Gloria Dei Lutheran Church

Dear Friends in Christ, God’s grace and peace be with you.  Amen

So there’s this new thing on the internet – it has a voice saying something, but no one is sure what it says. Does it say “Yanny”?  or “Laurel”[i]? I’ve listened to it several times, and I have to believe it’s some kind of a hoax, because honestly, depending which tape I listen to, and which device I’m on, it’s sometimes very clearly “Laurel,” and other times “Yanny,” clear as a bell! How can that be?  I think someone’s trying to mess with us.

What I love about the whole thing is that all over the place, people are getting together, leaning in to listen, and asking each other, “What do you hear?”  That’s Pentecost.

Some people hear the Gospel of Jesus Christ – a testimony that the one who was killed by the world’s hatred and violence has risen from the dead and lives to bring love to all the world. But others hear a bunch of drunken nonsense way too early in the morning. What do you hear?

Way too early yesterday morning, many of you were like me, watching the Royal Wedding of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex. Some people saw only a bunch of privilege and power, money and pomp, spectacle and tradition, and foolish sentimentality. But a lot of us are fools for a good love story – and we woke to witness the outpouring of the Spirit through a message of the redemptive and world-changing power of love.

Episcopal Bishop Michael Curry preached a sermon[ii] that rocked the house. (Seriously, if you have not heard it, you really should! Follow the footnote and read his sermon!) He began by quoting Martin Luther King who said, “When we [discover the redemptive power of love], we will make of this old world a new world.”

Apparently there were some people who felt Bishop Curry’s sermon was out of place, that it broke with decorum and tradition. I guess it wasn’t what those who normally attend royal weddings were expecting. But I have to believe that most people leaned in to hear something new and irresistible. “Love is the way.”  Love changes things, changes things so dramatically, that life is never the same again.

It was love which changed things at Pentecost – so that the world was never the same again.

Does it seem strange to you that it took fifty days for Jesus’ friends and followers to finally understand? It wasn’t just any fifty quiet, uneventful days, either. For at least the first forty of those days, Jesus, the one who had died,  kept showing up again and again, alive. The Resurrected Jesus entering into their fear, walking right through the locked doors of their hesitations and reluctance. The Resurrected Crucified One showed up on the shore with breakfast when they haven’t caught any fish all night. Jesus returned to respond to their fears. Jesus called them to feed his sheep and to receive his peace.  Jesus kept coming, breathing his spirit upon them. And yet, even all of those days in the presence of the Resurrected Jesus hadn’t convinced them.

But something changed on Pentecost; some other life-changing miracle occurred. Apparently for them, it was even more amazing than a resurrected Savior, more momentous than a crucified man walking among them, showing them his wounds and calling them friends. And what was it? Community. Love. People coming together, in such a way, that it blew them away.

Jesus’ followers were able to speak in a way that people could understand them. It wasn’t just that some said “Laurel,” but the crowd heard “Yanny.” It was that whatever they tried to say, the crowd heard love being proclaimed, in their own language. The crowd experienced community. They started asking one another, “What do you hear?” That was the miracle that changed the world.

Instead of fear or withdrawal or hiding behind closed doors, a fire of love swept over Jesus’s friends, and drove them out into a world that needed to hear the message they had to share. Instead of looking at each other and scratching their heads about what Jesus could have been trying to say to them, the power of love pushed them into God’s future and empowered to share reconciling power with the people of the world.

Jesus had told them this was going to be the way, of course. That’s what we heard in John’s gospel (John 16:12-15.) For several chapters, we’ve been hearing Jesus talking with his disciples all about love, love that lays down its life for its friends, love that comes from God and brings all of us to God. But as he concludes all of that, Jesus explained that there were some ideas and concepts, for which they weren’t ready.

Now, fifty days later, when the Spirit of truth came to them, when the Spirit of God came to guide them, and declare to them the power of God’s reconciling love now they are ready! Now they are finally able to be opened to the world, opened to share God’s truth with people in such a miraculous way, that everyone would hear it.

It’s still happening. God is constantly ahead of us, pulling us into the future. The Spirit of God allows us to consider new truths in the gospel. God’s breath opens our minds to new possibilities, new hope, new insights. I think this is why the church is always trying new things, and theologians are finding fresh ways of experiencing God’s love, because God is ahead of the church, calling us into the future.

