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Foundry is an historic, progressive United Methodist Church that welcomes all, worships passionately, challenges the status quo, & seeks to transform the world.
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Sunday Jul 07, 2019
Sunday Jul 07, 2019
"Go! Wash! Be Restored!"
A sermon preached by Rev. Dr. Kelly Grimes, Associate Pastor at Foundry UMC, on Sunday, July 7, 2019.
Scripture: 2 Kings 5:1-14
Wednesday Jul 03, 2019
Sunday Jun 30, 2019
Sunday Jun 30, 2019
Spirit and Fire
A sermon preached by Rev. Ginger E. Gaines-Cirelli at Foundry UMC June 30, 2019, the third Sunday after Pentecost. “Confronted by Call, Gifted for Service” series.
- Scott Peck once wrote, “When I am with a group of human beings committed to hanging in there through both the agony and the joy of community, I have a dim sense that I am participating in a phenomenon for which there is only one word...‘glory.’” I deeply resonate with this because building, nurturing, and mending community is at the heart of my call to ministry. What I love and long for is a local faith community—a congregation—whose words and acts match, a congregation that has integrity, that is loving and just, that is alive and motivated, that is full of laughter and music and children, that is generous and humble and powerful, that reflects the beautiful diversity of God’s human family, with all members showing up and doing their part to strengthen the Body of Christ. And what I know is that for this to be even a remote possibility, people have to make a commitment to “hang in there” through a lot. There is great joy in communities of faith to be sure—the joy of friendship, encouragement, insight, working together toward a shared goal, assurance, meaning, inspiration, purpose, and more. But there is also “agony.” People leave for new jobs or opportunities, beloved members suffer and die, conflict and disagreement cause distress and pain, the way forward isn’t always clear and rarely without struggle. As with any human body, there are times when the body is relatively healthy and times of acute distress. But always, the body has to figure out how to respond to new realities.
Human community is a living organism; and living organisms adapt to changes in their environment so that they continue to grow and thrive. Those unable to adapt, risk extinction. The phrase “adaptive change” has been in wide circulation for years. It points to the interconnected nature of human community and the need for every member to engage constructively and be open to new ways of both thinking and acting if healthy change is to happen. The thing is, change happens one way or another—but healthy change is only possible if folks are willing to not just “hang in there” but intentionally bring their particular gifts and skills along with gracious and patient open minds, hearts, and hands to the table. Making healthy adaptive change happen takes practice.
In our United Methodist system, we have built-in opportunities to practice—in the form of the appointment system, that system through which clergy are annually assigned to serve local congregations. It was five years ago tomorrow that I began my appointment here at Foundry. What had already been years of change and transition in the congregation through my colleague Dean Snyder’s tenure has continued in a big way as day by day, month by month, and year by year, we build on healthy foundations, address problems, adapt to new realities, and faithfully engage the significant questions and crises of our time. It is never boring around Foundry!
This year Foundry receives a new Associate Pastor, the Rev. Dr. Kelly Grimes, who will serve as our Director of Hospitality and Congregational Care. Pastor Kelly is excited to join our community in this role and brings gifts and graces that will bless us! And, as with any new leader, Pastor Kelly will bring change and newness and her own particular sense of call and personality to our shared ministry. Our work is to receive and welcome Pastor Kelly and to support her as she navigates the complexities and wonder that is life at Foundry Church! Together, we are called to adapt to this change in our environment in ways that strengthen our life and mission. //
The strange story we heard today from 2 Kings is a story of someone stepping into a new role; it’s a story of transition and change. The prophet Elijah served in the time of great upheaval following the division of Israel into the northern and southern kingdoms; his prophetic work is the stuff of legend. Following Elijah’s encounter with God on the mountain, he is instructed to seek out Elisha to be his apprentice (1 Kgs 19:16). These two travel together until the moment we read about today. Some will hear today’s story and get distracted with the impressive special effects—some biblical writers do a lot with divine wind machines and pyrotechnics! I tend to see this story as a very human moment when everyone knows that Elijah is dying and preparing to pass his mantle to his successor, Elisha. A “mantle,” by the way, is a cloak that symbolized the prophet’s authority and power—like a superhero cape or a monk’s outer robe. Elijah’s was a big mantle to fill.
