Sermon for the Day of Pentecost Year B 2018 The Fire Power of Love* *Quotes from the wedding sermon of Bishop Michael Curry appear in red italics. Lots of amazing things have happened since the Day of Pentecost as recorded in the 2 nd chapter of Acts. Chaos ensued. Rushing... falling... power... pouring... portents... smoky mist, darkness, blood, glory... and salvation. Wow! What a day! It seems that the Holy Spirit came not so much to gently soothe us but more to shake us up... to awaken us. Apparently the Spirit is not that kind of comforter... that is the kind that we hunker down under when we want a few more minutes of much-craved sleep... (and who among us doesn t cherish that kind of comforter!) Especially during a week when we experienced wind and rain that seems to have no end, a school bus accident that left many injured and two dead, and yet another school shooting with ten deaths and just as many injured. After such news and events, who among us does not want to pull a comforter over our heads and sleep away the terrible news. And yet... amidst the chaos... there is a much less recognized and heralded miracle. People heard one another. A message of God s good news was heard and understood by a wide variety of people. What one person was hoping to say was matched perfectly by what the other person heard. A miracle!! A tongue a voice spoke, an ear heard, a mind awakened, hearts were turned. Was the miracle in the speaking? Or was the miracle in the hearing? We live in a time when it is easier than ever to communicate. Or at least to talk. 1
The truth is, though, that it has perhaps never been harder to faithfully transmit one idea or emotion from one person to another through the medium of language. As in the text message that was read with the wrong tone or the tweet or email that was sent too hastily. Sometimes it s the third-hand account of what someone said. Frankly, every preacher knows that whatever is spoken in the sermon is not necessarily what everyone actually heard in the pews. It seems that much is lost in the translation... even when we all speak the same language. Case in point earlier in the week there was yet another social media debate... What did you hear? Yanny or Laurel? Were any of you caught up in this controversy that brought memories of the blue/gold dress debate of 2015? This debate reveals once again something I think we all know while we share one world, we all see and hear it so differently from one another. And yet in the midst of all our modern chaos... there was a wonderful sermon preached by the Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal of the United States, Michael Curry, at the wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, which was one of the finest sermons I ve heard in a long time, but also... apparently... a sermon when what was said was also heard by so many. It was preached yesterday in England on the eve of Pentecost... and I think it was a miracle of the Spirit The good news was spoken and heard. If you haven t yet had the chance to hear it, I highly recommend you find a way to hear it or read it... If you have, I highly recommend you should find a way to hear it or read it again. 2
Either way, I m about to share some of the highlights with you because I think Bishop Curry s message is so important for all of us to hear and take in and live out. He began his sermon with a quote from Dr. Martin Luther King: We must discover the power of love, the redemptive power of love, and when we do that we will make of this old world a new world. For love is the only way. The Bishop went on to point out what should be obvious to all of us, but what I think we all forget...or choose to forget... There is power in love. Don t underestimate it. Don t even over sentimentalize it. There s power... power in love. Of course, he said, not just in its romantic forms, but in every form, in any and every shape of love. There s a certain sense in which when you are loved and you know it, when someone cares for you and you know it, when you love and you show it, it actually feels right. There s something right about it. The reason for this, of course, has to do with the source. We were made by a power of love. Our lives were meant, and are meant to be lived in that love. The ultimate source of love is God. God is the source of all of our lives and as Bishop Curry pointed out, an old medieval poem says: where true love is found, God himself is there Ubi caritas et amore, Deus ibi est (Look it up in our ELW hymnal, its there... number 653.) Because, as scripture tells us, God is love and those who love are born of God and know God. But those who do not love do not know God. 3
