Pentecost

By The Rev. Bernard W. Poppe, Rector

"Come down O Love divine, and seek thou this soul of mine and visit it with thine own ardor glowing; O Comforter draw near, within my heart appear, and kindle it, thy holy flame bestowing." In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, Amen.

The Spirit of God is celebrated this day in this great feast of Pentecost. From the red streamers that marked the procession to the different clothes of red worn specifically for this day by people in the pews we echo and recall the first reading, that marvelous account in the Book of Acts about the manifestation of the Holy Spirit on the disciples in what appeared to be tongues of fire.

Not only did the surprised congregation see this wonder, they heard preaching, the good news of God's saving love, in their own languages. What for them was an amazing spectacle, a miracle, has become for us an icon of God's power and story of such richness that we can hear in our own ways, in our own languages if you will, what God calls out to us.

This particular story stands in perfect contrast to another story in the Bible, that of the Tower of Babel. The word is pronounced Bay-bell not Babble, as is often understandably used because of all the babbling that ensued, but I assure you the word is Bay-bell. Genesis chapter 11 describes a point in the early time of creation when everyone spoke one language. A group decided to build a tower as a memorial to themselves for future generations. So successful was this tower that God realized ther was nothing people would stop at and that nothing would be impossible for them. Rather than seeing this as a good thing, God put a stop to it by confusing their languages and scattering them abroad over the face of the earth. The implication of the story is that we can get lost in our own success and abilities to the point where we forget that God is still God, and that we are not. The Tower of Babel stands as a memorial, not to human ingenuity but humanity's reckless ambition.

The story of Pentecost takes this and turns it around bringing all the languages together in one voice praising God and living not in competition with God, but in harmony and purpose. The unity of this voice was not to celebrate the greatness of humanity, but the greatness of God's love in saving humanity from ourselves.

Some of you know that last week I took some time and went for a vacation to Germany. It was a wonderful trip where I visited friends who live in Munich, and enjoyed seeing the sights of that great city as well as renting a car and driving around the region from Munich to Salzburg, Austria, to the high Bavarian Alps seeking the Castle of Neuschwanstein, built by King Ludwig II and used by Walt Disney as the model for his signature Magic Kingdom. Talk about a Tower of Babel! The castle was the pet project of King Ludwig as a monument ot his own ingenuity, but the building of it bankrupted him and caused the leadership around him to have him declared insane and removed from power. Two days later his body and that of his doctor were mysteriously found drowned in the lake near the castle. The castle itself was lived in for three months and remains two thirds unfinished in the interior. That which is finished is breath taking in beauty and opulence and set in an alpine beauty of unsurpassed and indeed magical grandeur. But like its Biblical predecessor becomes a monument to vanity and dangerous foolishness.

Pentecost brings God into the world of our understanding through a fire and passion of love that we cannot keep within ourselves but have to proclaim or it will burn inside us. We have to let it out and in doing so let it flow through with healing power and loving gratitude.

This feast day is a cap to the array of Easter stories. The connecting symbol liturgically is the Paschal Candle located in the center of the church. This candle, first lit at the Easter vigil represents the resurrected Christ and burns each Sunday within the body of the church as a symbol of Christ's presence and resurrection.

The movement of stories goes from the Entry into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday through the seeming defeat and brutality of Good Friday, the death and Resurrection of Jesus, the post resurrection ministry for forty days, the Ascension and promise of the Holy Spirit and the fulfillment of that promise that first Pentecost after the Ascension. As stories they are surpassing rich in symbol and spiritual truths. One of the most fantastic things about Biblical stories is that they describe in story themes that occur over and over again in our lives. Themes of great and often misunderstood potential, crushing defeat, rising again from pain, a new understanding and rebirth of hope to the fire of new commitment and outward journey.

We hear these themes over and over again because we need to as our lives take these paths over and over again in different and ever changing ways. Our lives are full of challenges and struggles that can beat us down or build us up and make us stronger. We are powerful and strong people, but it is not our greatness that is energizing us, but the greatness of God moving though us to achieve and be agents of grace and love in a world so needy to drink it in.

