WEBVTT 00:02:47.520 --> 00:02:49.759 Hallelujah, Christ is risen. 00:02:53.599 --> 00:02:54.960 Let's pray together. 00:02:55.280 --> 00:02:56.240 Almighty God. 00:03:01.039 --> 00:03:01.919 And from you. 00:03:03.759 --> 00:03:14.159 Cleanse of our hearts by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit that we may perfectly love you and will be magnifying your holy name. 00:03:16.639 --> 00:03:17.280 Amen. 00:04:57.600 --> 00:04:58.959 Let us pray. 00:04:59.920 --> 00:05:07.680 Almighty God, on this day you opened the way of eternal life to every race and nation by the promised gift of your Holy Spirit. 00:05:07.920 --> 00:05:21.839 Shed abroad this gift throughout the world by the preaching of the gospel that may reach to the ends of the earth through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God forever and ever. 00:05:23.199 --> 00:05:25.360 A prayer for memorial day. 00:05:26.879 --> 00:05:34.639 Give you thanks, O Lord, for all who have died that we may live, for all who endured pain, that we might know joy. 00:05:34.959 --> 00:05:42.639 For all who made sacrifices that we might have plenty, for all who suffered imprisonment that we might know freedom. 00:05:43.519 --> 00:05:47.199 Turn our deep feeling of gratitude now into determination. 00:05:47.600 --> 00:05:53.360 And our determination into deed that as men and women died for peace, we may live for peace. 00:05:53.920 --> 00:05:57.120 For the sake of the Prince of Peace, Jesus Christ our Lord. 00:06:16.000 --> 00:06:30.240 When the day of Pentecost had come, the disciples were all together in one place, and suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. 00:06:31.279 --> 00:06:38.079 Divided tongues as of a fire appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. 00:06:39.199 --> 00:06:46.639 All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages as the Spirit gave them ability. 00:06:48.319 --> 00:06:52.879 Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven living in Jerusalem. 00:06:53.759 --> 00:07:02.879 And at this sound the crowd gathered and was bewildered because each one heard them speaking in the native language of each other. 00:07:03.600 --> 00:07:09.199 Amazed and astonished, they asked, Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? 00:07:10.240 --> 00:07:14.560 How is it that we hear each of us in our own native language? 00:07:15.600 --> 00:07:50.319 Parthians, Medeas, Alamites, residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt, and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and Crosselites, Cretans and Arab and Arabs in our own languages, as we hear them speaking about gods or deeds of power, amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, What does this mean? 00:07:51.199 --> 00:07:55.439 But others sneered and said, They are filled with new wine. 00:07:57.199 --> 00:08:01.600 But Peter, standing with the eleven, raised his voice and addressed them. 00:08:02.639 --> 00:08:10.879 Men of Judea and all who live in Jerusalem, let this be known to you and listen to what I say. 00:08:12.000 --> 00:08:17.759 Indeed, these are not drunk as you suppose, for it is only nine o'clock in the morning. 00:08:18.639 --> 00:08:22.160 No, this is what was spoken through the prophet John. 00:08:24.160 --> 00:08:42.240 In the last days it will be, God declares, that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams. 00:08:43.519 --> 00:09:02.960 Even upon my slaves, both men and women, in those days I will pour out my spirit, and they shall prophesy, and I will show portents in the heaven above, and the signs on the earth below, blood and fire, and smoky mist. 00:09:03.759 --> 00:09:12.159 The sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the coming of the Lord's great and glorious day. 00:09:12.799 --> 00:09:17.519 Then everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. 00:09:18.639 --> 00:09:21.759 Hear what the Spirit is saying to God's people. 00:09:42.480 --> 00:09:46.879 Oh Lord, how manifold are your works in reasonable? 00:09:51.759 --> 00:10:00.399 Yonder is the great and wide sea, with its living things, too many to number creatures of the wild and great. 00:10:01.679 --> 00:10:08.159 There move the ships, and there is that Leviathan Which you are made for the world. 00:10:09.279 --> 00:10:12.879 All of them look to you to give them their food. 00:10:14.879 --> 00:10:17.519 You will give it to them, they gather it. 00:10:18.080 --> 00:10:21.759 You will open your hands and terrifying. 00:10:22.320 --> 00:10:25.279 You hide your face and they are terrified. 00:10:25.919 --> 00:10:30.240 You have their breath and they die and return to their dust. 00:10:30.799 --> 00:10:34.399 You send forth your spirit, and they are created. 00:10:34.960 --> 00:10:38.000 And so you endure the face of the earth. 00:10:38.639 --> 00:10:42.559 May your glory, O Lord, endure forever. 00:10:46.000 --> 00:10:48.720 You look at the earth and it trembles. 