But who's counting? Seven weeks since Passover, fifty days if you count from Easter to Pentecost. A long time to wait. What have we been doing while we wait? And what are we waiting for? Easter Day and Evening the disciples, beginning with Mary at the tomb, began to see Jesus, as he appeared to them after his crucifixion and entombment. And they learned from him; what he had taught them before began to make new sense, new and deeper meanings arose as they experienced the risen Christ. And then they waited, as they experienced his final leaving, the taking from them into heaven that is the Ascension - with its promise of Another, a Counselor, an Advocate, a Comforter, a Spirit: the very Breath of God. And so they began to learn, to be taught, what life means now, now that death has been conquered, for all. They began to wonder, and to proclaim: this is what life means now, this is what it has always meant. That in Christ - in his persecution and death at human hands, the hands of the lawful authorities - all are reconciled, to God and therefore to each other. We are to live that. We are to live that, now. It is no easier today than it was two thousand years ago. We are still on the Way. God help us. God be with us, now as we face - as Michael Curry has reminded us in his sermon this morning, that we face two pandemics now, in this country: the virus, and the utter selfishness and complete self-centeredness, the putting oneself at the center of the universe and all else at the margin, that informs and creates and fuels hate and racism and war, the act of one human brother against another, of one tribe or race or nation against another, and of one individual against another person.
Again as Michael Curry reminds us, we can find another way, the way of love. We can proclaim that love. For what it means is that in making room for one another we are exercising the power of love. And that fits: for God to make the world God
made room for Creation.
(An old teaching which I learned from Donald Nicholl in a class at UCSC.)
By making room God allowed us the possibility of failure, of free will, of - to use a word Dr Curry avoided - sin, that is the egregious separating of our self from God, and from common humanity.
We do not have to live that way - in sin, as it were: we can follow the way of love. Today, any day. And every day it becomes more manifestly vital that we do.
https://episcopalchurch.org/posts/publicaffairs/presiding-bishop-michael-currys-pentecost-sermon-live-streamed-service
https://episcopalchurch.org/responding-to-racist-violence
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/05/31/black-man-i-understand-anger-our-streets-we-must-still-choose-love/
31 May 2020
Day of Pentecost
Whitsunday
Daily Office Lessons for Today:
| The Day of Pentecost | 118 v 145 |
| Deut. 16:9-12 Acts 4:18-21, 23-33 John 4:19-26 |
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