Getting In Trouble

The Holy Spirit disrupts our plans, and she beautifully disrupted the sermon plan this morning! When honored guests from the Palouse tribe spoke so powerfully to us during our time of welcome and gathering, Pastor Megan knew the sermon had to shift. We heard how the Holy Spirit blesses our diversities, and grants understanding. The Holy Spirit draws us out of our comfort zones and empowers us to act a little strange. The Holy Spirit compels us to bridge gaps and transgress boundaries established by the world. The Holy Spirit gets us into trouble… good trouble… necessary trouble. The Holy Spirit keeps us faithfully at variance. The Holy Spirit causes us to break unjust rules and defy unjust laws. The Holy Spirit inspires, empowers, challenges, comforts, disturbs, disrupts, enlivens us. Thanks be to God for the gift of the Holy Spirit, and the trouble she causes!

Sermon begins at minute marker 5:24

Acts 2:1-18; Romans 8:14-27

Resources

• “King’s letter to an unfaithful church,” by Richard Lischer, The Christian Century, April 2023.
• letter from Pastoral Leadership Team of Pacific Northwest Mennonite Conference, February 2022.
• John Lewis: “Do not get lost in a sea of despair. Be hopeful, be optimistic. Our struggle is not the struggle of a day, a week, a month, or a year, it is the struggle of a lifetime. Never, ever be afraid to make some noise and get in good trouble, necessary trouble.” --a tweet from June 2018
• Tower of Babel story found in Genesis 11.1-9
• Image: instant photo of Pastor Megan in our 2023 Pentecost “photo booth”
• Hymn: text: Shirley Erena Murray (Aotearoa New Zealand), 2004. Music: Lim Swee Hong (Singapore), 2004. Hope Publishing Co. © 2005. Permission to podcast the music in this service obtained from One License with license #A-726929. All rights reserved.