“Be Now THY Vision”
Luke 3:7-18
Rev. Désirée H. Gold
St. Mark’s United Church of Christ, Baltimore, MD
Sunday, 25 May, 2008
Isaiah 49:8-16a
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 Every summer when I was in high school, and during my first couple years of college, I would go on a canoe trip with my church youth group. We would travel to White Otter Lake in Northwest Ontario and spend a week canoeing across and through and around this meandering lake and its tributaries. Every day on the lake was different. There were days when the water was like glass, and we would practically float across the water. Canoeing felt like a pleasure cruise. Then there were days when the wind was high, the water was choppy, and every stroke of the paddle took grueling effort.
Life in the church is like this. There are times when everything seems easy. The sanctuary is full, our bank account is in good shape, and we’re doing things. The water is placid, if you will, but more than that, the sun is shining, the view is beautiful, and all seems right with the world.
Then there are times when keeping the church going feels like a constant effort. We’re straining to fill the pews, the building seems to be falling apart, and we can barely find the energy to do the day-to-day work of the church, much less see a vision for the future. The weather seems stormy, and we feel like we’re going backward or even sinking. It’s just too hard.
Each day in the life of the church is different, just as each day of our canoe trips brought a different outlook. We have a Sunday when the pews are full, and we feel excited and hopeful. The next Sunday we have half as many people in church and I, for one, feel discouraged and unsure once again. We have a visioning meeting with other small city churches. A few weeks later we are concerned about the roof leaking. There’s always that ebb and flow.
In the words of Isaiah: "Thus says the Lord: In a time of favor I have answered you, on a day of salvation I have helped you; I have kept you and given you as a covenant to the people.....But Zion said, ‘The Lord has forsaken me, my Lord has forgotten me.’" In response to the Israelites’ -- in response to our -- fears, the Lord responds that no, we will never be forgotten or forsaken.
The prophet Isaiah writes about the Babylonian Exile. As Biblical scholar Walter Brueggeman writes, the exiles’ sense of despair and lack of comfort understandably makes them question the compassion of God. Brueggeman explains the passage in a way that, I believe, relates it to the life of the church: "We may imagine that over time a sense of distinctiveness had eroded in Israel and with it a loss of purpose, hope, and possibility. The work of the servant is to enliven the [exiles] with new intentionality and courage..."1
So, there it is. Clearly the Israelites felt like they were about to sink. They were straining to keep their spirits high, with the water choppy and the wind blowing and the storm of life in exile beating down upon them. But God promised to be with them, to comfort them, to guide them. God reminded the servant of the covenant that God has made: “I have kept you and given you as a covenant to the people.”
So, too, has God made a covenant with our little church and kept us going all of these years. That covenant may need to change, be renegotiated, bring us to a new place, even scatter us, but the covenant between God and God’s people is always there.
Pastor Geoff McElroy has wise words to say about these things: "We are the servants, the agents of the transformation God has promised. So even while we struggle to understand why the transformation is not here yet, we are called to work alongside God to make it happen, bit by bit, moment by moment. We may never achieve it through our own human efforts, but maybe we can make a change in this world through the grace and love of God, the One who has not forgotten or forsaken us but has inscribed us on the palm of God’s hand."2
This morning we will have our second visioning meeting as a congregation. Whether you feel that St. Mark’s is in an easy place, coasting across the waters of faith, or whether you feel that we are straining, barely able to keep afloat, I ask that you step back and look at the larger picture. White Otter Lake was always marvelous, whether it was as smooth as glass or rolling with whitecaps. I ask that you see St. Mark’s in its past, present, and future and that you pray toward a vision for the congregation, regardless of how much hope you have within your heart today.
As we continue this process of visioning, let me remind you of something else. This morning we began worship by singing “Be Now My Vision.” This is one of my favorite hymns. It is a love song, really, describing an intimate relationship with God: “You my best thought, by day or by night.” The hymn calls upon the loving Parent for vision and wisdom and assures that loving Parent of faithfulness, regardless of what the future holds.
As we discuss the vision for the future of St. Mark’s, however, I want us to think about things a little differently. The hymn calls upon God to be our vision. The original title of the hymn, “Be Thou My Vision,” specifically calls upon God to be our vision for the future. Of course, this is important. God should be the most important vision in our sights as we discuss the future of the church. But I ask that we turn the tables today. Instead of thinking of God as our vision, I remind you that the church should really be God’s vision. When we talk about the future of the church, we often use the term, “Our vision for the future.” It is not our vision that we are to be seeking. It is God’s. It is not the future of our church. It is the future of God’s church. It is not even our church. It is God’s house.
When we talk about the future of the church, it is understandable that we talk about the nuts and bolts: how we will get new people in the door and keep them coming; how we will finally get this new members class off the ground; how we will balance the checkbook; how we will pay for necessary repairs on the roof. In this day and age churches are “nonprofit organizations,” and as such they have buildings to maintain, bills to pay, membership to keep in mind. But even when we talk about these “administrative” aspects of the church, I ask you to remember what we really are. We are God’s house, here to carry out God’s vision. We are striving to keep our doors open and keep going, not because we would really miss our little church (which we would, of course). We are striving to keep our doors open and to keep going so that we can serve God and the people of God.
Jesus tells us in the Gospel of Matthew to stop worrying about what we will eat or what we will drink, or about our body, what we will wear. I confess that I am not very good at not worrying, and I realize that simply not worrying about the roof won’t stop it from leaking. But, as always, Jesus’ words are gospel: they are good news. They are a reminder, I believe, of where our focus should be. Yes, there are the nuts and bolts issues of the church, but they are not our purpose. Our purpose is to live out God’s vision, to serve God’s people, to be God’s church.