00:10:49.360 --> 00:10:51.759 You touch the mountains of God. 00:10:52.320 --> 00:10:55.600 I will sing to the Lord as long as I live. 00:10:55.840 --> 00:10:57.360 I will praise my God. 00:10:59.759 --> 00:11:02.639 May these words of mine please you. 00:11:03.440 --> 00:11:05.600 I will rejoice in the Lord. 00:11:06.159 --> 00:11:08.720 Bless the Lord, O my soul. 00:11:51.279 --> 00:11:56.639 No one can say Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit. 00:11:56.879 --> 00:12:01.200 Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit. 00:12:01.440 --> 00:12:05.679 There are varieties of services, but the same Lord. 00:12:05.919 --> 00:12:13.360 And there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who activates all of them in everyone. 00:12:14.320 --> 00:12:18.879 To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. 00:12:19.759 --> 00:12:37.759 To no one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge, according to the same Spirit, to another, faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit. 00:12:38.559 --> 00:12:55.759 To another, the workings of miracles, to another, prophecy, to another, the discernment of spirits, to another, various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. 00:12:56.159 --> 00:13:05.759 And all these are activated by one and the same spirit who allots to each one individually just as the Spirit chooses. 00:13:06.639 --> 00:13:19.120 For just as the Holy Body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. 00:13:19.679 --> 00:13:31.919 For in the one spirit we were baptized into one body, Jews or Greeks, slaves or free, and we were all made to drink of the one spirit. 00:13:33.840 --> 00:13:37.039 Hear what the Spirit is saying to God's people. 00:13:37.759 --> 00:13:38.720 Thanks be to God. 00:15:44.399 --> 00:15:46.399 Glory to you, Lord Christ. 00:15:46.879 --> 00:15:56.879 When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, that is, Easter Sunday, and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear of the Judean leaders. 00:15:57.120 --> 00:16:01.360 Jesus came and stood among them and said, Peace be with you. 00:16:01.840 --> 00:16:07.200 After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side, and then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. 00:16:07.360 --> 00:16:10.480 Jesus said to them again, Peace be with you. 00:16:10.720 --> 00:16:13.519 As the Father has sent me, so I send you. 00:16:14.000 --> 00:16:18.159 When he said this, he breathed unto them and said to them, Receive the Holy Spirit. 00:16:18.399 --> 00:16:21.039 If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them. 00:16:21.279 --> 00:16:24.720 If you retain the sins of any, they are retained. 00:16:26.080 --> 00:16:27.679 The gospel of the Lord. 00:16:46.080 --> 00:16:48.240 Breathe on us, breath of God. 00:16:48.720 --> 00:16:56.240 May your breath be bright and true, lighting the way that is a grace, the journey we might pursue. 00:16:56.559 --> 00:16:59.279 In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. 00:16:59.919 --> 00:17:00.320 Amen. 00:17:00.639 --> 00:17:01.840 Please be seated. 00:17:06.000 --> 00:17:22.880 Well, we've been talking for the last several weeks about the call, the invitation to faith that is resurrection, and now we've arrived 50 days in on the Hebrew festival, sometimes called trumpets, although in Hebrew called Shabuot. 00:17:23.119 --> 00:17:36.160 So the reason the disciples are together in a room is because they were celebrating a well-established Jewish festival, Shabuot, which happens 50 days after Pentecost. 00:17:36.240 --> 00:17:37.359 That was yesterday. 00:17:37.599 --> 00:17:40.400 Yesterday our Hebrew brothers and sisters celebrated this day. 00:17:40.559 --> 00:17:51.599 What happens on Shabuot is that the entire Torah, and remember that's the Hebrew word for the first five books in the Hebrew Bible, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. 00:17:51.839 --> 00:17:53.920 The whole Torah is read. 00:17:54.240 --> 00:18:05.119 People hear it, and then they celebrate the sweetness of it by eating food that is tinged with honey and drinking, if they can, a kind of honey wine. 00:18:05.279 --> 00:18:06.480 We call that meat, right? 00:18:06.640 --> 00:18:10.240 So I want to make sure I dispel a common misconception. 00:18:10.400 --> 00:18:17.839 Our Jewish brothers and sisters do not regard the Torah as a law, as a checklist to curry favor with God. 00:18:18.079 --> 00:18:20.720 It is for them God's greatest gift. 00:18:20.880 --> 00:18:28.480 The Torah is designed to help them understand how to live joyfully with one another and with God. 00:18:29.680 --> 00:18:31.279 That was yesterday. 00:18:31.599 --> 00:18:33.279 50 days after Passover. 00:18:33.440 --> 00:18:37.599 So the disciples have read, likely, the whole Torah. 00:18:38.160 --> 00:18:41.440 Remember ten days ago Jesus ascended into heaven? 00:18:42.319 --> 00:18:48.720 I think it's okay to say they're feeling some somehow a very low point. 