It's A Small World After All
Children's sermon
Illustration
Preaching
Sermon
Worship
Media theorist Marshall McLuhan first coined the term "global village" nearly four decades ago, and since then it has become something of a clich. Yet that phrase is also an apt description of our increasingly interdependent world, in which events in once-distant lands instantly reverberate across the globe. In this installment of The Immediate Word, team member Steve McCutchan cites a number of recent news items as evidence that we really do live in, as the familiar ditty puts it, "a small world after all." But as he points out, the miracle of Pentecost shows us that God had this "small world" vision millennia before McLuhan came along and we started to think in terms transcending the traditional cultural and political divisions of our world. Team member Carter Shelley expands on this idea, with a thoughtful exploration of the common themes between the events of Pentecost and the tower of Babel story in Genesis. As usual, this week's material also includes several illustrations plus worship resources and a children's sermon.
It's a Small World After All
By Stephen P. McCutchan
THE WORLD
The phrase "it's a small world after all" is a refrain from a popular song that is sung at one of the exhibits at Disney World, but it is almost prophetic. This week Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert visited Washington. If you want to know why that should be of interest to you, President Bush commented in one of the news conferences that if anyone attacks Israel, the United States will become involved in protecting them. In his book The World is Flat, Tom Friedman suggests that we have to learn how to deal with a world in which we are intimately involved with whatever happens in other parts of the world. More than one commentator has pointed out that our nation's energy demands were a prime motivator in our involvement in the Gulf War and the invasion of Iraq. The Senate has also just passed an immigration bill that seeks to respond to both the problems of border security and the issue of the approximately 12 million illegal residents in this country. While some would say that we ought to deport all of them because they have come here illegally, the overly simplistic nature of such a solution becomes clear when we realize how much our country is dependent on their labor. Even as we debate what should happen to these immigrants, many businesses and professions are recruiting people from other lands to meet their labor needs here in this country. The medical community has spent a great deal of money recruiting nurses from other countries, and many resort areas recruit students from other countries to work in the leisure industry. To paraphrase an old comedy routine: "Foreigners -- you can't live with them and you can't live without them."
For Christians there are all sorts of ethical questions raised by this small world in which we live. Of course, there is the question of our responsibility for the needs of our neighbors. The story of the Good Samaritan makes it clear that from Jesus' perspective, our neighbor is anyone in need. There is also the question of the distortion of our faith by a narrow focus on nationalism. Jesus raised this issue in his first sermon at Nazareth. In his recording of people's reactions to that sermon, Luke makes clear that challenging such nationalism is not always welcome (Luke 4:16-30). There is also the question of whether our country should be draining the needed resources of other countries by recruiting their citizens to fill our needs in this country.
With respect to Israel, Christians know that we are linked to our Jewish neighbors because our own faith emerged out of and remains connected to the faith of Judaism. We seem to be like a spider web -- wherever it is touched, the rest of the web shimmers. What could God be doing in this marvelously but scarily complex world? From God's perspective, it clearly is a small world after all. In what way can the church speak to both the frightening divisions of our world and the promise of reconciliation seen in the work of Christ (2 Corinthians 5:16-21)?
THE WORD
Pentecost becomes the mirror image of the story of the tower of Babel in Genesis 11:1-9, where the arrogance of humanity resulted in their being divided into many tribes that spoke different languages. (See Carter Shelley's comments below on the Tower of Babel passage.) At Pentecost, we see God at work creating a language of the Spirit that speaks across our divisions and unites us in praise.
Too often Gentile Christians forget that Pentecost is a Jewish celebration of the renewal of the covenant that Israel has with God. It is celebrated fifty days after Passover. The symbol of fire resting on the disciples' heads recalls the symbol of fire that was part of the original covenant-making process in Genesis 15:17. When Abram had laid out the divided animals in the covenant-making ceremony, it was God, in the form of a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch, who passed between them. Abram was not asked to make the same symbolic act as would have been normal in such a ritual of covenant-making. This symbolized the remarkable testimony of the Jewish faith that God willingly took on full responsibility for the fulfillment of the covenant.
Now, as the frightened early Jewish-Christians gathered in a hostile world, they experienced the possibility of the reversal of the division described in the Babel story. Through the power of the Holy Spirit, they began to speak in other languages. This was not a reference to glossolalia. They were not speaking a heavenly language. The report made clear that Jews from all around the world heard them speaking "in the native language of each." The division caused by different languages is transcended and yet made manifest in a way that each can understand in their own language.
This further astonished the crowd, because these speakers were not from some intellectual class but were people from the rural province of Galilee. Not only are the divisions of language overcome, but also the divisions of class, age, sex, and nationality. This is emphasized by Peter's interpretation of the event. Peter recalled the prophecy of Joel, where the spirit of God was poured out on young and old, male and female, slave and free. Pentecost was a renewal of hope that God would heal the divisions that seek to tear our world apart.
For the church, Pentecost is a time to openly acknowledge the divisions that exist both within the church and the world -- which reflect the arrogance of the tower of Babel. The opposing images of Babel and Pentecost offer us both a challenge and a hope for the future. In a time when we are struggling with the meaning of diversity, it is important to note that these people were not asked to give up their individuality in order to discover this new unity: "...each one heard them speaking in the native language of each" (Acts 2:6). The church can reveal to the world the true meaning of unity in diversity. By the Holy Spirit, we are given a word that not only respects our differences (each heard in their own language) but also unites us in a common testimony to the reconciling love of God. As it was with Abram, it is clear that it is God who will accomplish this reconciliation -- but it is by our faith that we will respond to what God is doing. The power of God, symbolized by the tongues of fire, enabled the disciples to communicate the Good News of Christ in a manner that both transcended the barriers and respected the differences among them: "...in our own languages we hear them speaking about God's deeds of power" (Acts 2:11).
It is significant that the lectionary offers as an alternative text for Pentecost: the story of Ezekiel and the valley of dry bones. The setting in Ezekiel 37:1-14 is a valley in which the dead bodies of soldiers have not only had their flesh eaten by birds of prey but their bones also dislocated and scattered by the winds of the valley. Ezekiel is asked, "Mortal, can these bones live?" In proper pious fashion, Ezekiel responds, "O Lord, you know." It is possible that Ezekiel is saying that it is obvious that such is an impossibility. However, even if in the best act of faith, Ezekiel is proclaiming his belief that God can do whatever God wants; God does not simply accept such a declaration of faith. Rather, God commands Ezekiel to act on that faith in the real world in which he lives: "Then he said to me, 'Prophesy to these bones, and say to them: O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord.' Thus says the Lord God to these bones: I will cause breath to enter you, and you will live" (Ezekiel 37:4-5). In case Ezekiel, or later readers, missed the point, God goes on to say: "Mortal, these bones are the whole house of Israel. I will put my spirit within you, and you shall live..." (Ezekiel 37:11, 14).
When the two Scriptures are read together, the church is asked not only to believe that God can heal the divisions that threaten to tear our world apart, but also that the church has the responsibility of proclaiming that truth to the world. It is our responsibility to become ambassadors of reconciliation and allow God to make this appeal through us.
CRAFTING THE SERMON
The introduction to the sermon could use examples such as those suggested above in "The World" or other items from the newspaper to illustrate how we are affected by events that happen far away from us. It will not be news to the congregation that the smallness of our world and the volatility of many of the events that make the headlines can be very frightening. It is the task of the preacher to not hide from such a reality and to address that truth with the greater truth of faith.
