Parable of the weeds among the wheat.

I preached this at the final Eucharist for our two week Anglican Immersion Program as part of the HyCAS Program  at Church Divinity School of the Pacific.  This was done as part of my preaching class.  

Homily For Friday July 27, 2012

Matthew 13:24-30 Parable of the weeds among the Wheat 

What kind of crazy farming manual did we just hear in the gospel?

Its crazy  At least to our modern sensibilities.  In our time we want to do everything to maximize our yield.  With todays technology we do things differently.  As a botanist who spent some time in my life working on genetic engineering of crop plants I would look for round-up resistant seeds to plant so I could use round-up to kill the weeds.  Or I would look at better living through chemistry to find a selective herbicide to kill the weeds.  After all if we let them grow along with the wheat they will compete for space, nutrients and water and reduce our yield.  Thankfully this parable is not a guide to modern farming practices!  But more importantly God’s farming practices and God’s economy is upside down compared to ours. 

How many of us as leaders in our congregations or in our denominations look out and see the weeds growing with the wheat? How many of us see the evil in the world and want to do something to eradicate it?  We ask ourselves what could we have done as a society to prevent the shootings in Colorado last week?  How can we prevent murderous dictators from creating genocide?  We really do want to help God and help Society.  But how?  Surely it must be ok to lock away evil.  To go about our societies and make sure that we are safe.  The problem is that evil – like the tares in the parable – look an awful lot like the wheat before it is ripe.  Who and how do we judge?

In addition to looking at societal evils, or weeds, we sometimes look into ourselves and see that perhaps there are parts of us that we should excise and burn.  Am I too impatient with those around me who read scripture literally when in comes to same gender blessing.  Or do I, as a gay man, not pay enough attention to what scripture says in regards to relationships – so much so that I don’t look to see what good news might be part of that scripture?

As we all gathered here these past two weeks we have learned about scripture, congregational leadership tools, liturgy and preaching.  We have set at the feet of some of the leaders of the church to hear what they have to teach us and we have sat with each other to hear what our different contexts can teach each other.  There have been some wonderful discussions in classes and over an adult beverage or two!  We are probably all zealous to go back and put into practice the things we have learned this week.  To tell our fellow worship leaders what they are doing wrong.  Or to use some of the practical theology tools to fix our dysfunctional congregational systems.  As Susanna is fond of saying “Do try this at home”  and I agree with that with one little caveat.  That what we are called to do is sow good seeds in our endeavors to fix the church. Not to go home and rip out the tares and to throw them in the fire. 

Elizabeth Johnson , a preacher from Luther Seminary , said “Jesus' parable makes clear that any attempt to root out the weeds will only do more damage to the crop. This has played out far too many times in congregations and denominations, with some determined to root out anyone who does not agree with the "right" interpretation of Scripture, liturgical practice, or stand on a particular issue. There are also those who pronounce judgment on people outside the church -- on people of other faiths, for instance -- declaring them to be destined for eternal damnation. Whether judgment is focused within the church or without, it does serious damage to the church and its mission.” (http://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?lect_date=7/17/2011&tab=4)

 It is our job to plant the good seeds not pull up the tares!  It is, however,  our job to occasionally shake up the system.  To jolt ourselves and our congregations or other systems out of the status quo.

When the slaves asked about pulling up the tares the farmer told them to let them be lest they also destroy the wheat.  You see the weeds that are translated as tares look very much like wheat until they are mature.  It would be easy to mistake a stalk of wheat for a tare before it is ripe.  Likewise I think it is very hard to judge who or what is evil in our midst or even sometimes what is evil in ourselves before it is ripe.  It is not that is does not matter.  It is important to call out evil and dysfunction when we see it.  But it is not our jobs ultimately to judge.  That is for God.  God in the fullness of time, as our liturgy says, will be the ultimate judge.  That annoying cranky person sitting in the pew may look a lot to our eyes as a tare that needs to be plucked out of our congregation but perhaps we are wrong.  They may well have a good reason to be cranky.  If we wait for the harvest at the end we may discover that they have characteristics that actually help bring God’s reign of justice and peace to the earth.  Even if they are annoying to us.  Likewise we should take care of suppressing too soon the parts of our own selves that we want to excise.  What looks like weeds now may indeed be a skill or a characteristic that will ultimate help in our leadership. 

