Jerusalem as their capital, and the city contains sites sacred to both Jews and Muslims…The international community considers East Jerusalem occupied territory. But that half of the city also contains sites holy to all three major monotheistic religions, including the Western Wall, the holiest place in the world where Jews can openly pray, and Haram al-Sharif, Arabic for “the Noble Sanctuary,” a sacred site for Muslims that Israelis refer to as the Temple Mount. The Palestinians want to officially divide the city and make East Jerusalem the capital of a future Palestinian state. The Israelis disagree…” In Jerusalem right now, no one understands the language of the others. 

In the Sermon
The people in the original crowd listening in Jerusalem, hearing the followers of Jesus speaking in their own languages, are bewildered, amazed and astonished. They are willing to be perplexed, and even surprised. Almost in spite of themselves, they are drawn in. The sermon might look at where we allow ourselves to be drawn into God’s story, willingly or in spite of ourselves. Where do we set aside rational thought and let ourselves be amazed by God?

There are so many languages represented in that busy street in Jerusalem. It’s almost as if the world has come to the disciples, calling them out into it. The sermon might look at how, we, as people of faith, go out into the world. What languages do we need to learn to speak, by God’s grace, to communicate with teenagers? Muslims? Atheists? Refugees? People with backgrounds different from our own?

The sound of the rushing wind must have been incredibly loud to draw a crowd. The story tells us that the sound fills the house where the disciples are staying.  How, then, do they end up out in the street, where everyone can see and hear them? Does the excitement move them out? Does the sound become too noisy? The sermon might look at that kind of movement in our own lives, or even the life of a faith community.

The people gathered in Jerusalem hear in their own languages. What’s our language for God? Does God speak to us in the language of creating something with yarn or fabric or wood? Or in the language of conversation in coffee shops? Or in the language of music? The sermon might explore the languages where we hear God speak to us.

Scholar John Powell says that language can shift us out of our isolation. “And there was a period of time when I was feeling really overwhelmed with a lot of this stuff. And I was talking to my dad, and I said, “Dad, this is just too much. I can’t do it all. I'm trying to do all of this stuff by myself.” And he looked at me; he said, “Well, john, you know you're not alone.” And I said, “Well, what do you mean, Dad?” He said, “Well, you got God with you.” And I realized, although I don’t organize around God in the way that he does, my mistake was, I thought I had to do it; that “I” was defining it, instead of “we.” In the Acts text, we also see language as vehicle to move people out of isolation.

This story from Acts, with the fire and wind and speech, reminds us of the energy God uses to communicate with humankind. God goes to extraordinary lengths to keep communicating with us, inattentive and reluctant as we are. The Pentecost story is another chapter in the long history of God’s extravagant communication. If God spends that much time and energy on communication, surely we, made in the divine image, have the same obligation.


SECOND THOUGHTS
Can these malls live?
by Chris Keating
Ezekiel 37:1-14

Chesterfield Mall, located in an upscale St. Louis, MO suburb, is nearly smack-dab in the middle of four million square feet of retail space. With its tony subdivisions and blue-chip properties, the area appears to be a retailer’s goldmine. That’s partly true. Just down the street, several large lifestyle centers down the street are booming, leaving the once venerable mall to look a bit like a valley of dry bones.

The St. Louis mall is a snapshot of what is happening to retail spaces across the country. The aging center’s 1.3 million square feet of space no longer attracts the right mix of customers. Online shopping has steered more customers away from brick and mortar stores. So far in 2018, the United States is on pace to hit a record number of empty storefronts. In fact, while 2017 produced more than 105 million square feet of shuttered retail space, the first four months of 2018 has seen more than 90 million square feet of space vacated space.

That’s a lot of empty food courts. One can almost hear the accounting departments of major retailers tallying up figures and saying, “Can these malls live?” The citadels of commerce are ripe for repurposing.

One economist noted recently, “At what point in time do we realize the retail party is over and how quickly do we readjust?” As more space becomes available, retailers might consider deploying fictional mall cop Paul Blart on his Segway to scout out new possibilities.

Imagine Ezekiel, peering over the mezzanine level of a shopping mall. Gone are the sculpted mannequins of Aeropostale, Abercrombie, and American Eagle (what one critic called the mall’s “teen-friendly, Big A triple threat. Sbarro Pizza is no more, and the remaining department stores are gasping. As the midline of American shopping experiences has shifted, it has left behind these relics.

