I feel like
it was just Easter, but fifty days have past which brings us to this day, a
call it the best kept secret of the church.
Christmas and Easter are the big days in the life of the church, but so
should be Pentecost. Pentecost, the
outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon God’s people. God at work in the world, God’s breathe
stirring life into God’s people. Wind,
breathe, Spirit, and a sacred connection.
In Easter, we celebrate life over death, we celebrate God’s yes in the
face of the world’s no. Pentecost
continues the story, continues the message of the resurrection, continues the
story of life returning to places that can speak of death.
I am going to put you all on the
spot today. How many of you want to make
a difference in the world? Raise your
hand. How many of you actually feel like
in some way, either large or small, you are actually making a difference in the
world today? There is a movement in our
greater society to seek ways to make a difference in our world. We are constantly being asked to make a
donation to this cause or that cause; sometimes it is at the grocery store –
would you like to donate a dollar to the St Jude’s fund? Or it might be in purchasing an item: for
every item purchased, a dollar goes to bringing fresh drinking water to a
thirsty child. And even our pets are included
in this, for every bag of dog food bought, twenty meals will be given to dogs
in shelters. Last year, I bought pink
ribbon earrings and a percentage went to breast cancer research. It goes on and on. How do we see this? Do we see this as marketing strategies to prey
on peoples’ desires to do good in order to sell things? Or do we see it as the Holy Spirit moving
upon the waters of consumerism seeking to do the better good?
Pentecost is upon us, it is here, not
just on one particular day, but each and every day, each and every moment of
time. The breath of God’s life is pouring
out upon us if we are open to hear its call.
As I wrestled with our first text
today, that of Ezekiel and the valley of dry bones, we could do a very in depth
conversation group on this. One of the resources
I read, asks this question: Has anything
of great importance died in our own community?
Where are the places that are crying out for rebirth? And I love this one: Can our dreams dance again? As I thought about places that have died, other
than the war torn areas of our world, I thought more specifically to our own
country and towns ridden by various addictions such as meth and heroin. While living in Florida, there was the bad
part of town, and as the police and drug enforcement agencies seized crack
houses, the houses were turned over to the town for community resource
centers. I had the opportunity to teach ESL
in two such houses, once used for drugs, now used to empower people through
education: Life out of death, hope out
of despair. Throughout our nation there
are small towns that have literally become ghost towns, with a handful of
people still living there, there is the city of Detroit, an entire city going
bankrupt, the foreclosures and extreme poverty.
And so as I thought about rebirth,
for the power of dreams dancing again, I thought about Waco Texas and Chip and
Joanna Gaines and the work they are doing to restore homes throughout the
city. They have truly changed this town,
they have brought hope into a town that had been struggling for so long. They have put a positive name on a place that
seem to only know bad press. Ours is a
God that continually offers life, offers life in what even might seem to be a
dying world. We can view the world
through the negative lens that things are just bad, or we can view the world
through the lens of faith, through the promise of God, through the hope of our
scriptures that even in destructive times of history, God is restoring
life.
Can our dreams dance again? As the Holy Spirit continues to pour out upon
this world, as the breathe of God continues to renew and restore creation, our
dreams based in God’s love can come to life, can be a reality. Pentecost is being lived out this week, as
Ledgewood Baptist hosts families that are currently homeless. Families, all across our nation, but also
right here in our own community, without a consistent place to come home
to. I can’t even imagine it, but through
God’s love, through the power of the Holy Spirit the agency Family Promise is
at work to find permanent housing for these families as well as to provide them
the resources they need for this transitional time in their lives.
Can our dreams dance again? For three families, they will soon be receiving
a home through Habitat with an upcoming Building blitz over in Mine Hill in
June. Why will 150 people give 9 days of
their lives to build three houses? Why
are people so willing to help others?
Why do people take to the streets in order to voice their message of
hope and justice and love for each other?
Because God is at work in this world, because there is incredible power
in the Pentecost story, because God puts a message of hope in our hearts and a passion
to make this world a better place.
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