Several years ago I penned an article which appeared in The Charlotte Observer that was titled July 4th: A Dangerous Day for Christians. How shall I put it? Let’s just say not everyone appreciated the brilliance, the astuteness, the intelligence that went into that article. A few “no longer here Wedgewoodians”, in fact, didn’t care much for it. One of whom, a VFW, a veteran of a foreign war, one VFW scheduled a time to sit down with his pastor and have a little chat. It was after that chat that I got the gun detectors installed at the entrance of my office. Just kidding. Actually, our chat was rather pleasant. He left thinking my left thinking was wrong and I left thinking his right thinking was incorrect,------but our parting was pleasant.
I still believe more than ever that July 4th is a dangerous day for Christians. But since that lovely chat with the VFW I’ve also come to the conclusion there’s another date on the calendar about which we Christians should be concerned. Actually, this date is on the Christian calendar, unlike July 4th which is on the secular calendar. In fact, this dangerous day is today, the day of Pentecost, the day some have called the birthday of the Church.
What, pray tell, is so dangerous about Pentecost? Why should we be the least bit concerned about a little birthday party, a few balloons and streamers and some cake and ice cream for the steeples? Isn’t it a bit far-fetched to call Pentecost dangerous?
When you read the Biblical account of Pentecost it comes across as a tad bit scary, terrifying, frightening, even spooky, but not really dangerous. The sound of a mighty wind. The appearance of tongues of fire resting on people. Individuals speaking in other languages without having any foreign language training in that particular language. To be sure, we’re not talking Poltergeist or Rosemary’s Baby or The Blair Witch Project or The Exorcist or The Omen or Psycho or The Night of the Living Dead, but Pentecost is scary at least for us non-Pentecostal Baptists. If something like Pentecost happened at Wedgewood, why we would call 911 to get the police to haul the Christians off to the nearest mental ward, but I don’t think we would feel our lives were in danger. All of it would be scary in terms of strange, weird, odd, bizarre, and wacky, but not scary in terms of dangerous. Just write Pentecost off as another example of misguided religious fruitcakes, but no need to hire a body guard.
On Pentecost no one dies, no one is injured, no one is hurt, no one is attacked. The mighty wind is from heaven; it’s not a tornado. The tongues of fire don’t burn anyone. And a little foreign language, contrary to the opinion of middle schoolers and high schoolers, a little foreign language never hurt anyone.
Personally, I think the Thai painting of Pentecost I have reproduced in today’s bulletin is a bit over done. Take a peek at the painting right now.
That fire looks like it’s getting out of hand, doesn’t it? It’s about time to call in Smokey the Bear, don’t you think? It looks like the fire I had going at last year’s youth camping trip, the fire for which I got scolded repeatedly. It looks like the fire that last year came out of my outdoor grill because----because I hadn’t emptied the grease pan in the last decade.
Yes, fire can be dangerous. But reading Acts you just don’t get the sense anybody had their cell phone out to call for help, but the danger I have in mind is another matter altogether.
Permit me to explain. Pentecost is dangerous because some Christians, perhaps most, take Pentecost to be about the Church. I confess I am one of the individuals who has said Pentecost is the birthday of the Church. If I ever say that again, though, you have permission to whip me forty times with a wet noodle. The dangerous thing about Pentecost is this: if Pentecost is seen as the Church’s birthday that sets the Church up to think the Church is the point. But that is where the Church misses the point. The Church is not the point; the world is.
Underline this: Pentecost is a very dangerous day because Christians have wrongly concluded God’s desire is the building up of the steeples.
Highlight this with your yellow highlighter: the Church’s goal has been to get people into the church rather than getting the church into the world. The Church has wrongly tried to get the world to love the church instead of seeing the Church’s job as telling the world about God’s love, instead of seeing the church’s job as loving the world as God loved the world.
Put this in your pile to memorize: a church that thinks it is the point can be very dangerous for the world and for the people in the steeples. If the be all and the end all is the Church, then you can end up treating the world and people inside and outside the church in some very non-loving ways.
I’m convinced the Church has wrongly become the focus of churches. If you doubt that assertion, look at the budgets of churches, review the minutes of their congregational meetings, and then come chat with me. Churches may talk a lot about missions but----when it comes right down to it most churches are focused on the church.
I almost decided to include in this sermon a reading of the minutes of our last five congregational meetings. I almost did that, but I couldn’t bring myself to do it.
To argue with myself, Wedgewood more than most churches is a wonderful steward of its buildings. We house a Korean church and the Baptist Peace Fellowship. This summer we are housing a group called Democracy North Carolina. Two AA groups meet here along with several other support groups. So the stuff we do for the buildings, the money we give for the roof, why yes, it is a way of loving the world. And yet, on this day of Pentecost 2003 I wonder about the new ways this congregation is going to love the world. I dream about, fantasize about, what we do here on Sunday being so meaningful and so powerful that people of faith are inspired and motivated and empowered to love the world in amazing ways.
You know, we have people at Wedgewood who love the world by volunteering at TimeOut Youth, a place of support for gay and lesbian youth. We have Wedgewoodians who love the world by serving on the board of RAIN, Regional AIDS Interfaith Network. We have in this fellowship people who love the world by teaching the way of peace. We have among us Christians who love the world by helping with the Community Culinary School of Charlotte to help the poor train for jobs that pay a living wage. And there are other examples of how Wedgewoodians are loving the world, but what I am praying about on this Pentecost Day is that more and more Wedgewoodians will love the world in more and more ways. I’m hoping with all my hope, thinking with all my thinking capacity, dreaming with all my dreaming potential, that Wedgewood will never see itself as the point, but will always see loving the world as the reason for our existence.
