1 Sermon, St. David s Episcopal Church, Feast of Pentecost, Acts 2:1-12 (Elizabeth Felicetti) Good morning. And happy birthday to the church! Pentecost means fiftieth day, and we Christians didn t invent the celebration. We commemorate what happened at this particular Pentecost festival some two thousand years ago; which means, there was a Pentecost or fiftieth day--festival at that time. That Jewish Pentecost happened fifty days after Passover. Now, while Passover was typically a quiet family celebration that took place in the home, Pentecost was a huge communal festival, where faithful Jews brought to the priest the first fruits of their harvest. Imagine the chaotic festival setting; something like Springfest on steroids, people swirling around. And then the rush of a violent wind, and these apostles, ordinary men not educated or wealthy men they started to speak in other languages. And everyone at the festival was bewildered because they could discern their own language through the chaos of multiple voices. Today, we consider this event, the Holy Spirit empowering the apostles to preach in the native tongues of those present: we consider this event to be the birthday of the church. At Easter, Jesus was resurrected, and then for forty days he met his disciples in various places and taught them. Then ten days ago, we celebrated the feast of the Ascension, where Jesus left them, but promised to send them the Holy Spirit. And today we read how that Spirit came: divided tongues, fire. Chaos. The church was born in chaos.
2 And is it much different today? St. David s can be a chaotic place, can t it? (You should have seen what it was like before this service today!) So much going on all the time that it s hard to keep up. Parish hall floor, baseball games, new liturgical things that smoke, high tea. Church life is chaotic; but in the midst of the chaos we know that the Spirit is working! Imagine what it was like for the people who were there when the church was born. Chaotic, and yet they could hear and recognize their own language. Have you traveled in foreign countries where the primary language is not your own? When you do that, and day after day you hear another language maybe you even understand it, maybe one of those language immersion programs. Whatever: when surrounded by another language, and then you hear your own language: it s powerful. Language is powerful. So are voices. Sometimes my old dog doesn t recognize Gary through the window and barks at him, but she knows him as soon as she hears his voice. Moms can recognize their own baby s cry. Babies turn to their parents voice moments after they are born. Supposedly, hearing our spouse s voice can help lower blood pressure. (But that probably depends on whether you are fighting or not.) Hearing our own language, the voice of loved ones: these are comforting things. So, what s God s language? And what does God s voice sound like? How can we hear it? I once heard God s voice after I got a speeding ticket. I had prayed that I would learn something from the experience. And the night after I got the ticket, as I was lying in bed, I heard God say, SLOW DOWN AND PAY ATTENTION!
3 I ve talked before about the importance of slowing down and setting aside time for God, carving out time for a prayer life the way that we carve out time for work and for friends and family. And I hope that we all do this, and I suspect almost all of us, including me, could do a better job of it than we do now. But: do we only hear God s voice in times of stillness and quiet? As you may know, I try to carve out quiet time to study and listen for God s voice on Thursdays, when I have my sermon writing day. I can t tell you how much I appreciate the support you all give me on this. But what s funny is that sometimes, when I chain myself to my desk and don t answer the phone, I have a harder time hearing God. Sometimes I have to get away from the quiet. Sometimes I hear God best when it s noisy and chaotic. In today s reading from Acts, God speaks during the chaos, through the Holy Spirit, which is compared in this reading to fire. And in this reading, some people even sneer and say that the disciples are drunk. But through the chaos, the Holy Spirit is heard. Where do you hear the Holy Spirit? Where do you hear God s voice? What is God s language? Another time I heard God s voice when I was sitting at a traffic light. Well, it wasn t a voice exactly, but I definitely experienced God. I was in seminary. I was in a hurry I know that won t surprise you. I d had a meeting at my field ed parish and was rushing back across town to a late afternoon Hebrew class. I was listening to country music on the radio. It was 2006, and the song was Honky Tonk Badonkadonk, which is really a dreadful song and not at all what God s voice sounds like, in my opinion.
4 And yet, sitting in that car in a hurry, not a holy thought in my head because I was worried about getting back on time because I have a pathological fear of being late, stopped inconveniently at a traffic light, lyrics about well, let s not even go there: suddenly, I was overcome and with the knowledge that God loved me. Now, this probably sounds like it shouldn t have been much of a revelation to a seminarian who preached to others about the amazing love of God; but while I knew that in my head, somehow, this day, with a totally inappropriate song on the radio, sitting in my Honda: I experienced that love, and I was overcome. God loves me. That was how I heard God s voice. And so of course my first thought was, what a completely inappropriate background song for a major spiritual experience. I bet some thought something similar about this first Pentecost event. It was scene, right? People from all over. It was a festival, like Springfest and the Greek festival and a farmer s market and the Carytown craft beer festival all wrapped up into one. So many people. It was chaos, everyone s talking And suddenly: everyone hears this message in their native language. They hear about God s deeds of power. Some people must have thought, what a strange time for the Spirit to come. We all need to set aside time to listen for the Holy Spirit, but on Pentecost, when we celebrate the birthday of the church, we remember that the Spirit will show up whenever the Spirit darn well pleases, and it may not be when we are quietly bowing our heads in prayer.
5 Like at the 9:00 service. There are powerful silences, such as when the bread is broken. The rubric, or italicized rule, in the Book of Common Prayer that is underneath the breaking of the bread part reads, A period of silence is kept. Now, sometimes the rubrics use the word may for example, the blessing at the end: the rubric reads The Bishop or Priest may bless the people. That part, the blessing, is not mandatory; and yet that is a very dear and important part of the service to many of us. But the silence after the bread is broken: that s mandatory in Book of Common Prayerland. And sometimes, during that powerful silence, two-year-old Emily at the 9:00 will let out a squeal, because she loves that bread and she knows she s about to get a piece of it soon. That s the Spirit s voice we hear in Emily s squeal. I recognize God s voice in her enthusiasm. Do you? And, I recognize God s voice in the silence. I recognize God s voice in the singing of both of our choirs. I hear God s voice in the Scripture read by our lectors. I know God s voice will be heard next Sunday when we hear from one of our recent college graduates, Kim Harrison. On Pentecost, we remember that God s voice sometimes comes out spectacularly in chaos. Now, remember that it was not completely unexpected for the disciples. Jesus told them the Holy Spirit was coming. As Deacon Bill said in his sermon last week, they were filled with anticipation.
6 But they weren t sure what to expect. I m sure it wasn t this, that they would be speaking in languages they had not learned, telling people about God. And I am sure that the Holy Spirit will speak to us in places where we don t expect it. Where will we next hear God s voice? How will we recognize it?