In making reference to the Tower of Babel story, it might be helpful to point out that this story is about all of humanity and not just the community of faith. The story of Abram and the beginning of the community of faith comes in the next chapter of Genesis (Genesis 12). In many ways the tower of Babel paints an all too realistic picture of humanity divided by their arrogance in wanting to play God in the world. Walking through that story with contemporary allusions could be very effective.
The major focus should be on the Pentecost story -- here is the challenge for Christians and the church. It is important to point out the way in which the Spirit of God enables the community of faith to proclaim to the world a transcending language that bridges the divisions we experience while respecting the rich diversity of God's creation.
It will probably be new to many people to understand that this is not an experience of glossolalia, or speaking in tongues as that is usually referred to. A direction that one might want to take is to explore what the language of the church is that can be understood regardless of the particular language spoken by the hearer. This would provide an opportunity to identify the "fruits of the spirit" that communicate across divisions and unite us into one body. Whether it is in the church or the world, people who exhibit such fruits are frequently respected and heard.
The passage from Ezekiel and the valley of the dry bones could form an effective conclusion to such a sermon. Here is a people whose country had been defeated and their people taken into exile and replanted in a variety of foreign cultures. Their government and army had been destroyed, and their land had been taken away from them. Any possibility that they could be given life again as a nation seemed as impossible as a valley of dry bones taking on flesh and being revived. It was not enough for Ezekiel to believe that God could "resurrect them" if God so chose. Ezekiel had to act on that belief and declare it to the world. In point of fact, Israel may be the only nation in history that had been so utterly destroyed and then reunited and revived, so the prophecy is not just a fantasy. More to the point, are churches willing to declare God's truth and live God's peace in the face of the world's divisions? Pentecost is a celebration of the renewal of God's covenant with Israel -- and a celebration of our commitment to the peace of Christ as practical politics for our world.
ANOTHER VIEW
by Carter Shelley
Is It Small Enough to Listen?
In his emphasis upon "It's a Small World," Steve points out the way we as a nation benefit from the cheap labor of people, both legal and illegal, who enter the United States to work at jobs too poor-paying or labor-intensive for us to take on ourselves. Steve notes that we live in a world in which it isn't possible to imitate ostriches and pretend that tragic events in Iraq, Israel, Indonesia, etc. have nothing to do with us. We live in a small world, but we do not live in the same world. Humanity is comprised of multiple religions, multiple cultures, multiple geographic environments, multiple governments, and so forth. When we first encounter someone from another country, it is our differences, not our similarities, which become immediately apparent. It doesn't require a genius to know that as long as we stress our differences -- infidels, terrorists, wetbacks, Yankees, Jews -- we will not be able to talk to others or hear our similarities.
Though it is not the case this year, the events in Acts 2 often are paired with Genesis 11:1-9, the account of the tower of Babel. In this Yahwist story the people's ability to understand one another is confused due to their hubris in trying to build a tower to reach the heavens. In Acts 2 the heavens open and the Holy Spirit descends, bestowing the gift of comprehension among Jesus' faithful followers and the multi-lingual people who are present on that day.
Genesis 11:1-9's literary structure shows both balance and completion. It begins with an almost fairytale-like "once upon a time" quality in verse 1: "Now the whole earth had one language and the same words." Verse 9 concludes the narrative's account with "Therefore it was called Babel." These two verses frame the events, which occur in two parallel halves. In verses 2-4 the people speak and act, then in verses 5-8 God speaks and acts. What is interesting is that the people and God never speak to each other directly. Ironically, communication is a major theme in Genesis 11:1-9 -- yet there is no effort for the two parties to speak to each other.
In his Interpretation commentary on Genesis Walter Brueggemann explores the power of language and its importance for human beings who seek to have a relationship with each other and with God. We may live in a "small" world, but it cannot be more unified in purpose without a common willingness and ability to speak one another's "language." As both Genesis 11 and Acts 2 demonstrate, such transforming insight only comes when we come to understand and obey the language of God.
The importance of language in unifying or dividing people is particularly germane this Pentecost, coming as it does on the heels of Congress' legislation concerning illegal aliens. Furthermore, it was only a few weeks ago that Hispanics singing the national anthem in Spanish caused such a stir, as though its sentiments were only valid if sung in English.
It is indicative of American isolationism and egotism that so few of us ever bother to learn a second language in order to communicate more effectively with our neighbors in Mexico and beyond. Moreover, our expectation is that others will learn English in order to serve us and sell us things when we travel abroad. With satellite communications, the internet, and CNN, it is indeed a small world; however, as American citizens we tend to want to keep what is good about our nation to ourselves while luring those with talents and skills we need to our shores to enhance our comfortable lifestyle.
In Acts 2 those present at the first Pentecost marvel at the new understanding they receive. Barriers of culture and language are suddenly overcome, in order that the good news of Jesus Christ may be shared with all.
At Pentecost it is the gift of hearing as much as the gift of speaking which transcends previous language barriers. With the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, our ongoing words and deeds of disobedience are reversed:
"The task of the faithful community is to model an alternative vision of city as trustful obedience to God The text raises important questions about how we speak and how we listen and answer. The faithful community exists to maintain a faithful universe of discourse against the languages around us which may coerce, deceive, manipulate, or mystify." (Walter Brueggemann, Genesis, in the Interpretation commentary series [Westminster John Knox, 1982], p. 101)
Language determines the way in which human persons care for each other. Do we speak in racial epitaphs or do we learn to say "Hello, friend" in Spanish, Russian, Chinese, and French? Language is subversive and dangerous. The whole issue of the United States government listening in on private telephone conversations suggests a disturbing level of fear and distrust of individual discourse. Language not only reports but shapes power relationships. Language can be coercive. In the United States one must speak English fluently in order to be a success. English is a dominant language in the world, because we are a dominant power; therefore, those who wish to be taken seriously by us (U.S.) must speak English. Language can liberate us as well as limit us: Your sins are forgiven... Go and sin no more I love you Language can lead to understanding and empathy: Yes, I've felt that way tooLanguage is a gift which makes it possible for us to be in relationship with God and with each other. It is our greatest gift and our deadliest weapon.
In Genesis 11:1-9 God scatters, but God doesn't desert. God heads up to Siberia and over to Australia. God joins the penal crew headed for Georgia and the stiff-necked Puritans sailing for New England. God was with them, and God is with us. First, God is with us in the anthropomorphic language of the Old Testament. Later, God is with us in the personal and specific form of the incarnation of Jesus of Nazareth. Now, God is with us in the presence of the Holy Spirit initiated at Pentecost to comfort us and give us a common language: the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
"The usual connection of Genesis 11:1-9 and Acts 2 is speaking in tongues. But the accent of Acts 2 would seem to lie not on speaking but on hearing:
-- Each one heard them speaking in his own language
-- How is it that we hear, each one of us in his own native language?
-- We hear them telling in our own tongues the mighty works of God
-- Give ear to my words
-- Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart." (Brueggemann, p. 102)
Ordinarily we think of the miracle of Pentecost as the gift of speech, but we should not miss the importance of hearing in this text. The newness concerns a fresh capacity to listen because the word of God blows over the chaos one more time. Perhaps the promise of Acts 2 to which the tower of Babel is the counterpart is that when God blows his wind over the "emptiness and void," what is freshly given is a new speech situation. In Pentecost, when the ideal speech situation emerges, we are granted both ears to hear and tongues to speak. The new language situation of the faithful community is when "Although their language may differ in sound, they all speak the same thing, while they cry, 'Abba, Father.' "
Do we care what kind of life Hispanics have in their homelands that cause them to leave family, friends, and the greater part of their lives behind and to risk life and limb in order to get across our borders for work? If we listen, we can hear about it for ourselves.