What a strange farmer our God is.  So unlike ourselves especially in the 21st century.  We want to use all of our tools, especially the ones we have learned about this week, to help bring in the kingdom of God.  We want to rip up the tares and grow our church.  But that is not our job.  Our job is to sow good seeds and to try and not worry too much about the weeds that inevitably sprout up with the good.

 As we return to our local contexts I hope there is one tool especially that we will continue to use.  That we will continue to have conversations with each other.  To bounce ideas off our fellow classmates – the new friends that we have made and the friendships that we have strengthened over these past two weeks.  Let us use our technologies not to find ways to rip up what we perceive as weeds but to reach out to each other.  To find ways to plant good seeds.  To help each other with the tools and patience to leave it to God to make the ultimate decision as to what is a weed in our congregations, our denominations and in our own lives.  We may just be surprised that the weed is actually wheat once it ripens.

 

I preached this Homily for my course on "Preaching the Bible" at Church Divinity School of the Pacific on July 17, 2003.  The homily was preached for the HyCAS Class.

Homily using the Proper’s for Advent 4 – for Preaching the Bible

Micah 5:2-5a
 Psalm 80:1-7
Hebrews 10:5-10
Luke 1:39-45, (46-55)

For some of us the story of Mary and her song – the magnifcat- is so familiar that we perhaps glaze over or have an emotional reaction to the story without really hearing it.   When trying to look at the story with fresh eyes a couple of things strike me about Mary’s story.   Why did Mary run in haste to see her Cousin Elizabeth?  Did she want to confirm what the angel told her a few verses earlier  - that Elizabeth was pregnant?  Or did she want to share her news with the one person on earth who she thought would understand her.  Or as a friend suggested perhaps she ran to help Elizabeth with her pregnancy.  We don’t get the motivation for the trip.  We just get the result.  The result is wonderful but the why still tugs at me.  The other thing that interests me is Mary’s Song – the magnificat and what can it say to us.  When we really look at Mary’s song what does it say to us today?  What does it say to us about God?

First – why did Mary travel?  After all it was not a safe thing to do in Mary’s time for a young women to travel in the hill country alone.  It was a dangerous place. Just like today it can be dangerous to travel to some areas alone.  But that did not matter to Mary.  She went in haste to her cousin Elizabeth.   When Mary said yes to the angel she agreed to do a dangerous thing.  She agreed to become pregnant as an unwed mother.  An act that would have easily been interpreted as adultery.  An act that could result in her death.

I think that any of these or other motives that we might think of for Mary’s trip would be reasonable for us to ponder.  As startling as it may be for some to question Mary’s motives I think it is ok to consider the motive that she wanted to see this other miracle – the pregnancy of her older barren cousin or that she wanted to share.  I think we all have similar times in our lives when we have had such motivations.  I think it is human nature to want proof.  At least it is for those of us who have been trained in the scientific method. Richard Hamm, an author on church renewal,  said that “We who are late-moderns were raised to dissect everything.  It is a powerful approach to observation and discovery.  It got us to the moon and back.  However it must be admitted in the end that most things are more than the sum of their parts.” I would want to see the proof.  I would want to see Elizabeth as pregnant.  But what was Mary’s motive?[1]

Perhaps Mary really did just want to share her experience of the Angel Gabriel with the only other person who would truly understand.  The person that the angel told was also experiencing the miracle of an unexpected pregnancy – Elizabeth.  The sheer joy of the encounter with the Angel would certainly have been enough to get Mary to hasten through the hill country to see her cousin.

