Eighth Sunday of Easter/Pentecost ~ The Doors - Light My Fire

Well, here we are on the final day of the Easter season. This is the day that Jesus had foretold when the Holy Spirit would come upon his followers. And for those who were there that day on the first Christian Pentecost (for it was already a Jewish festival at the time), it must have been quite a confusing experience. They knew that Jesus had promised them something, but they were not quite prepared for what actually took place. They were again gathered together, as had become their custom, when the wind began to blow and what looked like tongues of fire came upon each of them. And then they were able to understand each other speaking, regardless of the language actually spoken (Babel undone, see Genesis 11.1-9). Language ceases to be a barrier to the mission that Christ has left to them. Through the Spirit, there is nothing that cannot be accomplished in the mission of Christ.

As I started this season with an irreverent take on the resurrection (see Chumbawumba on the Easter Sunday post), I decided to end with a slightly irreverent take on Pentecost. As we think about what is happening in the Pentecost story, we can imagine the disciples singing this song to the Holy Spirit - "Come on, baby, light my fire." The disciples would certainly have been lying if they had thought that they could not get much higher. But Jesus had promised them that they would do even greater things than he had accomplished.

Of course, the jury is still out on that one, though there are certainly signs that the big-C "Church," the universal church of which all Christians are a part, is finally beginning to remember what it means to be the Church. The Holy Spirit is still at work within us and we are finally starting to pay heed to the mission that Christ left us. That mission is not about building membership, but building disciples. It is not about those who are within, but those who are outside. It is not about serving those who are well, but those who are sick. It is not about finding those who are already here, but those who are lost.

Come on, Spirit, light our fire!

The Ascension ~ Ben Harper - Amen, Omen

In the liturgical calendar, the Ascension falls forty days after Easter Sunday. Technically, that means it always falls on a Thursday, but many Protestant churches that celebrate the Ascension move it to the Sunday immediately following. Whenever it is celebrated, this is the day that we focus on Jesus' being taken up to heaven after spending some further time with disciples following the Resurrection. In some ways, the theme for the day is always about goodbyes - Jesus really is leaving this time. He has made a promise to send another, but the one whom the disciples have known, have traveled with and shared meals with, the one they call Teacher, is leaving.

This is quite a bittersweet moment for the disciples. On the one hand, this plays into the imagery of the prophets of God being taken bodily to heaven rather than dying. It is yet one more confirmation of who Jesus is and the truth of the things that he taught. On the other hand, Jesus is leaving (again) and giving the disciples a mission to carry forth in his name.

This last point is of interest as we consider the words of the angels as written by Luke in the book of Acts. As Jesus goes up into heaven, the disciples basically stand there watching. I'm sure their mouths were hanging open in disbelief as they continued to be amazed by this one that they had followed. Two angels appear and ask, "Men of Galilee, why do you stand here looking up to heaven?" I think this is a reminder, in some ways, of the Transfiguration. At that time, the disciples who had traveled to the mountain top with Jesus wanted to stay there worshiping him instead of returning to the valley below. In the same way, the disciples stood staring, still thinking that Jesus himself is the point of all they have learned. The words of the angels come as a gentle reminder that the point of everything that Jesus had taught was to care for those in need, to feed the hungry and heal the sick - not to stand around staring up at heaven to see what is going to happen next.

I think that this song by Ben Harper really gets at what the disciples must have been feeling as they stood there that day watching Jesus go up to heaven. In some ways, the first verse includes words that could easily have been used by the disciples - "I don't know where you came from and I don't know where you've gone." This describes some accounts of the disciples to a T as they are regularly said to never truly understand what it is that Jesus is about.

The song's refrain in particular, speaks to the renewed sense of loss the disciples must be feeling as they watch Jesus go away. "Amen, Omen, Will I see your face again? Amen, Omen, Can I find the place within to live my life without you?" The disciples are still looking at this as goodbye, forgetting the promises of the other to come, the Holy Spirit, the Advocate.

But we can even find a reference to the coming Spirit in the song as he sings in the final verse, "I put your world into my veins." This is a pretty good description of how the Spirit comes into us to strengthen us. As we receive the Holy Spirit, it is like putting Jesus' world into our veins.

Sixth Sunday of Easter ~ Carl Thomas Gladstone - Mother Jesus

On the sixth Sunday of Easter, we focus on Christ's gift of peace to the disciples. What does it mean to have peace? Is it the absence of war, the absence of disagreements, where everyone is treated exactly the same and there are no recognizable differences? There have certainly been those who have sought peace of this kind throughout history. Ironically enough, they have also often thought that waging war was the way to get there: Peace through superior firepower, as the saying goes.