Every day that I spent on White Otter Lake was a gift of God. Sure, the easy days were, well, easy. They were a lot more fun than the choppy, brutal days of hard paddling. But even those hard days were precious. And the work was a reminder of the strength God had given us.
Like a nursing mother, God will not forget or neglect us. God’s compassion will remain on the most difficult days. As we seek God’s wisdom, as we discern God’s vision, let us draw together and be thankful for each day.
Now let us pray.
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1 Brueggeman, Walter. Isaiah (Westminster Bible Companion) (Volume 1, Chapters 40-66). (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 1998). Pg. 110.2Desert Scribblings blog by Geoff McElroy http://gmcelroy.typepad.com/desertscribblings/2008/05/may-25-2008---second-sunday-after-pentecost- year-a.html, accessed on 24 May, 2008.
2 Desert Scribblings blog by Geoff McElroy http://gmcelroy.typepad.com/desertscribblings/2008/05/may-25-2008---second-sunday-after-pentecost- year-a.html, accessed on 24 May, 2008.
Sunday, May 25, 2008
Sermon 05/18/08 (Genesis 1:1-2:4a)
“Sacred Trinity, Sacred Humanity”
Genesis 1:1 - 2:4a
Rev. Désirée H. Gold
St. Mark’s United Church of Christ, Baltimore, MD
Sunday, 18 May, 2008
Trinity Sunday - Sacred Conversation on Race
----
 I’ll admit it. I am really tired of the news stories. The Rev. Jeremiah Wright said this. Senator Barack Obama responded with that. Jeremiah Wright did this. Barack Obama did that. Jeremiah Wright is an un-American [insert expletive here]. Jeremiah Wright is speaking prophetically out of his experience as a black American. What Barack Obama’s pastor says shouldn’t have anything to do with his presidential candidacy. We shouldn’t vote for someone who would keep going to a church with such an un-American pastor. (Oh, but did you hear that his middle name is Hussein?! This whole church thing must be just a cover-up anyway. He’s probably really a Muslim.)
My guess is that those of us sitting here today fall along the spectrum of the responses I have just named. Regardless of whether you voted for Obama, Hilary Clinton, John McCain, or somebody else, my guess is that you have some feelings about the recent controversy involving Senator Obama and his former pastor.
The issue may be more muddled for those of us who belong to the United Church of Christ, since Obama is a member of Trinity UCC in Chicago. Regardless of who we voted for in the primaries and who we intend to vote for in the general election, many of us have experienced confusion or strong emotions about the fact that these issues revolve around a pastor from our denomination. I know some of you have questioned the statements that Rev. John Thomas, the general minister and president of the UCC, has made in support of Trinity UCC and Rev. Jeremiah Wright. “How could he support that guy?!” you wonder. You may even feel embarrassed or ashamed to tell people that you belong to the UCC right now. You may simply feel confused.
In light of the strong emotions and harsh words that have been flung in all directions, the United Church of Christ has invited congregations to devote this Sunday to a Sacred Conversation on Race. Much of what has been said so far has not been very helpful, and it has been taken so completely out of context that there is no shred of the original meaning left. Racial tensions have been simmering. It is time now to sit down and have a conversation about the issues underlying the recent controversy. It is time to have a conversation that is not only civil, but sacred. There is no way that this conversation can begin and end with one sermon or on one Sunday, but I pray that today will be a beginning of the conversation.
Before we get to the issue of race itself, I want to cover a few things. First, there is the issue of context. What Rev. Wright said sounds so horrific in part because we have heard only tiny soundbites from sermons that are a lot longer than mine. Several weeks ago I asked Ben to do something for me. I asked him to look through my sermons and see if he could find offensive bits in them. Now, I don’t preach as “prophetically” as Jeremiah Wright, but upon scrolling through a random selection of my sermons Ben was able to pick out things that would probably seem offensive if taken out of context. Yes, even in MY sermons!
Second, there is the issue of the relationship between pastor and parishioner. Jeremiah Wright was the senior pastor at Trinity UCC for 36 years. Obama has been a member of that church for 20 years. That’s a long time to be in relationship, and there are bound to be disagreements between pastor and churchgoer. You have had long-term pastors here at St. Mark’s. My guess is that you have not agreed with everything they have said or done. I read a very wise statement this past week: We do not go to church because of the pastor. We go to church to worship God. Sure, a good, likable pastor is very important to the life of the church, but pastors come and go. It is the community that lives on.
Finally, and to the point, there is the issue of race. None of us in this room knows what it is like to be an African American. We may have experienced prejudice because of sexual orientation, gender, or something else. Prejudice in all its forms is frightening and evil. It invokes anger and sadness and may, indeed, cause us to use choice language in reference to our persecutors. Still, none of us knows what it is like to be black in America.
Jeremiah Wright is 66 years old. He is a little younger than the average age of the parishioners at Faith Community UCC, the interracial church I served in Sacramento, California. Unfortunately, he is not too young to experience atrocious acts of racism. The chair of the church council at Faith Community was an African American woman in her 70’s. She was an adult by the time of the Civil Rights Movement, and she experienced plenty of racism before that. However, the racial tension never really went away. Someone burned a cross in her front yard in the 1990’s.