Do we care about the loss of skilled professionals, doctors, teachers, professors, nurses, computer programmers, and the human resource gap that remains in the countries of their origin?
Do we listen to the rest of the world in order to better understand why so many people resent us, envy us, hate us, or desperately need our help?
Listen! Can you hear the Spirit? Listen! Can you hear God? Listen! Can you hear Jesus? Listen! Can you hear the voice of your neighbor? It's a small world if we are willing to listen as well as to speak.
ILLUSTRATIONS
A May 24, 2006 New York Times article, "U.S. Plan to Lure Nurses May Hurt Poor Nations" by Celia W. Dugger, descibes a little-noticed provision in the immigration bill recently before the U.S. Senate. This provision would provide a loophole for nurses from other countries coming to work in the United States, to help ease the nursing shortage here. What's good for the United States, however, is not always good for the immigrant nurses' home countries, who could very much use their services:
Public health experts in poor countries, told about the proposal in recent days, reacted with dismay and outrage, coupled with doubts that their nurses would resist the magnetic pull of the United States, which sits at the pinnacle of the global labor market for nurses.
Removing the immigration cap, they said, would particularly hit the Philippines, which sends more nurses to the United States than any other country, at least several thousand a year. Health care has deteriorated there in recent years as tens of thousands of nurses have moved abroad. Thousands of ill-paid doctors have even abandoned their profession to become migrant-ready nurses themselves, Filipino researchers say.
"The Filipino people will suffer because the U.S. will get all our trained nurses," said George Cordero, president of the Philippine Nurse Association. "But what can we do?"...
Holly Burkhalter, with Physicians for Human Rights, an advocacy group, said the nurse proposal could undermine the United States' multibillion-dollar effort to combat AIDS and malaria by potentially worsening the shortage of health workers in poor countries. "We're pouring water in a bucket with a hole in it, and we drilled the hole," she said....
A nurse in the Philippines would earn a starting salary of less than $2,000 a year compared with at least $36,000 a year in the United States, said Dr. Jaime Galvez Tan, a medical professor at the University of the Philippines who led the country's National Institutes of Health....
Based on surveys, Dr. Galvez Tan estimates that 80 percent of the country's government doctors have become nurses or are enrolled in nursing programs, hoping for an American green card. "I plead for justice," he said in a telephone interview. "There has to be give and take, not just take, take, take by the United States."
***
In a column in Martin Marty's Sightings e-newsletter for March 31, 2005, Robert M. Franklin, Professor of Social Ethics at Emory University, reminds us of an analogy once used by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.:
King's testament is found in the closing chapter of his last book, Where Do We Go From Here?: Chaos or Community? published in 1968, the year of his assassination. It is titled "The World House."
King opens with the story of a deceased novelist whose papers include suggestions for future stories. One of the most prominently highlighted ideas is the following: "a widely separated family inherits a house in which they have to live together." King elaborates on this metaphor, suggesting that it communicates "the great new problem of humankind. We have inherited a large house, a great world house in which we have to live together -- black and white, Easterner and Westerner, Gentile and Jew, Catholic and Protestant, Muslim and Hindu -- a family unduly separated in ideas, culture, and interest, who, because we can never again live apart, must learn somehow to live with each other in peace." In other words, "whatever affects one directly affects all indirectly."
King was at pains to communicate that humanity's interrelatedness is not simply a political and economic reality, but represents a profoundly moral and theological imperative. And as such, people are obligated to exercise prudent stewardship over both the world's resources and our own status as responsible citizens and moral agents residing in what has become the world's only superpower. King's testament demands to be taken seriously by professors and students of religion, America's houses of worship, and the citizenry at large.
Let me mention three areas where, if we are to follow King's example and thought, we could flex greater moral muscle. First, King would urge us to practice our commitment to eradicating racism and its many subtle manifestations. Each of us should engage in a critical "diversity inventory" of the religious and secular organizations to which we belong and provide financial support. Are these organizations doing all they can to reverse the legacy of white-skin preference by including ethnic-racial minorities? If not, we should exercise our voices and votes.
Second, King pleads for the tolerance and understanding of others' religions. The xenophobia of the past is now a renewed danger. To the extent that we can, we should be resources for communities that need assistance in viewing other religious traditions as manifestations of a good and generous God who is capable of loving all of God's creatures, even when some of us falter in doing so.
Third, the relatively affluent folks among us should demonstrate courageous moral stewardship by identifying with our poor neighbors and doing all we can to advance policies and programs that accelerate their transition to self-sufficiency, while condemning politicians that reward the rich at the expense of the poorest.
***
Socrates had the order correct when he said that, before he was a citizen of Athens, he was a citizen of the world. Leo Suenens, the former Cardinal of Brussels, was right too when he said in his diaries that, were he to become pope, he would not look upon the day of his papal consecration as the most important day of his life, but would rather still see the day of his baptism as more important. Baptism trumps papacy, just as world citizenship trumps the name of the specific country named on our passports. There will be no countries in heaven and, sometimes, already here on earth, we are asked to have loyalties beyond the countries and religions within which we find ourselves.
Both our humanity and our faith make us citizens of many worlds, demand of us wide loyalties, and demand too that we do not name intolerance, narrowness, racism, sexism, self-interest, and indifference to the suffering of others as virtue by appealing to some narrower loyalty.
Our real passport is not issued by an individual country, and baptism puts us into solidarity with others beyond any one faith or denomination: We are citizens of the world before we are citizens of a country; women and men of faith before we belong to some religion; Christians before we belong to a particular denomination; baptized before we are priests, bishops, cardinals, or popes; and we are all bound together in a way that makes our signing-on to Kyoto, or any other global project, more than a issue of individual convenience.
-- Ron Rolheiser, Multi-Citizenship -- Wide Loyalties, column of April 17, 2005
***
Thomas Friedman of the New York Times, talking on the Charlie Rose Show on April 5, 2005 about his book The Earth is Flat, observed that when he was a child his parents used to say to him, "Clean your plate, because there are children starving in India." Now, he says, he tells his own children, "Finish your homework, because there's someone in India who will be competing with you for a job."
His thesis is that globalization is no longer the watchword: collaboration is. Those who are able to collaborate globally are the ones who will succeed. The earth has been flattened. Everyone has access to the marketplace.
***
In many countries we have chained the savage and starved him to death. In more than one country we have hunted the savage, his little children, and their mother with dogs and guns through the woods and swamps for an afternoon sport. In many countries white men have taken the savage's land from him and made him our slave and lashed him everyday and broken his pride and made death his only friend and overworked him until he dropped in his tracks. There are many humorous things in the world; among them, the white man's notion that he is less savage than the other savages."
-- Mark Twain
***
Meteorologists use something called the Beaufort Scale to measure wind. It was named for a British admiral who first developed the scale around 1838. Beaufort knew sailing ships; he had served on many, and commanded a frigate.
The British navy, like most navies of that era, typically lost more ships to storms than to battle. For that reason, Beaufort developed a way to measure the wind. He was not interested in measuring speed; he wanted to measure force: the ability of the wind to move the ship. His scale included the important detail of when to add sail or when to reduce sail. (For example, in gale-force winds, the survival of the ship is far more important than speed, so reducing the sail is necessary. In gentle breezes, the Beaufort scale calls for large amounts of canvas, to move the ship as far and as fast as possible.)
The wind of the Holy Spirit, which fell upon the church on the Day of Pentecost, was a mighty force. On Pentecost a new sort of force came into the world: a force so powerful that it pushed a dispirited, discouraged group of people to change the world.
That group of people needed to set their sails in order to catch that mighty wind. And they did.