The few verses that are omitted from our lectionary text include the pair journeying by stages from Bethel to Jericho and then to the Jordan. At each stop along the way, two things happen. First, a local “company of prophets”—like a town prophetic guild—tell Elisha what he already knows, that Elijah is going back to God; and Elisha basically says, “I know! Please stop mentioning it!” // I think of all the times I have said to colleagues and parishioners who are leaving that I don’t want to hear about it! Because it is painful to say goodbye to folks, whether the departure is a geographical move or a death. Elisha knew what was coming, but he didn’t want to hear it. His love for Elijah and his grief at his leaving are clear when he tears his clothes as a sign of mourning. This is part of the story we hear today; it’s part of the “agony” of community, part of the change that happens in due course.
Second, at each stop along their journey Elijah says, “Stay here,” and Elisha replies, “I will not leave you.” Some suggest that Elijah’s repeated command was a test of Elisha’s loyalty. That may be. I wonder, too, whether it was an acknowledgement that Elisha has a choice, that “taking on Elijah’s mantle” was a difficult and costly thing to do. Being a prophet in any age is not an easy gig. But evidently the call Elisha felt was clear and he’d been around long enough to know that he was signing up for both joy and agony. So much so that he asks for a “double share of Elijah’s spirit.” This isn’t being greedy or asking for more spirit than Elijah has. It refers to the legal provision that a firstborn son shall receive a double portion of the inheritance. Elisha knows what he needs! In order to receive this difficult gift—a gift granted by God alone—Elisha must keep his eyes firmly fixed on his beloved mentor. He didn’t look away and I imagine got more than he bargained for—as they were walking and talking together, a fiery chariot and horses “separated the two of them” and then Elijah got swooped up by a whirlwind and carried into heaven.
I’m here to tell you that, while there are plenty of educated conjectures, no one knows what the fiery chariot business is all about. But I’m simply going to point out that where there is fire and wind in the same place, Spirit is up to something big, usually new-life-creating big, often setting-folk’s-hearts-on-fire-with-a-new-call big. Think of Pentecost, the day when wind and fire were signs of a new anointing, a setting on fire to share the good news of God’s love and justice.
I doubt it’s an accident that this whole dramatic thing happens at the Jordan river, the place of crossing over from slavery to freedom, from one life to another. And Elisha crosses over there too, as he steps into life without his mentor by his side. He steps into a new role, takes up the mantle left by Elijah and begins to discover how he will hold it. He asks where God is, and God is with him, to make a way through the waters and into the new life on the other side.
We see in this story that adaptive change involves acknowledging our loss and expressing grief; every change involves loss. It involves being clear about our own call and what is required to fulfill that call. It then requires that we pick up the proverbial “mantle” of our call—that we do what we are called to do or be who we are called to be. Finally, it will require trust in the God who is always with us to make a way even when we feel lost or not ready.
As people of God, it is important for each one of us to consider our unique call in the midst of an ever-changing world. What is the mantle you’re being given? What is your role, where are you being asked to be open to something new? There may be changes in your body or your family or your relationship or your workplace that present you with a new role or way of being. There are always changes and new opportunities to practice adaptive change in and through Foundry. In the face of all that is swirling around us in the world, the suffering and conflict and the need for prophetic witness and loving-kindness and acts of tenderness and bold confrontation, what sets you on fire? Where are you called to serve? What are you called to give? We can talk talk talk about being a congregation committed to social justice and covenant community, but that only matters as we do our part, day by day, to keep our eyes focused on the One we follow so that we experience the winds and fire of Spirit who is always calling us to something new—and then do the work of adaptive change: grieve, discern, act, trust.
May our prayer be bold as Elisha in asking for the inheritance of Spirit due a beloved child. In the words of 19th century Episcopalian Priest, Phillips Brooks: “Do not pray for easy lives; pray to be stronger people! Do not pray for tasks equal to your powers; pray for powers equal to your tasks. Then the doing of your work shall be no miracle, but you shall be a miracle.”