But is that really peace? Is that what Jesus meant? It seems that the peace he is referring to is something different. After all, we know from the writings following the gospels that the followers of Jesus did not have it easy. I think that our clue here is that Jesus promised peace, not safety. There is peace in knowing that one is working for a good cause. There is peace in meeting the needs of others. There is peace in saying no to violence, even in the face of death. There is peace in finding a way to live without having to destroy the livelihood of others.

This week's song has multiple layers of meaning for us. April and I began dating while we were taking a medieval female mystics class together. One of the last mystics we read that term was Julian of Norwich. She was an English anchorite attached to the church at Norwich. One of her visions was of the world the size of a hazelnut being held in the palm of Christ. She also had a tendency to use female images when speaking of Jesus, hence the title "Mother Jesus." And she is the namesake of our son.

The words of this song come out of her poetry. They have been set to music by a friend that we went to seminary with; we asked him to sing this song at our wedding. I can't think of a better way to think of peace than to remember these words - "All shall be well and all shall be well and all manner of thing shall be well."

Fifth Sunday of Easter ~ Indigo Girls - Love Will Come to You

Well our theme for the fifth Sunday of Easter was Jesus' promise of the Holy Spirit. As Jesus is preparing to leave, not only does he promise to always be with us, but he promises to send us an advocate. This advocate, the Holy Spirit, will come to us to strengthen us that we may continue the work that Christ began.

For this theme, I turn again to the Indigo Girls. Though I myself am a fan of the Indigo Girls, I must confess that the songs that appear both in my previous list for Lent as well as this song come courtesy of April. Whenever I get stuck finding a song to go with a particular theme, I know that I can turn to April, give her the theme and any ideas I have, and she can name an Indigo Girls song to go with it. She actually had two songs for this theme, but I settled on this one.

This song speaks to me of loss and the comfort offered by another. It speaks of the promise of love and the multiplication of that love. If we look back in Christian theology, we can find references to the Holy Spirit as the personification of the love between the other two persons of the Trinity. In fact, the Holy Spirit has even been referred to as the kiss shared by the Father and the Son. At any rate, this love spills over to humanity, that we may know something of that divine love and therefore share that love with others.

When Jesus is promising the coming Spirit, he is speaking to the divine love that will be shared with all of his followers. This divine love is still present and at work in the world, inviting and embracing, teaching us how to be with one another. Love truly does make the world go around!

Third Sunday of Easter ~ Edie Brickell & New Bohemians - Love Like We Do

So, I recognize I have gotten a little behind here. My apologies to those of you who actually pay attention to what we do here. The last couple of weeks have been crazy. Two weeks ago, I put April and JB on a plane first thing in the morning and then preached at UCRP. Two days later, I got on a plane myself to fly to New Orleans. Got back last Sunday late in the evening and then had interviews at the seminary most of the week. But anyway, that's not why you are here.

On the third Sunday of Easter, the focus is on Jesus appearing to his disciples. This year, we read about Jesus appearing to Saul/Paul in Acts and then we read a story of Jesus appearing to some of the disciples while they are fishing in the Gospel of John. There are two great pieces to the story in John. First, we have Peter getting so excited when he sees Jesus, that he actually pauses to pull his clothes on before jumping into the sea. Though there had been rumors that Jesus had appeared to others (such as Mary Magdalene and the two from Emmaus), Peter becomes so flustered that he can't think straight. Instead of immediately jumping into the water to swim to shore, or disrobing as many would do so as not to get their clothes wet, he actually re-dresses before jumping in.

The second great thing here is the conversation between Jesus and Peter after they have eaten. Jesus asks Peter three times if he loves him and when Peter responds each time that he does, Jesus tells him to care for his sheep. To express his love to Christ, he has to care for others, to continue the ministry that Jesus had begun. This same thing holds as true for us today as it did for Peter nearly 2,000 years ago.

Turning to our song for the week, I am tempted just to post the full lyrics here. At any rate, the song begins with a recognition that life is now better than the days just left behind. That could be something of understatement, from either point of view in our Gospel story. The second line is just as profound - "What's mine is yours and what's yours is mine." This speaks directly to both our inheritance in Christ and our call to continue his mission. Through Christ, with Christ, in Christ, "any time...is good enough when we love like we do".

Full lyrics:
Love Like We Do
music and lyrics by Edie Brickell
(from the album Shooting Rubber Bands at the Stars)

Life is better than the days behind
What's mine is yours and what's yours is mine
No aggravation that we can't get through
A situation for the lucky few

And everyday is just a little more
Of time together to be happy for
I'm happy even when the times are rough
'cause anytime with you is good enough
when we
Love like we do

I don't believe in hatred anymore
I hate to think of how I felt before
When anger overwhelms your very soul
It's hard to realize you'll ever know
Love like we do

Songs for the Journey: Season after Pentecost

As I mentioned briefly the other day, we have now entered into Ordinary Time in the Church year. This time exists outside of the special seasons and consists of counted Sundays during which we read through the bulk of the year's gospel. Of course, at times, having long periods of Ordinary Time can begin to feel rather "ordinary." Some Protestant churches in particular decided to create some seasons to break up what they saw as the monotony of the Ordinary.