00:18:50.480 --> 00:18:55.440 They're so used to seeing the guy embodied, and now they don't get to see that anymore. 00:18:55.680 --> 00:18:59.200 Even though they were happy ten days ago, now they seem to be not that happy. 00:18:59.279 --> 00:19:00.319 And what do you know? 00:19:00.559 --> 00:19:09.920 They are afraid and they've locked themselves in, and all of a sudden we get to hear there is a sound like a violent spirit. 00:19:10.240 --> 00:19:18.880 I know you're thinking it says wind, but I want to make sure you know that in both Hebrew and Greek, that word spirit means moving air. 00:19:19.680 --> 00:19:25.519 We don't usually say the Father, Son, and the Holy Moving Air, but that is actually biblically what we'd be saying. 00:19:25.680 --> 00:19:27.359 What kind of air moves? 00:19:27.680 --> 00:19:29.519 Breath and wind. 00:19:29.920 --> 00:19:39.920 So I want you to hear perhaps a frame for this is that the disciples have then done their thing and now they find themselves really tired, and they're going to get a second whip. 00:19:40.720 --> 00:19:41.519 Yeah, that's right. 00:19:41.759 --> 00:19:43.440 I mean, I think that's right, a second whip. 00:19:44.000 --> 00:19:53.920 This is where the word inspiration comes from, and I have to speak a little bit, you've probably heard me say this before, but it's helpful to rewind a little bit of the code language that's happening that we don't always realize. 00:19:54.160 --> 00:19:58.960 Remember back in Genesis 2, God makes a human being out of clay, and it's just a neat statue. 00:19:59.119 --> 00:20:04.000 And according to the text, God leans over and gives the clay mouth to mouth. 00:20:04.319 --> 00:20:09.359 God goes, puts a spirit. 00:20:10.160 --> 00:20:11.200 That's how the text reads. 00:20:11.440 --> 00:20:14.400 Puts a spirit in the clay, we become alive. 00:20:15.519 --> 00:20:19.680 God inspires the clay to be alive. 00:20:20.319 --> 00:20:24.559 Now, maybe you know this, but uh, we don't do this in the Christian community. 00:20:24.640 --> 00:20:29.519 Usually, we call God all kinds of stuff like God and Lord and Jesus. 00:20:30.000 --> 00:20:35.680 But our Jewish brothers and sisters believe God has a personal name just like Jim does and I do. 00:20:36.480 --> 00:20:41.119 I want to make sure I'm really clear, it is anti-Semitic to say or read that name. 00:20:41.279 --> 00:20:43.680 Our Jewish brothers and sisters do not do it. 00:20:43.839 --> 00:20:48.079 Nonetheless, you've probably heard it pronounced, it's what we would call the Y word. 00:20:50.160 --> 00:20:56.000 Turns out nobody's saying it right because, according to Jewish mysticism, if you get God's name right, the world will end. 00:20:57.599 --> 00:21:01.440 What we do know is biblically God's name sounds like this. 00:21:06.559 --> 00:21:07.920 Hear the breath there? 00:21:09.759 --> 00:21:25.359 Jewish brothers and sisters are very clear that when we say or write God's name, it is too holy for us, we defile ourselves, and yet they love tension and they say the very first thing a baby does when they come out the womb is they say God's name. 00:21:25.599 --> 00:21:27.119 Usually pretty loud. 00:21:27.359 --> 00:21:41.440 Like, and mystically they say the last thing we do before we transition to larger life is we say God's name one last time, and we go back to dust. 00:21:42.079 --> 00:21:43.839 It's a beautiful image. 00:21:44.799 --> 00:21:51.200 It is God's name, say our Jewish brothers and sisters, that makes you alive right now. 00:21:51.359 --> 00:21:57.920 So even though we're not meant to pronounce it or write it, saying it, and hence you are alive. 00:21:58.720 --> 00:21:59.759 This is what influence. 00:22:00.160 --> 00:22:01.519 Inspiration means? 00:22:01.759 --> 00:22:16.000 It means breathing in a wind or breath or spirit that is so greater than how we normally breathe that we are recreated in God's image out of dust. 00:22:16.720 --> 00:22:18.400 This is what happens on Pentecost. 00:22:18.480 --> 00:22:20.000 And friends, let's not be silly. 00:22:20.079 --> 00:22:22.400 It's not like this is the invention of the Holy Spirit. 00:22:22.640 --> 00:22:26.319 God being God and Spirit being spirit has always been. 00:22:26.960 --> 00:22:39.119 It's just this is a day where the disciples got their second wind and said, hey, we got it in a special way and let's celebrate it and not just remember it as a thing that happened, let's pattern our lives over it. 00:22:39.359 --> 00:22:41.039 Now, we read the Gospel of John. 00:22:41.119 --> 00:22:42.000 I don't know if you noticed. 00:22:42.319 --> 00:22:46.480 Gospel of John, Pentecost happens on Easter, not 50 days later. 00:22:46.640 --> 00:22:50.319 The resurrected Jesus shows up and he breathes on the disciples. 00:22:50.400 --> 00:22:56.799 And I've got to ask, has anybody been in a diocese where the bishop breathed on somebody at confirmation? 00:22:58.240 --> 00:22:58.559 No? 00:22:59.279 --> 00:23:00.319 Ordination? 