Change is hard. Community is challenging. Foundry’s call to love God, love each other and change the world isn’t one person’s call, it is upon all of us; and it involves both joy and agony. But for those willing to respond to the call…. Glory awaits on the other side.
Sunday Jun 16, 2019
Sunday Jun 16, 2019
She Calls!
A sermon preached by Rev. Ginger E. Gaines-Cirelli at Foundry UMC June 16, 2019, first Sunday after Pentecost. “Confronted by Call, Gifted for Service” series.
Wisdom calls! She calls to all that live, calls us back to the beginning, to what matters most, calls us to wake up and to pay attention. Why? So that we can live as we are meant by God to live!
Proverbs 8, the ancient text we focus on today is, according to Old Testament scholar Walter Brueggemann, “one of the loveliest and most important biblical texts that respond to the question: ‘What is the world like? How does it work?’”[i] As we read in our passage, Wisdom was present with God at the creation of all things and, Brueggemann says, “is implicated in the act of creation and in the continuing sustenance of creation.”[ii]
Wisdom calls not Israel, not one tribe or family, but all that live back to the basic truth that life is interconnected and has at its core what Brueggemann calls a “moral coherence.” In short this means that within the interconnected reality of creation, our choices matter. What we do, how we live, how we are affects other people and, really, the whole created order. There are consequences in the short or long term for every move we make—or don’t make. This is reflected in the natural world—the climate crisis being a glaring negative example. Predictably, destruction of habitat and introduction of chemicals into the earth, water, and air have negative consequences. Some things are less predictable—as illustrated by the theory of the “butterfly effect”; oversimplified, this is the idea that one small change in an interconnected system can have unpredictable effects on the whole system.[iii] Others of you will know about the extraordinary science developed by now deceased Dr. Masaru Emoto. Dr. Emoto experimented with the effects upon water of negative and positive words and energy. One experiment had some water prayed over by priests and other water had negative, disparaging words (“you fool!”) spoken over it. When the water was frozen, the water crystals of the prayed-over sample were fully formed and beautiful (like perfect snowflakes), the other water crystals were incomplete and deformed.[iv]
These are simple examples of how creation—science!—affirms Dr. Brueggemann’s scholarly insight from the biblical text. The world is interrelated and deeply affected by the choices we make every single moment. One reason Wisdom calls so urgently is that human choices continue to rip life apart instead of mending wounds. We can find the money and ingenuity to make a hand-held device recognize and respond to our face and voice, but can’t find the political will to recognize and respond to the faces and voices of traumatized asylum seekers at our borders and children crying out for care as they are held in overcrowded detention cells. We allow budget talks to get derailed by the potential financial benefits or “bread and circus” offerings of another sports stadium in our city, while public housing for DC’s most vulnerable residents stands in need of $2 billion worth of repairs. And, as my colleague the Rev. Dr. Anthony Hunt recently wrote: “The race problem in America can be most vividly seen in the fact the more than half of all white Americans continue to support (and probably will at the ballot booth in 2020) a leader of these yet to be United States who has consistently, persistently and unashamedly demonstrated - over numerous decades - in word and action - that he is a racist.”[v] These are just a few of so many places that human choices shun the call of Wisdom. She calls! And she has no time for this destructive foolishness!
Wisdom calls us to align ourselves with ways of being that generate peace and wholeness and beauty—in the Hebrew context what is called shalom. Brueggemann teaches, “Wisdom is not a moral code, but a force that is creative and willing creation to its true fulfillment. ‘Being wise’ is bringing one’s life, conduct, and policy into coherence with that generative resolve for shalom.”[vi]
It would be easy to miss the fullness of Wisdom’s call if we were only to read the excerpt from Proverbs 8 that is assigned. However, when you take a look at verses 5-21, the call becomes much more clear. Listen to these other words of Wisdom from the paraphrased version of the Bible called The Message:
Don’t miss a word of this—I’m telling you how to live well,
I’m telling you how to live at your best.