***
When the wind blows, things happen. In my backyard, sycamore branches crash on the garage roof, leaves and debris swirl near the fence corners, and the hanging birdfeeder goes haywire. In God's backyard, the breath of God brings new worlds into being. Dry bones come to life. Principalities and powers fall. Churches are born.
-- Peter W. Marty
***
Each Sunday morning, as they began class, the 5th graders would line up and recite their one section of the creed in the order that it was written. That teaching method worked well and went on for about four months, until one Sunday. The class began the usual way. The first girl recited her line flawlessly: "I believe in God the Father Almighty, creator of heaven and earth." The second, a boy, stood up and said his sentence: "I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord." Then, silence. It went on and on. Finally, one girl, who felt she had discovered the problem, stood up and loudly stated, "I'm sorry, teacher, but the boy who believes in the Holy Spirit is absent today!"
***
Holy Spirit, Spirit of the Living God, you breathe in us all that is inadequate and fragile. You make living water spring even from our hurts themselves. And through you, the valley of tears becomes a place of wellsprings. Your continual presence makes new freshness break through.
-- Brother Roger of Taiz
WORSHIP RESOURCES
by Thom M. Shuman
Call to Worship
Leader: The Day of Pentecost is here:
People: the day when the flames of faith dance in our hearts.
Leader: The Day of Pentecost is here:
People: the day when our babbling speech becomes the Good News for the world.
Leader: The Day of Pentecost is here:
People: the day when compassion is seared into our souls.
Leader: The Day of Pentecost is here:
People: let the people of God rejoice. Alleluia!
Prayer of the Day
Leader: Spirit of the Living God, dance with us on this day.
People: Come, Whirlwind of Wonder!
Leader: Sing to the groaning of creation.
People: Come, still small voice of Hope!
Leader: Enflame us with your passion for justice.
People: Come, Liberator of the Least!
Leader: Purify us of our grasping greediness.
People: Come, Advocate of selfless living!
Leader: Silence our gossiping tongues.
People: Come, Harmony of God's Heart!
Leader: Wind of God, blow through us;
Fire of God, burn within us;
Tongue of God, speak to us on this day of renewal and birth,
even as we pray as Jesus teaches us,
Our Father . . .
Call to Reconciliation
Feel the Spirit of God moving in your soul.
Listen to the Spirit speaking to you of hope and wholeness.
Trust the promises God has made that new life is our inheritance.
Join me as we open ourselves to God's healing Spirit, as we pray, saying . . .
(Unison) Prayer of Confession
Spirit of God:
you come, aflame with new life,
but our apathy threatens to douse your passion;
you come, on fire with love,
yet we limit our affections to a select few;
you come, surging with new dreams and new hopes,
but we still cling to the old ways of living;
you come, glowing with the vision of the kingdom,
yet we close our eyes to your future.
Forgive us, Spirit of Truth, forgive us.
Come to us, anew, this day:
to shatter our hardened hearts with your tenderness;
to set our souls on fire with your love;
to send us into a world which aches for
the new joy, the new hope, the new life
offered in Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior.
(silent prayers may be offered)
Assurance of Pardon
Leader: With a gentle breeze God enflames our spirits;
with a strong wind, God reminds us of our need to forgive and be forgiven.
Like a cleansing storm, God takes away our past,
revealing the fresh, new life which is ours.
People: Awakened, refreshed, renewed, made whole:
now we can dance with the wind,
singing our praises to the One who gives life to all.
Thanks be to God. Amen.
Great Prayer of Thanksgiving
Leader: The Lord of Pentecost be with you.
People: And also with you.
Leader: People of Pentecost, lift your hearts to the Spirit moving in your midst.
People: We open our hearts to the Breath of God which fills us with hope and grace.
Leader: Daughters and sons of the Holy One, lift your joy to our God.
People: We sing the song of Pentecost in the language of every heart --
praise and thanksgiving to our God!
In the shadows of chaos you breathed, Creator God,
your Spirit moving over the waters of life.
You opened your hands, filling all creation with goodness and beauty.
You gathered up earth's dust,
shaping us in your image, filling our lungs with Spirit's life.
But drunk on the new wine of human arrogance and desire,
we listened to the competing voices of evil, sin, and death,
believing they spoke the truth.
With sighs too deep for words, you continued to call us home,
speaking through teachers and prophets.
When we hid our faces from you, you looked upon us in compassion,
and sent Jesus Christ to restore us to life with you.
And so, with your people here on earth, and with the company of heaven,
in every language and in every heart,
we glorify your name, singing:
Sanctus
Holy are you, God of beginnings and endings,
and blessed is Jesus Christ, our Lord.
At his baptism,
the Spirit named him your Beloved;
in the wilderness,
the Spirit strengthened him to withstand the seductions of the Evil One;
Spirit-anointed for ministry,
Jesus sang good news to the poor,
set free those imprisoned by despair,
gave sight to the blind and fed the hungry,
blessed little children,
and ate with sinners.
When his service of tender mercies was finished,
he went to the Cross, suffering and dying for all humanity,
and was raised to new life, as a promise to all your children.
As we come to this Table, we remember his promise to always be with us.
Baptized by the Holy Spirit, and purified in the fire of obedience,
we sing of that faith which is ours:
Memorial Acclamation
As Christ promised,
you have poured out your Holy Spirit upon your people
and upon the gifts of the bread and the cup.
As we offer our thanks to you for the gift of the Spirit in our lives and in the world,
may the flames of Pentecost kindle compassion in our hearts;
may the tongues of fire ignite our calls for justice for all people;
may the good news, spoken in every tongue and every place,
unite us in service to others and in faith in you.
Then, when the groaning of creation is turned to hymns of praise,
and all people gather around your Table on that great and glorious Day,
we will sing our joy to you through all eternity:
God in Community, Holy in One. Amen.
Blessing
Leader: God's glory has filled our hearts!
People: We will go to empty ourselves for others.
Leader: Christ has given himself for us!
People: We will go to give ourselves to everyone in need.
Leader: The Spirit gifts us with new life!
People: We go to be a blessing to everyone we meet.
CHILDREN'S SERMON
Here, There, and Everywhere
Object: a microphone and a radio
"Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you." (John 16:7)
Good morning, boys and girls. Today we are going to answer this question: "Why did Jesus leave us after he was raised from the dead?" Do you think that is a good question? (let them answer) Remember, Jesus did not stay here on earth after his death and resurrection. Instead he told his disciples that he was going back to heaven to live again with his Father. I can tell you the disciples were disappointed, but when Jesus told them why he was leaving them, they finally understood.
Let's suppose that I have something important to say and I want a lot of people to know about it at the same time. (Take one child apart from the group and tell him/her, "I want to meet everyone in the city in 10 minutes at the airport." Then ask him/her to start telling everyone in each pew the same thing and let him/her get started.)
I asked our friend to deliver a special message to everyone. He/she is pretty quick, but he/she needs to contact (the number of people that live in your community) in a hurry. I wonder if he/she will get the job done. So far he/she is only to the third pew in the church. Does anyone have any suggestions how we can speed this up? (let them answer) Do you think if I made my announcement on the radio that everyone in town will hear it? (let them answer) What about the people that are not listening to the radio or do not have a radio? Will they get the message? (let them answer) I don't think so.
This is kind of the way Jesus felt. He wanted to be everywhere at once and not just with one small group. If Jesus were living on earth today and he was in Jerusalem or New York City, we would want him here with us. And other people in San Francisco would want him there. It just would not work.
So God had a wonderful plan and he asked Jesus to tell the disciples and everyone else that he could. God said he would send his Spirit, who could be everywhere and anywhere he wanted to be at the same time. Remember, the Holy Spirit is here and in New Orleans and Dallas and London and everywhere else at the same time.
