Puzzlement Giving Way to Accord

Sermon on Pentecost

By: Mother Dawn

“Que las palabras de mi boca y la meditación de mi corazón sean de tu agrado, Dios, mi roca y mi redentor.” (Salmo 19:14)

“Accueille les paroles de ma bouche, le murmure de mon coeur, qu’ils parviennent devant toi, Seigneur, mon rocher, mon défenseur.” (Psaume 19:14)

“Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart

    be acceptable to you,

    O Lord, my rock and my redeemer.” (Psalm 19:14)

Did I confuse you there for a moment? Did you wonder what I was doing, or at first, did you wonder why I was engaging with other congregants during my sermon? And then did it became clear…Ahhh, it’s Pentecost! She’s reflecting on the passage from Acts.

Perhaps things became even clearer when I read Psalm 19:14 in English after you heard it in other languages.

Psalm 19:14 - Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable to you, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer. 

These words might sound familiar to you. Both Deacon Pete and Mother Brenda sometimes use them to open their sermons. In fact, the words of Psalm 19:14 are also an opening sentence other preachers use to start a sermon, and it's an opening sentence that is often used in Morning Prayer in the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion. 

The Episcopal Church in the US is a part of the Anglican Communion, a communion of Christians that includes churches worldwide. Churches that, from their inception, always used the vernacular of the surrounding community. When the Anglican Communion spread with Britain’s conquests of the world, so did their religious traditions and the use of the local community's language and dialects.

Therefore, Psalm 19:14 is spoken throughout the world in many different languages, quite possibly every day of the week. 

Let me offer you all some context to what I am trying to do in my sermon this morning. 

I started my sermon with myself and others speaking scripture in a different language because I wanted you to feel a little confused or uncomfortable. 

I did this not to play a trick on you but to ensure you were paying attention. 

Then, I explained the significance of the line from Psalm 19:14 to demonstrate that while Christians live and worship all over the world and speak many different languages, they can live in one accord in Christ. 

For all Christians, our shared scripture is a source of unity. For Episcopal and Anglican Christians, our shared scripture and liturgy are sources of unity. 

In truth, we Christians have more in common than not; our faith is a source of unity. There is rhetoric out there that states different sects of Christians are just so different that we will never overcome our distinctions. 

I understand that all Christians seeing eye-to-eye on all things may feel insurmountable. Which may lead us to throw up our hands and say, those Christians will do their thing and we will do ours. And never the twain shall meet! 

But throughout scripture, we hear God again and again calling us to love and honor one another. We hear God calling us to be and do better. 

Jesus models active listening. He does not scream at his opponents, AND he still shares his message that we are called to live into the radical love and acceptance of God, ourselves, and others. 

BUT, but…God knows us well, and God knows that we humans don’t always do a great job of actively listening with an open heart and mind. 

Therefore, God sometimes pushes us humans outside our comfort zone to wake us up and help us listen. 

God does this so we can look past our egos, fears, and anxieties to remind us that we have more in common with each other than we do not and that we are called to live in unity with one another. 

At the beginning of my sermon, I worked to weave together perplexity and unity. Your fellow congregants offered a word in a foreign language, which hopefully perked up your ears, and a line from scripture that is spoken almost daily worldwide. Puzzlement giving way to accord.

At Pentecost, we celebrate just that…puzzlement that gives way to a message of accord. At Pentecost, God weaves together perplexity and unity! 

Two thousand years ago, on the day we now celebrate, Jewish believers from all over the ancient world gathered in Jerusalem to celebrate the Jewish festivity of Pentecost. 

This festival occurs 50 days after Passover and commemorates God’s giving of the law to Moses on Mt. Sinai. It is one of the three major pilgrimage holidays of the Jewish faith. 

On the day God sent the Holy Spirit, Jerusalem must have been brimming with Jewish visitors who spoke many languages. 

Sometimes, preachers and scholars focus solely on the diversity of those present on the day of Pentecost, and lifting up the diversity of God’s creation is worthy of celebrating. 

However, another way to explore the wonder of Pentecost is to see how God gives Godself to us through the Spirit, and in doing so, reminds us of God’s call for unity amongst all people. 