My mouth chews and savors and relishes truth—
I can’t stand the taste of evil!
You’ll only hear true and right words from my mouth;
not one syllable will be twisted or skewed.
You’ll recognize this as true—you with open minds;
truth-ready minds will see it at once.
Prefer my life-disciplines over chasing after money,
and God-knowledge over a lucrative career.
For Wisdom is better than all the trappings of wealth;
nothing you could wish for holds a candle to her.
“I am Lady Wisdom, and I live next to Sanity;
Knowledge and Discretion live just down the street.
The Fear-of-God means hating Evil,
whose ways I hate with a passion—
pride and arrogance and crooked talk.
Good counsel and common sense are my characteristics;
I am both Insight and the Virtue to live it out.
With my help, leaders rule,
and lawmakers legislate fairly;
With my help, governors govern,
along with all in legitimate authority.
…You can find me on Righteous Road—that’s where I walk—
at the intersection of Justice Avenue,
Handing out life to those who love me,
filling their arms with life—armloads of life!
Do you see? Wisdom calls us to right relationship and to justice, to turn away from pride and arrogance and crooked talk and greed, to turn toward discipline and common sense, and to practice the virtues that don’t steal life but set us free to live more fully. Wisdom calls us to align with the things that make for shalom—wholeness, peace, a world where we and all that live have what they need.
As feminist theologian Elizabeth A. Johnson writes of this text, Wisdom “is a beneficent, right-ordering power in whom God delights and by whom God creates; her constant effort is to lure human beings into life.”[vii] Johnson’s image of Wisdom “luring” us into the life we are called to live makes me think of this excerpt from a poem by Hafiz:
We have a duty to befriend
Those aspects of obedience
That stand outside of our house
And shout to our reason
“O please, O please,
Come out and play.”
For we have not come here to take prisoners
Or to confine our wondrous spirits,
But to experience ever and ever more deeply
Our divine courage, freedom and
Light!
Wisdom lures us into life—freedom, joy, courage, and light!—the things that make for shalom. Wisdom calls us to come out and play! O please! Come out and play! A fascinating note about Wisdom and our passage today is that there are two wildly different translations of verse 30. In what we heard read today, Wisdom says I was beside God “like a master worker.” The other translation: I was beside God “like a little child.” The Common English Bible translation for verses 30-31 is:
I was beside him as a master of crafts.
I was having fun,
smiling before him all the time,
frolicking with his inhabited earth
and delighting in the human race.
All of a sudden, I see Wisdom not just as a powerful female co-creator with God, but also as God’s childhood playmate, luring and calling us to come out and play, to play with the crafts that build a better world, a world that is more like it was originally created to be—maybe full of macaroni necklaces and popsicle stick structures and painted rocks…I can just smell the Elmer’s glue and glitter… I see Wisdom as both lamenting the deep brokenness in the world and also finding ways to enjoy it, to recreate it, and to delight in the human family!
This mix of powerful woman and playful child seems somehow resonant with Wisdom’s character. I have heard many talk about the wisest persons they know—from famous ones like the Dalai Lama or Jean Vanier to the ones known only to those lucky enough to travel in their orbit—exhibit a mix of deep strength, discipline, and self-awareness and also a childlike playfulness and self-forgetfulness. This has been my observation as well. Perhaps there is something there for all of us to consider. If you follow me on FaceBook you might have seen my recent post about an ongoing struggle I’ve been having to hold things a bit more lightly. I feel like Wisdom has likely grown hoarse from all the calling She’s done to try to help me lighten up. Maybe you, like me, hear the call daily to mend the world, to care and to serve and to give… but struggle with the “childlike playfulness” part. For me, the issue isn’t that I don’t take care of myself—I practice Sabbath, have regular time with friends and colleagues, maintain healthy boundaries, have actually started working out multiple times every week, and pray every morning. It’s not so much about what I do with my time but how I hold the responsibilities and realities of life and of the world in which we live—my temptation is to hold it all with heaviness, intensity, seriousness. I struggle to release the sense of over-responsibility for the “weight of the world” that isn’t really mine to carry. Wisdom calls saying, “Remember that you are not alone in this work! Remember that God holds the weight of the world so you don’t have to. Recognize you cannot do everything and be wise in your decisions of where to put your energy. Do what you can do and be honest and humble about your limits. Look around at the beauty of the world and delight in the amazing diversity and wonder of the human family. And for God’s sake, Come out and play! Laugh! Explore! Enjoy the gift of this life! Soak up the adventure!”
