Sermon: Day of Pentecost

Sermon:  Day of Pentecost, May 19, 2013  The Rev. Laura Adelia

Gen 11:1-9, Ps 104, Romans 8:14-17, Jn  14:8-17, 25-27     

(Sermon given at St. Peter's Episcopal Church, Casa Grande, AZ)

“Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable to you, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer.”  (Psalm 19:14)

Good morning everyone!  It is wonderful to be with you all here at St. Peter’s!  And don’t you all look so very dashing in red this beautiful day of Pentecost!  I very much look forward to getting to know you all!  I wish it were under other circumstances though, as Vicar Judy is not well and now on medical leave.  Hopefully with some time for rest she will heal and be well.

This day of Pentecost, by the way, is the birthday of the early Christian church!  So happy birthday church!  

And so I ask you, how have you experienced the Holy?    Think about that right now.  How did it feel?

How many of you speak a second or third language?  Or have tried to learn another language?     Not very easy, is it?  (Hardly anyone raised their hands.)

OK, I have to ask, What do you call someone who speaks 3 languages?  Trilingual.  Two languages?  Bilingual.  One language?  American!

About 7 or 8 years ago, I decided to expand my horizons take Arabic.  So there I was in class, Arabic 101 at Phoenix College.  And the teacher walks in.  He was from Bangladesh, and was one of those people that speaks five languages!  Uh!   And he tells us in his Bangladesh accent, “Ahdahbik vedi eezy!”  

Hmmm!   Well, I can tell you Arabic was not 'vedi eezy'!  It was fun to learn, but it was a lot of work.  I wound up taking 4 semester of Arabic and even going to Jordan and Israel for a cultural study for six weeks.  And here it is, all these years later, and all I can remember is the alphabet and a few Arabic words and phrases!

Languages.   

It seems to be the basis of the story in the Tower of Babel story we just heard in Genesis.  The primeval mythological story of how so many languages came to be in the world.

The story is about languages and power. “Babel” actually means “gate of God” in Akkadian, the ancient language of Sumeria, "bab" is gate or door, and "el", is God.  But the story in Genesis is referring to Babylon, so named as in Hebrew the word “balal” means “confusion”.  As well there is a much deeper meaning of the story. 

Contrast this to the story in Acts, which we did not hear today.  The story of the day of Pentecost, where the disciples are in a house, and sound of rushing wind comes upon them, and they are filled with the Holy Spirit.  From this, they are given “tongues of fire” and are able to speak multitudes of languages, and travel the world.

Notice in the two stories, in Babel, the people lose something, and in the Pentecost story in Acts, the people, the disciples gain something.  

And in the Gospel story, we have Philip, who has a moment of insecurity and anxiousness and asks Jesus to ‘show them the Father, and they will be satisfied’.    In other words, show us God!

Can you imagine being in Jesus’ shoes for a moment?  You have just led your disciples all over for the past three years, doing all these amazing things, healing the sick, giving sight to the blind, teaching, preaching, even raising the dead!   No wonder Jesus responds with “Philip, I have been with you all this time and you still do not know me?”  

But haven’t we all been there?  No matter how many times we feel God’s presence in our lives sometimes anxiety and fear gets the best of us and we still need assurance!

But Jesus, ever patient and always teaching says, God the Father is in him, and he is in God the Father.   In other words, God is always present!

Jesus then gives words of comfort and assurance.   After he is gone, God will send them the Holy Spirit, the Advocate, who will teach them everything… and remind them all they have been taught.

Most of the time, we think of a Holy Spirit or Pentecost experience as an ecstatic and intense spiritual experience or event.   

As well, we tend to associate very beautiful places in nature, such as Sedona or the forest, the tall pines with wind rushing thru the trees and sweet pine smell with cool mountain air on our skin, “God’s country” as we would call it, or an amazing Arizona sunset as a place or event where one would experience the Holy.  

But let’s not forget the Holy is ever present in the ordinary and the mundane too.  Even with us in places that seem ‘God forsaken’.  

When I was deployed to the deserts of Arabia, to an “undisclosed location in SW Asia”, an airbase in the middle of nowhere, with it’s high walls and barbed wire fences, lack of aesthetics, beige and white sand, intense desert heat….it was not a pretty place.   But, in spite of this, I felt and knew God, the Spirit was there with me!   

However, my last week there, my replacement had come in.   I was awaiting transport home and a strange thing happened.  My plane kept getting delayed and I was anxious to go home, naturally.    The delays made me even more anxious.  I wanted to get home to my doggies, my family, my friends! My home!    And for the first time I actually saw how ugly the place really was!  

It was as is the Spirit did not allow me to see the ugliness of the place the 5 or so months I was there.  For if I had, I would not have been able to do my work and minister to the people there! 

Yes, the Holy is always present, whether or not we let ourselves see it and feel it. Sometimes it may feel to us that God, or the Holy is absent in our lives for a while.  I think this happens from time to time for all of us.  Mother Theresa even described that even she felt an absence of God, for 50 years!  And we are talking Mother Theresa here!  

Perhaps God was / is there all the time, it is just at times we do not feel it.  It is easy to let fear and worry take over.  And then it is ever more difficult to feel and know that the Holy Spirit is always with us.  

As well, the Spirit is present not just in the good and joyful events of life, but is also there with us in our sorrows, pain, and sufferings too. 

In those times when fear may be getting the best of us, let us focus on and let us remember the words of Jesus, “Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not be afraid.”   

There really can be a peace that passes all understanding.   But we must be open to God’s language and communication…the Holy Spirit.   It may not always come as an ecstatic, peak spiritual experience, but it can come.  It does come.  In the calm, in our breath… in everyday moments…

God’s presence will not be defeated by fear.  Hope overcomes despair. Light overcomes the darkness!

Let us walk in love, supporting one another, caring for one another, and pray for one another...knowing the Spirit, the Comforter, is always with us!   

Amen!