Pentecost - the great feast of communication - a sermon by Stephen Brown

Pentecost - the great feast of communication
Stephen Brown, meditation at the Ecumenical Centre, 25 May 2010

When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability. Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven living in Jerusalem. And at this sound the crowd gathered and was bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in the native language of each. Amazed and astonished, they asked '… How is it that we hear, each of us in our own native language? In our own languages we hear them speaking about God's deeds of power?'

When I heard last week that there was not yet a preacher for today, I jumped - maybe rashly - at the opportunity to offer a meditation this morning. For since I was very young, this has been one of my favourite texts from the Bible. I've never quite worked out why, maybe it is because of the action-packed nature of the story that the writer of Acts describes. Not a moment is lost in setting the scene. "When the day of Pentecost came, they were altogether in one place". Immediately there is the rushing noise of a violent wind, the tongues, 'as of fire' appearing among the disciples. And there is the transformation of the speech of the disciples so that those gathered from every nation under heaven can hear of God's deeds of power in their own language. And then, the wry comment by those that hear the disciples that they are "filled with new wine".

For some one, like me, who is involved in communication, this text speaks of communication in its most profound sense - and communication that involves all the senses. Here we encounter the physicality of the Holy Spirit: the sound and the touch of the wind, the appearance of the tongues of fire that take on physical form, resting on each of the disciples. In his book, The Spirit of Life, Jürgen Moltmann describes how the Pentecost narrative needs to be seen against the background of the Hebrew Scriptures, where God's Spirit Ruach has quite a different meaning from the western tradition of thinking about the Spirit. God's Ruach is not something supernatural or immaterial but is "a tempest, a storm, a force in body and soul, humanity and nature". Ruach, says Moltmann, is the "breath of God's voice". (1) So, Pentecost is about communication of all the senses. It is this breath of God's voice that enables God's deeds of power to be heard by each in their own language. Pentecost is the great feast of communication.

Pentecost is sometimes described as the counterpoint to the account of the building of the Tower of Babel. The story in Genesis describes how at the beginning the whole earth had one language and the same words. Then the Lord confused the language of all the earth; and from Babel "scattered them abroad over the face of all the earth". At Babel, so it goes, the nations were scattered, at Pentecost they are gathered together. Yet, look closer at the text. The tongues of flame do not create a single language; it does not mean that those in Jerusalem are speaking in one language. Instead, each person hears in their own speech. God's Spirit breaks down the barriers between nations, the barriers of culture, and the barriers of language. Being drawn together, being one, does not mean being identical. It means transcending the barriers that separate us, holding together our diversity in the power of the "breath of God's voice". This is a pronounced and profound experience of communication. And it is through this great "communicative act" that the disciples are able to communicate "God's deeds of power".

Still, if Pentecost is a profoundly "communicative" experience, it is also a profoundly "ecumenical" experience. At Pentecost in Jerusalem, representatives are gathered from "every nation under heaven", in other words, from the whole inhabited world, or, in Greek, from the oikoumene. It is at Pentecost that God's Spirit descends upon the oikoumene, gathered at this great ecumenical assembly in Jerusalem. So, Pentecost as the foundational event of the church is both communicative and ecumenical. Through God's embracing and inclusive Spirit we can comprehend the oikoumene in all its fullness, one in which that which was scattered is gathered together in a unity that transcends the economic and political divisions of the world.

In our spirit-filled ecumenical existence, communication is at the very heart. It is through communication that we can become one - not despite our diversity, but in our diversity; not as an end in itself, but to speak about God's deeds of power. Communication in the oikoumene - ecumenical communication in its deepest sense - has this two fold character: the holding together of the oikoumene, and recounting God's deeds of power in Jesus Christ.

What does this mean for us as people drawn from many nations under heaven, for those of us gathered in this Ecumenical Centre? What does it mean for our calling as God's sign of communication in the world?

Firstly, communication is not something that is added on to our programmes or activities. It is not (only) about the technical tools we use to communicate. Communication is at the centre of our ecumenical existence. As Philip Potter, once general secretary of the World Council of Churches, puts it, "The kingdom of God, and koinonia, community, a common life, communication, are one reality" (2). We need to find ways in which this becomes a reality in our life in the oikoumene, not as a task only for communication professionals, but in which we mediate the flow of communication within the fellowship of churches (3).

But, secondly, this communicative existence of the oikoumene is not something that stands in an either/or relationship with the task of professional communication and relating to the public media. The communicative act of understanding at Pentecost was precisely to make known God's deeds of power. In our globalised world, we need to use all means at our disposal, with all their ambiguity, to make known God's deeds of power. We need, as the hymn we are to sing puts it, "to find our tongue [and] tell the world what God has done" - whether using the Internet, or Facebook, or Twitter … news stories, interviews, speeches, or even sermons!