Wisdom calls to us to choose wisely, each and every moment for the sake of love and justice and the common good. We know that our choices matter, that people depend upon us, that our actions affect life and death of siblings in the human family and creatures and habitats in the natural world, that there are real consequences for how we live our lives. And that is serious business and can feel heavy and exhausting. But what we’re reminded of is that powerful, playful divine Wisdom is woven into all that is; she is eternally available as our energetic guide, giving instruction, reminding us that we have wisdom at our core, calling us to play, to be awake to what is, to respond with intention and love, to perceive the beauty and goodness all around us, luring us to LIVE as we are meant to live. As we close these reflections, hear the words of Wisdom calling to you from the final verses of chapter 8:
32-36 “So, my dear friends, listen carefully;
those who embrace these my ways are most blessed.
Mark a life of discipline and live wisely;
don’t squander your precious life.
Blessed the [one] who listens to me,
awake and ready for me each morning,
alert and responsive as I start my day’s work.
When you find me, you find life, real life…”
New every morning, She calls! Will you receive what she has to offer? Will you share it with others?
[i] http://day1.org/7294-on_scripture_walter_brueggemann_on_wisdom_proverbs_814_2231
[ii] Ibid.
[iii] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Butterfly_effect
[iv] https://www.masaru-emoto.net/en/masaru/
[v] Anthony Hunt, FaceBook post
[vi] http://day1.org/7294-on_scripture_walter_brueggemann_on_wisdom_proverbs_814_2231
[vii] Elizabeth A. Johnson, She Who Is: The Mystery of God in Feminist in Theological Discourse, New York: The Crossroad Publishing Company, 1996, 88.
Sunday Jun 09, 2019
Sunday Jun 09, 2019
What Is the Pentecost Miracle?
A sermon preached by Rev. Ginger E. Gaines-Cirelli at Foundry UMC June 9, 2019, Pentecost Sunday and Pride weekend. “Questions Along The Way” series.
“Be who God meant you to be and you will set the world on fire.” St. Catherine of Siena, the 14th century laywoman, activist, and mystic who first said these words to challenge and embolden, might be discouraged to see that you can now find them floating “along on a vast sea of comforting spiritual quotes on Pinterest…and available for purchase as a framed, floral watercolor on Etsy.[i] Don’t get me wrong, I love a pithy, meaningful quote. But framed in these ways, St. Catherine’s words become domesticated and easily misunderstood.
In her context and understanding, to be who God means you to be isn’t about mastering all the self-help books or setting out on an “Eat, Pray, Love” journey of self-discovery, but rather to be so close to God that some of the divine image—that image we are meant to reflect—begins to shine out of your perfectly unique life. And to set the world on fire isn’t to have your blog or post go viral or have your name in lights or glowing headlines, it’s to spread the fire of God’s love and grace in a way that is so compelling that others’ hearts and lives are changed for the better because of you.
Once upon a time, a rather ragtag group of women and men—Acts 1:15 suggests there might have been around 120 of them—were gathered together in one place. They had been on an extraordinary journey with Jesus both before and after his death. They witnessed and participated in signs and wonders, and at this moment they are doing what Jesus told them to do (Lk 24:49); they are waiting in the city for the baptism of Spirit.
