May 31, 2009
Pentecost Sunday (Year B)
Acts 2:1-21; Psalm 104:25-35, 37; Romans 8:22-27;
John 15:26-27, 16:4b-15
They gathered there. And tongues of fire lit upon them and they spoke in words they did not know, in languages they did not know but heard in the languages they did know.
The Spirit was upon them. The Spirit, the indivisible, least known and celebrated, or understood, part of our One Triune God!
They were enveloped in the fire, the unknowing, and ecstasy of the Spirit.
And it was Pentecost.
Pentecost, is a day like the Ascension, as Sonia described last week, a day without cultural recognition – Hallmark has no profit from the Ascension or from Pentecost! Yet, if we did not have Pentecost, the coming of the Spirit as promised by Jesus before his death, would we even know of the Father or of the Son?
For is it not the power of the Spirit working through us, around us, with us, that we find the way to do the will of God? Did not the Spirit empower the disciples to do what they did to become more than they could alone so that you and I today might celebrate being members of this church and the whole church some two thousand years later? It was not a person or persons who made this enormous mysterious reality of the church live on for centuries. It was the Spirit working through persons, individuals and collectives, the Spirit that continues to work through individuals and collectives even as I speak, even as you pray, even as we all listen.
I like the image of the wind blowing and the flames descending upon the whole lot of them that day. The wind, of course, speaks of mystery, for we cannot see the wind. We can only feel its effects. As a new, barely new and barely learning sailor to be, I have learned to become more aware of the wind and its eternal changing directions and subtleties, along with its powerful and even dangerous ability to turn from a gentle breeze to a terrifying gale that forces direction and speed at its own will. The wind can be tamed, or so we would like to think; but the truth is the wind takes us where the wind wills, when the wind desires.
It’s important to remember that about the Spirit, too. We think we can direct the Spirit, but in truth the Spirit directs us.
And the image of flames of fire on the heads of the faithful speaks to me of the sometimes painful reality that following the Spirit can bring a reality we frankly don’t much like to think about. For if we think of Pentecost, that day when the Spirit blew wind and fire, as the birth of the church, the beginning of the community of Christians, then we are wise to think of the reality of birth. It is always accompanied by pain. The fire of the Spirit, too, may be painful for the birthing process (at the very least) is painful. But once birthed the new creation is a thing to behold and the pain is forgotten. Sometimes I think we forget that true following of the will of the Spirit can be painful. Sometimes we want to opt for the feel good quick fix, or, to mix metaphors, for a way that turns the engines on and ignores the powerful wind that would direct us in a direction we had not thought we wanted to go.
Sometimes we think “feeling good” or right about what we are doing as we are doing it, is an indication of the Spirit’s leading us. Yet, when we are truly reflective, we know it is the painful things that we have gone through that bring us to new places, and allow us to look back and see that the fire of the Spirit was indeed what propelled us. Sometimes we are deluded by the “feel good feelings” when we are in them, and then see the situation in retrospect as not of the Spirit at all. But rarely is it that, when looking back on pain, that by God’s grace and direction we have come through, do we not see the power of that mysterious Spirit at work.
Today, you have available to you a few copies (on the Oak Desk in hard copy, but if you are on the parish wide email, you will receive a digital copy tomorrow) of the report of the Harvard Mediation Team that has been working with our parish for the past semester. These legal students of mediation practice were assigned the task of describing the conflict between me and some few members of this congregation, and the impact it has had on all of us, a far greater number than those with whom the conflict was centered. But more importantly these students were to offer a way forward, a way toward reconciliation and preventing this sort of thing from ever happening again. And they have done an admirable job of that.
In the report you will read what some people have said about me, but not who. You will read what some people have said about the Open Door group, but not who. You will read what some people have said about the Diocese, but not who. And even though I am not quoted either, I am the only one mentioned by name.
And as I read that report, I realized that “who” is not important in any case. Probably it is not even important what has been said or reported or misreported. For what we know for certain is that the Spirit has not been in the conflict or trying to point blame or fix attributes to one group or another. But I do see in their proposal a way forward that I trust will, indeed, be a tool of the Spirit, at least that is my prayer and I hope yours too.
They offer a three pronged approach. How Trinitarian! The first, we have already participated in, that is, those of us who attended the workshop two weeks ago led by Sheila Heen on Difficult Conversation. I think it allowed us to look at ourselves and our own communication styles, to be acutely aware of our inner voice and the power that it has in allowing us to forgo honest conversations, and the need to learn to override that voice, and, even more importantly, to be aware of that voice in others that we might truly listen to one another, allowing conversation to move to a deeper level of honesty.
The second part of their proposal is for facilitated conversations among members of this congregation about the conflict or their feelings about what has gone on, is going on, and how they want to move forward. These conversations will be led by the Reconciliation Committee that has been trained to lead them, and should be as worthwhile as the workshop was for all who participated in it. And finally for the third part, they offer the services of trained professional mediators for those who wish to be reconciled individually one to another.
This process can work and will work if we are all willing to go through the pain of it – for it will not be nearly as comfortable as sitting with like minded people and dissing “the others” or “other” who caused all this conflict. It will require us to be self-reflective. And it will require each of us to accept responsibility for our part in going forward as much as we accept our part in getting to this point. We want to go forward. We do not want to go back.
One of the ways the wardens committee has suggested in that moving forward is to begin to retrain and remind the Vestry and others about our common vision for this Oasis in the Woods. We have so much to give and so much to share with each other and with those whom we have not yet met. We are excited about reframing the questions, reminding each other of what is here and looking forward toward to what the Spirit will lead us toward. It is that moving forward that we intend to focus on in the upcoming months.
I do not think it will be easy or pain free or always cause that juicy, feel good, “Jesus has me in the shadow of his wing,” “we are one with each other,” sort of feeling that is often the case in this community as it is in all Christian communities. I think there will be many times when the wind catches our sails unexpectedly, and we find we are clutching to hang on so that we are not thrown into the water over the submerged rail. I think there will be times when the Spirit requires us to take the hit and absorb the pain of those fiery flames, to feel it and to be willing to move through it to the promise of new life that awaits us on the other side.
The spirit comes on Pentecost! But the Spirit comes each day, every day! The Spirit is here!
God’s Spirit is with us. And as people of faith, we are strong enough, faithful enough, to welcome the scorching and the winds because we know that what is on the other side is a peace beyond our understanding. We know there is the promise of a new life that we, who are sitting here in this church in our red clothes, awaiting the power of the Spirit, cannot imagine, any more than those disciples in that room, who spoke in languages they did not know, could imagine the power their lives would have on the world for the coming centuries. That same spirit is working in us. Let’s put on our life jackets! Be prepared for the fire that ignites our hearts! Come, Holy Spirit! Come!
Amen.
The Rev. Dr. Gale Davis Morris
Church of the Good Shepherd