I’m sure we have all had experiences that have made us want to run and tell the one person, or persons,  who would truly under stand.   I know that I have had experiences that I have wanted to share as soon as they happened.   I needed to share them with someone who would understand.  I  wanted to reach out as soon as possible because the experience was a wonderful one.  For example when – on my second time with our Diocesan Discernment weekend the commission on ministry and standing committee recommended that I go forward as a postulant for Holy orders I could not wait to tell the people who would understand.  I could not wait to tell my priest, spiritual director and family.  So in haste I did that very modern thing and instead of traveling down from the hills I quickly texted the message to all the people who where waiting for the answer.  How very different that was than 3 years earlier when the message to me was “we hear a call to the priest hood but our Diocese is not ready to have a Gay man go forward in the process.  The timing is not right.”  In that case I waited until I got home to tell most people.  I only immediately told my closest family.  But when the news is wonderful – when we are visited – perhaps unaware – by an angel we want to share the good news.  We go in haste, perhaps oblivius to the risks, to share our news.

So perhaps a clue as to why Mary went to Elizabeth is in the result.  The wonderful song that is recorded in response to her visit with Elizabeth and the leaping of the embryonic John the Baptist.  For even if the motivation for the visit was to confirm the words of the Angel Gabriel the result of the visit was wonderful.  Mary’s reaction to her cousin’s greeting of , "Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb.”  Gives us some clue.  Mary sings.  She sings about the works of God and how they are opposite of what society would expect.  Mary’s song – the Magnificat is a song sung out of joy and wonder. 

It is also a song of reversal.  It is a radical song that goes against the power structure.  It is a song that tries to describe an indescribable God.  And how can we describe God?  In the case of the magnificat God is described through reversals.  Mary describes a God who does the unexpected.  A God who values the poor over the rich.  A God who values the lowley and the hungry.  A God who is revolutionary.  A God who entrusts a single young, powerless women to bear His son. 

Walter Breuggeman said “[Mary] sings about “the hungry,” the ones cut out of the food chain and denied access to the world’s great granaries. Mary knew what Micah knew, what Israel always knew, and what the church knows in Advent. The weak and vulnerable will be “lifted up.” The poetry and the song invite us to move out beyond the world given us by “the hard men,” and into a new, different world. We may, in anticipation, already act in and for that new age…. Folk around Mary can hope and sing.” (http://sojo.net/magazine/2009/12/getting-ready-unexpected)
Now I have to admit that my response to God’s call has not been very much like Mary.  It takes me a little while to both recognize that God is speaking to me and to respond.  And even when I do respond I’m afraid I have been a little like some of the prophets in the Old Testament.  My responses have been reasons why God certainly could not be calling me..  I don’t speak well…I’m gay….I’m not perfect enough.  But God persisted and so here I am.  I wish I could say that when I first heard God’s call I responded with Be it unto me according to thy will.  But it was not.  The good news is that I believe that our individual responses to a call do not lessen the impact that Mary’s response can have on our future responses. 
As I see it Mary can be a role model for our ministries.  It really does not matter why we are here.  Whether we got to this place through a dramatic invitation from an Angel – perhaps named Gabriel – or that we got here after years of hearing a nagging voice nudging us to say yes to our call to ministry – whatever that call may entail.  What matters is that we are here.  We are here and I bet all of us have a song in our hearts.  – Even when we are struggling on what to preach about on a given Sunday or in this class! – Mary invites us to sing.  To see that God’s reign is different.  It is a reign of peace and love where there is war and hatred.  A kingdom where the hungry are fed and the lowly are lifted up. 
Our invitation its to sing.  To sing our magnificats to God and to the world.  To sing the unexpected song in the unexpected place.  It really doesn’t matter if it is Advent or Christmas or any other time of the year. When we say yes to God we too will hasten to visit with those who will understand.  But more we will be over flowing with songs to share with the world.  Songs of reversal. We are invited to sing songs and to join in God’s activities to bring God’s unexpected reign of love and peace to our world.

Resources used:

Breuer, Sarah Dylan. Dylan's Lectionary Blog. 12 20, 2006. http://www.sarahlaughed.net/lectionary/2006/12/fourth_sunday_o.html (accessed 6 26, 2012).

Brueggemann, Walter. Sojourners. 12 2009. http://sojo.net/magazine/2009/12/getting-ready-unexpected (accessed 6 26, 2012).