I wonder if they had any idea just what was in store. I wonder if they thought the Spirit would show up gift-wrapped or floating in with the gentleness of a dove. If so, they were wildly mistaken. Holy Spirit pours Herself out upon the gathering—just as Jesus had promised. But this is no framed watercolor scene. Spirit comes (in the Greek) aphno—suddenly—and biaias—mightily or even violently—think wind and fire that sets off alarms, that wakes people up, that cannot be ignored, that requires some kind of response. Spirit (a person of the Trinity and not a thing—hence my intentional omission of “the”) comes like a wind and fire storm and fills the congregation with power and ability to not only communicate with one another, but to be immersed in something so disruptive—so far outside the norm—that those outside the house gather around to see what in the world is going on. This crowd includes many immigrant Jews—those who likely were reared in various places of Jewish diaspora and had returned to Jerusalem, bringing with them the diverse cultures and languages of the tribes and nations surrounding Palestine. Spirit blows into the house, sets the disciples on fire so that they begin proclaiming God’s deeds of powerful, liberating love, mercy, justice, and peace, and the fire starts to spread; the word is received by people of all ages, nations, orientations, and races—we are told the number that day was around 3,000 (Lk 2:41)!!
“What is the Pentecost miracle?” The miracle is that for a bright, shining moment, the people of God were who God meant them to be—available to a disruptive and surprising Spirit, filled with love and courage and freedom, and instrumental in a great conversion to love and justice and generosity and peace and mutuality and the formation of a new community with those things at the center.
This is the beginning of all the stories we’ve been exploring since Easter—all the signs and wonders, all the life-changes and reconciliations, the humanizing moments, boundary-crossings, and heart-openings are fueled by this mighty moment of Spirit’s anointing, filling, and fueling people like you and me to go into the world to be instruments of God’s love and grace—that is, to be who God means for us to be. When we first stepped into the Acts of the Apostles 50 days ago, I shared how this book ends on a cliff-hanger—and I believe that’s to remind us that the story is still being written by those of us willing to continue to show up expecting Spirit to fill us and set us on fire.
The Pentecost miracle isn’t something that happened once a long time ago. It is an ongoing miracle—that even with all the ways that the human family gets it wrong down through the centuries, Spirit continues to touch hearts, to disrupt the status quo of our lives and communities, to stir people to gather, to empower once timid followers to take risks for the sake of the Gospel. At least one part of the ongoing Pentecost miracle is that the church continues to exist at all with the mess we’ve made of it over and over again.
But the church’s survival shouldn’t surprise us since, from the very beginning, there were forces who stood in opposition, forces and voices who sneered and jeered, who saw barriers broken and, instead of celebrating the amazing beauty of a diverse human family sharing an experience of God’s liberating and reconciling love, labeled what was happening as bad behavior, they assigned blame, twisting this beautiful moment into debauchery. And yet this perversion of the truth could not stop the life and community-creating power of Spirit from flowing—not then, and not now.
We are in this very moment experiencing a fresh Pentecost moment in the United Methodist church—a moment when Spirit is setting off alarms, waking people up, stirring discomfort, disrupting what has been, creating confusion, leading people into new configurations of community, inspiring boundary-crossings among persons used to dwelling in discrete tribes, and empowering once timid Jesus followers and justice-seekers to stand up, to take a risk, to speak out about the love and grace of God and the imperative for inclusion and justice in the church and world. It is not a cozy time, a familiar time, a time when we have a clear path, much less a map—because we know something new is coming, but don’t know where exactly Spirit is leading! It’s like the Israelites in the wilderness having been liberated from bondage in Egypt but on an uncertain journey toward a promise they couldn’t fully perceive or define. Like them, we are traveling the Way of Jesus right now without the comfort of one clear plan and without a firm timeline. We don’t know how long this journey is going to take. Like our spiritual ancestors in the wilderness and in the chaos of the first day of Pentecost, we are surrounded by folks who are processing the experience very differently. I know we have folks here at Foundry who are angry, confused, tired, sad, hopeful, energized, afraid, curious, and more. On most days, I feel most of that stuff all at once! Across the Methodist connection, I assure you that folks are “having ALL the feels!”