But then imagine Ezekiel standing in the middle of a grand sanctuary whose membership has been declining since 1978. A facility built for a thousand now welcomes a few hundred. Or less. As these realities confront our congregations, they are also faced the same questions faced by mall developers: how can this space live again? What will the repurposing of church space be like?

Commercial centers have been undergoing transformation for some time. Empty malls have been repurposed into hospitals, fitness centers, office spaces and more for years. Mars Hill Bible Church, a Grand Rapids, MI megachurch once led by Rob Bell, moved into an empty mall in 2000. In the process, the church nicknamed its department store-turned sanctuary into “the hanger” because the space was big enough to park an airplane. It’s not just megachurches that are resuscitating malls, however. Others have become apartment buildings, community colleges, and corporate headquarters. Some are even being used as urban farms.

The shift is significant: what Time magazine once called America’s “pleasure domes with parking,” could become essential community spaces. Consumer palaces could become centers of spiritual, educational, and physical transformation. The potential for these big public spaces is enormous. The same is true for the church.

Kudus to evangelical leaders for embracing creative new possibilities. Yet there are only so many churches that can fill a million square feet of space. The transition from communities overstocked with empty retail centers for complexes offering spiritual, physical, or mental fitness begs a deeper question: how can these structures embody hope?

Put another way, if worshiping the gods of consumerism has left us feeling null and void, and if even these vaulted temples of consumerism have become nothing but a valley of dried up bones, can the church help a more compelling—and life changing—word of hope to emerge?

Note what happened in 2004, when a president of a Catholic school board in Waukegan, IL went searching for a new location for his school. After losing one deal, Preston Kendall spotted a former K-Mart store. It took some selling on his part, but eventually his board agreed and committed to the site. The big box space became a blank canvas for the architects. Today, the Cristo Rey high school, which serve predominantly students of color, has a gleaming building of 55,000 square feet. Most importantly, 98 percent of its graduates enroll in college, with 60 percent earning a bachelor’s degree.

Kendall looked at the valley of dry bones. And then he told his architects “Don’t build us a high school. Our kids are going to work. They’re going to college. Build us some cross between a corporate headquarters and a college campus.”

Instead of tolerating a decaying eyesore, communities are beginning to imagine how new life might reshape these properties.  Instead of looking at dried up bones, communities are imagining hope.

Apply the same question to our congregational spaces. Allow Ezekiel to help reimagine what it would be like to let the breath of God reconfigure our physical spaces for mission in a new day and time.

Think of what that sort of conversation might mean for our own congregations this Pentecost. So often our denominational meetings are characterized by staring at valleys of dried up bones. We try to camouflage ourselves behind legacies as obsolete as dime stores and soda fountains. We see reports about shrinking attendance, dwindling budgets, parking lots emptier than the local mall on a Wednesday night. Our oversized facilities require more and more maintenance paid for by fewer and fewer members.

This Pentecost take a moment to listen to Ezekiel. Watch as he moves around the cluttered rows of skeletal remains. Then listen for the whispering breath of God that says to us, “I will put my spirit within you, and you shall live, and I will place you on your own soil.” Wait as that vision moves beyond death into new life.

Ezekiel does not accept the notion that hope is gone. Salvation comes not from the Empire (or from Walmart) but from Yahweh. God challenges Ezekiel to begin imagining how these old bones might be revivified. As the breath of God falls upon the community, skeletal remains are clothed and reconfigured, ligaments grow anew, sinews bind signs of hope. God’s breath brings the assurance of Pentecost, and awakens these hapless, seemingly hopeless structures into new life.


ILLUSTRATIONS

From team member Ron Love:

Visions
Kathleen Parker is a regular columnist for The Washington Post. She lives in Camden, South Carolina, from where she does most of her writing. Camden is South Carolina’s oldest inland resort city. Decades ago it was a popular city for Northerners to spend the winter. As such, Camden became a luxurious resort settlement. Raising and training race horses became a part of the city’s culture, as it still is today. Parker affirmed, from what she has learned about raising horses in Camden, that it was good to withhold racing Justify until he was three-years-old. Justify won the Kentucky Derby, running as a three-year-old in a field of nineteen other horses that were a year younger. It is not healthy for a two-year-old to race as their bones have not yet fully developed, thus they are susceptible to injuries. Justify trainer, Bob Baffert, allowed Justify an extra year to mature. Kathleen Parker was concerned about the inhumane way that injured and losing horses are disposed of, many of them being a young two-year-old. The United States does not permit the slaughtering of horses, so those animals that are discarded are sent to Mexico or Canada. Each year, 130,000 horses, 10,000 of them thoroughbreds, are transported to our neighboring countries. The horses are crammed into trucks or trailers, for more than 24-hours without food or water. On method of killing the is by an electric shock. Parker concluded her op-ed piece by reporting on Temple Grandin. Grandin is an animal science professor at Colorado State University. Parker emphasized that Grandin is autistic. Autism allows Grandin to see life visually, as farm animals do. With autism giving her ability to see the pain of horses, she developed a humanitarian why to slaughter horses absent of pain or fear. But, her system has yet to be adopted.