This weekend, many of the staff and leaders of Gloria Dei joined representatives from all of the ELCA Lutheran churches from St. Paul for our annual synod assembly. We elected leaders and approved a budget and worshiped and discussed the church’s mission. A special focus of the gathering this year was the deliberate inclusion of young people– young pastors, young lay leaders, youthful voices opening us to hear God speaking in fresh, unfamiliar ways. Young people were asked to lead our small groups, helping us ask each other, “What do you hear?”

The synodical meeting functioned as if God’s promise of young men dreaming dreams, and daughters prophesying was the reality for the world. We were reminded that God is ready to bring new energy to the church and society, even if that means we may have to learn to hear the message in a new way.

Of course, this might take work. There may be old baggage and old metaphors that we need to let go of in order to join God in a new reality. There may be old reluctance180520_002 and hesitations that we need to confess ourselves.

My sister worked for many years in the IT department of an insurance company which has offices and affiliates from around the world. Years ago she was asked to begin sitting in on weekly conference calls with coworkers from various offices. Someone on the call from another country spoke quickly with an accent which was unintelligible for her. She admits thinking, “I’ll never be able to understand this guy.”

After a few minutes, she heard another colleague engage the foreign speaker and ask follow up questions. She realized that others on the call understood this person she had originally dismissed. Overtime, working to lean in and listen more carefully, my sister learned to comprehend the colleague’s accent, and she discovered that he had much to offer their team.

The Spirit is empowering the church to do the same, to listen to how people from generations, cultures and places unlike our own have an experience of God they want to share with us, and can speak for God in a way we have not heard or imagined before.

What do you hear? What could God be trying to tell the church today?

It wasn’t just the first Pentecost which needed the Spirit’s power. This week, the city of Jerusalem was once again the scene of people from all over the world,  gathered together in one place, filled with expectation, hope, fear, and power. Not all of that power was used for understanding and insight.

Barely fifty miles away events unfolded that stood in sharp contrast to the story of the first Pentecost. Rather than experience a miracle of God’s power of understanding poured out on the crowds, those who gathered became victims of violence, anger, and vengeance. Rather than trying to hear how young people were envisioning a future, and old ones were dreaming of reconciliation, the crowds along the Gaza border were harassed, attacked and  massacred. Rather than leaning in to listen more carefully to one another, too many only heard shouts of hatred, confusion, and hopelessness.

It’s not just in Gaza, either. Friday morning, the students, staff, and faculty of Santa Fe High School in Galveston County, Texas were interrupted from their dreams by the hatred and despair of one of their classmates. Rather than live out the vision they had for their future they are left with grief and yet again, the reminder of our society’s propensity toward anger, violence, and heartache.

Could the Power of the Spirit come for us on days like this, as well? In Romans we hear that the Spirit helps us in our weakness, to intercede for us when we no longer have words or ideas to get us through. Could the Spirit help us understand people who have alternate political or social positions from us in a new way? Could the Spirit of love be inviting us into a future that allows for all of us to live in peace? Perhaps the Spirit is calling us into a new day in which reconciliation is stronger than fear, and love is stronger than our exasperated hopelessness.

As he ended his remarks at Harry and Meghan’s wedding yesterday, Bishop Curry compared the power of love with the energy of fire. When humans first discovered how to create fire, it changed the course of history. Fire allowed our earliest ancestors to cook food and migrate into colder climates. Eventually we were able to harness the power of fire, to create the combustible engine, to develop modern medicine, to travel and communicate, and to use energy, creating civilization as we know it.

If we could ever capture the energy of love, the Bishop suggested, it would be as important as when humans discovered fire. Life changing, world-changing love – like fire poured out into the lives of believers, could create a new reality for all creation.

What if instead of some of us hearing “Yanny” and others hearing “Laurel,” we all learned to hear the Spirit calling us to life and love and understanding? What if we all heard a testimony that the one who was crucified by the world’s hatred and violence lives to bring love to all the world?

What if instead of fear and violence, hatred and animosity, we all learned to love our neighbor as ourselves, and to treat everyone around us as if they were royalty? What if we allowed ourselves to foolishly fall for a good love story – and be opened to the outpouring of the Spirit shaping us by the redemptive and world-changing power of love?

That, my friends, would be as wonderful as being kissed by the Prince of Peace. That would be as breathtaking as being claimed by the Fire of Love forever.

That would be Pentecost.

 

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[i] Yanny or Laurel? You can listen here and decide for yourself:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LDfoD-rgSzU

[ii] Listen or read the sermon here:  http://www.standard.co.uk/news/uk/rev-michael-currys-royal-wedding-speech-in-full-the-episcopal-church-reverends-complete-transcript-a3843486.html