What It Means to Be MCC—Speaking Our Languages—Inclusivity 5-19-13

What It Means to Be MCC—Speaking Our Languages—Inclusivity  5-19-13

God, Father and Mother of us all, creator of the fire that burns in our hearts, igniting our deep longing for justice and peace, rekindle our passion, recharge our energies and help us to listen to your Holy Spirit leading us ever closer to the people you created us to be.  With gratitude for all the gifts we are given throughout life, Amen.

               Today is Pentecost Sunday.  The scripture passages from Acts give you the story as it is recorded.  Lots of confusing things in that passage:  winds and fire coming from who knows where, a multitude of languages being heard at the same time, a crowd of pilgrims who came from all over the earth just about ready to burst into uncontrollable chaos, people talking and laughing, bullying and attacking.  As a person with more than a little Enochlophobia, that is fear of crowds, I’m not too sorry that I was not there.  It’s easy to get caught up in all the chaos and focus on the melodramatic scenes of fiery flames falling from the sky.  It’s easy to miss the point and missing the point is exactly what happens when many preacher-type people talk about Pentecost.  Although, some will speak today about Pentecost being about the gift of speaking in tongues, they will be very wrong.  Some will speak about Pentecost as the birth of the church and have birthday type celebrations—they are closer to the point, but still not quite there.  Only those preachers who talk about Pentecost in light of God’s radical acceptance and universal love for humankind will be headed in the right direction.  I say this without judgment:  it’s hard to focus on the one truth of Pentecost—all the other paths of conversation are very tempting indeed. 

               Pentecost calls us, the Church, to acknowledge one central point.  For God so loved the world and every living being in it, that the divine love which emanates from God is poured out upon the whole earth in languages, feelings, actions, and thoughts that everyone and everything can understand. Please allow me to repeat myself:  For God so loved the world and every living being in it, that the divine love which emanates from God is poured out upon the whole earth in languages, feelings, actions, and thoughts that everyone and everything can understand.  The languages that were heard at Pentecost were not for dramatic, mind-boggling effect, although elaborate cinematography applied to this story would result in a mesmerizing scene.  The various languages that were heard were for one reason only—so that all who were there could hear the message in their native tongues.  That this took place at the Birth of the Church indicates in as strong a manner as possible that God’s love and gospel of total and complete acceptance and grace is for everyone.  If this were not so, the scene at what we know as Pentecost would look very, very different.  It would have looked something like this:  A few people, maybe only two, would be speaking—one in Hebrew and one, possibly in Greek.  The rest of the people, unless they were fortunate to speak one of those two languages would be listening to interpreters, managing the best they could, to translate what was being said.  To that scene God said “no”—nothing was to separate the individual being from direct access to the source of Divine power and love.

               This, then, is where we are at Pentecost 2013.  Jan Richardson, an incredibly talented author and artist has given us a beautiful poem for Pentecost:

“This is the blessing we cannot speak by ourselves.  This is the blessing we cannot summon by our own devices, cannot shape to our purpose, cannot bend to our will.  This is the blessing that comes
when we leave behind our aloneness
when we gather together when we turn
toward one another.

This is the blessing that blazes among us
when we speak the words strange to our ears when we finally listen into the chaos when we breathe together at last.”

               Pentecost is a dangerous time, a time when we are called to be more than we thought we could be—as a church and as a people.  Pentecost is a time when we are confronted with God’s awe-inspiring power for the doing of good.  Pentecost is a time when we come face to face with the knowledge that we have not acted upon that which God calls us to be and waits for us to do.  Pentecost is a time that says, “you cannot celebrate this alone”.  And so we are here, “learning to breathe together”, “to turn toward one another”, as Jan Richardson reminds us.  If Pentecost is only a day of remembrance of a time once upon a time, when God’s power was evident among the people, then it is possible for us to stay in our solitary spaces and utter what amounts to a half-hearted “Yay, God!”  If, however, Pentecost is a day when we are reminded in dramatic and heart-stopping ways that God’s power stands ready to work through us, then we, my friends, are in this together. 

               Let’s assume, just for a moment, that Pentecost actually comes today—right here, right now.  You don’t have time to run for cover, running for anything being a non-starter for some of us; and, you don’t have enough warning to put the cover back over your hearts.  So here we are, spiritually open and ready to experience God’s Pentecost.  Brennan Manning, who died only last month, lived a life that exploded with God’s Holy Spirit.  Hear his words regarding the Gospel:  “The gospel is absurd and the life of Jesus is meaningless unless we believe that He lived, died, and rose again with but one purpose in mind: to make brand-new creation. Not to make people with better morals but to create a community of prophets and professional lovers, men and women who would surrender to the mystery of the fire of the Spirit that burns within, who would live in ever greater fidelity to the omnipresent Word of God, who would enter into the center of it all, the very heart and mystery of Christ, into the center of the flame that consumes, purifies, and sets everything aglow with peace, joy, boldness, and extravagant, furious love. This, my friend, is what it really means to be a Christian”. 

               At the end of this passionate description, I ask myself and, in turn, ask you—what is this flame that “consumes, purifies, and sets everything aglow”?  How can I (how can we) be filled with more peace, joy, boldness, and extravagant, furious love”?  And, most of all, how can I and we live out the call to Pentecost Power—a spirit of solidarity with all of God’s creation, so that everything we do is done in such a way that all living beings know and understand more of God’s all-embracing love every time we interact with them.

               Let us look quickly at the main elements of this Pentecost Power Experience:  First, the followers of Jesus were gathered together exactly where Jesus told them to be.  There were many others but they were in the scene to be ministered to.  Secondly, the sound and wind came without warning; even so, everyone experienced it.  Third, the Gospel is pronounced—now, here comes the good part.  No matter where they were from, or what language they spoke, they heard the Good News of God’s radical love and acceptance in their mother tongue.  Through people who had never spoken a foreign language before, God’s Good News was delivered.  If you had wandered into that busy crowd completely by mistake, it wouldn’t have mattered, God would have known you were there and sent someone to minister to you in your own language.  This is the true and only meaning of inclusion. 

Regarding the core value of Inclusion, UFMCC says this, “Love is our greatest moral value and resisting exclusion is a primary focus of our ministry. We want to continue to be the conduits of a faith where everyone is included in the family of God...”  And, here, in Open Circle MCC, we make many attempts to live out that value—why even our name calls us to inclusion—a circle that is open to receive more and more and more.  Aha!  Here is the catch—if Pentecost is to serve as our model of inclusion, then we must open our ministries wider.  We are called to minister to those in our community who look, sound, and understand completely differently from us.  Those folks may be the physically challenged, those with mental health issues, straight folks, trans folks, and adolescents who don’t choose to be known by any of our usual categories.  We are called to be a Pentecost Church—a church where we allow ourselves to speak in languages that we have never heard—and while this is a metaphor, it may mean that we need to learn some new skills or find people who have them to minister to each and everyone who comes through our doors.  If we continue to do less than that to which we are called, we will continue to wonder why people visit us and do not return.  The future is up to all of us and it is up to us now.  If you are willing to be a partner in making Open Circle a Pentecost Church then I encourage you to say this prayer with me:

Lord…we are here… in the midst of your Pentecost…Burst into our hearts…awaken our spirits…remind us of who we are to love…and fill us with your passion…your joy…your peace…Amen and Amen…