So that was God's plan. Jesus went back to his Father and sent the Spirit, and now the Word of God is everywhere it wants to be and is there every moment of every day of every year. The Spirit of God is with us in this very room and in every other room in the city right now.
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
The Immediate Word, June 4, 2006, issue.
Copyright 2006 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 permissions@csspub.com or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., 517 South Main Street, Lima, Ohio 45804.
It's a Small World After All
By Stephen P. McCutchan
THE WORLD
The phrase "it's a small world after all" is a refrain from a popular song that is sung at one of the exhibits at Disney World, but it is almost prophetic. This week Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert visited Washington. If you want to know why that should be of interest to you, President Bush commented in one of the news conferences that if anyone attacks Israel, the United States will become involved in protecting them. In his book The World is Flat, Tom Friedman suggests that we have to learn how to deal with a world in which we are intimately involved with whatever happens in other parts of the world. More than one commentator has pointed out that our nation's energy demands were a prime motivator in our involvement in the Gulf War and the invasion of Iraq. The Senate has also just passed an immigration bill that seeks to respond to both the problems of border security and the issue of the approximately 12 million illegal residents in this country. While some would say that we ought to deport all of them because they have come here illegally, the overly simplistic nature of such a solution becomes clear when we realize how much our country is dependent on their labor. Even as we debate what should happen to these immigrants, many businesses and professions are recruiting people from other lands to meet their labor needs here in this country. The medical community has spent a great deal of money recruiting nurses from other countries, and many resort areas recruit students from other countries to work in the leisure industry. To paraphrase an old comedy routine: "Foreigners -- you can't live with them and you can't live without them."
For Christians there are all sorts of ethical questions raised by this small world in which we live. Of course, there is the question of our responsibility for the needs of our neighbors. The story of the Good Samaritan makes it clear that from Jesus' perspective, our neighbor is anyone in need. There is also the question of the distortion of our faith by a narrow focus on nationalism. Jesus raised this issue in his first sermon at Nazareth. In his recording of people's reactions to that sermon, Luke makes clear that challenging such nationalism is not always welcome (Luke 4:16-30). There is also the question of whether our country should be draining the needed resources of other countries by recruiting their citizens to fill our needs in this country.
With respect to Israel, Christians know that we are linked to our Jewish neighbors because our own faith emerged out of and remains connected to the faith of Judaism. We seem to be like a spider web -- wherever it is touched, the rest of the web shimmers. What could God be doing in this marvelously but scarily complex world? From God's perspective, it clearly is a small world after all. In what way can the church speak to both the frightening divisions of our world and the promise of reconciliation seen in the work of Christ (2 Corinthians 5:16-21)?
THE WORD
Pentecost becomes the mirror image of the story of the tower of Babel in Genesis 11:1-9, where the arrogance of humanity resulted in their being divided into many tribes that spoke different languages. (See Carter Shelley's comments below on the Tower of Babel passage.) At Pentecost, we see God at work creating a language of the Spirit that speaks across our divisions and unites us in praise.
Too often Gentile Christians forget that Pentecost is a Jewish celebration of the renewal of the covenant that Israel has with God. It is celebrated fifty days after Passover. The symbol of fire resting on the disciples' heads recalls the symbol of fire that was part of the original covenant-making process in Genesis 15:17. When Abram had laid out the divided animals in the covenant-making ceremony, it was God, in the form of a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch, who passed between them. Abram was not asked to make the same symbolic act as would have been normal in such a ritual of covenant-making. This symbolized the remarkable testimony of the Jewish faith that God willingly took on full responsibility for the fulfillment of the covenant.
Now, as the frightened early Jewish-Christians gathered in a hostile world, they experienced the possibility of the reversal of the division described in the Babel story. Through the power of the Holy Spirit, they began to speak in other languages. This was not a reference to glossolalia. They were not speaking a heavenly language. The report made clear that Jews from all around the world heard them speaking "in the native language of each." The division caused by different languages is transcended and yet made manifest in a way that each can understand in their own language.
This further astonished the crowd, because these speakers were not from some intellectual class but were people from the rural province of Galilee. Not only are the divisions of language overcome, but also the divisions of class, age, sex, and nationality. This is emphasized by Peter's interpretation of the event. Peter recalled the prophecy of Joel, where the spirit of God was poured out on young and old, male and female, slave and free. Pentecost was a renewal of hope that God would heal the divisions that seek to tear our world apart.
For the church, Pentecost is a time to openly acknowledge the divisions that exist both within the church and the world -- which reflect the arrogance of the tower of Babel. The opposing images of Babel and Pentecost offer us both a challenge and a hope for the future. In a time when we are struggling with the meaning of diversity, it is important to note that these people were not asked to give up their individuality in order to discover this new unity: "...each one heard them speaking in the native language of each" (Acts 2:6). The church can reveal to the world the true meaning of unity in diversity. By the Holy Spirit, we are given a word that not only respects our differences (each heard in their own language) but also unites us in a common testimony to the reconciling love of God. As it was with Abram, it is clear that it is God who will accomplish this reconciliation -- but it is by our faith that we will respond to what God is doing. The power of God, symbolized by the tongues of fire, enabled the disciples to communicate the Good News of Christ in a manner that both transcended the barriers and respected the differences among them: "...in our own languages we hear them speaking about God's deeds of power" (Acts 2:11).
It is significant that the lectionary offers as an alternative text for Pentecost: the story of Ezekiel and the valley of dry bones. The setting in Ezekiel 37:1-14 is a valley in which the dead bodies of soldiers have not only had their flesh eaten by birds of prey but their bones also dislocated and scattered by the winds of the valley. Ezekiel is asked, "Mortal, can these bones live?" In proper pious fashion, Ezekiel responds, "O Lord, you know." It is possible that Ezekiel is saying that it is obvious that such is an impossibility. However, even if in the best act of faith, Ezekiel is proclaiming his belief that God can do whatever God wants; God does not simply accept such a declaration of faith. Rather, God commands Ezekiel to act on that faith in the real world in which he lives: "Then he said to me, 'Prophesy to these bones, and say to them: O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord.' Thus says the Lord God to these bones: I will cause breath to enter you, and you will live" (Ezekiel 37:4-5). In case Ezekiel, or later readers, missed the point, God goes on to say: "Mortal, these bones are the whole house of Israel. I will put my spirit within you, and you shall live..." (Ezekiel 37:11, 14).
When the two Scriptures are read together, the church is asked not only to believe that God can heal the divisions that threaten to tear our world apart, but also that the church has the responsibility of proclaiming that truth to the world. It is our responsibility to become ambassadors of reconciliation and allow God to make this appeal through us.
CRAFTING THE SERMON
The introduction to the sermon could use examples such as those suggested above in "The World" or other items from the newspaper to illustrate how we are affected by events that happen far away from us. It will not be news to the congregation that the smallness of our world and the volatility of many of the events that make the headlines can be very frightening. It is the task of the preacher to not hide from such a reality and to address that truth with the greater truth of faith.
In making reference to the Tower of Babel story, it might be helpful to point out that this story is about all of humanity and not just the community of faith. The story of Abram and the beginning of the community of faith comes in the next chapter of Genesis (Genesis 12). In many ways the tower of Babel paints an all too realistic picture of humanity divided by their arrogance in wanting to play God in the world. Walking through that story with contemporary allusions could be very effective.
The major focus should be on the Pentecost story -- here is the challenge for Christians and the church. It is important to point out the way in which the Spirit of God enables the community of faith to proclaim to the world a transcending language that bridges the divisions we experience while respecting the rich diversity of God's creation.
