We have church seasons… like for example, today is
Pentecost. This is the day we remember
and commemorate what we can theologically call the birthday of the “church”. This was the part in the story where the pre-mentioned
Holy Spirit comes to each of the disciples.
And after a time of fear and anxiety, they begin to praise God in
various languages. And the visitors to and residents of Jerusalem
– where the disciples were at the time this happened – were able to hear them
speaking in the various languages represented there. How could this be? Oh, they’re drunk!- says one (still doesn’t
explain how a drunk person can speak another language).
But then Peter explains:
As the prophet Joel says – these are the last days… and God’s Spirit
is being poured out. Young people will
prophesy, some will see visions, and others will dream dreams, and the face of the
earth will change. Wonders and signs will
appear on earth and the heavens, and all will know that the days are
coming. “But everyone who calls on the
name of the Lord will be saved.”
These celebration days are related to life. As are the seasons of the church year. These different seasons reflect the different
seasons of a person’s life; Lent is often a time of introspection, of quiet
processing of what is going on. Easter
on the other hand is a time of joyous exuberance. Each of us has had various times of
introspection and exuberance. Like a “person”,
the church has different “times” on the spectrum of life – different stages of
life.
Yet we- modern American suburbanites – are often disconnected
from seasons that our ancestors were very connected to. Now, we DO have TV seasons, and Sports
season that may have more of an impact on us and our lives than the solar
seasons/cycles and the agricultural seasons/cycles.
That there is a drought… doesn’t necessarily change how we
live. But “March Madness” can alter
some marriages!
That it’s winter… doesn’t necessarily change our work
schedule. But BOY, people don’t miss
their favorite TV shows – especially the season finales of shows like “Friends”….
Or cough Walking Dead cough.
That farmers may need to harvest crops… doesn’t necessarily change
our social relationships. But if you’ve
got a season pass to the Orioles or Maryland or Penn State games, BY GOLLY you’re
gonna be there! Ain’t nothin’ gonna get
in the way of that!
Solar season – winter, spring, etc… Agricultural seasons – harvesting,
sowing, hunting (not an agricultural season but certainly part of our ancestors
lives) gathering…
To our ancestors, THESE were the important seasons!
These seasons told them how
they would live…
These seasons told them
on what they would live
These seasons told them
whether they had to move or not.
We still have these seasons in our lives. Now they may be nice and all… but they don’t
have anywhere near as much of a personal impact on us as they did on our early
ancestors.
Now- I don’t mean we don’t notice these seasons! My favorite season is Spring. I love that new life is coming back alive
again after the coma of winter. And yet… my life isn’t really changed in the
grand scheme when spring arrives.
Pick your favorite season – for us, our work schedules are for
the most part unchanged, we still drive the same paths to and from work, the
mall is still in the same place – and open for business- we can still go there
anytime we want.
For our ancestors – for millennia – as the seasons changed, some
doors opened and some doors closed. For our ancestors life changed much more
substantially from season to season than it does for us.
But we still recognize the changes of the solar and agricultural
seasons. Why? We have “Harvest Festivals”. Sounds pretty rustic and quaint doesn’t it? Harvest Festival. Yet there’s something more to it… it certainly does resonate with something in
us.
But we’re suburbanites.
We have SUV’s. We don’t have to
survive on what we harvest. We can go to
the store to get whatever we want any time of any day of any season of any
year. And yet… Harvest Festivals.
When was the last time you had to grow your own food to survive?
When was the last time you had to kill your own food to survive?
Our ancestors were much more keenly aware that for them to
survive something else had to die. When you live like that, it sort of makes it
a little harder to just shove food into our pile-holes without a sense of
profound gratitude for the meals we eat.
A few years back, during a prayer in the Fellowship Hall, in the
prayer, I mentioned that we were grateful for the food we had because we recognize
that in order for us to live, something has to die. And someone came to me and jokingly said
they would never see meatloaf the same way again. I
hope not.
You know what though? That
which I mentioned about our ancestors… it’s still true for us! Only we’ve forgotten.
Q: Where does a Hamburger
come from?
A (from Modern America):
The store of course!
After we open the can, after we open the package… before we eat –
do we remember that some life was sacrificed for our sake?
But, alas, we can get the same things at the store no matter the
season of the year. This, ladies and
gentlemen (all five of you reading this) is the miracle of non-perishable! Foods…
…And yet we celebrate
our solar seasons
We still reflect
what it means to be human through our liturgical seasons
We still say
grace before we eat.
Why?
Because something resonates deep within us – something we may
not even be conscious of… something ancient.
It’s the same thing that our ancestors felt. Granted in us, that echo is covered up with the
amenities and appliances of modern living… but it’s still the same spark that
animated the hearts and minds of the disciples. It’s still the spark of God.
Today is Pentecost. We
celebrate and remember another aspect to the sacred story… the spark of
God.
That fire… that animates… that enlivens.
That Spirit that compels us, that propels us
No matter that
we live in a modern age
No matter than
we can buy food at the store in any season.
It’s the same spark that gave life to our ancestors!
I heard a story from someone in our Home Sacred Space group
about some monkeys in some sort of enclosure.
It could have been some zoo or something like this. These monkeys had never known freedom – they’d
all been raised in one enclosure or another.
At one point the people who ran this zoo (again- not sure if it
was a zoo or some other form of animal enclosure space) decided they would get
a recording of the very same monkeys- but ones that lived in the wild. So they did, and set up some speakers either
near or in the monkey enclosure, and pushed the play button.
When they heard these sound… they recognized them… but something
was different. The captive monkeys went
quiet for the longest time. Then they
began to act differently, to behave differently. Perhaps they felt different.
They’d never been wild themselves, and they’d never heard their
wild and free cousins at all… until that day.
But the sounds resonated in some long forgotten place in them. I dare say it was an ancient place.
We don’t know when Jesus was born, but we celebrate his birth on
December 24th. In the Northern hemisphere at least, we’ve just
passed the shortest day of the year and the days get longer after this. Light is in the world longer and longer after
the 21st of December. Light
that is important to life… and faith.
You both are getting confirmed this morning (Christopher Platt
and Madeline May). Whatever faith you
have today… to whatever degree you have faith today…
…be open to that echo of the ancient. Listen for it. Let it resonate in you when you hear it.
You all (the rest of the community gathered) come to church each
week. You don’t have to. There are a whole lot of other things we
could all be doing… like sleeping, or whatever.
But you still choose to come.
Maybe something happens here – in this place at this time – that
doesn’t happen as often or as strongly in other areas of our lives.
This isn’t perfect.
Sunday morning aren’t perfect. Religion
isn’t perfect. Official theology doesn’t explain it
all. Official theology may leave lots
of unanswered questions. It may lead to
even more questions still.
It’s not about being perfect!
It’s not about answering all the deeper questions!
It’s about seeking the deeper echoes of our souls
It’s about following the seasons of life that our modern lives
can’t see as clearly.
And… it’s about recognizing in these seasons the sacred flow…
the sacred rhythm…. And letting it help us touch the divine somehow.
We’re born, we grow we experience life we
share with others, our circles grow we
experience losses we also learn expressions
of love we deepen our understanding of
life and we die. All these are parts of a grand cycle filled
with sacred seasons within it.
Pentecost is part of this.
There IS an energy there. And we DO feel it. And
we remember. And it helps us live. And we honor life and the divine Creator of life!
Pr. C-
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