PentecostB, Sullivan Park Care
Center, May 24, 2015 by Annette Fricke
Raising a
family can be seen as a time of years of preparation. A woman becomes pregnant, the couple
announces the pregnancy after a couple months, and family and friends show
their interest. As the months go by,
family and friends hold a baby shower or two to show their support both emotionally
and financially. In addition to gifts, the couple also gathers clothing,
diapers, blankets, bibs, and other essentials that ease the process of raising
a baby. In the meantime, the baby grows
in its mother’s uterus till the water breaks and labor begins. There is great joy expressed when the baby is
finally born. The transition from infancy to toddler, to pre-school and
kindergarten can either be enhanced or complicated at any given time by the
presence of others. Some friends and relatives may even be called upon to
babysit so the parents can get a break and because most people love babies and
the promise and laughter they bring. If the child has siblings, the children
learn to share their lives and perspectives with the new baby. They learn practical tools of language and
socialization which will be needed before stepping into the first grade
classroom. But this is only the
beginning of growing to maturity into adulthood when the children themselves
become parents and the parents become grandparents, and so on. That is the cycle of life, generation after
generation, as we have more babies; we also lose those we love as they pass on
into eternity.
The life of
the Church can be seen in the same manner.
Luke’s narration which spans the two volumes of the Gospel according to
Luke and the Book of Acts predates the actual Church year, both as it was
initially formed as well as in its current usage. One of the ways of viewing the Gospel
according to Luke is to see it as a preparation. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is the formation
of our knowing who Jesus is according to his teachings and his life. It is a biographical sketch, descriptive of
God’s purpose to gather together and bring salvation, making it available to
not just the Jewish people, but to all.
At the completion of Luke’s telling of the story of Jesus, the
incarnation of God, he does not stop there.
There is more. There is a lot
more. He insists that there is far more
than just the life of Jesus to write about.
He sees that the life of Jesus continues beyond his physical life on
earth. After the resurrection, Jesus
promised the gift of the Holy Spirit to be with us forever. In today’s world, after the pageantry of
processions and extraordinary music of Christmas and Easter, Pentecost not only
seems to be a letdown, but culturally, with all the graduation hoopla and the
distraction of warmer weather, it can be viewed as an absolute anti-climactic
blip. Most people could articulate what Christmas and Easter are all about, but
are a bit fuzzy when it comes to the celebration of Pentecost. Well, they wear red, put up balloons and the
altar hangings are red. The red is for
fire—you know the tongues of fire that were on people’s heads and they also
spoke in tongues. Some will recall the
speaking in tongues as mentioned by Paul, but don’t realize there is a distinct
difference. In the Pauline literature,
speaking in tongues is in need of interpretation. In Acts, everyone hears and
understands in their native language without interpretation. In recent times,
the churches tried to get the point of Pentecost across by having various
readers from the congregation read the lessons for the day in different
languages. There was a time in this country when this was not possible because
immigrant congregations were groups who spoke the same non-English language,
attending the same church. For example,
there were German Lutherans and Irish Catholics. The reason there were so many churches of the
same denomination is because they were necessarily separated by a language
barrier. English was not a language that
could be learned overnight; it took a couple of generations to learn it well
enough to be understood and to speak it fluently. For some, the transition to English wasn’t
soon enough and they demanded services in English. A Lutheran bishop in Pennsylvania actually
told congregants that if they wanted a service in English, they should join the
Episcopal Church! Some congregations, in order to accommodate the earlier
immigrants and those who had already learned English to transact business,
offered services in both the native tongue and English. The result was a much
divided Church, just the opposite of our account of the gift of the Holy Spirit
in Acts. The work of the Holy Spirit is
always meant to be uniting rather than dividing. The message of the gospel was
proclaimed so all could understand, even though all were gathered in the same
place.
Just as
those who gather around the arrival of a new baby are a uniting force for good
for the baby and the family, so also is the family of the Church. It doesn’t matter so much if they are
speaking the same language, such as English or German, what matters is that they
are there to show that they are united for the welfare of the baby, to love and
nurture the baby to someday make his or her choices in life independently, yet
also interdependently as a member of society.
Growing up is a time of deciding what is just and compassionate, living
in the midst of people who may see things in a different light than we do.
Tomorrow, we
commemorate once again the wars and conflicts that our nation fought in. More importantly, we remember the sacrifice
that many soldiers made, some who were members or friends of our families. Although the national holiday is meant to
honor all those who served in the Armed Forces of this country, we are also
reminded of the many families that were affected. Through the years, as a nation, we have
supported or declined to support a draft, certain wars or conflicts. Our consciences have been challenged as to
the rightness or wrongness of any war.
Some are conscientious objectors or will serve only non-infantry positions. Some think about all the children and others
in countries that suddenly become part of the warring nation, who had no say in
its country’s strife.
In any case,
as a Church family we are also citizens of this country which was created mostly
by those disillusioned by the governments of other countries. It is based on the freedom built into
separation of Church and State, where we can vote for what we believe is right. We are called by God to continue to wrestle
with ways to be peaceful citizens, yet also to seek justice for all people
because that is how the salvation of God is made known to all and for all.
We are
simultaneously citizens of the City of God and of the United States. Various configurations of the Church will
seek to be a witness to Jesus Christ, but it remains that we act and believe
according to our conscience as it is informed by our understanding of God and
by God’s Spirit.
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