Pentecost Sermon

This is the Day the Lord has made! This is a day that means far more than we are prepared for.

This is the Fiftieth Day after Passover, the Jewish Celebration of the Day of Pentecost, which became that Day when Christianity was transformed from the band of witnesses who had known Jesus of Nazareth, to a faith in God and language of belief that changed the world.
That time when the disciples were gathered together in prayer in the Upper Room and they received the Holy Spirit which sent them out into the world in mission and evangelism.

This is Memorial Day Weekend, a National Day of remembrance set aside for honoring those who gave their lives in our War Between the States, the Battle of Northern Aggression, Civil War. Different from Veterans' Day which marks a time honoring those who served in the military, this is a time for honoring the memory of those who gave their lives for freedoms we take for granted. This has become a time of remembrance for all those who have died, all those who have given lives in any war. And we do so, knowing this day, our nation is involved in Civil Wars that divide other nations. Our sons and daughters are serving in Iraq, in Afghanistan, in Korea, and before this day is done, several more will die.

This is also a time for honoring a man among us, who began his education under a tree, listening to stories. Whose life was forever altered by Civil War. Who eventually made his way to one refugee camp and another, studying and learning by the reading of books, and tutorial, who came to America six years ago and now has become an American Citizen and completed his Bachelor's in Sciences. And we know that this is only the beginning, for he will continue his education, then put that academic training to practice in the care and service of others.

Each of our lives are richer, more full than any one else can ever appreciate, because no one else has ever walked in your footsteps or perceived the world through your own eyes. Even more so for us with you, because we cannot imagine what life was like having your home burned, soldiers killing people in your own village, murdering your family. Having to hide from bullets, and hyenas, from snakes and scorpions and soldiers, as you walked the width of your nation. We who have a public education as a childhood responsibility, who learn to read and write before beginning school, who imagine education as that time between athletic practices and SATs, highlighted by Homecoming and Prom and Senior Ball, have difficulty even imagining what you endured in order to learn. We are so very proud of all you have done and accomplished, and the man you have grown to be.

Would that every one of us understood that education is not a test of endurance, or a private acquisition, not an accomplishment to sit upon, admiring what we know and have mastered, BUT Rather that education is a GIFT, a precious challenge that empowers us to see the world differently, allowing us to be used as a resource to benefit all humanity.

In Sudan , supper did not occur until about 9pm at night. Afterward, a friend would turn on his transistor radio, his name is Abdon Machok Deng Malou. Abdon had wanted to go to college, he had a full scholarship, but the war had come, so instead he acquired his education by listening the Voice of America on the Radio. He would take meticulous notes on how to kill molds and mildew, how to sterilize and disinfect, how to fertilize and make things grow. Rom these precious lessons he became the Agriculture Coordinator teaching others. Because of the Civil War, he was not able to follow his dream, but he did not settle and become complacent, he used his mind to continue to learn.

Would hat we could learn to listen and be challenged to help one another. One of our greatest leaders Abraham Lincoln is remembered NOT because he was assassinated. But in part because
when he won the election as President, he sought all those who had run in competition with him to form a coalition Cabinet. The point of an election was not who could smear the other, or who could create the largest number of contributions, not to frament the nation into differing tribes of supporters, but to identify the Nation's leadership, then to use their gifts together.

History has a perverse sense of irony, in his Gettysburg Address, President Lincoln professed that “Few will remember the words shared here this day, but none of us dare forget the names of all those who have died or their identity as Fathers, and Sons and Brothers to us all. We came to dedicate a National Cemetery, when in fact all those who spilled their blood have already hallowed the ground on which we stand.”
When what we have settled upon in our memories are the words that were shared “Four core and seven years ago”, forgetting the names and identities of all those who died, cursing us to repeat that war in a thousand other lands, as Fathers and Mothers, Sons and Daughters, all die.

Tragically, each successive generation has gone to war, professing this is the war to end wars. Despite World Wars and weapons of mass destruction, one of the wars with the greatest number of Americans killed was our own Civil War, because both Union and Confederate Soldiers were each American. With all that we have learned in each generation, with all that we now know and understand, we have learned new reasons for wars, new means of scorching the earth, we know of genocide, but we have not learned how to live in peace.

Culturally, a new nation, a new tribe, a new people is formed, NOT when they identify a different ideology or race, or economic system. A new and different people are formed whenever they adopt a different language. The beauty of THE DAY OF PENTECOST, is that on that day, people from every different culture and nation each listened and heard as if of one Language, one people.

On that day, the community of faith changed, from a people hidden behind closed doors in prayer, to being a people who go out into the world. As a people of faith, we have given away what we ought to hold most dear. We have given away the idea of EVANGELISM as if this could only be going door to door , asking others if they will become one of us, as if there were only one right way of coming to God, as if EVANGELISM REALLY MEANT GUILT. Acts of EVANGELISM are a seven year old asking their best friend to come to church with them. A father deciding I am going to worship God and I want each of you as family to join me, as something we can share together. The meaning of the Word “EVANGEL” is Moved by the Spirit. Motivated, Challenged, Impassioned to Act because of what we believe.

Too often it seems we are a people who only believe in two persons of the Trinity. We know God the CREATOR, the God of the Old Testament who gave Promise to Abraham, and 10 Commandments to Moses, who loved David and spoke through the Prophets.
We know Jesus, the Carpenter's Son, born in a Stable beneath a Star, our SAVIOR who suffered and died for us, in order to rise again on Easter. What more do we need than a CREATOR and REDEEMER, a LORD and SAVIOR? But the third person of the Trinity of God, whom we name and know on Pentecost, is the Holy Spirit. That BROODING wind that rippled the waters at Creation, that visitor who wrestled with Jacob giving him the new name ISRAEL meaning one who wrestles with God, that one who blew afresh and challenged the Disciples to go out into the world. The third Person of God, THE CREATOR and SAVIOR, is the ONE WHO WRESTLES with Us and Challenges us, The EVANGEL, who motivates us to question and to act with passion.

One of the best known and least understood stories of Genesis is that of the Tower at Babel. The point is not WHERE DID LANGUAGE COME FROM? Or whether it is right or wrong for people to build Skyscrapers or to reach for the stars and heavens. The point of the Tower of Babel, is that the people decided to SETTLE. And God frustrated them, God confused them with differing languages, in order that we would move on by clan and tribe, until such time as the earth was full and we could listen and wrestle with understanding.
The challenge and frustration of our minds this morning, is that one of the refugees from Sudan, whom we began sponsoring six years ago, to have freedom, to escape war and acquire an education in America, yesterday graduated from LeMoyne College “Cum Laude”, and he is not with us this morning because he has enlisted to serve in the United States Military in war in Afghanistan and Iraq. He escaped Civil War and received an excellent College Education. We struggle to understand. His sense of this is that the United States gave him the opportunity to be free (not to escape war), gave him the opportiunity for an education (not to settle on accomplishments, but to use to help others), gave his homeland freedom that as a Naturalized American Citizen he can now defend against the same enemy. We hold our son in prayer, as he journeys onward.