Why? Because God is love. And, Bishop Curry said, There s power in love. There s power in love to help and heal when nothing else can. There s power in love to lift up and liberate when nothing else will. There s power in love to show us the way to live. Then the Bishop spoke about the revolutionary movement that Jesus began... a movement grounded in the unconditional love of God for the world. A movement mandating people to live that love. And in so doing, to change not only their lives but the very life of the world itself. Here Bishop Curry offered a vision, a prophecy, just as was promised by the ancient prophet Joel and was preached by Peter What if we were to stop and think or imagine a world where love is the way. And just like Peter did in Acts, I m going to quote from prophet Bishop Curry: Imagine our homes and families when love is the way. Imagine neighborhoods and communities where love is the way. Imagine governments and nations where love is the way. Imagine business and commerce when love is the way. Imagine this tired old world when love is the way, unselfish, sacrificial, redemptive. When love is the way, then no child will go to bed hungry in this world ever again. When love is the way, we will let justice roll down like a mighty stream and righteousness like an ever flowing stream. When love is the way, poverty will become history. When love is the way, the earth will be a sanctuary. When love is the way, we will lay our swords and shields down by the riverside to study war no more. 4
When love is the way, there s plenty good room, plenty good room, for all God s children. Because when love is the way, we will actually treat each other, well, like we are actually family. When love is the way, we know that God is the source of us all and we are brothers and sisters, children of God. That... my brothers and sisters... is a new heaven, a new earth, a new world, a new human family. Because... as the scriptures tell us... love is fire. God, who is love, appeared long ago to Moses as a blazing fire that did not consume... God, who is love, lead the Israelites through the wilderness as a pillar of fire through the night... God, who is love, came among us as the Light of the world a light that no darkness can overcome... God, who is love, poured out his Spirit and tongues of fire appeared over everyone and prophecy poured out of God s people young and old, male and female, the rich and the poor, people of every tribe and nation Bishop Curry noted that Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, a French Catholic priest, scientist, scholar and mystic, wrote that the discovery and harnessing of fire was one of the great scientific and technological discoveries in all of human history. Fire, Chardin said, made human civilization possible. Fire made it possible to cook food and provide sanitary ways of eating which reduced the spread of disease in its time. Fire made it possible to warm environments that would otherwise be inhospitable for humans to live in. The harnessing of fire makes it possible for us to get around our cars, buses, trains and planes all operate due to controlled harnessed fire. Fire makes it possible for us to text and tweet and email, 5
Instagram and Facebook and debate with each other on all forms of social networking. Fire, Chardin observed was one of the greatest discoveries in all of human history. But what kind of revolution would ensue, Chardin wondered, if humanity ever captured the energy of love... well...it would be the second time in history that we discovered fire... the fire of love. But fire, like love... requires that we take risks. On the day of the first Pentecost, the disciples were on fire. Even so, some who heard them speaking about God s love in a wide, even wild, variety of languages thought Bah there s nothing new here. This isn t God. These are blubbering idiot s who have had too much to drink. (It s really no different than us today debating whether we heard Yanny or Laurel. ) Yet even in that atmosphere of suspicion and cynicism and division, some people spoke, and some people listened. And into those astonishing exchanges, God breathed fresh life, the fire of God s love broke through. Which gives me hope that God s love can still breathe fresh life into our divided yanny vs. laurel bubbles and communities. On that day, (just as Bishop Curry did) the church spoke the language of love, they spoke Jesus. The Spirit of God rushed in to empower people to do something astounding: to communicate effectively with one another. Bridges were not only built but even crossed over and differences among them, instead of dividing, provided a vision of just how great the power of God s love is God s love creates a unity amid diversity, God s love creates unity out of diversity. 6
Through ordinary human speech, God speaks and seeks to create the world anew. So... what if we discovered love anew, the redemptive power of love? Could we as co-creators with our God of love, make this old and broken world a new world? Could we speak the language of God s love, could we speak Jesus so well that even the deaf could hear it and the blind could see it? We don t need a special feast day for these things to take place. The promised Helper will come and give us strength, encouragement and ability any day and every day. Through the harnessed fire of the Spirit, we are not only sustained but empowered to be faithful witnesses and agents of God s love to heal and transform and renew the world, one moment, one person, one event at a time. The fire power of the Spirit, the fire power of God s love was given to us when we were baptized. In a few moments we will be reminded of this as three young people publically affirm their baptism. What if they and you and I and the whole church discovered the fire power of the way of love? What then? So let us pray, Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful people, and kindle in us the fire of your love. 7