Hamm, Richard L. ,  Recreating the Church – Leadership for the Post Modern Age, 78 St. Louis, MO Chalice Press, 2007

International Bible Society. Holy Bible New International Version . Grand Rapid, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1973.

Luther Seminary. Preaching this Week. 12 20, 2009. http://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?lect_date=12/20/2009 (accessed 6 27, 2012).

The Society of Biblical Literature. Harper's Bible Commentary. Edited by James L Mays. San Francisco, CA: Harper & Row, 1988.

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[1] Hamm, Richard L. , 2007 Recreating the Church – Leadership for the Post Modern Age, 78 St. Louis, MO Chalice Press

 

I preached this at S. Paul's Sacramento on July 15th. 

Sermon for July 15, 2012  Proper 10 B RCL

2 Samuel 6:1-5, 12b-19
Psalm 24

Ephesians 1:3-14
Mark 6:14-29

Mark 6:14-29

King Herod heard of the demons cast out and the many who were anointed and cured, for Jesus' name had become known. Some were saying, "John the baptizer has been raised from the dead; and for this reason these powers are at work in him." But others said, "It is Elijah." And others said, "It is a prophet, like one of the prophets of old." But when Herod heard of it, he said, "John, whom I beheaded, has been raised."

For Herod himself had sent men who arrested John, bound him, and put him in prison on account of Herodias, his brother Philip's wife, because Herod had married her. For John had been telling Herod, "It is not lawful for you to have your brother's wife." And Herodias had a grudge against him, and wanted to kill him. But she could not, for Herod feared John, knowing that he was a righteous and holy man, and he protected him. When he heard him, he was greatly perplexed; and yet he liked to listen to him. But an opportunity came when Herod on his birthday gave a banquet for his courtiers and officers and for the leaders of Galilee. When his daughter Herodias came in and danced, she pleased Herod and his guests; and the king said to the girl, "Ask me for whatever you wish, and I will give it." And he solemnly swore to her, "Whatever you ask me, I will give you, even half of my kingdom." She went out and said to her mother, "What should I ask for?" She replied, "The head of John the baptizer." Immediately she rushed back to the king and requested, "I want you to give me at once the head of John the Baptist on a platter." The king was deeply grieved; yet out of regard for his oaths and for the guests, he did not want to refuse her. Immediately the king sent a soldier of the guard with orders to bring John's head. He went and beheaded him in the prison, brought his head on a platter, and gave it to the girl. Then the girl gave it to her mother. When his disciples heard about it, they came and took his body, and laid it in a tomb.

The Homily

Todays readings are quite the mixed bag!  We have King David and the company dancing in front of the Ark of the Covenant as they lead it back into Jerusalem.  Back from where it was left for nearly 20 years sitting in the house of a Levite.  It is a joyous celebration.  The return of the seat of God to its rightful place in the city of David.  In Jerusalem.  It must have been quite a spectacle.  Contrast that with the passion of John the Baptist.  First we hear that Herod is convinced – being a quite superstitious fellow, that this Jesus of Nazareth must be John the Baptist come back form the dead.  And then we have the story of how John came to be killed.  The story of the weak leader Herod following up on a promise to a dancing girl who’s mother had it in for John.  The beheading of a charismatic leader.  What is a preacher to do!  It is tempting to avoid the Gospel lesson in its entirety and preach on King David.  And perhaps that is what I will do!

But first it is interesting to think about why is this story in Mark anyway.  Mark is what another preacher referred to as the “Readers Digest Version” of the Gospel.  It is so short and this section on the beheading of John the Baptist is the only story in the Gospel of Mark that is not about Jesus or the Disciples.  So why is it here?  It must be important.  Perhaps if we look at it in context?  This comes right after the section of Jesus sending out the twelve disciples to heal the sick and to cast out demons and just before the story of the feeding of the 5000.  It seems odd to me and Lynell asked the question how do we explain a story where evil seems to have the upper hand?  I honestly don’t know.   It does seem like evil triumphs in this story.  Is it a cautionary tale that discipleship has inherent risks?  Is this a concrete example of what can happen if we take up our cross to follow Jesus? That is what a number of preachers that I look to seem to indicate.  But I am not buying it. I believe that evil does not win.