Americans, both black and white, tend to think that racism is a thing of the past. After all, we have an African American running for president! Affirmative action is reaching the White House! The brand new president of the NAACP, who was voted in just this Friday, made the statement that “Those of us who are 45 and younger were told, ‘The struggle has been won. Go out and flourish. Don't worry about the movement.’” Yes, we think racism is a thing of the past, and we get complacent about it. Racism is still alive and well. There are, even in our day and age, cross burnings in the yards of African Americans. In the past several months swastikas and anti-Semitic graffiti have been discovered in a dorm at the University of North Dakota. Just this morning I read that an American soldier in Iraq was caught using the Q’uran for target practice. Truly disgusting.
Then there are the more subtle things that may not appear to be racism to us but sure seem like it when you have the short end of the stick! There is the question many people asked after Hurricane Katrina. If the most heavily damaged areas had belonged to rich white folks, would the hurricane recovery have happened a lot more quickly? Many people think so. There is the question of inner city education. If they weren’t poor black folks, would we be more willing to fund their education?
In addition to modern acts of racism, large and small, against people of African descent, Arabs, Jews, Latinos, etc. there are the memories of past racist acts that remain in the minds of the persecuted and understandably cause paranoia. In his statements about AIDS, Rev. Wright has invoked memories of the Tuskekee Study. When a crime like that has been committed against a community, it is unlikely that the community will forget about it any time soon.
I believe that some of the things Jeremiah Wright said were stupid and some of them were wrong. But he is expressing anger out of an experience to which I will never be truly able to relate. Some of the things he said did not come across as sacred to me. But the things that have been done, and are being done, to African Americans (and Arabs, Jews, Latinos, etc.) sure as heck aren’t sacred either. Threatening to bomb Trinity UCC or making death threats against parishioners (both of those things have happened) are certainly not sacred. Even calling him or Barack Obama or Rev. John Thomas or the United Church of Christ or anyone else who may or may not be involved un-American is not helpful or sacred.
The truth is, we are all created in God’s image. Yes, yes, we know we’re supposed to believe that the color of our skin doesn’t matter, but it goes further than that. People who make statements that seem “un-American” are created in God’s image. People whose middle name is Hussein (whether they’re Christian or Muslim or what) are created in God’s image. Acts of racism and prejudice of any kind perpetrated by any one are not sacred; they are evil. But even the people who commit those acts are created in God’s own image. (See, there I go bein’ all controversial.) Yet we treat each other like dirt. Sadly, I don’t know if we will ever be able to truly love each other for who we are, but for the umpteenth time, we need to try. We need to talk about why we have these issues (yes, even if we think we have never committed a racist act in our lives) and how we can do a better job of overcoming them. If you want to talk more about these issues here, then let’s do so. But the church is a starting place. Ultimately, we need to bring peace and love to the world.
Today is known as Trinity Sunday in the church calendar, when we lift up the Holy Trinity: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, or Creator, Redeemer, Sustainer. We remember that God, in all God’s glory, is manifested in three different ways. We human beings, too, are manifested in a multitude of ways, yet we are all the same being. Let’s start acting like it.
Now let us pray.
Genesis 1:1 - 2:4a
Rev. Désirée H. Gold
St. Mark’s United Church of Christ, Baltimore, MD
Sunday, 18 May, 2008
Trinity Sunday - Sacred Conversation on Race
----
 I’ll admit it. I am really tired of the news stories. The Rev. Jeremiah Wright said this. Senator Barack Obama responded with that. Jeremiah Wright did this. Barack Obama did that. Jeremiah Wright is an un-American [insert expletive here]. Jeremiah Wright is speaking prophetically out of his experience as a black American. What Barack Obama’s pastor says shouldn’t have anything to do with his presidential candidacy. We shouldn’t vote for someone who would keep going to a church with such an un-American pastor. (Oh, but did you hear that his middle name is Hussein?! This whole church thing must be just a cover-up anyway. He’s probably really a Muslim.)
My guess is that those of us sitting here today fall along the spectrum of the responses I have just named. Regardless of whether you voted for Obama, Hilary Clinton, John McCain, or somebody else, my guess is that you have some feelings about the recent controversy involving Senator Obama and his former pastor.
The issue may be more muddled for those of us who belong to the United Church of Christ, since Obama is a member of Trinity UCC in Chicago. Regardless of who we voted for in the primaries and who we intend to vote for in the general election, many of us have experienced confusion or strong emotions about the fact that these issues revolve around a pastor from our denomination. I know some of you have questioned the statements that Rev. John Thomas, the general minister and president of the UCC, has made in support of Trinity UCC and Rev. Jeremiah Wright. “How could he support that guy?!” you wonder. You may even feel embarrassed or ashamed to tell people that you belong to the UCC right now. You may simply feel confused.
In light of the strong emotions and harsh words that have been flung in all directions, the United Church of Christ has invited congregations to devote this Sunday to a Sacred Conversation on Race. Much of what has been said so far has not been very helpful, and it has been taken so completely out of context that there is no shred of the original meaning left. Racial tensions have been simmering. It is time now to sit down and have a conversation about the issues underlying the recent controversy. It is time to have a conversation that is not only civil, but sacred. There is no way that this conversation can begin and end with one sermon or on one Sunday, but I pray that today will be a beginning of the conversation.