00:23:00.960 --> 00:23:07.759 There is an old tradition in some dioceses that when confirmed, the bishop will pull a Jesus move. 00:23:08.079 --> 00:23:14.319 You hope they took a mint and blow in your face. 00:23:15.920 --> 00:23:22.000 And I want to put before you we're invited to sort of do this and do it well. 00:23:22.160 --> 00:23:29.519 The truth is, we all breathe, and in general, we tend to breathe out carbon dioxide, which can be poisonous to other human beings. 00:23:29.759 --> 00:23:34.960 The day of Pentecost is where we're invited to breathe a holy breath that can nurture life in other people. 00:23:36.160 --> 00:23:38.799 Happens in a wild way. 00:23:40.960 --> 00:23:46.640 Some people say Pentecost is like the undoing of the Tower of Babel. 00:23:47.039 --> 00:23:52.480 Once upon a time we all spoke the same language, and look, now we get to, and they didn't read the text carefully. 00:23:52.640 --> 00:23:57.359 Did you please notice that Peter does not speak any other language than Aramaic? 00:23:58.160 --> 00:24:06.960 The miracle of the day is not that everybody heard Aramaic, it's that Peter spoke his language and people heard it in their own. 00:24:07.920 --> 00:24:18.960 Pentecost doesn't undo language variance, it recognizes and honors it and communicates across it. 00:24:19.440 --> 00:24:28.799 This may sound funny what I'm saying, but I want to suggest to you, in preparation for the South Africa pilgrimage we're doing in a couple weeks, I've read this very long book called The Covenant by James Mitchell. 00:24:28.880 --> 00:24:31.119 I mean it's 58 hours long audio. 00:24:31.279 --> 00:24:41.200 And one of the things that shows up, right, is that the people who populated now modern-day South Africa, most of them came from Holland and they spoke formal Dutch. 00:24:41.440 --> 00:24:48.480 And most of the time you create a settlement far away from the mother country, you end up with a language that we call a creole, right? 00:24:48.640 --> 00:24:57.519 It's based on a mother language, but syntax can vary, and some of the uh sort of the rules can relax, and new loan words come into the language. 00:24:57.599 --> 00:24:59.599 That language being Afrikaans, right? 00:24:59.680 --> 00:25:02.480 Now, South Africa has traded leadership a bunch of times. 00:25:02.640 --> 00:25:15.440 There were settlements by the French and there were settlements, uh, it became a British colony, but the Afrikaners were very clear that their language was what made them distinct. 00:25:16.160 --> 00:25:19.359 It was an emblem of their identity. 00:25:19.519 --> 00:25:27.759 And put another way, you can read some of the writers on Afrikaners that the way you destroy somebody's identity is you steal their language. 00:25:29.119 --> 00:25:30.799 Let me put that more negatively. 00:25:31.039 --> 00:25:35.680 Many of you are probably aware of something in Pennsylvania called the Carlisle School. 00:25:35.839 --> 00:25:37.599 This was an idea from the U.S. 00:25:37.680 --> 00:25:43.839 government about 140 years ago that was based on the premise kill the Indian to save the human being. 00:25:44.079 --> 00:25:53.279 So what happened is Native American children were forcibly removed from their homes, their hair was cut, and they weren't allowed to say their indigenous language. 00:25:53.519 --> 00:25:56.799 They could only say English. 00:25:57.200 --> 00:25:58.799 Have you heard about this? 00:25:59.200 --> 00:26:01.920 It is a stain in our histories. 00:26:02.079 --> 00:26:08.880 That's why there are very few native speakers of Dine, Navajo, Oyibue, etc. 00:26:09.920 --> 00:26:11.920 We did it on purpose. 00:26:12.240 --> 00:26:16.240 We did it so that there could be uniformity. 00:26:16.640 --> 00:26:23.599 Because we made the mistake of thinking that unity and uniformity are the same thing and they have nothing to do with each other. 00:26:24.000 --> 00:26:24.880 Nothing. 00:26:25.200 --> 00:26:25.519 No. 00:26:25.759 --> 00:26:34.000 Something that is really lovely about the English language, if you speak another tongue, is frankly the fact that we have 540,000 words. 00:26:35.519 --> 00:26:47.759 We have that many words because when we encounter a clever idea in a different language, whether the word is Ubuntu or karma, we say they're on to something over there. 00:26:48.559 --> 00:26:55.759 And instead of saying, boy, look at that lady driving, you know, that's bad, what goes around comes around. 00:26:56.400 --> 00:26:57.680 That would sound nuts. 00:26:57.920 --> 00:27:00.559 We say, there goes karma. 00:27:02.400 --> 00:27:06.000 Instead of translating it, we brought the word in. 00:27:06.160 --> 00:27:10.079 Because the word does something our language cannot. 00:27:14.480 --> 00:27:16.160 English gets it. 00:27:16.640 --> 00:27:22.000 And if we're thoughtful, Pentecost is our invitation to get it as well. 00:27:22.559 --> 00:27:27.359 My favorite definition of culture is the way we do things around here. 00:27:29.039 --> 00:27:33.759 Consider there are many ways we do things around here in the world. 