Sermon Audio:

Today, on the Feast of Pentecost, we celebrate the outpouring of the Holy Spirit as the early church sought to spread its welcome throughout the known world, receiving the gift of understanding languages and accepting cultural, ethnic and social distinctions.  The Christian community ceased being a small, radical sect of the Jewish establishment and began its journey toward becoming a worldwide community of faith, open to all, a mission reflected in Christ’s choice of text from the prophet Isaiah for his first sermon:

‘The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to bring good tidings to the afflicted; he has sent me to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound; to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord…”

Christ rolled up the scroll and told his audience, “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”   St.Martin’s is a direct descendant of that first Christian congregation.

In our current period of self-examination and discernment, as we celebrate our immediate past and look forward to a faith and hope filled future, each of us can help with our prayers, our thoughts and our participation in the search process. 

Pentecost is all about breaking down the barriers in our communications within and beyond our Christian community.  Think if you will of an occasion in your own life upon which your ability to communicate with another broke down completely.  Let me share one of mine. 

When I first came to New York to work for Sotheby’s auction house at the age of 23 in 1964, our office was in the Steuben Glass Building on Fifth Avenue at 56th Street, one of the most expensive locations in the entire world.

On my first day, I asked a colleague where I might find a reasonably-priced lunch.  To my surprise she immediately suggested Henry Halper’s Drug Store round the corner on 54th Street.  I had not expected to eat lunch in a chemist’s shop.  After losing several battles to find a vacant stool due to my ingrained politesse and pursuit of the principle of “women and children first,” I finally secured a perch where I sat waiting for a short order counter assistant, who approached me, swiped the counter with an evil-looking wet cloth , slammed a glass of water in front of me and yelled the apparently single word ‘Wachawantmac’ directly at me. My diffident response, “I was hoping for a bit of lunch” was clearly not in his collection of acceptable responses and he abandoned our exchange, heading to a regular customer several stools away who evidently was proficient in “Dinerspeak.”  I crept back to the office and shared my failure with my colleague, who insisted that I make a second attempt the next day, armed with a suggested response to my tormentor’s question.  “Just say: BLT down, heavy on the mayo.”  This worked like a charm and I ate a bacon, lettuce and tomato sandwich on white toast with extra mayonnaise every workday for the next six months, becoming a valued member of Henry Halper’s lunch club in what might be described as a New York version of the Feeding of the Five Thousand.

Prior to Pentecost the first Christians, still mourning the loss of their leader, were gathered in a locked upper room, when Our Lord appeared to them and offered three statements:

‘Peace be with you.

As the Father has sent me, so I send you.

Receive the Holy Spirit.’

Some two thousand years later, we pray for that peace within our own community and throughout the world.  We share the commission to be peacemakers.

We have been called by God to share the good news of our salvation by working to bring others to our table.

We need to live our lives as those who are enabled by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit within us.  We operate under the guidance of that same Spirit, the spirit that inspired the prophet Micah, who told his listeners to “Do justice, love mercy and walk humbly with your God.”

“How can we begin to achieve any of this with the world in its current state?” you might ask.

I am reminded of my favorite 14th Century female mystic, Julian of Norwich, who lived in a period that included the loss of 50% of the population through the Black Death, the One Hundred Years War with France and the Peasants Rebellion, and told her fellow Christians,

“All shall be well and all manner of thing shall be well.”

The search process requires our participation in order to create an accurate profile for the encouragement and enlightenment of candidates for our next Rector, one who feels called to lead us by the spirit that descended upon that diverse group, one who speaks our language, feels our needs and calls each of us by name.  So, we share our excitement as we start our journey walking with Christ on our own road to Emmaus.   May we feel our hearts burning within us as He talks to us on the road.  

In ending, as we are reminded to listen to our own indwelling by the Holy Spirit, I invite you to join me in praying the prayer attributed to St. Francis, which you will find on page 833 of your red prayer books:

Lord, make us instruments of your peace. Where there is hatred, let us sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is discord, union; where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; where there is sadness, joy.  Grant that we may not so much seek to be consoled as to console; to be understood as to understand; to be loved as to love.  For it is in giving that we receive; it is in pardoning that we are pardoned; and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.  Amen