Before we get to the issue of race itself, I want to cover a few things. First, there is the issue of context. What Rev. Wright said sounds so horrific in part because we have heard only tiny soundbites from sermons that are a lot longer than mine. Several weeks ago I asked Ben to do something for me. I asked him to look through my sermons and see if he could find offensive bits in them. Now, I don’t preach as “prophetically” as Jeremiah Wright, but upon scrolling through a random selection of my sermons Ben was able to pick out things that would probably seem offensive if taken out of context. Yes, even in MY sermons!
Second, there is the issue of the relationship between pastor and parishioner. Jeremiah Wright was the senior pastor at Trinity UCC for 36 years. Obama has been a member of that church for 20 years. That’s a long time to be in relationship, and there are bound to be disagreements between pastor and churchgoer. You have had long-term pastors here at St. Mark’s. My guess is that you have not agreed with everything they have said or done. I read a very wise statement this past week: We do not go to church because of the pastor. We go to church to worship God. Sure, a good, likable pastor is very important to the life of the church, but pastors come and go. It is the community that lives on.
Finally, and to the point, there is the issue of race. None of us in this room knows what it is like to be an African American. We may have experienced prejudice because of sexual orientation, gender, or something else. Prejudice in all its forms is frightening and evil. It invokes anger and sadness and may, indeed, cause us to use choice language in reference to our persecutors. Still, none of us knows what it is like to be black in America.
Jeremiah Wright is 66 years old. He is a little younger than the average age of the parishioners at Faith Community UCC, the interracial church I served in Sacramento, California. Unfortunately, he is not too young to experience atrocious acts of racism. The chair of the church council at Faith Community was an African American woman in her 70’s. She was an adult by the time of the Civil Rights Movement, and she experienced plenty of racism before that. However, the racial tension never really went away. Someone burned a cross in her front yard in the 1990’s.
Americans, both black and white, tend to think that racism is a thing of the past. After all, we have an African American running for president! Affirmative action is reaching the White House! The brand new president of the NAACP, who was voted in just this Friday, made the statement that “Those of us who are 45 and younger were told, ‘The struggle has been won. Go out and flourish. Don't worry about the movement.’” Yes, we think racism is a thing of the past, and we get complacent about it. Racism is still alive and well. There are, even in our day and age, cross burnings in the yards of African Americans. In the past several months swastikas and anti-Semitic graffiti have been discovered in a dorm at the University of North Dakota. Just this morning I read that an American soldier in Iraq was caught using the Q’uran for target practice. Truly disgusting.
Then there are the more subtle things that may not appear to be racism to us but sure seem like it when you have the short end of the stick! There is the question many people asked after Hurricane Katrina. If the most heavily damaged areas had belonged to rich white folks, would the hurricane recovery have happened a lot more quickly? Many people think so. There is the question of inner city education. If they weren’t poor black folks, would we be more willing to fund their education?
In addition to modern acts of racism, large and small, against people of African descent, Arabs, Jews, Latinos, etc. there are the memories of past racist acts that remain in the minds of the persecuted and understandably cause paranoia. In his statements about AIDS, Rev. Wright has invoked memories of the Tuskekee Study. When a crime like that has been committed against a community, it is unlikely that the community will forget about it any time soon.
I believe that some of the things Jeremiah Wright said were stupid and some of them were wrong. But he is expressing anger out of an experience to which I will never be truly able to relate. Some of the things he said did not come across as sacred to me. But the things that have been done, and are being done, to African Americans (and Arabs, Jews, Latinos, etc.) sure as heck aren’t sacred either. Threatening to bomb Trinity UCC or making death threats against parishioners (both of those things have happened) are certainly not sacred. Even calling him or Barack Obama or Rev. John Thomas or the United Church of Christ or anyone else who may or may not be involved un-American is not helpful or sacred.
The truth is, we are all created in God’s image. Yes, yes, we know we’re supposed to believe that the color of our skin doesn’t matter, but it goes further than that. People who make statements that seem “un-American” are created in God’s image. People whose middle name is Hussein (whether they’re Christian or Muslim or what) are created in God’s image. Acts of racism and prejudice of any kind perpetrated by any one are not sacred; they are evil. But even the people who commit those acts are created in God’s own image. (See, there I go bein’ all controversial.) Yet we treat each other like dirt. Sadly, I don’t know if we will ever be able to truly love each other for who we are, but for the umpteenth time, we need to try. We need to talk about why we have these issues (yes, even if we think we have never committed a racist act in our lives) and how we can do a better job of overcoming them. If you want to talk more about these issues here, then let’s do so. But the church is a starting place. Ultimately, we need to bring peace and love to the world.
Today is known as Trinity Sunday in the church calendar, when we lift up the Holy Trinity: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, or Creator, Redeemer, Sustainer. We remember that God, in all God’s glory, is manifested in three different ways. We human beings, too, are manifested in a multitude of ways, yet we are all the same being. Let’s start acting like it.
Now let us pray.
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
Sermon 05/11/08 - Pentecost (Acts 2:1-21)
“Alive in the Spirit”
Acts 2:1-21
Rev. Désirée H. Gold
St. Mark’s United Church of Christ, Baltimore, MD
Sunday, 11 May, 2008
Pentecost Sunday
----
 No one would ever mistake St. Mark’s for a Pentecostal church. When we read the account in Acts of that initial Pentecost, we probably do not see St. Mark’s United Church of Christ reflected there: “Violent winds,” fiery tongues, a plethora of languages being spoken but understood by all. People from many nations gathered in one place. And, of course, the accusation of drunkenness.... countered by Peter’s hilarious response, “these are not drunk, as you suppose, for it is only nine o'clock in the morning!”