But Spirit is truly up to something. Openly LGBTQ candidates are being commissioned and ordained not just in Northern Illinois and Baltimore-Washington and New York, but in Michigan and Texas! If we can stay open and available and engaged, we will have a front seat to something happening that is certainly historically significant and potentially spiritually extraordinary. I am under no illusion that those who have so clearly rejected the invitation to remain in communion will change their minds—so please understand that’s not what I’m talking about. But among the large contingent of United Methodists across the country (and world) who are NOT aligned with the Confessing/Good News/WCA movements, I see the church connecting and supporting one another right now in beautiful and powerful ways. The more intentional connections and collaboration that emerged after the General Conference in 2016 have continued to mature and are bearing fruit in annual conferences everywhere. Boundaries all along the spectrum of culture and belief continue to be crossed in order to find places of mutuality and solidarity. The work is painful and trust is often in short supply and there are places of struggle as this new level of intentional connection emerges, but it is happening.
I know that we want things to be done, that we want justice already, that we want things to be quick, that we want things to be simple and clear and well-defined. And there may be some of us who are ready to check out, to give up on this thing, to turn away from the moment we are being given to participate in whatever extraordinary and surprising work God is up to. We may feel like nothing we do matters, we may feel small and insignificant and powerless. We may be tired of this part of the struggle and long to focus on other things. The sneers and jeers from without and within may discourage us to the point of apathy, resentment, and depression. But as I have said before, many folks look to Foundry for leadership and take their cues from our witness. This is not a time for us to retreat but to bring the full force of our experience and advocacy, our commitment to intersectional justice, our deep faith, and our bright hope for tomorrow to bear in the struggle.
And we are not without help! That ragtag bunch all those years ago didn’t develop a 10-point plan and a comms strategy for spreading the love of God as they sat in the house in Jerusalem. The church didn’t explode in numbers because of human ingenuity. It exploded because of the new-life giving power of God’s love, manifest in Spirit. That power has continuously stirred and stormed to help the church rise up and keep going, to boldly proclaim God’s love and mercy and compassion even in the face of hatred and violence of all kinds. It’s the power that gave passion to the prophets, that calmed the seas, that fuels forgiveness and humility; it’s the power that has torn down literal and relational walls, inspires the greatest music and art, gives words to those who fear having nothing to say, brings new life out of ashes and resurrection even from the cross.
I can’t help but remind us of the words of Annie Dillard who calls us out with this challenge: “On the whole, I do not find Christians, outside of the catacombs, sufficiently sensible of conditions. Does anyone have the foggiest idea what sort of power we so blithely invoke? Or as I suspect, does no one believe a word of it? The churches are children playing on the floor with their chemistry sets, mixing up a batch of TNT to kill a Sunday morning. It is madness to wear ladies’ straw hats and velvet hats to church; we should all be wearing crash helmets. Ushers should issue life preservers and signal flares; they should lash us to our pews.”[1]
We are in the midst of a Spirit wind and fire storm! She’s not playing! No wonder we may feel uncomfortable and agitated! The power of God is among us and is moving and is calling and is stirring and is challenging us to stay awake and to stay open and to stay engaged and to stay prayerful and humble—so that God’s power will be able to fill us, move through us, and lead us into the promise that has been made.
Is Annie Dillard’s suspicion correct? Does no one believe any of this? Do we believe that the Holy Spirit has been poured out on all flesh and that we are all tinder, just waiting to go up in flames of love, praise, commitment, and proclamation? Do we believe that Spirit has the power to shake us from the status quo, from the familiar paths, from the unjust systems, from our desperate need to control the journey? Are we “sensible of conditions?”
I once heard this definition of miracle: it’s not when God’s actions align with our desires, but when our actions align with God’s desires. That’s the kind of miracle that seems worthy of our contemplation. And that’s the Spirit-instigated Pentecost miracle. So if you want to be a part of it, put on your crash helmets, grab a signal flare, find a traveling companion for the wilderness crossing, and get in on whatever amazing new thing Spirit is stirring in and through us for the sake of the larger work of new creation and promise that is to come. Let’s be who God means for us to be and—together—set the world on fire!
[1] Annie Dillard, Teaching a Stone to Talk
[i] Br. Jordan Zapac, O.P., https://www.dominicanajournal.org/a-patron-for-pyros/