I used confusion to get your attention and my use of Psalm 19:14 to demonstrate how we have more in common than not; I did this to echo what God is doing on Pentecost. 

Jerusalem is and was a busy and bustling city. Travelers and visitors were on the streets that day long ago, chatting with friends, buying spices, heading to worship, and all of a sudden, 

“from heaven, there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. 

All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability.

Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven living in Jerusalem. And at this sound, the crowd gathered and was bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in the native language of each.” 

Jews from the diaspora were present in Jerusalem with their diversity of language and culture and stood together stunned. 

First, a loud rushing wind shocked them to silence, and then men they didn’t know were speaking their language! No matter who they were, they could understand the words coming out of the apostles' mouths.

God chose to give the gift of tongues to ALL of the apostles, not just one. God chose to make it possible that ALL people present heard the words of the apostles, not just a few! 

God wants us to listen! God knows that sometimes we need to be pushed out of our comfort and predictability to get us to listen to God’s message that calls us to love one another and follow God despite our differences. 

Sometimes it can feel like the world is in a state of discord, and sometimes this sense of discord might leave us feeling hopeless. In those times that we feel hopeless let us turn to our faith in God to find solace, because…

Christian theology is a theology of love despite the existence of hate and hope despite the existence of fear and death. 

Jesus’s death is not the final word because of the Resurrection. Despair that Jesus is no longer embodied on earth with us is not the last word because God sends the Holy Spirit to remind us to keep working for unity!

Campus ministry leader and philosophy student Michael Fitzpatrick underscores the message of unity in the reading from Acts. He says,

“A life worthy of our calling is one in which we bear one another in love. It is a life where we make every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.” 

Through Pentecost, God once again disrupts the monotony of our everyday lives in a way that feels uncomfortable yet compels us to wake up and listen. Once we are listening, God sends God’s spirit to remind us to always work towards unity and love for all. Pentecost in particular reminds us that it is US that God is calling to do the work of building up a unified, welcoming, beloved community for all people!

How can we Christians present here today spread God’s message of love, even when it makes us uncomfortable? One way I do this is to wear a necklace with a cross on it to show the people I met that I am Christian. 

But I only just started wearing my cross regularly. I’ve started doing this because of the Christian witness displayed to me by a congregant of St. Andrew’s. 

Not that long ago I was on a pastoral visit at a congregant’s home. As I left and she and I were saying goodbye, I noticed the cross that she was wearing and commented on how lovely it was. 

Touching the necklace, she told me that wearing the cross is how she bears witness to her Christian faith. 

It may seem small, but I was so struck by her commitment to her faith. 

Then I realized that I almost never wear the crosses I have been given over the years. 

So why didn’t I wear my cross? Well, I didn’t want others to feel uncomfortable. Or maybe… I didn’t want to feel uncomfortable? What if someone asked me a question about my faith, or came at me with their anger or hurt, or assumed I believed in an exclusive form of Christianity.

While all those things may happen, I am capable of handling them, and WHAT IF…

People see me doing good deeds out in the world, or what if a stranger I am offering a kind word notices the cross, what if I wear my cross while I wear my pride t-shirt? 

What if people see me offering love and kindness to others and what if they are grateful to see a Christian who is inclusive and patient and welcoming? 

Wouldn’t that be great? 

And perhaps I will have some awkward conversations about my faith or perhaps I will feel uncomfortable wearing my cross because of a look someone gives me, but that is okay. 

I know that I will survive the discomfort and I know that the discomfort will be worth it, because I want people to know that there are Christians who really love and accept them no matter who they are. 

God calls us over and over to bear witness to the gospel, to speak hard truths, to love with abandon, even when it is hard or uncomfortable. 

As we celebrate Pentecost today let us be reminded that God encourages us to step out of the familiarity and comfort of life and calls us to live a life of love and accord that is grounded in our Christian faith. 

Now, you all know how I have stepped out of my comfort zone to follow God more faithfully. This week, as you go about your lives, I encourage you to listen to how God is calling you to do the same.

In the name of one God, the Holy Trinity, who exemplifies diversity abiding in unity, AMEN!