With our relatively quiet worship services and our distinction as a “dry church,” it is unlikely that any outsider would accuse our congregation of being drunk. If a violent wind were to blow through the sanctuary on a Sunday morning, it would likely make us uncomfortable rather than spirited, and if “tongues as of fire” were to rest on each one of us, we would really wonder what was going on...and we’d probably call the fire department! To my knowledge, there are no Parthians, Elamites, Cappadocians, or Arabs in this congregation, although a couple of nations are represented by our membership. We do not often see the signs of “blood, fire, and smoky mist” here, and I think we would be frightened if we did.
So, perhaps we are not exactly like that first Pentecost crowd. As always, our scriptures need to be read in their own historical context, and the Pentecost story was written in a time and place very different from our own. That said, our Bible can also have plenty to say to our modern era, and I believe that the Pentecost story remains relevant not only to the general population of modern Christians, but to this very congregation -- as small and as tired as we might sometimes feel.
The fact that we are not so wildly on fire that we have the fire department on speed dial does not mean that we are not without Spirit. In the past year and a half, I have come to see the Holy Spirit alive and well in this church. It may manifest itself more quietly than it did among those first Pentecost revelers. No tongues of fire, no violent winds. But the Spirit that descended upon the Church over two thousand years ago is still alive here! I have seen it.
We struggle. I confess that, even as I assure you that every congregation has its struggles. But as a congregation, we are not without hope. Christian author Wendy Wright comments that “Pentecost celebrates the indwelling of God’s hope in us, incarnate in our world through our lives.”1 Despite the difficulties we face, that spirit of hope has not died here. I see this congregation plugging along, keeping up our lovely sanctuary, holding weekly Bible studies, signing up each month to be “Readers, Greeters, and Treaters.” I see the Church Council continuing its monthly meetings and talking about the business of our little church. I see this congregation beginning a visioning process to discern our future. I see us starting up a class for new members, and this morning I see us baptizing a new person into the Body of Christ. I see the members of the church holding one another up in times of personal difficulty. Don’t tell me we don’t have spirit.
Like every congregation, we have our own needs and troubles, and I see much grace in the way this congregation responds to the personal needs of the congregation. But our spirit does not end there. Wendy Wright continues, “However one defines the gifts of the Spirit, one truth remains: the gifts are not given for individual enrichment or enhancement; they are given to be shared. They are meant to give life to the whole community.”2 Our congregation does not hoard its spiritual gifts -- and yes, we have spiritual gifts! I see our little church reaching out to the community through involvement in Earl’s Place, and through individual contributions to local and worldwide organizations. I see our small congregation participating in all five of our UCC-sponsored special offerings -- something that many larger congregations do not do. We might not be able to give much, but we give!
We give what we can out of our pocketbooks, but we also give of our time and our space. We house several 12-step groups and community organizations here. Several weeks ago we hosted the first meeting of a new partnership between the small UCC churches in Baltimore City. As an Open and Affirming congregation, we hold wide the doors of our sanctuary to all God’s children and offer our hospitality.
Don’t tell me the Holy Spirit isn’t here! I see the Spirit continuing to flow within this congregation, continuing to inspire the members of this church, continuing to breathe within us. I see it on a daily basis.
We do not know what the future of our little church will hold. Biblical scholar Paul Walaskay writes about the Pentecost community that “there can be no doubt...that the creation of the church is God’s creation.”3 There may come a time when this church will feel called by the same God who joined us together as one people, to change, to move in other directions, or even to scatter. But the fact remains that, at this moment, the Holy Spirit is still calling us, moving us, breathing within us, and empowering us to do the work of God, in whatever small or large ways we can. We may not feel very inflamed, or very intoxicated by the raucous Holy Spirit that stirred the souls of those Pentecost revelers. But the Spirit lives within us nonetheless. Every time we feel a determination to work together as the people of God, that is the Spirit’s call. Every time we reach out to God’s children, whether within our congregation or in the wider world, that is the Spirit’s call. Every time we feel inspired to study the word of God, that is the Spirit’s call. In the paraphrased words of a glorious old hymn, “Every time we feel the Spirit, let us pray!”
1. Wendy M. Wright, The Rising: Living the Mysteries of Lent, Easter, and Pentecost (Nashville: Upper Room Books, 1994), p. 178.
2. Ibid., p. 179.
3. Paul W. Walaskay, Acts (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 1998), p. 34.
Acts 2:1-21
Rev. Désirée H. Gold
St. Mark’s United Church of Christ, Baltimore, MD
Sunday, 11 May, 2008
Pentecost Sunday
----
 No one would ever mistake St. Mark’s for a Pentecostal church. When we read the account in Acts of that initial Pentecost, we probably do not see St. Mark’s United Church of Christ reflected there: “Violent winds,” fiery tongues, a plethora of languages being spoken but understood by all. People from many nations gathered in one place. And, of course, the accusation of drunkenness.... countered by Peter’s hilarious response, “these are not drunk, as you suppose, for it is only nine o'clock in the morning!”
With our relatively quiet worship services and our distinction as a “dry church,” it is unlikely that any outsider would accuse our congregation of being drunk. If a violent wind were to blow through the sanctuary on a Sunday morning, it would likely make us uncomfortable rather than spirited, and if “tongues as of fire” were to rest on each one of us, we would really wonder what was going on...and we’d probably call the fire department! To my knowledge, there are no Parthians, Elamites, Cappadocians, or Arabs in this congregation, although a couple of nations are represented by our membership. We do not often see the signs of “blood, fire, and smoky mist” here, and I think we would be frightened if we did.