Application: With special gifts, and especially with great sensitivity, we can have visions. The same as when visons occurred on the Day of Pentecost.

* * *

Holy Spirit
Roman Polanski won an Academy Award for his 2003 film The Pianist. Polanski is also a fugitive from justice. Having been convicted in 1977 for unlawful sex with a minor, he fled from the United States in 1978 before sentencing. He now resides in his native country of Poland. In a recent interview, Polanski has called the #MeToo moment as a “collective hysteria of the kind that sometimes happens in society.” The 84-year-old director, and a fugitive for 40 years, does not understand, or does not want to admit, the meaning of sexual abuse, or in his case, statutory rape.

Application: The Holy Spirit can only speak the truth to those who are willing to listen to the truth.

* * *

Vision
In the newspaper comic Beetle Bailey, we have Beetle, “Killer” Diller and Zero sitting on a park bench. Beetle is reading the comic page of his local newspaper and asks, “What’s your favorite comic strip?” Private Diller answers “Hagar.” Private Zero answers ‘Family Circus.” Beetle, upset, turns to them and in an angry voice questions, “Not THIS one?” Of course, he was referring to the daily comic Beetle Bailey, in which he stars. Diller, with a very confused look on his face, answers, “We can’t see it if we we’re in it!”

Application: It is often difficult to see and then discern a vision.

* * *

Life
David Goodall, a 104-year-old Australian, has traveled to Switzerland for medically assisted suicide. He is healthy for a man of his age, he has no terminal illness but only some vison, hearing and mobility troubles that come naturally with aging. Goodall cheerfully sang a few bars of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony as he held an interview with reporters. In Australia, as in most countries, medically assisted suicide is illegal. But in Switzerland all a person needs to do is sign a paper that they are taking their lives willingly, and others are not forcing it on them for “selfish” reasons. Hundreds of people with terminal illnesses come to Switzerland each year, but now those who are old and healthy are coming for medically assisted suicide. This is becoming a concern for the political leaders of Switzerland who do not want their county to be known as the ultimate final tourist destination. Basel City Councilwoman Annemarie Pfeifer said, “We must be very careful with life. It’s not good for my city if Basel has a reputation as a city of death.” It is hoped that the law can be changed so that only the terminally ill may participate in a medically assisted suicide.

Application: Our lectionary readings discuss the breath of God as breathing life into individuals. Let us hope that the political leaders of Switzerland, and the elderly who are healthy, come to an understanding of the meaning of the breath of life.

* * *

Worldly
Gina Haspel is President Trump’s nomination to be the CIA Director. Although Haspel has 33-years of experience with the agency, her confirmation is in doubt. This is because, under the Bush administration, she was the chief of a covert detention site in Thailand that used torture as an interrogation technique on terrorist suspects. She did this especially by following the commands of Bush’s vice-president, Dick Cheney. When Haspel was asked if she would follow every command given by Trump, she replied that her “strong moral compass” would prevent her from carrying out any presidential order that she found objectionable. She also said she would not permit torture.

Application: One has to wonder where Haspel’s “strong moral compass” was while serving Bush and Cheney. We are cautioned by Jesus not to live in this world, but instead our orientation is to live in the kingdom of God.

* * *

Worldly
Spotify has removed R. Kelly’s music from its playlists. Spotify has done this in accordance with its new policy of not allowing hate content or an artist who is engaged in hateful conduct. The R&B superstar has been confronted with allegations that he has sexually abused women for decades. Kelly was recently dropped from a concert in his hometown of Chicago. Spotify’s new policy does consider a musician’s behavior, as well as the content of his music. The policy defines hateful conduct as “something that is especially harmful or hateful.” The policy stated that “we don’t believe in censoring content because of an artist’s or creator’s behavior,” but the policy went on to read, “in some circumstances, when an artist or creator does something that is especially harmful or hateful (for example, violence against children and sexual violence), it may affect the ways we work with or support that artist or creator.”