00:27:34.079 --> 00:27:35.200 Many ways. 00:27:35.440 --> 00:27:44.880 And on the day of Pentecost, whether you're Cretan or Arab or you read that whole list, poor Kathy had to pronounce all those names. 00:27:44.960 --> 00:27:45.920 Good job, by the way. 00:27:46.799 --> 00:27:47.359 Thank you. 00:27:47.599 --> 00:27:55.519 Whatever your culture is, God is able to honor and speak to it without negating it. 00:27:56.000 --> 00:27:58.480 Without negating it. 00:27:58.799 --> 00:28:01.519 Honor and recognition. 00:28:02.079 --> 00:28:07.920 I gotta tell you, part of the reason I'm an Episcopalian, probably the biggest reason, is that words matter to me. 00:28:08.319 --> 00:28:09.519 Words matter. 00:28:09.839 --> 00:28:12.240 They matter so much that we've invented new words. 00:28:12.480 --> 00:28:15.839 See, we don't use a plate or a cup, we have a chalice and a patent. 00:28:16.000 --> 00:28:18.640 We don't have a tablecloth up here, we have a frontal. 00:28:18.960 --> 00:28:21.440 I'm not wearing a napkin, I'm wearing a maniple. 00:28:21.680 --> 00:28:24.559 We use these words to say these are special things. 00:28:24.720 --> 00:28:26.960 They need words to show their specialness. 00:28:27.119 --> 00:28:36.640 We need a vocabulary that is set apart, that's what holy means, from regular parlance, so we can recognize, well, the metaphysical and the stuff. 00:28:37.440 --> 00:28:47.119 We pray prayers, the Christians have been praying for 1,500 years, and I've got to tell you why I love the prayer book, because it gets me better than I get myself. 00:28:47.359 --> 00:29:04.640 There are many times, frankly, when I don't even know how I feel, and joining the wisdom of the tradition in these prayers allows me to express myself more beautifully, thoughtfully, and comprehensively than I could without the language matters to us. 00:29:04.799 --> 00:29:10.799 And language matters on Pentecost because it's how we recognize the dignity of our brothers and sisters. 00:29:11.519 --> 00:29:14.559 I'm going to talk about dignity and the call of Pentecost a little bit more. 00:29:14.640 --> 00:29:16.720 Has anybody been to Paris before? 00:29:17.440 --> 00:29:19.519 This is unepiscoparian for raising your hand. 00:29:19.599 --> 00:29:23.440 What happens when you roll up to a Parisian and ask them something in English? 00:29:25.279 --> 00:29:27.119 Usually they don't care for it. 00:29:27.680 --> 00:29:31.359 Like if you say, Where's the Eiffel Tower? 00:29:31.839 --> 00:29:34.079 Normally the response will be, uh. 00:29:36.880 --> 00:29:47.920 If, on the other hand, you say in terrible French, due la tour de a serre, usually a Parisian will say, it is over there. 00:29:50.880 --> 00:29:54.880 The truth is they know how to speak English. 00:29:55.279 --> 00:30:05.599 What they're waiting for is the honor and dignity extended to a different way of doing things around here. 00:30:07.680 --> 00:30:10.640 All of us believe in that at some level. 00:30:11.119 --> 00:30:19.519 If I told you my name is Mike and you said nice to meet you, Michael, you have created a breach in our relationship. 00:30:19.680 --> 00:30:20.240 I'll tell you that. 00:30:20.319 --> 00:30:24.160 I'll still get along with you, but I want you to hear that's a lump. 00:30:24.480 --> 00:30:38.559 If I tell you my daughter's name is Emory and you say, nice to meet you, Emily, you created a lump because you did not take the time to listen to the way I do things around here. 00:30:38.960 --> 00:30:41.039 Now, technically, you could be right. 00:30:41.279 --> 00:30:47.279 You could say, Oh, you know, I don't want to call you Herb, I want to call you William. 00:30:48.240 --> 00:30:50.400 Technically, I could be correct. 00:30:51.279 --> 00:30:53.359 That could be your first name. 00:30:54.240 --> 00:31:02.720 But by not honoring the way you do things around here, what I've done is introduced a rift. 00:31:03.599 --> 00:31:09.839 Pentecost honors the way people do things around there. 00:31:10.880 --> 00:31:19.359 It honors them by speaking their language and not requiring them to convert to my own. 00:31:20.559 --> 00:31:26.559 There is a justice component to this, and I want to tell you too, and you may choose to walk out. 00:31:27.119 --> 00:31:29.039 I will be sorry if you do. 00:31:29.759 --> 00:31:33.519 But they are increasingly important to me, and I will tell you why. 00:31:34.079 --> 00:31:44.240 The first, many of you know that as much as the National Church made a decision about the ordination of women 40-something years ago, some people still aren't converted. 00:31:44.319 --> 00:31:48.480 So what they will do to our sisters in ministry is call them priestesses. 00:31:49.279 --> 00:31:52.960 Please do not ever do that to another human being. 00:31:53.119 --> 00:31:55.839 You may say, I'm trying to recognize their femaleness. 00:31:55.920 --> 00:31:57.200 That is not why people do it. 00:31:57.359 --> 00:31:59.839 They are calling them witches and sorcerers. 00:32:00.880 --> 00:32:02.480 We are clergy. 00:32:03.039 --> 00:32:04.640 We are priests. 