If you need a text, I’d like to suggest the 4th chapter of John’s gospel. I love this passage.
For one thing, I love the way it begins. It says Jesus is alone with a Samaritan woman because---because the disciples, Peter and John and James and the rest, have gone to the grocery store. They’ve gone shopping at Food Lion or Harris Teeter or Bi-Lo. Can’t you just see the 12 going up and down the aisles of a grocery store? I can hear them now. Let’s buy some steaks. No, let’s buy some hamburger. No, I’d prefer some turkey. No, chicken. No, the other white meat, pork. I’m sure there was a food debate. And I don’t even want to take a stab at the veggie debate. Imagine, imagine getting 12 people, 12 Christians, 12 disciples to agree on a menu.
No wonder Jesus had so much time to chat with the Samaritan woman. And quite a chat it turned out to be.
Now I’m not trying to be cute or to put something in the text that is not there, but according to Amy-Jill Levine, a Jewish New Testament professor who teaches at Vanderbilt, according to Dr. Levine this exchange between Jesus and the Samaritan woman is highly romanticized and sensual. Get the cobwebs out of your brain and ears. That’s exactly what I said, romanticized and sensual.
Levine points out that in ancient times the place to meet, the place to spark and fuel the romantic fire, was a well. Ever notice in the Bible how many marriages get arranged, how many relationships get started around wells? It was the place to get a drink, of water that is, (you have to say that for liberal Baptists)---it was the place to get a drink of water and to find the love of your life.
So Jesus and a Samaritan woman are at a well alone. That’s the first thing to note.
The second thing to scribble on your notepad, as Levine points out, is that sexual euphemisms are included in the narrative. A euphemism is an expression substituted for another expression that may offend. You say one thing, but everyone knows you are saying something else. It is coded language. In this case, we are dealing with wells, cisterns, fountains, and the phrase “living waters”, all of which have to do with females and their sexuality.
If you want to do some research, go to Proverbs 5, Song of Solomon 4, and yes, Jeremiah 2. Even old Jeremiah knew a thing or two.
Anyway, they are at a well, Jesus and this woman. They toss around the phrase “living water”. Jesus gets the Samaritan woman to admit she has had five husbands and that the man she currently is living with is not her husband. And immediately, instantaneously, the topic of conversation turns from sex to theology. Wow, that’s a jump. In a split second it goes from sex to theology, and very important theology at that, theology that should be especially instructive for the Church on this day of Pentecost.
The theological conversation goes like this. The Samaritan woman points out her ancestors worshipped on Mt. Gerizim. In opposition to her ancestors, in opposition to her, she points out that Jesus believes Jerusalem is place to worship God. Now hear Jesus’ response, “The day is coming when you will worship God neither on this mountain or in Jerusalem. . .The hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth.” Which is to say, Mt. Gerizim is not the point. The Samaritans are not the point. Israel is not the point. Jerusalem is not the point. The temple is not the point. Jews are not the point. The point is the world.
Much has been made about Jews being God’s chosen people. In one and only one sense, Jews are God’s chosen people. Unfortunately, their chosenness has been grossly misunderstood. Their chosenness has nothing whatsoever to do with God loving them more, nothing whatsoever with them being special or God’s favorites. No, Jews are chosen only in the sense that they were chosen for a job and that job is the same job the Church has today: the job of telling the world about God’s love, the job of loving the world as God loves the world.
Don’t take my word on this. Take the prophet Amos’ word. In Amos 9:7, God says, “Are you not like the Ethiopians to me, O people of Israel? Did I not bring up Israel from the land of Egypt? Everyone shakes their heads, yes. Yes, you did God. Then there is the shocker. And did I not bring up the Philistines from Caphtor and the Syrians form Kir?” In other words, Israel you aren’t special in the way you think you are. What I did for you I did for your enemies, the Philistines and the Syrians. What I did for you I did for the Ethiopians.
What I’m saying about Israel is also true of the Church. If we are chosen at all, it is for a job. Nothing more, nothing less. God loves the Islamic mosque as much as God loves the Church. God loves the Buddhist temple as much as God loves the steeples. God loves the Jewish temple as much as God loves the place where Christians worship and study scripture and eat meals together.
Pentecost. Maybe an analogy will help. Do you remember when you were growing up and you were old enough to start doing chores around the house? And do you remember your mom or your father calling out your name and you knew they were calling out your name because they had a job for you to do? And do you remember how they not only gave you the job to do, but they also gave you the stuff you needed to get the job done: kitchen cleaner, rags, keys to the car to go fetch something, a shovel or hedge clippers or paper towels and Windex or the gas can and the lawnmower or a mop and Mr. Clean floor cleaner?
Pentecost is----Pentecost is God calling our names out to do a job. Pentecost is God giving us what we need to get the job done.
Today is Pentecost. It would be wonderful if this day were the Church’s birthday. I mean, gifts and cake and ice cream, why a party would be magnificent. But today is not a birthday party.
I know we are busy with our lives: jobs, children, elderly parents, houses to maintain, yards to mow, cars to get serviced, groceries to be bought, bills to be paid, sermons to be memorized, Pastor’s birthday present to be bought. Yes, we are busy. But the world desperately needs to be loved. Yes, we are busy, but church is vitally important. It is important that you be here not because the church is the point. It is important you be here this Sunday and every Sunday because it is here that we are empowered to love the world as God loves the world.
On this Pentecost 2003 I challenge us to love the world. Any takers?
Print in pdf