Application: R. Kelly lives in this world. He does not have his daily living focused on what it means to be a part of the Kingdom of God.

* * *

Pentecost
Matthew Willey just completed a mural of 400 honeybees in Lake City, South Carolina. He has painted murals of honeybees in Asheville, North Carolina; central Florida; Seattle, Washington; Lyons, Nebraska and in a Broadway dressing room. Willey has painted more than 2,600 bees around the nation, with the goal of painting a total of 50,000 individual bees. That is the number of honeybees needed for a healthy and thriving hive. He is calling his project “The Good of the Hive.” Willey, in studying bees, learned that a bee’s immune system is not measured in one, but as the hive collectively. Willey said, “I’m using the idea of the hive as a metaphor to show balance in the community.” The painting of bees, Willey said, is a way to “get people’s attention” and show them that each community relies on one another.

Application: Pentecost was the day the church learned that it was a community.

* * *

Pentecost
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, and South Korean President Moon Jae-in, desire to foster better relations between their two countries. The longtime rivals, at their recent summit meeting, discussed the desire to “become one.” At that meeting Kim pledged to do away with “Pyongyang Time,” which he has done since leaving the conclave. The Koreans used the same time zone for decades before North Korea in 2015 created its own “Pyongyang Time.” They did this be setting their clocks 30 minutes behind South Korea and Japan. North Korea did this to root out the legacy of Tokyo’s 1910 to 1954 colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula, when the clocks were changed to be the same as Japan.

Application: The unity displayed on the Day of Pentecost puts all Christians in the same time zone.

* * *

Visions
Melania Trump recently began her public awareness campaign to help children. She called her initiative “Be Best.” In her Rose Garden announcement, the first lady said the program will focus on childhood well-being, social media use and opioid abuse. Standing at the podium, she addressed those who gathered saying, “As a mother and as first lady, it concerns me that in today’s fast-paced and ever-connected world, children can be less prepared to express or manage their emotions and oftentimes turn to forms of destructive or addictive behavior such as bullying, drug addiction or even suicide.” Mrs. Trump went on to say, “Social media is too often used in negative ways, but when children learn positive behavior early on, it can be used in productive ways. We have the responsibility to educate and remind when they use their voices to choose their words wisely and speak with respect and kindness.” Mrs. Trump then offered a challenge to parents, “I feel strongly that as adults, we can and should ‘be best’ at educating our children about the importance of a healthy and balanced life.” After the first lady finished her speech, President Trump then signed a proclamation declaring Monday’s as “Be Best” day.

Application: We can have a vison for a better future.

* * *

Testimony
In the newspaper comic Ziggy, we have this non-descript character with a big nose, no pants, who represents everyone and everybody who struggles with the daily adversities of life. Recently in the newspaper Ziggy, with his arms down to his side and with a distressed look on his face, says, “I wonder if I’d be this HUMBLE…if I ever did anything worth bragging about!”

Application: Having been with the Lord, we offer a testimony to his life and teachings. A sincere testimony requires humility.

* * * * * *

Illustrations/observations from team member Tom Willadsen:

Ezekiel 37:1-14, John 15:26-27, Psalm 104:24-34, 35b, Acts 2:1-21, 2
The Ezekiel lesson is dramatic and even ghastly. It recalls “Dem Dry Bones,” by James Weldon Johnson, who also wrote “Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing.”

Ezekiel’s word is that there will not just be renewal, but resurrection, even though the valley the prophet sees is filled with bones. The Lord commands the prophet to prophesy to the bones. Then, with the breath of the Holy Spirit, the bones are reassembled, rattling together and joined with sinews and flesh. They are not alive until Ezekiel prophesies to the breath and it comes into the bones; they stand on their feet, a vast multitude.

In the next paragraph, starting at verse 11, the Lord promises the now standing, living bones, that the graves where their ancestors’ bones lie will be opened and the dead will come back to life and they will live in peace after being returned to the land of Israel.

This scene is eerily parallel to at least two others, moments when societies were threatened with extinction, who sought deliverance, and hope in the belief that their dead ancestors would come back to life.