A couple weeks ago we hosted a priest from Connecticut who shared some of the lessons learned by the church he serves that brought rebirth to their congregation. They were not new lessons as much as reminders of our mission to bring what we have in here, out there. The mantra of his church is that they are there for the people not yet there. It's a good reminder for us too. We are here not for ourselves alone, but for those not yet here who are looking for us and don't know where to find us. We have the Spirit of God burning in us in a way unique to us. We experience God as inclusive and loving and open without barrier or conditions. There are too many people in this world who have been excluded or hated or denied and barred from communities that present themselves as people of God and yet do horrendous things using God's name. The abuses of one community can turn the seeker away but cannot squash the desire to find God. In the pain and confusion that remains there need to be voices of intelligence and reason, voices of compassion and love, voices of acceptance and toleration, voices of openness and inclusion, voices in different tongues, but speaking the universal language of God's love and grace.

One of the reasons we repeat the biblical stories over and over again is to remind ourselves continually of the healing power it has for us and to take seriously our need to be channels of that love for others. Part of the problem in the religious communities is that we can get stuck in one of the stages of that wonderful Easter saga. Whether it's remaining stuck in a state of perpetual potential, or in a defeated attitude, or in an exalted state of resurrection alone, the community becomes stagnant and in danger of dying spiritually. Each of those segments leads to the need to bring the message outside and have it flow through us to others. We cannot keep God's love bottled up inside us or the hope or promise we've received. We have to let it out and bring it to those desperately looking for it.

What a joy it is to celebrate this wonderful feast on Mother's Day. Our mothers provide another view of giving birth to new life, facing the challenges and frustrations inherent in raising struggling and often willful seekers. And yet find in the joy in the midst. Life is a series of holding and letting go to each new phase of life. Cycles of grace and discovery, promise and fulfillment. Yet even in the midst of occasional disappointment or perhaps even failure, remembering that it is God who is the ultimate source of life and love. We are all channels of it in our own way and with our own voices. And in that way we speak one language declaring the goodness of God. Amen.

© 2008 St. George's Episcopal Church, Maplewood, NJ

Mother's Day

By The Rev. Bernard W. Poppe, Rector

In the collect this morning we prayed, "O God, you have prepared for those who love you such good things as surpass our understanding..." Much of our lives and the spiritual journeys we take open us up deeper and deeper into the mysteries of those very things which God promises to us which are beyond our understanding. When we pray, we allow our spirits the freedom to expand our understanding. When we meditate, it's the same thing. When we study scripture or any material that calls our spirit out, we are expanding our understanding of God. And as much as it expands, and as far as our imaginings and understanding take us, so much deeper and deeper is God, and even further than that, so much deeper and deeper is God's love for us. How far will you go for understanding? How much time will you devote, or lengths will you go to expand your understanding of God's love?

Such a quest brought Paul to many places, meeting many people and establishing churches. He risked much and suffered much, but kept going because the call was so intense and the relationship to God so endearing. In our first lesson we read how that call drew him to Macedonia, current day Greece. In this lesson he met Lydia, a dealer in purple cloth. It's an interesting detail that the writer of Acts gives us about her, clearly it's an indication that she was wealthy and influential. Purple cloth was rare and expensive since the dyes were extremely difficult to make. To be a dealer in this cloth was lucrative. Even further than that, to be a woman in this business in that time was very rare indeed. Paul, drawn to Greece in a dream, was drawn by the river to a place of prayer was to be expected and met this woman. After their conversation, she and her household were baptized. That must have been quite a conversation! And as amazing as the story is, what is more amazing to me is Paul's openness to going in the first place. It's beyond understanding.

In the book of Revelation, St. John the Divine gives a picture of heaven that evokes images we see in the book of Isaiah. The throne of God with rivers of crystal flowing from it, trees symbolic in number and bearing fruit with mystical purposes of healing the nations. It's a picture of heaven that has no sun, since the glory of God is the only light that's needed and is by far and a way brighter than any in the sky. There is so much in the book of Revelation that is beyond understanding, but is speaks in the language of mystery and symbol. It draws us deeper into that mystery, teasing our imaginations to picture this wonder.

The Gospel lesson is also beyond understanding. How a paralyzed man can be healed with a word. Jesus saw him and told him to take up his mat and walk. For so many years the man sat so close to this miraculous pool, known for it's healing properties, and he was unable to get to it in time. Trying desperately to find elusive healing and Jesus comes to him and accomplishes it with a word. It's beyond understanding.

