And suddenly there was a sound like the rush of a mighty wind...
On my Gram’s place, about ten feet from the front corner of the house, there stood an old cottonwood tree. A massive, ancient cottonwood that would howl when the wind came whipping off the lake and over the hill. I remember lying in bed at night listening to the sound of the rush of a mighty wind... never feeling afraid, it was a sort of comforting yet mournful song that would lull me to sleep.
The wind through the trees is still a sound that brings me a contented peace.
On the day of Pentecost. In the middle of Jerusalem, the sound of the rush of a mighty wind was so intense that people came running from every direction to see what was going on...
We take odd sounds for granted in crowded cities today... a street sweeper, a bus, a jet going overhead, a trolley. But in those days to hear a great wind blowing on an otherwise calm day in the middle of Jerusalem had to have been an odd thing. Because here come the people... hundreds and hundreds of people, gathering outside the house where the disciples had gathered.
Jesus uses the imagery of the wind to describe the spirit of God. In his conversation with Nicodemus, Jesus says... the Spirit’s like the wind... you feel it, you see it blowing things around, but you can’t really see it nor can you tell where it’s come from or where it’s going.
In the book of Genesis, the Spirit is moving on the face of the waters... like a wind. In fact the Hebrew word for Spirit is the same word for wind... Ruach.
The Spirit is like the wind. It can be comforting, like the wind howling through the old cottonwood at Gram’s place. It can be powerful, like wind that uproots old cottonwood trees and destroys anything its path. The wind contains energy, I love that imagery for the Spirit of God.
Another quality of the wind and the Spirit of God is that we can’t control it. Take a kite out on a calm day and no matter how much you run back and forth, try as you might, you can’t keep that kite up in the air. Try to have a picnic at the beach on a windy day and you can’t keep the paper plates on the blanket.
God’s Spirit is the same way... I can’t control it... you can’t control it.
The disciples didn’t know what to expect. However, I think it’s more than a coincidence that it came on the day of Pentecost, a Jewish feast day celebrating the first fruits of the harvest exactly fifty days after the celebration of the Passover. They just knew that they were supposed to wait. They knew that something was going to happen...
It’s appropriate that the spirit came in a very special way on Pentecost. The first fruits of the church... the birth of the church was in many ways a celebration of unity in the midst of diversity. What does that tell you about the church of Jesus Christ? What message does that give us?
Representatives from the Samoan Congregational Christian Church, the newest member church in our region, recently recognized at our Regional Assembly in Yakima... will be drumming the General Assembly into session in Indianapolis this summer. It’s a wonderful sign of the times when most of our new church plants are among minority ethnic groups. The spirit of Pentecost is alive and well when a rainbow of human color and language comes together to worship and sing praises to God.
The initial message of the church, the Pentecost message is the opposite of another ancient story... remember the tower of Babel in Genesis 11? God confused the people’s language because they were getting haughty, building a tower that was an attempt to reach the heavens. God confused the people’s languages when they attempted to reach up to heaven. On the day of Pentecost, heaven reached down and out of many different languages, created understanding... each person heard the Good news of God’s grace in their own language.
At this birthday party it was the guests who received the gift. That gift was inclusion. That gift was inclusion.
A few weeks ago, I preached a sermon entitled ‘This Kid’. In that sermon I lifted up some real people out of my past who struggled to be included, and for the most part were not included, some violently so. They were pushed aside, pushed outside the circle.
Edwin Markham, an 19th century Disciple Poet wrote this wonderful poem found in our hymnal...
He drew a circle that shut me out,
Heretic, rebel, a thing to flout.
But Love and I had the wit to win,
We drew a circle that took him in.
I found a bit about him in a book on California Poetry, where it says, and I quote, “Markham was raised by the strict Disciples of Christ sect, which took a dim view of literature and the other arts.”
I don’t know about you, but I don’t think we have a dim view of literature and the other arts.
Funny how people get impressions that color their view of us...
Funny how we get impressions of others that color our view of them. Pentecost comes along as the antidote for prejudice. Pentecost and God’s spirit come along and counter all the misunderstanding we hold in our hearts towards those who are different from us. Pentecost is God’s way of declaring that all people are welcome, all people are included regardless of how we feel about them. All people, regardless of how often they’ve been left out of the circle are made welcome. Especially those who are marginalized.
The Rev. Rebecca Hale, who made an indelible impression on this region over the past few years because of her faithful service and spirit, bid us adieu in an address at the recent Assembly in Yakima... as part of that address she shared, “...a top ten list of the reasons that mark the NWRCC as an amazing group of people and a place of life in this church, 10 things that in my mind set you apart...”
This was #7 on the list, and I quote... “This is a region where sexual orientation is not a barrier to ordination and that sense of welcome that you extend to God’s people inspires me personally. I have served in regions where the ordination policy in regard to sexuality is “don’t ask don’t tell” and I have watched that policy sap the life right out of some of God’s best people.”
Some ask me, why do you keep bringing that subject up? Well, this is how I see it... over the ages, different groups of folks have knocked on the door of the church looking to come in. Groups like women, non-Jews, differently abled, African Americans, Pacific Islanders, just to name a few, the list of course, goes on and on... each time, we have to get over prejudice in order to include these folks. Right now, this is the group that is knocking on the door. This is the group that still doesn’t feel welcomed in the church. This is the current group that is asking if the circle includes them.
This group has been beaten, kicked, spat upon, legislated against, propositioned against, fired from jobs, thrown out of housing, and killed because they are who they are... and unfortunately, the church has been part of the problem more often than the solution.
Pentecost brings the spirit of inclusion in the midst of division. Pentecost brings the spirit of grace in the midst of hatred.
This church, this particular church has been a place of inclusion, a place of grace. I know that we have our differences, especially in regards to this issue, but the beautiful thing about this church is that we are family, and family accepts all the brothers and sisters, regardless. And around that family is an ever widening circle which opens to all seeking to know and follow God.
When my grandmother died at 100, I reflected on how she was like that giant cottonwood... her arms protecting her 11 children, her roots going deep in the soil of compassion.
The church is also a place of protection, compassion and sanctuary. A place where humanity in all its variety gathers and listens to the wind blowing through the branches... a comforting, mysterious and beautiful sound. The sound of God’s spirit in our midst, calling us to be more than we have been and to draw the circle to take them in...