At Masada, the mesa top fortress where Jews fled during the First Jewish-Roman War, a total of more than 900 believers committed suicide rather than be subjected to Roman rule. Archaeologists found scroll fragments of Deuteronomy 33-34, Moses’ blessing to the tribes of Israel and the account of his death, and Ezekiel 35-38, promises of cleansing, unity and deliverance to the people, hidden in a pit dug into the floor of a small room in the synagogue. Certainly they drew hope from these texts as they realized their situation was hopeless.

An eerily similar event happened in 1890 among Lakota tribe members near Wounded Knee, South Dakota. The tribes were facing starvation after a poor harvest due to drought and a 50 % reduction of their rations by the Federal government. An influential member of the Paiute tribe, based in what is the State of Nevada today, Wovoka began a renewal movement among native Americans of all tribes, centered on what became known as The Ghost Dance.

Part of his prophesy, as recorded in Dee Brown’s Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, reads
All Indians must dance, everywhere, keep on dancing. Pretty soon in next spring Great Spirit come. He bring back all game of every kind. The game be thick everywhere. All dead Indians come back and live again. (Italics mine)

Both societies were facing extermination and found hope in the prophecy that their dead will return to life.

Alas, the renewal movement in South Dakota in 1890 caused fear and anxiety among the Federal troops stationed there. This fear, along with many long-standing conflicts and miscommunication led to the massacre of deaths of 150 Lakota, and 51 more wounded.
This story does not end in a hopeful deliverance and resurrection.  It may unlock the Ezekiel lesson in a way for American Protestant to hear some voices of a people long silenced.

OK, I’ve got one more insight/illustration for you this week. Did you notice how profoundly political this morning’s Psalm is? Psalm 104 was probably the basis for the first creation story, Genesis 1:1-2:4a. The sequence of events in the texts is nearly identical. While the psalmist is waxing eloquent on the wisdom of the Creator and the beauty of creation, he gets in this dig at their neighbors.

Yonder is the sea, great and wide,
   Creeping thins innumerable are there,
     Living things both small and great.
     There go the ships,
And Leviathan that you formed to sport in it. [vv. 25-26]

“Leviathan” can be imagined as a crocodile, great whale or sea monster. Leviathan are big, strong, scary sea creatures. It was also known as Tiamat to the Babylonians, a serpent goddess whom Marduk, defeated in battle. Then, Marduk split Tiamat’s body, thus creating heaven and earth.

“Hey Babylonians! Are you listening? Your big, mighty world-sized god, well our god, the one who made everything, made lots of your god to play with in the ocean! Boom! Drop the mike! Your god is a tub toy for our god!”

When little children ask the pastor whether there are dinosaurs in the Bible, remember when you were five years old and God and dinosaurs were the coolest and scariest things you could imagine, and point them to Psalm 104:26. God made these mighty, powerful, twisted, writhing sea monstersto play with. And like everything else in creation, God provides them with food.

* * * * * *

From team member Dean Feldmeyer:

One crazy language (Language)
We take English for granted; but if we explore its paradoxes, we find that quicksand can work slowly, boxing rings are square and a guinea pig is neither from Guinea nor is it a pig. And why is it that writers write, but fingers don’t fing, grocers don’t groce and hammers don’t ham?

Doesn’t it seem crazy that you can make amends, but not one amend, that you comb through annals of history but not a single annal? If you have a bunch of odds and ends and get rid of all but one of them, what do you call it?

If teachers taught, why didn’t preachers praught? If a vegetarian eats vegetables, what does a humanitarian eat? If you wrote a letter, perhaps you bote your tongue?

Sometimes, I think all the English speakers should be committed to an asylum for the verbally insane. In what language do people recite at a play and play at a recital? Ship by truck and send cargo by ship? Have noses that run and feet that smell? Park on driveways and drive on parkways? How can a slim chance and a fat chance be the same, while a wise man and wise guy are opposites? And where are all those people who ARE spring chickens or who ACTUALLY would hurt a fly?

You have to marvel at the unique lunacy of a language in which your house can burn up as it burns down, in which you fill in a form by filling it out and in which an alarm clock goes off by going on.

(from The Daily Dilly) https://www.preaching.com/sermon-illustrations/illustration-language/

* * *

Grand Slam Professor(Language)
There is a story that abides at the University of Pennsylvania about a professor who was know for giving boring, cliché-ridden lectures. At the beginning of one semester, an innovative class breathed new life into his course by assigning baseball plays to each hackneyed phrase. For example, "on the other hand" was a base hit; "by the same token" was a strikeout; "and so on" was a stolen base. 