00:32:05.039 --> 00:32:08.000 You may say, How do you know what I mean? 00:32:08.240 --> 00:32:10.400 I don't need to know what you mean. 00:32:10.720 --> 00:32:12.880 Culture is the way we do things around here. 00:32:12.960 --> 00:32:14.319 In the church, we have priests. 00:32:14.480 --> 00:32:18.240 We have deacons, we have bishops, and we have brothers and sisters in the Lord. 00:32:18.480 --> 00:32:19.279 Period. 00:32:19.680 --> 00:32:21.440 We do not have priestesses. 00:32:21.599 --> 00:32:23.440 We do not have gay clergy. 00:32:23.599 --> 00:32:24.799 We have clergy. 00:32:25.279 --> 00:32:25.920 Done. 00:32:27.279 --> 00:32:29.839 Now I'm going to tell you something that is maybe gonna sound weird. 00:32:29.920 --> 00:32:32.559 Like I said, this is probably more divisive than what I just said. 00:32:32.720 --> 00:32:35.440 I want you to buckle your seatbelt and hear me out. 00:32:37.119 --> 00:32:39.039 I'm pretty culturally irrelevant. 00:32:39.200 --> 00:32:41.200 I just want you to know, I really am. 00:32:41.759 --> 00:32:46.960 And I was surprised this week when somebody showed me a t-shirt that Target is now selling. 00:32:47.200 --> 00:32:48.480 Maybe you know about this. 00:32:48.720 --> 00:33:01.039 The t-shirt has a goat head with a pentagram on it and the phrase Satan uses, no, Satan honors your pronouns. 00:33:02.319 --> 00:33:03.440 Do you know about this? 00:33:04.400 --> 00:33:05.599 Has anybody heard this? 00:33:05.759 --> 00:33:06.799 I'm really behind. 00:33:06.880 --> 00:33:07.920 This is like a thing. 00:33:08.240 --> 00:33:10.400 Satan honors your pronouns. 00:33:10.559 --> 00:33:15.759 Now look, there is apparently a major move in our country towards Satanism. 00:33:16.400 --> 00:33:24.160 It's not the kind you heard about in the 70s that involve Ouija boards and like black stuff and like dark rooms and goat legs. 00:33:24.240 --> 00:33:24.559 Nope. 00:33:24.720 --> 00:33:37.759 Instead, what it is, apparently, is that people who are rejected by the church have decided that Satan will honor their culture. 00:33:37.920 --> 00:33:41.359 We'll call them like they wish to be called. 00:33:41.839 --> 00:33:44.079 This is baffling to me. 00:33:47.359 --> 00:33:57.759 Not that people have made that turn, but that we as a church institution have given energy to people making that turn. 00:34:00.000 --> 00:34:04.640 You may say, I don't believe in gender nonconformity. 00:34:06.000 --> 00:34:07.279 That is fine. 00:34:08.880 --> 00:34:12.400 But I sure hope you believe in civility and hospitality. 00:34:13.440 --> 00:34:18.719 You may say, it is inconvenient to call people what they want to be called. 00:34:19.039 --> 00:34:21.119 So is loving somebody else. 00:34:21.360 --> 00:34:24.960 It is inconvenient to love somebody else. 00:34:25.599 --> 00:34:29.360 You have to sacrifice something to do it. 00:34:29.920 --> 00:34:33.440 I am not telling you anything about transgender sports. 00:34:34.079 --> 00:34:46.480 What I am telling you is if the church pushes people to Satanism because we won't call them by the pronouns they wish to be called, which is their decision, not ours, we are doing the opposite of Pentecost. 00:34:47.519 --> 00:34:48.719 The opposite. 00:34:52.400 --> 00:35:01.119 There is something absolutely gorgeous about the fact that different cultures have their own returns. 00:35:02.320 --> 00:35:04.159 The story affirms that. 00:35:07.920 --> 00:35:14.800 There is something absolutely insidious about me saying, I'll decide what to call you. 00:35:15.039 --> 00:35:17.119 You don't get to decide yourself. 00:35:18.000 --> 00:35:22.000 Insidious and wrong. 00:35:23.039 --> 00:35:36.079 And it is our opportunity, I think, to think about Pentecost as a way of life, to take up a minor inconvenience for ourselves so that we can show dignity and respect to somebody else. 00:35:36.400 --> 00:35:45.840 I'm hoping we all understand that as white Americans, it is highly inappropriate for us to use the N-word, regardless of what you think it means. 00:35:47.760 --> 00:35:52.480 It is not up to you to decide whether that word means what other people think it means. 00:35:52.639 --> 00:35:53.840 It just does. 00:35:54.159 --> 00:35:56.960 It means that, and we don't say it. 00:35:57.199 --> 00:36:02.639 We don't say it because the history of brutality and oppression that we in some ways are complicit in. 00:36:03.199 --> 00:36:17.519 This is what Pentecost invites us to do, to consider the language we use on behalf of offering dignity and love to other people, to be inconvenienced because, after all, God's love for us is really inconvenient for God. 00:36:19.679 --> 00:36:23.280 I don't like having to pay attention to what I say. 00:36:24.400 --> 00:36:29.360 It takes a lot of work, especially when you're used to particular phrases. 00:36:29.599 --> 00:36:30.960 I don't like it. 00:36:32.880 --> 00:36:39.280 And yet, I don't like people calling me Michael without my permission either. 