It will probably be new to many people to understand that this is not an experience of glossolalia, or speaking in tongues as that is usually referred to. A direction that one might want to take is to explore what the language of the church is that can be understood regardless of the particular language spoken by the hearer. This would provide an opportunity to identify the "fruits of the spirit" that communicate across divisions and unite us into one body. Whether it is in the church or the world, people who exhibit such fruits are frequently respected and heard.
The passage from Ezekiel and the valley of the dry bones could form an effective conclusion to such a sermon. Here is a people whose country had been defeated and their people taken into exile and replanted in a variety of foreign cultures. Their government and army had been destroyed, and their land had been taken away from them. Any possibility that they could be given life again as a nation seemed as impossible as a valley of dry bones taking on flesh and being revived. It was not enough for Ezekiel to believe that God could "resurrect them" if God so chose. Ezekiel had to act on that belief and declare it to the world. In point of fact, Israel may be the only nation in history that had been so utterly destroyed and then reunited and revived, so the prophecy is not just a fantasy. More to the point, are churches willing to declare God's truth and live God's peace in the face of the world's divisions? Pentecost is a celebration of the renewal of God's covenant with Israel -- and a celebration of our commitment to the peace of Christ as practical politics for our world.
ANOTHER VIEW
by Carter Shelley
Is It Small Enough to Listen?
In his emphasis upon "It's a Small World," Steve points out the way we as a nation benefit from the cheap labor of people, both legal and illegal, who enter the United States to work at jobs too poor-paying or labor-intensive for us to take on ourselves. Steve notes that we live in a world in which it isn't possible to imitate ostriches and pretend that tragic events in Iraq, Israel, Indonesia, etc. have nothing to do with us. We live in a small world, but we do not live in the same world. Humanity is comprised of multiple religions, multiple cultures, multiple geographic environments, multiple governments, and so forth. When we first encounter someone from another country, it is our differences, not our similarities, which become immediately apparent. It doesn't require a genius to know that as long as we stress our differences -- infidels, terrorists, wetbacks, Yankees, Jews -- we will not be able to talk to others or hear our similarities.
Though it is not the case this year, the events in Acts 2 often are paired with Genesis 11:1-9, the account of the tower of Babel. In this Yahwist story the people's ability to understand one another is confused due to their hubris in trying to build a tower to reach the heavens. In Acts 2 the heavens open and the Holy Spirit descends, bestowing the gift of comprehension among Jesus' faithful followers and the multi-lingual people who are present on that day.
Genesis 11:1-9's literary structure shows both balance and completion. It begins with an almost fairytale-like "once upon a time" quality in verse 1: "Now the whole earth had one language and the same words." Verse 9 concludes the narrative's account with "Therefore it was called Babel." These two verses frame the events, which occur in two parallel halves. In verses 2-4 the people speak and act, then in verses 5-8 God speaks and acts. What is interesting is that the people and God never speak to each other directly. Ironically, communication is a major theme in Genesis 11:1-9 -- yet there is no effort for the two parties to speak to each other.
In his Interpretation commentary on Genesis Walter Brueggemann explores the power of language and its importance for human beings who seek to have a relationship with each other and with God. We may live in a "small" world, but it cannot be more unified in purpose without a common willingness and ability to speak one another's "language." As both Genesis 11 and Acts 2 demonstrate, such transforming insight only comes when we come to understand and obey the language of God.
The importance of language in unifying or dividing people is particularly germane this Pentecost, coming as it does on the heels of Congress' legislation concerning illegal aliens. Furthermore, it was only a few weeks ago that Hispanics singing the national anthem in Spanish caused such a stir, as though its sentiments were only valid if sung in English.
It is indicative of American isolationism and egotism that so few of us ever bother to learn a second language in order to communicate more effectively with our neighbors in Mexico and beyond. Moreover, our expectation is that others will learn English in order to serve us and sell us things when we travel abroad. With satellite communications, the internet, and CNN, it is indeed a small world; however, as American citizens we tend to want to keep what is good about our nation to ourselves while luring those with talents and skills we need to our shores to enhance our comfortable lifestyle.
In Acts 2 those present at the first Pentecost marvel at the new understanding they receive. Barriers of culture and language are suddenly overcome, in order that the good news of Jesus Christ may be shared with all.
At Pentecost it is the gift of hearing as much as the gift of speaking which transcends previous language barriers. With the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, our ongoing words and deeds of disobedience are reversed:
"The task of the faithful community is to model an alternative vision of city as trustful obedience to God The text raises important questions about how we speak and how we listen and answer. The faithful community exists to maintain a faithful universe of discourse against the languages around us which may coerce, deceive, manipulate, or mystify." (Walter Brueggemann, Genesis, in the Interpretation commentary series [Westminster John Knox, 1982], p. 101)
Language determines the way in which human persons care for each other. Do we speak in racial epitaphs or do we learn to say "Hello, friend" in Spanish, Russian, Chinese, and French? Language is subversive and dangerous. The whole issue of the United States government listening in on private telephone conversations suggests a disturbing level of fear and distrust of individual discourse. Language not only reports but shapes power relationships. Language can be coercive. In the United States one must speak English fluently in order to be a success. English is a dominant language in the world, because we are a dominant power; therefore, those who wish to be taken seriously by us (U.S.) must speak English. Language can liberate us as well as limit us: Your sins are forgiven... Go and sin no more I love you Language can lead to understanding and empathy: Yes, I've felt that way tooLanguage is a gift which makes it possible for us to be in relationship with God and with each other. It is our greatest gift and our deadliest weapon.
In Genesis 11:1-9 God scatters, but God doesn't desert. God heads up to Siberia and over to Australia. God joins the penal crew headed for Georgia and the stiff-necked Puritans sailing for New England. God was with them, and God is with us. First, God is with us in the anthropomorphic language of the Old Testament. Later, God is with us in the personal and specific form of the incarnation of Jesus of Nazareth. Now, God is with us in the presence of the Holy Spirit initiated at Pentecost to comfort us and give us a common language: the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
"The usual connection of Genesis 11:1-9 and Acts 2 is speaking in tongues. But the accent of Acts 2 would seem to lie not on speaking but on hearing:
-- Each one heard them speaking in his own language
-- How is it that we hear, each one of us in his own native language?
-- We hear them telling in our own tongues the mighty works of God
-- Give ear to my words
-- Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart." (Brueggemann, p. 102)
Ordinarily we think of the miracle of Pentecost as the gift of speech, but we should not miss the importance of hearing in this text. The newness concerns a fresh capacity to listen because the word of God blows over the chaos one more time. Perhaps the promise of Acts 2 to which the tower of Babel is the counterpart is that when God blows his wind over the "emptiness and void," what is freshly given is a new speech situation. In Pentecost, when the ideal speech situation emerges, we are granted both ears to hear and tongues to speak. The new language situation of the faithful community is when "Although their language may differ in sound, they all speak the same thing, while they cry, 'Abba, Father.' "
Do we care what kind of life Hispanics have in their homelands that cause them to leave family, friends, and the greater part of their lives behind and to risk life and limb in order to get across our borders for work? If we listen, we can hear about it for ourselves.
Do we care about the loss of skilled professionals, doctors, teachers, professors, nurses, computer programmers, and the human resource gap that remains in the countries of their origin?
Do we listen to the rest of the world in order to better understand why so many people resent us, envy us, hate us, or desperately need our help?
Listen! Can you hear the Spirit? Listen! Can you hear God? Listen! Can you hear Jesus? Listen! Can you hear the voice of your neighbor? It's a small world if we are willing to listen as well as to speak.