So, perhaps we are not exactly like that first Pentecost crowd. As always, our scriptures need to be read in their own historical context, and the Pentecost story was written in a time and place very different from our own. That said, our Bible can also have plenty to say to our modern era, and I believe that the Pentecost story remains relevant not only to the general population of modern Christians, but to this very congregation -- as small and as tired as we might sometimes feel.
The fact that we are not so wildly on fire that we have the fire department on speed dial does not mean that we are not without Spirit. In the past year and a half, I have come to see the Holy Spirit alive and well in this church. It may manifest itself more quietly than it did among those first Pentecost revelers. No tongues of fire, no violent winds. But the Spirit that descended upon the Church over two thousand years ago is still alive here! I have seen it.
We struggle. I confess that, even as I assure you that every congregation has its struggles. But as a congregation, we are not without hope. Christian author Wendy Wright comments that “Pentecost celebrates the indwelling of God’s hope in us, incarnate in our world through our lives.”1 Despite the difficulties we face, that spirit of hope has not died here. I see this congregation plugging along, keeping up our lovely sanctuary, holding weekly Bible studies, signing up each month to be “Readers, Greeters, and Treaters.” I see the Church Council continuing its monthly meetings and talking about the business of our little church. I see this congregation beginning a visioning process to discern our future. I see us starting up a class for new members, and this morning I see us baptizing a new person into the Body of Christ. I see the members of the church holding one another up in times of personal difficulty. Don’t tell me we don’t have spirit.
Like every congregation, we have our own needs and troubles, and I see much grace in the way this congregation responds to the personal needs of the congregation. But our spirit does not end there. Wendy Wright continues, “However one defines the gifts of the Spirit, one truth remains: the gifts are not given for individual enrichment or enhancement; they are given to be shared. They are meant to give life to the whole community.”2 Our congregation does not hoard its spiritual gifts -- and yes, we have spiritual gifts! I see our little church reaching out to the community through involvement in Earl’s Place, and through individual contributions to local and worldwide organizations. I see our small congregation participating in all five of our UCC-sponsored special offerings -- something that many larger congregations do not do. We might not be able to give much, but we give!
We give what we can out of our pocketbooks, but we also give of our time and our space. We house several 12-step groups and community organizations here. Several weeks ago we hosted the first meeting of a new partnership between the small UCC churches in Baltimore City. As an Open and Affirming congregation, we hold wide the doors of our sanctuary to all God’s children and offer our hospitality.
Don’t tell me the Holy Spirit isn’t here! I see the Spirit continuing to flow within this congregation, continuing to inspire the members of this church, continuing to breathe within us. I see it on a daily basis.
We do not know what the future of our little church will hold. Biblical scholar Paul Walaskay writes about the Pentecost community that “there can be no doubt...that the creation of the church is God’s creation.”3 There may come a time when this church will feel called by the same God who joined us together as one people, to change, to move in other directions, or even to scatter. But the fact remains that, at this moment, the Holy Spirit is still calling us, moving us, breathing within us, and empowering us to do the work of God, in whatever small or large ways we can. We may not feel very inflamed, or very intoxicated by the raucous Holy Spirit that stirred the souls of those Pentecost revelers. But the Spirit lives within us nonetheless. Every time we feel a determination to work together as the people of God, that is the Spirit’s call. Every time we reach out to God’s children, whether within our congregation or in the wider world, that is the Spirit’s call. Every time we feel inspired to study the word of God, that is the Spirit’s call. In the paraphrased words of a glorious old hymn, “Every time we feel the Spirit, let us pray!”
1. Wendy M. Wright, The Rising: Living the Mysteries of Lent, Easter, and Pentecost (Nashville: Upper Room Books, 1994), p. 178.
2. Ibid., p. 179.
3. Paul W. Walaskay, Acts (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 1998), p. 34.
Tuesday, May 6, 2008
Sermon 05/04/08 (Acts 1:6-14)
“Jesus in the Clouds with Diamonds”
Acts 1:6-14
Rev. Désirée H. Gold
St. Mark’s United Church of Christ, Baltimore, MD
Sunday, 4 May, 2008
Seventh Sunday of Easter
Ascension Sunday
----
 I thought I would never hear the end of it. When we had one of our church dances last year, I made a special request of the DJ and subsequently endured a great amount of teasing, mostly from Ms. Lois Carrigan. I asked the DJ to play the Beatles’ “Octopus’s Garden.” Yes, fine, I’m a Beatles fan. And yes, fine, I was a little girl when I started listening to the Beatles. And yes, my favorite Beatles song was (and still is) “Octopus’s Garden.” It was the perfect song for a little girl. Fun tune, nonsensical words. Whatever the song is really about, the fanciful words and cheerful tune were (and are) enough to set my imagination running.
I made my mother play that and other Beatles songs over and over at the piano, and we would sing together. When I wasn’t standing at the piano with my mom, and when I was taking brief breaks from “Godspell” and “Jesus Christ Superstar,” I would listen to the Beatles ad nauseam on the record player. I especially loved the Abbey Road album, but I knew some of their other albums fairly well too. A certain song off the Sergeant Pepper album comes to mind this morning, both as I ponder my childhood and as I contemplate this morning’s Biblical story of the Ascension of Christ. How do the Beatles and the Ascension of Christ relate, you ask?!
“Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” is the song I have in mind this morning. Yes, I know that the song is supposedly about drugs. However, John Lennon insisted until the day he died that the title of the song did not come from the name for a certain psychedelic drug that he admits to taking during that time period. Instead, the song title was derived from a drawing by his son Julian.
Four-year-old Julian came home from school one day with a picture of his classmate Lucy “against a backdrop of exploding, multi-colored stars.” John asked what the picture was called. “It's Lucy...in the Sky with Diamonds, Daddy,” Julian replied. I found a web site that showed that original picture by four-year-old Julian Lennon, and... it looked a lot like what I imagine the Ascension of Christ did.1
Can you imagine being there? With Jesus’ disciples at his Ascension? First, he was resurrected from a violent death and appeared among those whom he loved, not as a ghost but as a living human once more. Then, after spending some time with them, Christ was, as the scripture tells us, “lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight.” Understandably, the disciples were baffled by another strange happening involving their beloved Christ. They had perhaps just begun to get used to the idea that he was back with them... and then this! No wonder the two men in white robes found them “gazing up to heaven”!
If the Ascension was difficult for Jesus’ first disciples to grasp, it has not been much easier for us. Although the celebration of Jesus’ ascension into heaven has become a holy day in many churches, we still seem to have difficulty understanding what it was or what it meant. I looked through several centuries worth of art on the event, and artists portrayed Christ’s Ascension in various and strange ways. Not surprisingly, one of the strangest interpretations was that of Salvador Dali. While many artists show Jesus being raised up in a standing position, Dali’s Christ is on his back, and his feet are the most prominent body part visible. He is ascending in the midst of a glowing orb while an angelic face awaits him in heaven, with glowing red clouds bursting around him. While Dali’s artistry is obviously better trained and more adult than four-year-old Julian Lennon’s, the spirit of his piece is rather like that in Lennon’s picture of his classmate, “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds.” Dali’s amazing piece does seem to have the spirit of “a backdrop of exploding, multi-colored stars.”
The Ascension of Christ seems like just such an imaginative event. Regardless of what Luke had in mind when he wrote about it, Christ’s Ascension into heaven is one of those stories that triggers my childlike imagination, a little like “Octopus’s Garden” or “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” -- the song -- did for me as a child.
“As they were watching, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight.” Just as I did not know what the Beatles had in mind when they wrote their most fanciful songs, I do not know quite what Luke was talking about. But I do know that this scripture -- more than many others -- sets my imagination running. “It must have been beautiful!” I muse. “I wonder what it would look like!”
When Jesus preached his parables, performed miracles, or even suffered Crucifixion, I could imagine fairly easily what those events would have looked like. ...But the Ascension?! The Ascension is one of those “magical” events that cannot be simply pictured in a Sunday school book or even by a world-renowned artist.
So, what did, and does, the Ascension of Christ mean? What is this fanciful event all about? I am not the only one who has difficulty picturing the event simply. I read several commentaries in preparation for this sermon, and even Biblical commentators, whose vocation it is to study the scriptures in depth, seemed to have difficulty with this particular piece. They could not explain what the Ascension itself meant or may have looked like, and often went on tangents describing the historical period in which the event may have taken place, and the reasons Luke may have had for writing about it here... and the fact that there are few gospel accounts of an Ascension.
One commentator did briefly explain that the Ascension “marks the transition to the period when the apostles, as Christ’s witnesses, function as preachers and teachers on his behalf.”2 The Ascension is a way of “terminating the post-Easter appearances of Christ,” a way of saying that after the event the church would experience Christ in a new way, i.e. through the witness of followers rather than directly through Christ’s own words.3 This idea makes some sense to me -- a pragmatic device that allows for the ministry of the church to begin in a new way. Prior to being raised up, Jesus himself told the disciples that they would “receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses... to the ends of the earth.” In a sense, the Ascension made way for the birth of the Church, which we will celebrate next Sunday on Pentecost. But this explanation does not answer everything. It does not stop my imagination from running to try to picture Jesus “being raised up to heaven.”
Perhaps this is as it should be. While I believe strongly in an accessible faith, I also believe in an imaginative faith -- a faith that does not require Jesus to look just like the Sunday school pictures, that does not require one interpretation of every story. I believe in the kind of faith that allows our childlike imaginations to run free, to picture the Ascension as Julian Lennon pictured his classmate Lucy, or as Salvador Dali pictured the event itself. When our faithful imaginations die, so, often, does our faith.
Now let us pray.
----
1 http://www.snopes.com/music/hidden/lucysky.htm, 3 May, 2008.
2 Fred B. Craddock, John H. Hayes, Carl R. Holladay, and Gene M. Tucker, Preaching Through the Christian Year: Year A (Harrisburg: Trinity Press International, 1992), 283.
3 Ibid.
Acts 1:6-14
Rev. Désirée H. Gold
St. Mark’s United Church of Christ, Baltimore, MD
Sunday, 4 May, 2008
Seventh Sunday of Easter
Ascension Sunday
----
 I thought I would never hear the end of it. When we had one of our church dances last year, I made a special request of the DJ and subsequently endured a great amount of teasing, mostly from Ms. Lois Carrigan. I asked the DJ to play the Beatles’ “Octopus’s Garden.” Yes, fine, I’m a Beatles fan. And yes, fine, I was a little girl when I started listening to the Beatles. And yes, my favorite Beatles song was (and still is) “Octopus’s Garden.” It was the perfect song for a little girl. Fun tune, nonsensical words. Whatever the song is really about, the fanciful words and cheerful tune were (and are) enough to set my imagination running.