00:36:41.440 --> 00:36:48.320 This is the basis of what Pentecost invites us to do, to show honor, even when we're not sure. 00:36:48.719 --> 00:36:50.800 I'm not asking you to change policy. 00:36:50.960 --> 00:36:55.440 I'm asking us to consider how we honor one another. 00:36:56.239 --> 00:36:59.039 You're going to look at the Eucharistic prayer in a few minutes. 00:36:59.119 --> 00:37:02.639 It's going to say, Lord God of our fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. 00:37:02.719 --> 00:37:04.239 That is not what I'm going to pray. 00:37:04.400 --> 00:37:07.039 I'm going to pray, Lord God, of our parents. 00:37:08.079 --> 00:37:15.840 Abraham, Hagar, Sarah, and Keturah, because the women matter in the story and they also matter to me. 00:37:16.079 --> 00:37:17.840 I'm married to a lady. 00:37:18.000 --> 00:37:20.000 I'm the father of a daughter. 00:37:20.239 --> 00:37:22.000 I'm also the father of a son. 00:37:22.079 --> 00:37:28.800 And I would be derelict in my duty as a father if I raised him to accept, frankly, patriarchal language at face value. 00:37:29.039 --> 00:37:34.239 Pentecost invites us to consider that what we say matters. 00:37:35.679 --> 00:37:51.920 And that recognition of other human beings with dignity and respect, especially when we disagree, inspired the first cycles and breathed new life into people who were winded. 00:37:56.400 --> 00:37:58.400 I want to say a couple things about wind. 00:37:59.199 --> 00:38:00.320 That was the controversial part. 00:38:00.400 --> 00:38:02.159 So if you made it, thank you. 00:38:02.719 --> 00:38:04.079 Couple things about wind. 00:38:04.400 --> 00:38:07.280 Look, sometimes we hear this and we think tongues of fire, right? 00:38:07.360 --> 00:38:08.880 That's how the scripture reads. 00:38:08.960 --> 00:38:13.920 And we may start to think about like the emblem of the Rolling Stones, you know, that really big tongue coming out. 00:38:14.079 --> 00:38:15.920 Or you might even think about Gene Simmons. 00:38:16.079 --> 00:38:17.599 And please don't think about that. 00:38:18.079 --> 00:38:19.519 This is not saying that at all. 00:38:19.599 --> 00:38:24.719 The word tongue means language, and fire is a symbol in the Bible of refinement. 00:38:24.880 --> 00:38:31.440 That is, it heats up precious metal in order to skim off all of the impurities to purify the metal. 00:38:31.599 --> 00:38:38.320 So what happens, right, are that these people they speak words of purification and refinement. 00:38:38.559 --> 00:38:40.239 They're intelligible. 00:38:40.639 --> 00:38:52.000 I don't actually really know how to speak Swahili, but I sure know how to practice compassion and how I look and in how I listen to other people who are different from me. 00:38:52.079 --> 00:38:57.119 And I would tell you that's probably the most basic language of fire that there is. 00:38:58.239 --> 00:39:03.519 Visibly listening to somebody who else when they talk. 00:39:04.880 --> 00:39:10.000 Listening not to be defensive, but to be curious and understand. 00:39:10.880 --> 00:39:13.360 And I'm a novice assistant, that's why I'm grateful. 00:39:13.440 --> 00:39:16.000 I told you the story about Kitty Carmen about eight months ago. 00:39:16.079 --> 00:39:28.559 I was talking to Kitty Carmen one day, and uh out of the blue, I don't know, we were talking about some flowers I brought her, and then she just looked at me and said, you know, Mike, if somebody says something you don't agree with, there's no point in contradicting them, no. 00:39:30.320 --> 00:39:31.760 I thought, what did I say, Kitty? 00:39:31.840 --> 00:39:33.119 I thought we were talking about flowers. 00:39:33.280 --> 00:39:43.119 Um I think she was just passing on something in her mind and saying what I've realized, right, is that I have wasted hours and even days of my life telling people what I said and what I didn't said. 00:39:43.599 --> 00:39:46.400 Instead of saying, wow, we remember that differently. 00:39:46.800 --> 00:39:48.000 And meaning that. 00:39:48.480 --> 00:39:50.159 Not pejoratively. 00:39:50.559 --> 00:39:52.400 We got a different memory of that. 00:39:54.719 --> 00:39:59.280 It doesn't have to be uniform to look like the body of Christ. 00:39:59.519 --> 00:40:05.440 In fact, it's supposed to be diverse, and in the diversity, it's supposed to be unified. 00:40:06.079 --> 00:40:11.920 This is the call of Pentecost to be unified, not uniform. 