ILLUSTRATIONS
A May 24, 2006 New York Times article, "U.S. Plan to Lure Nurses May Hurt Poor Nations" by Celia W. Dugger, descibes a little-noticed provision in the immigration bill recently before the U.S. Senate. This provision would provide a loophole for nurses from other countries coming to work in the United States, to help ease the nursing shortage here. What's good for the United States, however, is not always good for the immigrant nurses' home countries, who could very much use their services:
Public health experts in poor countries, told about the proposal in recent days, reacted with dismay and outrage, coupled with doubts that their nurses would resist the magnetic pull of the United States, which sits at the pinnacle of the global labor market for nurses.
Removing the immigration cap, they said, would particularly hit the Philippines, which sends more nurses to the United States than any other country, at least several thousand a year. Health care has deteriorated there in recent years as tens of thousands of nurses have moved abroad. Thousands of ill-paid doctors have even abandoned their profession to become migrant-ready nurses themselves, Filipino researchers say.
"The Filipino people will suffer because the U.S. will get all our trained nurses," said George Cordero, president of the Philippine Nurse Association. "But what can we do?"...
Holly Burkhalter, with Physicians for Human Rights, an advocacy group, said the nurse proposal could undermine the United States' multibillion-dollar effort to combat AIDS and malaria by potentially worsening the shortage of health workers in poor countries. "We're pouring water in a bucket with a hole in it, and we drilled the hole," she said....
A nurse in the Philippines would earn a starting salary of less than $2,000 a year compared with at least $36,000 a year in the United States, said Dr. Jaime Galvez Tan, a medical professor at the University of the Philippines who led the country's National Institutes of Health....
Based on surveys, Dr. Galvez Tan estimates that 80 percent of the country's government doctors have become nurses or are enrolled in nursing programs, hoping for an American green card. "I plead for justice," he said in a telephone interview. "There has to be give and take, not just take, take, take by the United States."
***
In a column in Martin Marty's Sightings e-newsletter for March 31, 2005, Robert M. Franklin, Professor of Social Ethics at Emory University, reminds us of an analogy once used by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.:
King's testament is found in the closing chapter of his last book, Where Do We Go From Here?: Chaos or Community? published in 1968, the year of his assassination. It is titled "The World House."
King opens with the story of a deceased novelist whose papers include suggestions for future stories. One of the most prominently highlighted ideas is the following: "a widely separated family inherits a house in which they have to live together." King elaborates on this metaphor, suggesting that it communicates "the great new problem of humankind. We have inherited a large house, a great world house in which we have to live together -- black and white, Easterner and Westerner, Gentile and Jew, Catholic and Protestant, Muslim and Hindu -- a family unduly separated in ideas, culture, and interest, who, because we can never again live apart, must learn somehow to live with each other in peace." In other words, "whatever affects one directly affects all indirectly."
King was at pains to communicate that humanity's interrelatedness is not simply a political and economic reality, but represents a profoundly moral and theological imperative. And as such, people are obligated to exercise prudent stewardship over both the world's resources and our own status as responsible citizens and moral agents residing in what has become the world's only superpower. King's testament demands to be taken seriously by professors and students of religion, America's houses of worship, and the citizenry at large.
Let me mention three areas where, if we are to follow King's example and thought, we could flex greater moral muscle. First, King would urge us to practice our commitment to eradicating racism and its many subtle manifestations. Each of us should engage in a critical "diversity inventory" of the religious and secular organizations to which we belong and provide financial support. Are these organizations doing all they can to reverse the legacy of white-skin preference by including ethnic-racial minorities? If not, we should exercise our voices and votes.
Second, King pleads for the tolerance and understanding of others' religions. The xenophobia of the past is now a renewed danger. To the extent that we can, we should be resources for communities that need assistance in viewing other religious traditions as manifestations of a good and generous God who is capable of loving all of God's creatures, even when some of us falter in doing so.
Third, the relatively affluent folks among us should demonstrate courageous moral stewardship by identifying with our poor neighbors and doing all we can to advance policies and programs that accelerate their transition to self-sufficiency, while condemning politicians that reward the rich at the expense of the poorest.
***
Socrates had the order correct when he said that, before he was a citizen of Athens, he was a citizen of the world. Leo Suenens, the former Cardinal of Brussels, was right too when he said in his diaries that, were he to become pope, he would not look upon the day of his papal consecration as the most important day of his life, but would rather still see the day of his baptism as more important. Baptism trumps papacy, just as world citizenship trumps the name of the specific country named on our passports. There will be no countries in heaven and, sometimes, already here on earth, we are asked to have loyalties beyond the countries and religions within which we find ourselves.
Both our humanity and our faith make us citizens of many worlds, demand of us wide loyalties, and demand too that we do not name intolerance, narrowness, racism, sexism, self-interest, and indifference to the suffering of others as virtue by appealing to some narrower loyalty.
Our real passport is not issued by an individual country, and baptism puts us into solidarity with others beyond any one faith or denomination: We are citizens of the world before we are citizens of a country; women and men of faith before we belong to some religion; Christians before we belong to a particular denomination; baptized before we are priests, bishops, cardinals, or popes; and we are all bound together in a way that makes our signing-on to Kyoto, or any other global project, more than a issue of individual convenience.
-- Ron Rolheiser, Multi-Citizenship -- Wide Loyalties, column of April 17, 2005
***
Thomas Friedman of the New York Times, talking on the Charlie Rose Show on April 5, 2005 about his book The Earth is Flat, observed that when he was a child his parents used to say to him, "Clean your plate, because there are children starving in India." Now, he says, he tells his own children, "Finish your homework, because there's someone in India who will be competing with you for a job."
His thesis is that globalization is no longer the watchword: collaboration is. Those who are able to collaborate globally are the ones who will succeed. The earth has been flattened. Everyone has access to the marketplace.
***
In many countries we have chained the savage and starved him to death. In more than one country we have hunted the savage, his little children, and their mother with dogs and guns through the woods and swamps for an afternoon sport. In many countries white men have taken the savage's land from him and made him our slave and lashed him everyday and broken his pride and made death his only friend and overworked him until he dropped in his tracks. There are many humorous things in the world; among them, the white man's notion that he is less savage than the other savages."
-- Mark Twain
***
Meteorologists use something called the Beaufort Scale to measure wind. It was named for a British admiral who first developed the scale around 1838. Beaufort knew sailing ships; he had served on many, and commanded a frigate.
The British navy, like most navies of that era, typically lost more ships to storms than to battle. For that reason, Beaufort developed a way to measure the wind. He was not interested in measuring speed; he wanted to measure force: the ability of the wind to move the ship. His scale included the important detail of when to add sail or when to reduce sail. (For example, in gale-force winds, the survival of the ship is far more important than speed, so reducing the sail is necessary. In gentle breezes, the Beaufort scale calls for large amounts of canvas, to move the ship as far and as fast as possible.)
The wind of the Holy Spirit, which fell upon the church on the Day of Pentecost, was a mighty force. On Pentecost a new sort of force came into the world: a force so powerful that it pushed a dispirited, discouraged group of people to change the world.
That group of people needed to set their sails in order to catch that mighty wind. And they did.
***
When the wind blows, things happen. In my backyard, sycamore branches crash on the garage roof, leaves and debris swirl near the fence corners, and the hanging birdfeeder goes haywire. In God's backyard, the breath of God brings new worlds into being. Dry bones come to life. Principalities and powers fall. Churches are born.
