Friday, May 17, 2024

The Courage to Get Up and Do What Needs to Be Done: Reflections on Pentecost


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RCL Pentecost B

19 May 2024

 

Church of the Epiphany

Surrey BC

 

            Paula and I spent the first three years of our marriage in South Bend, Indiana.  I was studying for my doctorate at the University of Notre Dame and Paula worked at other jobs to bring in some necessary income.

 

            Almost every Saturday night we would listen to three programs on National Public Radio.  The first was ‘Roots and Wings’, a program of contemporary folk music.  The second was ‘Thistle and Shamrock’, a program of traditional and contemporary music and songs from the Celtic lands, hosted by the late Fiona Ritchie, a stalwart of the Celtic music revival.

 

            But our favourite was the third program, ‘A Prairie Home Companion’, hosted by the American humourist Garrison Keillor.  For an hour and a half we joined Garrison and his guests along with the residents of Lake Woebegon, Minnesota.  There was music and story and humour and a reminder of a neighbourliness and simplicity that most of us yearn to experience.

 

            One of the fictional sponsors of the program were the makers of Powdermilk Biscuits made ‘ . . . from whole wheat raised in the rich bottomlands of the Lake Woebegon river valley by Norwegian bachelor farmers’. [1]  We were assured that powdermilk biscuits were good for you, but most importantly they gave ‘shy people the strength to get up and do what needs to be done’. [2]  Over the years I have often reached out for a powdermilk biscuit so that I could get up and do what needs to be done!

 

            Two thousand years ago a community of Jewish women and men were keeping a very low profile in Jerusalem, the capital of Roman-occupied Judea.  Over the last fifty days they had been seeking to understand what it meant to be witnesses to the resurrection of their rabbi, Jesus son of Joseph of Nazareth.  Although some of their friends, neighbours and family members had received the news of Jesus rising from the dead with joy, the political and religious leadership saw the followers of Jesus as threats to peace, order and good government.

 

            But on this day there came such a powerful sign from God that remaining out of sight was no longer an option.  People from all the known world heard the message that Jesus had been raised from the dead and that there was now a new way of living in the world.  This new way, the way of Jesus, challenged all the values of Roman imperial status quo.

 

            On that day the first Christian received the most important gift of the Holy Spirit – courage.  Courage is not the absence of fear.  Courage is the decision to face one’s fears and to free oneself from bondage to those fears.  Courage takes its power from hope, a confident belief that God is at work in us, through us and for us to achieve God’s purposes – despite any evidence to the contrary.

 

            Along with the gift of courage, Pentecost brought the awareness that God has given to us the gifts of time, talents and treasures to undertake ‘ . . . more than we can ask or imagine’.  A fisherman by the name of Peter discovered that he could address a crowd with words of conviction.  A tentmaker by the name of Paul discovered that God was as interested in non-Jews as God was interested in Jews.  A woman by the name of Mary Magdalene discovered that her love for her teacher could empower her to share her encounter with Jesus in the garden even though, in the eyes of many, she was an unreliable witness because she was a woman.

 

            What was true on this day two thousand years ago is also true today.  Just as the first Christians in Jerusalem were uncertain about their future, fearful that everything might just tumble down on them, so too do we wonder what the future holds for us.  Some of us may be tempted to close the doors and windows – both physically and spiritually – hoping to keep our fears at bay.  But we cannot keep God out.

 

            Just as Jesus appeared to his apostles despite locked doors, so does Christ come into our midst and breathes new life into us.  Just as the Spirit burst into the open room and set the hearts of the disciples on fire, so does the Spirit blow into this gathered community to invite us to imagine a new chapter in the story of our witness to God’s love and faithfulness in this time and in this place.

 

            Today our prayer is the prayer that Harry Emerson Fosdick composed in 1930 for the dedication of Riverside Church in New York City.  Even though he was living in the midst of the Great Depression, as millions of people were unemployed and thousands of people displaced by drought in the American Midwest, Fosdick could write these words:

 

God of grace and God of glory,

on your people pour your power;

now fulfil your church’s story;

bring its bud to glorious flower.

Grant us wisdom, grant us courage,

for the facing of this hour,

for the facing of this hour. [3]

 

            Here in this place we have experienced the grace and the glory of God.  Here in this place we have experienced the love and compassion of God.  Here in this place we have experienced moments when we caught a glimpse of what God intends for us and for all people.

 

            So, let us, shy people of God, welcome the Spirit blowing around us and in us today.  Let us embrace the Spirit’s gift of courage so that we can get up and do what needs to be done.  We have what it takes to do it and God is depending upon us.

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