I made my mother play that and other Beatles songs over and over at the piano, and we would sing together. When I wasn’t standing at the piano with my mom, and when I was taking brief breaks from “Godspell” and “Jesus Christ Superstar,” I would listen to the Beatles ad nauseam on the record player. I especially loved the Abbey Road album, but I knew some of their other albums fairly well too. A certain song off the Sergeant Pepper album comes to mind this morning, both as I ponder my childhood and as I contemplate this morning’s Biblical story of the Ascension of Christ. How do the Beatles and the Ascension of Christ relate, you ask?!
“Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” is the song I have in mind this morning. Yes, I know that the song is supposedly about drugs. However, John Lennon insisted until the day he died that the title of the song did not come from the name for a certain psychedelic drug that he admits to taking during that time period. Instead, the song title was derived from a drawing by his son Julian.
Four-year-old Julian came home from school one day with a picture of his classmate Lucy “against a backdrop of exploding, multi-colored stars.” John asked what the picture was called. “It's Lucy...in the Sky with Diamonds, Daddy,” Julian replied. I found a web site that showed that original picture by four-year-old Julian Lennon, and... it looked a lot like what I imagine the Ascension of Christ did.1
Can you imagine being there? With Jesus’ disciples at his Ascension? First, he was resurrected from a violent death and appeared among those whom he loved, not as a ghost but as a living human once more. Then, after spending some time with them, Christ was, as the scripture tells us, “lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight.” Understandably, the disciples were baffled by another strange happening involving their beloved Christ. They had perhaps just begun to get used to the idea that he was back with them... and then this! No wonder the two men in white robes found them “gazing up to heaven”!
If the Ascension was difficult for Jesus’ first disciples to grasp, it has not been much easier for us. Although the celebration of Jesus’ ascension into heaven has become a holy day in many churches, we still seem to have difficulty understanding what it was or what it meant. I looked through several centuries worth of art on the event, and artists portrayed Christ’s Ascension in various and strange ways. Not surprisingly, one of the strangest interpretations was that of Salvador Dali. While many artists show Jesus being raised up in a standing position, Dali’s Christ is on his back, and his feet are the most prominent body part visible. He is ascending in the midst of a glowing orb while an angelic face awaits him in heaven, with glowing red clouds bursting around him. While Dali’s artistry is obviously better trained and more adult than four-year-old Julian Lennon’s, the spirit of his piece is rather like that in Lennon’s picture of his classmate, “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds.” Dali’s amazing piece does seem to have the spirit of “a backdrop of exploding, multi-colored stars.”
The Ascension of Christ seems like just such an imaginative event. Regardless of what Luke had in mind when he wrote about it, Christ’s Ascension into heaven is one of those stories that triggers my childlike imagination, a little like “Octopus’s Garden” or “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” -- the song -- did for me as a child.
“As they were watching, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight.” Just as I did not know what the Beatles had in mind when they wrote their most fanciful songs, I do not know quite what Luke was talking about. But I do know that this scripture -- more than many others -- sets my imagination running. “It must have been beautiful!” I muse. “I wonder what it would look like!”
When Jesus preached his parables, performed miracles, or even suffered Crucifixion, I could imagine fairly easily what those events would have looked like. ...But the Ascension?! The Ascension is one of those “magical” events that cannot be simply pictured in a Sunday school book or even by a world-renowned artist.
So, what did, and does, the Ascension of Christ mean? What is this fanciful event all about? I am not the only one who has difficulty picturing the event simply. I read several commentaries in preparation for this sermon, and even Biblical commentators, whose vocation it is to study the scriptures in depth, seemed to have difficulty with this particular piece. They could not explain what the Ascension itself meant or may have looked like, and often went on tangents describing the historical period in which the event may have taken place, and the reasons Luke may have had for writing about it here... and the fact that there are few gospel accounts of an Ascension.
One commentator did briefly explain that the Ascension “marks the transition to the period when the apostles, as Christ’s witnesses, function as preachers and teachers on his behalf.”2 The Ascension is a way of “terminating the post-Easter appearances of Christ,” a way of saying that after the event the church would experience Christ in a new way, i.e. through the witness of followers rather than directly through Christ’s own words.3 This idea makes some sense to me -- a pragmatic device that allows for the ministry of the church to begin in a new way. Prior to being raised up, Jesus himself told the disciples that they would “receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses... to the ends of the earth.” In a sense, the Ascension made way for the birth of the Church, which we will celebrate next Sunday on Pentecost. But this explanation does not answer everything. It does not stop my imagination from running to try to picture Jesus “being raised up to heaven.”
Perhaps this is as it should be. While I believe strongly in an accessible faith, I also believe in an imaginative faith -- a faith that does not require Jesus to look just like the Sunday school pictures, that does not require one interpretation of every story. I believe in the kind of faith that allows our childlike imaginations to run free, to picture the Ascension as Julian Lennon pictured his classmate Lucy, or as Salvador Dali pictured the event itself. When our faithful imaginations die, so, often, does our faith.
Now let us pray.
----
1 http://www.snopes.com/music/hidden/lucysky.htm, 3 May, 2008.
2 Fred B. Craddock, John H. Hayes, Carl R. Holladay, and Gene M. Tucker, Preaching Through the Christian Year: Year A (Harrisburg: Trinity Press International, 1992), 283.
3 Ibid.
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