 It seems to me that one of the recurrent threads in the Gospel is that God does not act as humankind expects God to act.  If we think back to the birth narratives we have Mary.  A single unwed young women who bears God’s son in a manger.  A Messiah born among the animals and not in a palace.  We have Jesus healing the outcast and hanging out with sinners.  We have stories of forgiveness.  A Messiah who is willing to suffer death to prove that love cannot die.  So I don’ t think this is only a cautionary take of what might happen if we take of the prophetic role.  It is true that prophets both ancient and modern are looked at askance by a society that still – over 2000 years after the death of Jesus values power and position over healing and love.  But I think that is what we are called to do.  We are called to show love to the loveless.  To follow the example of a God that does not take death as a final answer.  I think our God would much rather we dance in joy like David did leading the Ark back to Jerusalem.

In the next couple of months St Paul’s is going to develop a Strategic Plan.  Now I bet I know what some of you are thinking?  How does developing a strategic plan relate to the Gospel mandate to Love God and Love our Neighbors?  Well one answer is that we are not just planning.  We are also going to look at vision and mission.  St. Paul’s recently got a new permit for the temporary building that serves as our Parish hall.  The city said that we can keep using the building for ten more years.  After that we have to do something else.  We can let the space revert back to a parking lot or we can plan to do something else.  We can plan on how we can serve our neighbors and each other.  We can try and discern where God wants us to be and wants us to do as a people on this corner of 15^th and J streets or we can go on auto pilot and let 10 years go by without any planning.  Your vestry has decided that we would rather not be surprised in 10 years and would like to work towards figuring out what might replace the current temporary building.

So the first step is going to be some visioning.  We want to hear from all of you.  What do you value being at St. Paul’s and where you would like to see us grow?  Where and how is God calling us to bring his loving reign to this corner?  Now I know that some of you may feel that we have done this before.  You are right.  We have looked at vision and mission in the past.  This time we are doing it with an eye to creating a plan for how we are going to deal with the loss of our current parish hall.   We want to explore where you the people of St. Paul’s see us going.  What is it about St. Paul’s that keeps us alive?  Our demise has been predicted before but God seems to want us on the corner.  We are a healthy congregation and I see many wonderful ministries being done by you the people of St. Paul’s.  The process of visioning and planning will let us capture where the energy is in this place.  The process of visioning needs all of you to participate.  We have enlisted the help of Rick Larkey – Alex’s dad – do assist us in this process

Peter Steinke, in his book on grounding change in mission and hope,  reminds us that we are here to help mend the world.  That “[e]ach person participates in the mending assignment in his or her own way.  Also, each congregation subscribes to a specific way of mending.  Thus, some people seek to change policies that disregard people’s dignity.  Yet others become quite helpers and caring friends.  A portion of the congregation enjoys teaching the gospel.  A smaller number serve with prophetic voices.  [God] embraces small gifts and large ones.  Your response of mercy, generous offering, or shared witness makes a difference.  In no way is God’s future dependent on out offerings, but the new creation is open to all gifts of our hands and hearts.  We are part of God’s creative scheme when we care for something larger than our selves.  What could be more creative that to see the image of Christ in the face of the stranger or hear Christ’s voice in the cry of the starving Child?”[1]

So that is what we are going to do.  We are going to see where our gifts and passions are as a parish.  We are going to come up with a plan to see those gifts and passions grow.  It may mean that we partner with an other organization who also needs space to build a multi-user building where our parking lot is.  Perhaps we decide that we don’t need a building.  It is all up to the people of St. Paul’s.  To start this process we are going to have a series of all parish meetings.   To that end on August 5^th we will have one service at 9:00 followed by a parish meeting.  Rick Larkey will help us explore where we have been, where we are and where we are going.  We will have 2 additional Sundays where we will have one service followed by facilitated discussion.  They will be on September 5 and September 30^th.  We really want to hear from each and every one of you.  For those of you who “don’t do meetings” or prefer to provide input in other ways we will have multiple opportunities for you to share your hopes and dreams.  For example we are planning on using on-line survey tools as well for people to provide input. 