In each of these stories, Paul, Lydia, John, and the man by the pool called Bethzatha, wanted to know more. They pursued the information and experiences of God. Yet it was with the help of God and another person that they went beyond their previous understanding and deeper into God's mystery and love.

I believe that we all share a hunger deep in our spirits. This hunger is for God, we're fascinated by God and drawn to a deep spiritual quality of living. We all have a certain level of understanding, most of which were formed in Sunday school when we were children, and then in various other pursuits along the way. But there's always more to read or hear or experience. Sometime that can be frustrating. They say that being and expert is knowing more and more about less and less, or that the more we know about something, the more we're aware of what we don't know. When the subject of our inquiry is God, that can indeed be frustrating. Sometimes we might feel like the man by the pool, paralyzed but so close to this healing that we can't stay away and yet somehow can't seem to get closer.

If getting to know God beyond our understanding is our goal, the first thing to grasp is that we cannot do it alone. We get to know God with God's help and with the help of each other. Like Paul and Lydia sitting by the river, it's often done in conversation. Sharing experiences, thoughts, prayers, this is how we get to know God.

I remember a long time ago wanting to know about prayer once. I wanted to get it right so I read about it, went to workshops and listen to speakers supposing that someone else could give me the definitive words or understanding. To some degree, someone did. Jesus taught his disciples in the words of the Lord's Prayer. And, in fact it can be that simple. But finally the realization dawned on me that, in learning about prayer, the best way is to pray. No amount of books or lectures can substitute for the prayer itself. There are no magic words, just sincerity and desire to be with God in silence. Often words just get in the way anyway. St. Francis once said "Pray constantly and only if you must, use words." Sometimes the desire to want to do something perfectly creates a form of paralysis all its own. Wanting to be perfect at the start prevents us from trying at all.

I heard a lecture recently about the New Testament, specifically about the sources available for study. The lecturer outlined the possibilities and they are surprisingly few. We have the collected book in our Bible, we have a couple brief references to Jesus in histories written by Jewish historians within the first century and no references in secular history. The lecturer went on to say that the beginning student imagines libraries full of available texts and references and is shocked to discover so few. His point was that all the intervening books are drawn from the same sources available to all of us. The greatest scholars in the world have at their disposal the same books and references we do. What they bring to it is their time and inquiry.

As we sit here this morning, we see evidence of renewal. Construction is happening in here and downstairs and in various other places. It's exciting to see the changes occurring and at this point imagine what the finished product will look like. We're very much like this building, in our prayer and understanding of God we're also under construction. But it's happening and nothing can really stop us, not even the paralysis we may sometimes feel. Since with even a word Jesus can come to us and tell us to get up and walk. The man near the pool called Bethzatha had the luxury of the physical Jesus calling to him. The rest of us have the silent tug at our hearts and spirits calling us onward and deeper through a hunger of the soul.

When going on a trip overseas, we can read all the travel books we want but in the end there's no substitute for the trip itself. In the lives of our faith and journey to God, the same holds true. There is no substitute for our own prayer and conversation with each other to go beyond our understanding into God's love. Amen.

© 2007 St. George's Episcopal Church, Maplewood, NJ

Mother's Day Proclamation

Arise, then, women of this day! Arise, all women who have hearts, whether our baptism be of water or of tears!

Say firmly: "We will not have great questions decided by irrelevant agencies. Our husbands will not come to us, reeking with carnage, for caresses and applause. Our sons shall not be taken from us to unlearn all that we have been able to teach them of charity, mercy and patience. We, the women of one country, will be too tender of those of another country to allow our sons to be trained to injure theirs."

From the bosom of the devastated Earth a voice goes up with our own. It says: "Disarm! Disarm! The sword of murder is not the balance of justice. "Blood does not wipe out dishonor, nor violence indicate possession. As men have often forsaken the plough and the anvil at the summons of war, let women now leave all that may be left of home for a great and earnest day of counsel.

Let them meet first, as women, to bewail and commemorate the dead. Let them solemnly take counsel with each other as to the means whereby the great human family can live in peace, each bearing after his own time the sacred impress, not of Caesar, but of God.

In the name of womanhood and humanity, I earnestly ask that a general congress of women without limit of nationality may be appointed and held at someplace deemed most convenient and at the earliest period consistent with its objects, to promote the alliance of the different nationalities, the amicable settlement of international questions, the great and general interests of peace.

- Julia Ward Howe