00:40:12.639 --> 00:40:23.519 There are some beautiful images we get, and I'm going to tell you two of them that maybe are supplementary to what you may have seen on the flannel board about these like wagging tongues coming down that are made out of fire. 00:40:23.679 --> 00:40:33.599 So last year, uhund this time, I was in a canyon in Utah for about 25 straight days, and sometimes in those canyons the wind will blow at like 30, 40 miles an hour. 00:40:33.760 --> 00:40:40.480 And I had to decide, by the way, when it does that, sort of interesting, it'll throw sand really hard. 00:40:40.639 --> 00:40:46.960 And if you've been in one of these canyons, you can actually see what we call petrified wind. 00:40:49.599 --> 00:40:56.079 It is the bluster of the sand that grits into the canyon wall that's not all watermarks, petrified wind. 00:40:56.239 --> 00:41:01.440 So I was camping behind a rock as a shield because it was going to blow me over if I didn't. 00:41:01.679 --> 00:41:07.679 And it occurred to me, there's this point in uh in the Hebrew Bible where Moses says to God, I want to see your face. 00:41:08.159 --> 00:41:10.880 And God says, You can't see my face and live. 00:41:11.039 --> 00:41:11.840 Tell you what you can do. 00:41:12.000 --> 00:41:15.119 I'll hide you behind a rock and I'll let you look at my back, right? 00:41:16.480 --> 00:41:25.360 And I thought, you know, talking about the Holy Spirit and the breath of God, how do you see the face of the wind? 00:41:26.639 --> 00:41:28.880 Can you ever see the front of wind? 00:41:29.199 --> 00:41:32.239 Or do you just find yourself caught up in it? 00:41:32.639 --> 00:41:36.159 And hopefully knowing the direction that it's going. 00:41:37.599 --> 00:41:43.679 Sometimes we forget that Judaism is not a Western religion, it's an Eastern religion. 00:41:44.239 --> 00:41:46.480 Your spirit doesn't live here or here. 00:41:46.639 --> 00:41:49.039 In Judaism, your spirit lives here. 00:41:49.679 --> 00:42:00.400 In your breathing, with the opportunity to be inspired by God and breathe out inspiration to other people. 00:42:00.719 --> 00:42:10.400 Now, one other image I want to give you, and this came from a lovely parishioner in the room who decided to share with our scouts yesterday hot air ballooning. 00:42:10.880 --> 00:42:12.400 This is really, really cool. 00:42:12.800 --> 00:42:15.119 Anybody been in a hot air balloon before? 00:42:15.440 --> 00:42:23.280 There is something really lovely when you pull down that pressurized propane and you get to see fiery wind. 00:42:23.519 --> 00:42:25.440 And you can hear it at pressure. 00:42:27.039 --> 00:42:31.119 I would have like tried to demonstrate it, except it probably would have set up the fire alarm again. 00:42:31.199 --> 00:42:35.280 But that is kind of an interesting image for this, and you know what that does, right? 00:42:35.440 --> 00:42:37.920 That hot air is what creates lift. 00:42:38.159 --> 00:42:40.320 Now, this is what happens on Pentecost. 00:42:40.480 --> 00:42:44.480 There are people who are heavy and burdened, they sure didn't need a lift. 00:42:44.719 --> 00:42:51.679 And here blows this hot wind, which makes them float above what they'd settled for. 00:42:52.239 --> 00:42:53.920 What they'd settled for. 00:42:55.039 --> 00:42:58.079 Parochialism is what they'd settled for. 00:42:58.400 --> 00:43:06.960 And instead, they were able to have a little bit more of a God's eye view for the diversity that's endemic to this planet. 00:43:07.039 --> 00:43:10.159 And look, if God didn't want it, God wouldn't have made it like this. 00:43:11.920 --> 00:43:15.679 But it's out there, which makes me think God enjoys it. 00:43:16.079 --> 00:43:22.000 So every time Deborah does a balloon ride, apparently, she offers this little prayer, which I just find really lovely. 00:43:22.079 --> 00:43:27.440 This is like a really cool Pentecost prayer, as you float up what you've settled for. 00:43:29.199 --> 00:43:32.400 The winds have welcomed you with softness. 00:43:33.360 --> 00:43:36.320 The sun has blessed you with its warm hands. 00:43:37.119 --> 00:43:42.800 You have flown so high and so well that God has joined you in your laughter. 00:43:44.000 --> 00:43:49.039 Set you gently back again into the loving arms of Mother Earth. 00:43:50.079 --> 00:43:51.840 That's a beautiful prayer. 00:43:52.480 --> 00:43:56.079 God has joined you in your laughter. 00:43:56.320 --> 00:43:58.639 God has set you back gently. 00:43:59.199 --> 00:44:02.159 The wind And welcome you with Thoughtman. 00:44:02.400 --> 00:44:03.199 And then you're here. 00:44:03.519 --> 00:44:06.480 We're invited to welcome one another with Falcon. 00:44:07.440 --> 00:44:08.480 With one hand. 00:44:09.760 --> 00:44:12.159 Enjoy God in one another. 00:44:14.559 --> 00:44:22.960 And then to be sat down again, renewed and quite literally reinfired, recreated by the people of God. 00:44:24.239 --> 00:44:26.320 The very last thing Jesus says in John. 00:44:27.440 --> 00:44:31.679 If you forgive the thing, remember that can be burdened. 00:44:32.079 --> 00:44:33.679 And also mean this part. 00:44:34.239 --> 00:44:35.920 But anybody else, they forgive. 00:44:36.719 --> 00:44:39.599 If you hold on to them, they retain it. 00:44:41.119 --> 00:44:46.559 Why do we want to retain the burden of our brothers and sisters of pain? 00:44:48.320 --> 00:44:51.599 Recognition of dignity of the deck. 00:44:55.679 --> 00:45:02.960 Not I can't believe you're carrying that burden, but I can't believe that you think you have to carry it. 00:45:04.079 --> 00:45:07.360 Maybe we can make it less heavy together. 00:45:09.199 --> 00:45:11.360