Divided into two teams by the center aisle of the lecture hall, the students throughout the term played inning after inning of silent but vigorous baseball. On the last day of class, the impossible happened -- the score was tied, the bases were loaded and the batter hit a home run! The winning team stood and cheered wildly. 

Though deeply appreciative, the professor was quoted later as having wondered why only one-half of the students had been enthusiastic about his lectures. 

Louis De V. Day, Jr., in Pennomena, Reader's Digest, April 1981.

* * *

Mokusatsu (Language)
In July of 1945, the allied countries meeting in Potsdam submitted a declaration of surrender terms to Japan and  waited anxiously for a reply from Japanese Prime Minister, Kantaro Suzuki. The ultimatum demanded the unconditional surrender of Japan and the terms included a statement to the effect that any negative answer from Japan would invite “prompt and utter destruction.” 

Meanwhile, newspaper reporters pressed the Prime Minister Suzuki in Tokyo to say something about Japan’s decision. No formal decision had been reached and therefore Suzuki stated he chose to make “no comments at the moment.”  The key word that Suzuki used to express his idea, however, was mokusatsu, a word derived from the Japanese term for “silence” that can be interpreted in several different ways. One interpretation is, simply, “no comment.” But another could be that “the terms of surrender do not merit a response.”

Not knowing there was a difference, American interpreters chose this second interpretation as they translated the Prime Minister’s response.

Ten days later the atomic bomb was launched on Hiroshima killing more than 70,000 people instantaneously and over 100,000 as a result of the destruction and radiation.

The atomic bomb was launched on Hiroshima 10 days later.  A translation error killed more than 70,000 people instantaneously and some 100,000 as a result of the destruction and radiation. 

https://www.pangeanic.com/knowledge_center/the-worst-translation-mistake-in-history/

* * *

The seventy-one-million-dollar word (Language)
In 1980, 18-year-old Willie Ramirez was admitted to a Florida hospital in a comatose state. His friends and family tried to describe his condition to the paramedics and doctors who treated him, but they only spoke Spanish. Translation was provided by a bilingual staff member who translated "intoxicado" as "intoxicated." A professional interpreter would have known that "intoxicado" is closer to "poisoned" and doesn't carry the same connotations of drug or alcohol use that "intoxicated" does. 

Ramirez's family believed he was suffering from food poisoning. He was actually suffering from an intracerebral hemorrhage, but the doctors proceeded as if he were suffering from an intentional drug overdose, which can lead to some of the symptoms he displayed. Because of the delay in treatment, Ramirez was left quadriplegic. He received a malpractice settlement of $71 million. 

http://mentalfloss.com/article/48795/9-little-translation-mistakes-caused-big-problems

* * *

Moses with Horns?(Language)
St. Jerome, the patron saint of translators, studied Hebrew so he could translate the Old Testament into Latin from the original, instead of from the third century Greek version that everyone else had used. The resulting Latin version, which became the basis for hundreds of subsequent translations, contained a famous mistake. 

When Moses comes down from Mount Sinai his head has "radiance" or, in Hebrew, "karan." But Hebrew is written without the vowels, and St. Jerome had read "karan" as "keren," or "horned." From this error came centuries of paintings and sculptures of Moses with horns and the odd offensive stereotype of the horned Jew.

http://mentalfloss.com/article/48795/9-little-translation-mistakes-caused-big-problems

* * *

Who is Sheng Long?(Language)
In the Japanese video game Street Fighter II a character says, "if you cannot overcome the Rising Dragon Punch, you cannot win!" When this was translated from Japanese into English, the characters for "rising dragon" were interpreted as "Sheng Long." 

The same characters can have different readings in Japanese, and the translator, working on a list of phrases and unaware of the context, thought a new person was being introduced to the game. Gamers went crazy trying to figure out who this Sheng Long was and how they could defeat him. 

In 1992, as an April Fools’ Day joke, Electronic Gaming Monthly published elaborate and difficult to execute instructions for how to find Sheng Long. It wasn't revealed as a hoax until that December, after countless hours had no doubt been wasted.

http://mentalfloss.com/article/48795/9-little-translation-mistakes-caused-big-problems

* * *

Big box resurrection (Dry Bones)
William Leddy, of Leddy, Maytum, Stacy Architects in San Francisco, is a proponent what he calls “adaptive reuse,” repurposing existing architecture for a new purpose. While Leddy acknowledges the limitations of big box stores, he still believes vacant storefronts are still brimming with potential.