As I see it we do have a choice.  We can choose to live in a world where we react to events.  Where we react to the evil that we see happening or we can choose to help facilitate God’s dream.  A dream where we see reversals.  Where the hungry are fed. Where the loveless are loved.  Where nothing,  not even death can stop God’s love.  Lynell said “St. Paul's is facing the removal of a building and the costs of replacing it bigger than our cumulative wealth.  The voice of evil says, "it can't be done".  The call is to place ourselves before God and ask, “What would you have us do?”  How can we be the prophets voice in our generation?”  I invite you to join together to show the world that evil does not win.  To listen to each other and to find ways that we can continue to be Christ’s hands, feet and heart on this corner of 15^th and J and throughout our lives.

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[1] Steinke, Peter L.  “A Door St Open – Grounding Change in Mission and Hope”  The Alban Institute 2010. pg 108

 

Pentecost Sermon

I preached this sermon on Pentecost 2012 at St. Paul's

Sermon for Pentecost Year B RCL 2012

Ezekiel 37:1-14
Psalm 104: 25-35,37

Acts 2:1-21
John 15:26-27; 16:4b-15

Jesus said to his disciples, "When the Advocate comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who comes from the Father, he will testify on my behalf. You also are to testify because you have been with me from the beginning.

"I did not say these things to you from the beginning, because I was with you. But, now I am going to him who sent me; yet none of you asks me, `Where are you going?' But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your hearts. Nevertheless I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you. And when he comes, he will prove the world wrong about sin and righteousness and judgment: about sin, because they do not believe in me; about righteousness, because I am going to the Father and you will see me no longer; about judgment, because the ruler of this world has been condemned.

"I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth; for he will not speak on his own, but will speak whatever he hears, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. He will glorify me, because he will take what is mine and declare it to you. All that the Father has is mine. For this reason I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you."

Come Holy Spirit our souls inspire ,

And lighten with celestial fire! (From Hymn 504)

Today we celebrate the Gift of the Holy Sprit to the Church.  The gift of the Holy Spirit to us.  But what does that mean?  What does it look like?  What are we to do with this gift?  One writer wrote that the problem with the gift of the Holy Spirit is that we don’t know what to do with it or really what it is.  He said that it is like un-wrapping a present and looking in and not being sure what is in the box.  Dr. Thomoas wrote “As you pull off the ribbon and the wrapping paper, all the eyes in the circle are on you. You open the box and there it is....

But is it a pencil sharpener or a coffee grinder?

...a scarf or a bread napkin?

... earrings or fishing lures?”  (The Rev. Dr. Thomas G. Long What’s the Gift? http://day1.org/3822-whats_the_gift)

For many of us that is how we feel about the gift of the Holy Spirit.  What is it and what are we to do with it.  Perhaps our biggest problem with God the Holy Spirit is that we cannon contain her.  The creative Spirit that we celebrate today is at the same time disruptive and creates safety (Working preacher.org)  SO what are we to do with the gift?

When I read the lessons today I wished we could swap the reading of John and Acts.  Reading John after reading Acts is someone anticlimactic.  In John Jesus tells us that when he is gone he will send the Advocate to us. 

Now as a side note I have a little problem using a masculine pronoun to with the Holy Spirit.  In many places in the Bible the creative life giving spirit of God is described using feminine imagery. So I am going to try and use feminine pronouns when I speak about the Spirit today.

In our Gospel reading today Jesus promises us that the spirit will open up to us the things that Jesus wanted to tell us that we are not ready to hear or to understand.  And this is probably my biggest beef with trying to read the Bible literally and stopping our interpretation and understanding of God with what is written in our bibles.  I have a problem when we try to set our understanding of God with only what was revealed in the scriptures.  Especially when we read today that "I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. When the Spirit of truth comes, she will guide you into all the truth; for she will not speak on her own, but will speak whatever she hears, and she will declare to you the things that are to come. “. Jesus promises us that God’s revelations are going to continue.  That God will continually try to open our eyes to the truth.