-- Peter W. Marty
***
Each Sunday morning, as they began class, the 5th graders would line up and recite their one section of the creed in the order that it was written. That teaching method worked well and went on for about four months, until one Sunday. The class began the usual way. The first girl recited her line flawlessly: "I believe in God the Father Almighty, creator of heaven and earth." The second, a boy, stood up and said his sentence: "I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord." Then, silence. It went on and on. Finally, one girl, who felt she had discovered the problem, stood up and loudly stated, "I'm sorry, teacher, but the boy who believes in the Holy Spirit is absent today!"
***
Holy Spirit, Spirit of the Living God, you breathe in us all that is inadequate and fragile. You make living water spring even from our hurts themselves. And through you, the valley of tears becomes a place of wellsprings. Your continual presence makes new freshness break through.
-- Brother Roger of Taiz
WORSHIP RESOURCES
by Thom M. Shuman
Call to Worship
Leader: The Day of Pentecost is here:
People: the day when the flames of faith dance in our hearts.
Leader: The Day of Pentecost is here:
People: the day when our babbling speech becomes the Good News for the world.
Leader: The Day of Pentecost is here:
People: the day when compassion is seared into our souls.
Leader: The Day of Pentecost is here:
People: let the people of God rejoice. Alleluia!
Prayer of the Day
Leader: Spirit of the Living God, dance with us on this day.
People: Come, Whirlwind of Wonder!
Leader: Sing to the groaning of creation.
People: Come, still small voice of Hope!
Leader: Enflame us with your passion for justice.
People: Come, Liberator of the Least!
Leader: Purify us of our grasping greediness.
People: Come, Advocate of selfless living!
Leader: Silence our gossiping tongues.
People: Come, Harmony of God's Heart!
Leader: Wind of God, blow through us;
Fire of God, burn within us;
Tongue of God, speak to us on this day of renewal and birth,
even as we pray as Jesus teaches us,
Our Father . . .
Call to Reconciliation
Feel the Spirit of God moving in your soul.
Listen to the Spirit speaking to you of hope and wholeness.
Trust the promises God has made that new life is our inheritance.
Join me as we open ourselves to God's healing Spirit, as we pray, saying . . .
(Unison) Prayer of Confession
Spirit of God:
you come, aflame with new life,
but our apathy threatens to douse your passion;
you come, on fire with love,
yet we limit our affections to a select few;
you come, surging with new dreams and new hopes,
but we still cling to the old ways of living;
you come, glowing with the vision of the kingdom,
yet we close our eyes to your future.
Forgive us, Spirit of Truth, forgive us.
Come to us, anew, this day:
to shatter our hardened hearts with your tenderness;
to set our souls on fire with your love;
to send us into a world which aches for
the new joy, the new hope, the new life
offered in Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior.
(silent prayers may be offered)
Assurance of Pardon
Leader: With a gentle breeze God enflames our spirits;
with a strong wind, God reminds us of our need to forgive and be forgiven.
Like a cleansing storm, God takes away our past,
revealing the fresh, new life which is ours.
People: Awakened, refreshed, renewed, made whole:
now we can dance with the wind,
singing our praises to the One who gives life to all.
Thanks be to God. Amen.
Great Prayer of Thanksgiving
Leader: The Lord of Pentecost be with you.
People: And also with you.
Leader: People of Pentecost, lift your hearts to the Spirit moving in your midst.
People: We open our hearts to the Breath of God which fills us with hope and grace.
Leader: Daughters and sons of the Holy One, lift your joy to our God.
People: We sing the song of Pentecost in the language of every heart --
praise and thanksgiving to our God!
In the shadows of chaos you breathed, Creator God,
your Spirit moving over the waters of life.
You opened your hands, filling all creation with goodness and beauty.
You gathered up earth's dust,
shaping us in your image, filling our lungs with Spirit's life.
But drunk on the new wine of human arrogance and desire,
we listened to the competing voices of evil, sin, and death,
believing they spoke the truth.
With sighs too deep for words, you continued to call us home,
speaking through teachers and prophets.
When we hid our faces from you, you looked upon us in compassion,
and sent Jesus Christ to restore us to life with you.
And so, with your people here on earth, and with the company of heaven,
in every language and in every heart,
we glorify your name, singing:
Sanctus
Holy are you, God of beginnings and endings,
and blessed is Jesus Christ, our Lord.
At his baptism,
the Spirit named him your Beloved;
in the wilderness,
the Spirit strengthened him to withstand the seductions of the Evil One;
Spirit-anointed for ministry,
Jesus sang good news to the poor,
set free those imprisoned by despair,
gave sight to the blind and fed the hungry,
blessed little children,
and ate with sinners.
When his service of tender mercies was finished,
he went to the Cross, suffering and dying for all humanity,
and was raised to new life, as a promise to all your children.
As we come to this Table, we remember his promise to always be with us.
Baptized by the Holy Spirit, and purified in the fire of obedience,
we sing of that faith which is ours:
Memorial Acclamation
As Christ promised,
you have poured out your Holy Spirit upon your people
and upon the gifts of the bread and the cup.
As we offer our thanks to you for the gift of the Spirit in our lives and in the world,
may the flames of Pentecost kindle compassion in our hearts;
may the tongues of fire ignite our calls for justice for all people;
may the good news, spoken in every tongue and every place,
unite us in service to others and in faith in you.
Then, when the groaning of creation is turned to hymns of praise,
and all people gather around your Table on that great and glorious Day,
we will sing our joy to you through all eternity:
God in Community, Holy in One. Amen.
Blessing
Leader: God's glory has filled our hearts!
People: We will go to empty ourselves for others.
Leader: Christ has given himself for us!
People: We will go to give ourselves to everyone in need.
Leader: The Spirit gifts us with new life!
People: We go to be a blessing to everyone we meet.
CHILDREN'S SERMON
Here, There, and Everywhere
Object: a microphone and a radio
"Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you." (John 16:7)
Good morning, boys and girls. Today we are going to answer this question: "Why did Jesus leave us after he was raised from the dead?" Do you think that is a good question? (let them answer) Remember, Jesus did not stay here on earth after his death and resurrection. Instead he told his disciples that he was going back to heaven to live again with his Father. I can tell you the disciples were disappointed, but when Jesus told them why he was leaving them, they finally understood.
Let's suppose that I have something important to say and I want a lot of people to know about it at the same time. (Take one child apart from the group and tell him/her, "I want to meet everyone in the city in 10 minutes at the airport." Then ask him/her to start telling everyone in each pew the same thing and let him/her get started.)
I asked our friend to deliver a special message to everyone. He/she is pretty quick, but he/she needs to contact (the number of people that live in your community) in a hurry. I wonder if he/she will get the job done. So far he/she is only to the third pew in the church. Does anyone have any suggestions how we can speed this up? (let them answer) Do you think if I made my announcement on the radio that everyone in town will hear it? (let them answer) What about the people that are not listening to the radio or do not have a radio? Will they get the message? (let them answer) I don't think so.
This is kind of the way Jesus felt. He wanted to be everywhere at once and not just with one small group. If Jesus were living on earth today and he was in Jerusalem or New York City, we would want him here with us. And other people in San Francisco would want him there. It just would not work.
So God had a wonderful plan and he asked Jesus to tell the disciples and everyone else that he could. God said he would send his Spirit, who could be everywhere and anywhere he wanted to be at the same time. Remember, the Holy Spirit is here and in New Orleans and Dallas and London and everywhere else at the same time.
So that was God's plan. Jesus went back to his Father and sent the Spirit, and now the Word of God is everywhere it wants to be and is there every moment of every day of every year. The Spirit of God is with us in this very room and in every other room in the city right now.
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
The Immediate Word, June 4, 2006, issue.
Copyright 2006 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 permissions@csspub.com or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., 517 South Main Street, Lima, Ohio 45804.