“These cavernous volumes are so adaptive to so many functions,” he says. “You could imagine new and lively, semi-urban environments starting to develop.” Just one idea? Turn ghost stores into vibrant housing. “You’d have to start poking holes in the roof to bring the light in the air in them,” Leddy says, thinking aloud. “The volumes are such that you could probably fit two or three floors of housing and then create courtyards between them.” He's working toward a day where light rail—or driverless carpool initiatives or electric buses—connects numerous box store apartment communities to one another. 

Julia Christensen is an artist and author of the book Big Box Reuse. The book, which was published in 2008, documents the ways 10 communities transformed their own empty box stores. In old Walmarts, Christensen found churches and community centers; in old Kmarts, courthouses and museums. Though not included in the book, one of the most famous big box reuse cases is the McAllen Main Library, which turned an abandoned 124,500 square-foot Walmart in Texas into a single-story library with plentiful community and educational spaces. The McAllen project cost $24 million, according to an interview with Strong Towns, $5 million of which went to buying the abandoned Walmart facility.

https://www.popsci.com/repurposing-big-box-stores#page-6

* * *

Short term resurrection (Dry Bones)
In a growing trend, online retailers are leasing retail shops for short periods of time.

Vancouver-based Thisopenspace, operates a concept that could be compared to Airbnb for retail real estate.

While Thisopenspace previously specialized in posting listings for local lofts and spaces that would be suitable for photo shoots and events, it has branched into the retail segment by marketing vacant stores in prime locations.

It is no secret that the retail sector has experienced mass closures this year amid changing consumer shopping habits and the rise of e-commerce, forcing mall owners to get creative in filling space left by shuttered tenants. 

Thisopenspace's concept could serve as a temporary solution to landlords who have been left empty-handed as well as e-commerce retailers who have not been able to physically introduce their brand to the public.

Thisopenspace primarily targets online entrepreneurs who want to gain street exposure, but do not want to commit to the type of long-term leases that are required in most retail locations. To help tenants feel even more secure about their choice to team up with Thisopenspace, the company also includes insurance and posts photographs of venues to ensure the reality matches what was first advertised, Crain's reports.

Similar to Airbnb, booking the venues is easy and the entire process — from finding a space to negotiating with the landlords — can be done entirely online. The concept now operates in New York, Los Angeles, Toronto, Vancouver and Ottawa.  

https://www.bisnow.com/national/news/retail/empty-storefronts-may-have-found-a-new-purpose-79456


WORSHIP
by George Reed

Call to Worship:
Leader: O God, how manifold are your works!
People:    In wisdom you have made them all.
Leader: When you hide your face, they are dismayed.
People: When you send forth your spirit, they are created.
Leader: May the glory of God endure forever.
People: Bless God, O my soul. Praise be to our God!

OR

Leader: God calls us to come together as God’s people.
People: We are here together as one family of God.
Leader: God’s reach is wider than just we who are gathered here.
People: We will reach out to embrace all God’s children.
Leader: As God’s united people we have great power.
People: We will use God’s power to bring life to all.

Hymns and Songs:
“From All That Dwell Below the Skies”
UMH: 101
H82: 380
PH: 229
NCH: 27
CH: 49
LBW: 550
AMEC: 69
STLT: 381

“Holy God, We Praise Thy Name”
UMH: 79
H82: 366
PH: 460
NNBH: 13
NCH: 276
LBW: 535
ELA: 414
W&P: 138

“Hope of the World”
UMH: 178
H82: 472
PH: 360
NCH: 46
CH: 538
LBW: 493
W&P: 404

“O God of Every Nation”
UMH: 435
H82: 607
PH: 289
CH: 680
LBW: 416
ELA: 713
W&P: 606

“This Is My Song”
UMH: 437
NCH: 591
CH: 722
LBW:
ELA: 887
STLT: 159

“Let There Be Light”
UMH: 440
NNBH: 450
NCH: 589
STLT: 142

“O Spirit of the Living God”
UMH: 539
H82: 531
NCH: 263
LBW: 388

“In Christ There Is No East or West”
UMH: 548
H82: 529
PH: 439/440
AAHH: 398/399
NNBH: 299
NCH: 394/395
CH: 687
LBW: 259
ELA: 650
W&P: 600/603
AMEC: 557 

Unity
CCB: 59

“Open Our Eyes, Lord”
CCB: 77
Renew: 91

Music Resources Key:
UMH: United Methodist Hymnal
H82: The Hymnal 1982
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 to be one people, one family:
Grant us the wisdom to see the reality of our unity
that we might work together for the common good,
bringing life where others see only dry bones;
through Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.