The period between the Epiphany and Ash Wednesday became know as Sundays after Epiphany and sometimes the season of Epiphany. This whole period was given over to the showing forth or revelation of Jesus to the world. The period from Pentecost Sunday until late august was know as the Sundays after Pentecost or sometimes the season of Pentecost. This period focuses on the ministry of the Church empowered by the Holy Spirit. The period from the last Sunday of August until Advent begins was know as Kingdomtide. This time during the Church year focused on the principles of the Kingdom of God here on earth and our social responsibility. For the most part, these separate "seasons" fell out of practice after Vatican II and the adoption of the Revised Common Lectionary (though there has been some reclamation of Kingdomtide in recent years).

Since I was looking for an easy way to break up Ordinary Time to continue my Songs for the Journey series, I decided to use the alternate calendar, which I was able to find in a 1964 Methodist Book of Worship. However, unlike my list for Lent, I did not match the songs for Pentecost to specific Sundays. Instead, I came up with a number of songs that speak to the theme for the season that gradually move towards the themes of Kingdomtide.

Trinity Sunday
Ben Harper - Blessed to Be a Witness
Dar Williams - I Had No Right
Sweet Honey in the Rock - We Are the Ones
Stereo MCs - Connected
Depeche Mode - People Are People
Bob Marley - Redemption Song
Collective Soul - Shine
Tracy Chapman - Change
U2 - Grace
Indigo Girls - Hammer and Nail
Ben Harper - With My Own Two Hands
Tears for Fears - Sowing the Seeds of Love
Jack Johnson - The Sharing Song
Vienna Tang - Soon Love Soon

I'll run through these with you in the coming weeks. Until then, Peace.

Songs for the Journey: Trinity Sunday

I decided to do my best to return to the Songs for the Journey series I began during Lent. Unfortunately, I was unable to prepare anything for the Easter season, but now that we have returned to Ordinary Time, I feel like I can again talk about the songs that speak to me along the way.

While the Church year is divided into several special seasons (Advent, Christmas, Lent and Easter), the bulk of the year is given over to Ordinary Time. Now this does not mean "ordinary" the way we typically understand it. Rather, the word ordinary comes from the word ordinal, meaning numbered or counted. (Ironically our current understanding of the word "ordinary" comes from peoples' experience of Ordinary Time in the Church.) So Ordinary Time begins with the first Sunday following the Epiphany until the Sunday before Ash Wednesday, then the counting picks up again the Sunday after Pentecost going through the Sunday before Advent begins. Included in this time of the year are numerous feasts and holy days. In particular, the Sundays immediately following and preceding the other seasons are Baptism of Christ (First Sunday of Ordinary Time), Transfiguration Sunday (Sunday before Ash Wednesday), Trinity Sunday (First Sunday after Pentecost), and Reign of Christ Sunday (Final Sunday of Ordinary Time).

On Trinity Sunday, we celebrate the fullness of the Trinity - Father, Son and Holy Spirit. This understanding of God is meant to be relational and not prescriptive. In other words, the reference to the Father and the Son is about their relationship to one another and not a reference to gender or inherent maleness. In the Revised Common Lectionary this year the gospel reading is of the "Great Commission" from Matthew. In this text, we hear again about Jesus final appearance to the disciples before the Ascension, his return to heaven. He tells them to "go forth and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you" (Matthew 28.19-20b).

Now, this text has been horribly misused in the past to justify everything from holy war to forced baptism. But if we ourselves are truly following all that Jesus has taught and commanded us, how can we show others anything but love? We have been blessed by our relationship with Christ. If we want others to become followers of all that Christ taught, we must meet them where they are with the same open arms that Jesus greeted others, not by grabbing them but by loving them. Teaching them to love others the way that Christ loves others is the key. This is what it means to be a disciple of Christ.

The first song that came to mind when I read this passage was Blessed to Be a Witness by Ben Harper. Over and over in this song, Ben repeats how blessed he is. He ends with how he is blessed to be a witness(to the things he has seen and experienced). And I realize that I, too, have been blessed. I don't always think about all the ways in which I have been blessed in my life, but this song makes me slow down and think of that. When I think about the ways that I am blessed in my relationships with others, when I think about the ways love changes the world around me, I know that I am also blessed to be a witness - a witness to the love and grace that God in Christ has offered to me.

Glory to the holy and blessed Trinity, one God, now and forever!