In the story in the book of Acts we read of the Spirit descending on the Apostles.  I love the metaphor of the spirit settling on the Apostle’s heads like flames of fire.  The event however was not a private one.  The gift of the Spirit broke open the self-imposed tomb that the Apostle’s had been living in.  It finally got them out of the locked room and out with the people.  It was a disruptive event.  So disruptive that people thought the Apostle’s were drunk!  The neat thing for me is that even though on one hand the spirit was disruptive it also was inclusive at the same time.  All of the people – no matter where they were from – could understand the Apostles as though they were speaking the various native languages.  It opened up not just the Apostles but the people were able to understand as well.

So where do you see the Holy Spirit working today?  In many ways I think the Holy Spirit is aching to make a return performance of the type we heard about proclaimed in the story of the Dry Bones in Ezekiel.  In many places and in many of our lives there are dry places.  Places we think God cannot reach.  I believe God is aching to breath her wonderful creative spirit on all of us especially in our dry places.  To release that powerful creative spirit that has been part of creation from the very birth of creation.  At the Bishops conference a few weeks ago one of the speakers used the story of the Dry Bones as a metaphor for re-imagining the church.  If we can envision God taking a valley piled high in very dry bones and putting them back together, sinew on sinew, flesh on flesh, then why can’t we imagine it happening today?  If we can imagine God breathing the life given spirit into the people of ancient times why can’t we imagine it today?

Well one reason is that it is scary!  We don’t really want to have a bunch of dry bones reassembled into flesh bearing bodies and re-animated.  We would rather, as the old saying goes, let sleeping dogs lie!  But that is not what we are called to do.  God calls us to be spirit bearers in our world.  To open our hearts, minds and bodies to both recognize the spirit and to let the spirit work thorough us. 

I can tell you it is scary.  One of the most intense experiences I had of the spirit working through me happened one time when I was writing a sermon.  I had spent a week planning a sermon based on the Gospel reading of the Loaves and Fishes.  I had it all planned out.  But the spirit apparently had other ideas.  The night before I sat down to write my sermon a headline in the Missionary (the old Diocesan newspaper) grabbed my attention.  It was the story of a young gay man who committed suicide after being bullied.  The next morning I sat down still planning to write the sermon that I had planned.  Instead – in a very short period of time I wrote a very different sermon – a sermon on the sin of exclusion and bullying.  A sermon that told the tale of how words can and do kill.  As I wrote the sermon I reached out for books and opened them right up to just the right place with just the right quotes.  When I was done I was exhausted, excited and scared.  What had just happened?  I read the sermon and wondered who wrote it.  I feel now that the Holy Spirit had a hand in opening me up and inspiring me to write that sermon.  It broke open experiences and emotions that I did not know were there.  She breathed life into a pile of dry bones that needed to be animated.  She inspired me to write about a subject that needed to be heard and still, unfortunately needs to be heard today.

So on this Pentecost Sunday I invite you to not be too sentimental about this being the Church’s Birthday.  Pentecost is about more that wearing red and remembering an event of over 2000 years ago.  Yes Pentecost is a time to remember the creative force of God working through out our history – from the birth of creation through the valley of Dry Bones and on that first Pentecost Sunday after the Resurrection and Ascension.  But more importantly Pentecost is an invitation to see the working of the Holy Spirit in our own lives.  To pray, in the opening words of one of our Hymns to “ Come Holy Spirit our souls inspire , And lighten with celestial fire! (From Hymn 504)”  And then to put on our seat belts because once we let the spirit into our lives she is likely to break open things we would just as soon remain locked away and to lead us on a wonderful wild ride.  A ride that will open us and the world around us to God’s perfect reign of Love and reconciliation.  So get ready.  God is going to breath – breath life into our valley of Dry Bones and it is going to happen when we least expect it to happen.

Amen.