OR

We praise you, O God, for you created us to be one people, one family. Your created us from one earth and breathed into us one breath, your life and Spirit. Help us to be wise enough to comprehend the unity you have given us and the will to work together for the common good. Help us to bring new life into the midst of dry bones. Amen.

Prayer of Confession
Leader: Let us confess to God and before one another our sins and especially our failure to see reality as God sees it.

People: We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. We have been created by one God to be one people and yet we constantly look for differences that separate us one from another. Where you see a family we see warring factions. Where you see beloved children, we see people of no worth. Forgive us and open our eyes and hearts to the unity you have created and call us to bring to reality. So fill us with your Spirit that your love overflows our hearts and embraces all your people. Amen.

Leader: God does desire to bring new life to our dry bones but God often uses us for the transformation. Accept God’s love and forgiveness and work with God for the good of all creation. 

Prayers of the People
Glory and honor are yours by right, O God, for you created all that was, is now, or every shall be. You are the source of all.

(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 have been created by one God to be one people and yet we constantly look for differences that separate us one from another. Where you see a family we see warring factions. Where you see beloved children, we see people of no worth. Forgive us and open our eyes and hearts to the unity you have created and call us to bring to reality. So fill us with your Spirit that your love overflows our hearts and embraces all your people.

We thank you for you blessings and the way in which you have made us to be your people. We thank you for accepting us into your love and grace so that even when we find ourselves in the midst of death, you bring us new life.

(Other thanksgivings may be offered.)

We pray for one another in our need. We pray for those who are estranged from loved ones or from their communities. We pray for those who feel their lives are dried up like old bones.

(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 Our Father 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
This is an on going children’s time. Talk to the children about corn. Many places will soon be having corn on the cob available locally. Show the children kernels of seed corn. (I can’t think of many other things that look so dried up and dead.) Ask them if they look like something they would want to eat. Have the children help plant the seeds in a pot and place them where they can get some light and rain. Talk about the power of God’s love that can bring new life. Have the pot brought into the sanctuary each week and watch for the new growth. What we think is dried up and dead could be full of life. No matter how things look God is life.


CHILDREN'S SERMON
Using Your Voice
by Bethany Peerbolt
Acts 2:1-21, John 15:26-27,16:4b-15

The disciples’ experience of being filled with the spirit and suddenly being able to speak other languages is a great way to show how everyone has their own voice that is given to them by God. Some of us are given a voice to speak for the oppressed, others are given a voice to comfort, while others have a voice to express God’s unconditional love. These spiritual “accents” are a gift of the Spirit and Pentecost is a great time to remind the kids and adults to make sure their voice is being heard.

Say something like:

Does anyone know how to say hello in another language? (Let the kids greet you in different languages or offer a few “hellos” for them to repeat after you) It takes a lot of work to learn another language, but in our scripture reading today the disciples got a special gift from God. The Holy Spirit came and gave them the gift to speak a different language in a flash, no homework required, sounds nice. The verse says there was a rush of wind and then a flame of fire hovered over their head and they all started speaking languages they hadn’t known before. God sent them this gift so the disciples could travel around and tell more people about how much God loves them and the lessons they learned from Jesus. 

The verses say the Holy Spirit filled them…everyone take a deep breath in (Breath in as much as you can handle and look around the kids gathered). I don’t see any flames on your heads, but that doesn’t mean we aren’t filled with the Holy Spirit. Jesus promised to send the Holy Spirit to us when he left to be with God so we know we have the Spirit now. And do you know you can speak a special language too!? You CAN! God gave each of us a spiritual accent. Let me show you. Turn to your neighbor and tell them “God loves you” (let them have time to do this) See! Some of you said that with a smile, some of you said it very serious, (you can make some other observations, e.g. with a hug etc.) We all had the same words but we said them in our own special way. That special way is our own God given voice, our spiritual accent.  God wants all of us to use our voice and our spiritual accent to spread the message that God loves the world. Even though someone may have heard the words before it might be our special way of saying it that helps them finally hear and understand. 

Pray: Thank you God for sending the Holy Spirit, who gives us the gift of a spiritual voice. Help us find ways to use our voice to tell others about you. When we are scared to speak up, let the Spirit encourage us. When we don’t know what to say help us listen to the Spirit for the right words. 


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The Immediate Word, May 20, 2018, issue.

Copyright 2018 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.