There is, however, also a "third way" - maybe the most profound way - in which communication is at the heart of our spirit-filled ecumenical existence. Later in the passage from Acts we can read how the disciples continued to break bread together. Communication is also to communicate, to share together in the Eucharist, the Lord's Supper, united in the oikoumene in space and in time, transcending the divisions of the world. Here we are called together by the love that unites that which has been divided. At this meal, even the inadequate disciples are accepted. This is the meal of the suffering Lord who is in solidarity with the oppressed, and the meal of the one who has risen, who sends us to renewed action (4). Yet it is also here, that our own divisions in the oikoumene become most apparent and most painful. Our communication together at the Lord's Supper is incomplete, is only a partial sign of the unity to which the breath of God's voice has called us.

At Pentecost, let us therefore listen to God's renewing Spirit who calls us to prayer and to action that this meal may no longer be a sign of our division, but a symbol of the unity that God intends for the whole inhabited world - a sign that that which has been scattered has been brought together in Christ. At this feast of communication, let us revel therefore in the gift of God's Spirit, who goes before us, making whole that which is broken, calling us to be God's Pentecost people, in word, in bread, in wine.

And to God’s name be the praise and the glory.

1. Jürgen Moltmann, The Spirit of Life: A universal affirmation, London: SCM Press Ltd, 1992, pp. 40-40.
2. Quoted in "Communicating with Conviction", Issue Paper VIII, Discussion papers arising out of the life and work of the World Council of Churches in Preparation for its Sixth Assembly, Vancouver, Canada, July 24 to August 10, 1983. Geneva: WCC, 1982.
3. Cf: Konrad Raiser, Report of the General Secretary, in The Ecumenical Review, vol. 52, no. 1, January 2000, p. 99.
4. Cf: Heino Falcke, Christ liberates - therefore the Church for Others, in The Ecumenical Review, vol. 65, no. 2, April 2004, p. 183.

Morning prayer - that all may be one

At the Ecumenical Centre we often try to follow the daily readings followed by the community at Grandchamps. Their gospel readings for Thursday and Friday 20 and 21 May are from John17 - "that all may be one".
Inspired by this Theodore Gill put together the following order for morning prayer on Friday. This order will also be used for the opening devotions of the WCC staff executive group which meets all day.

Morning Prayer, Ecumenical Centre
Friday 21 May 2010

For Christian worship
Holy God: you call us to worship,
and by your Spirit you prompt us to prayers and praise.
Keep us from responding in prayer and song with ritual disinterest.
Fill us with wonder at the mystery of your unfailing love for all;
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Praise to the Lord, the Almighty, the king of creation!
O my soul, praise him, for he is your health and salvation!
Let all who hear now to his temple draw near,
joining in glad adoration.

Loué soit notre Dieu, dont la splendeur se révèle
quand nous buvons le vin pour une terre nouvelle.
En Jésus-Christ le monde passe aujourd’hui
vers une gloire éternelle.

Lobe den Herren, was in mir ist, lobe den Namen.
Lob ihn mit allen, die seine Verheissung bekamen.
Er ist dein Licht, Seele, vergiss es ja nicht.
Lob ihn in Ewigkeit. Amen.

Gospel lesson – John 17:11d-26

[When Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted his eyes to heaven and said:] “Holy Father, keep them in your name which you have given me, that they may be one as we are one. While I was with them, I kept them in your name. Those whom you gave me I have kept; and none of them is lost, except the son of perdition so that the scripture might be fulfilled. But now I come to you, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves. I have given them your word; and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. I do not pray that you should take them out of the world, but that you should keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. Sanctify them by your truth. Your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, I also have sent them into the world. And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also may be sanctified by the truth.

“I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in me through their word; that they all may be one, as you, Father, are in me, and I in you; that they also may be one in us, so that the world may believe that you sent me. And the glory which you gave me I have given them, that they may be one just as we are one: I in them, and you in me; that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that you have sent me, and have loved them as you have loved me.

“Father, I desire that they also whom you gave me may be with me where I am, that they may behold my glory which you have given me; for you loved me before the foundation of the world. O righteous Father! The world has not known you, but I have known you; and these have known that you sent me. And I have declared to them your name, and will declare it, that the love with which you loved me may be in them, and I in them.”

Silent meditation
And silent prayer, especially for the people and churches of Malawi and Zambia

Litany for the Unity of Christ’s Church
[adapted from The Worshipbook (Philadelphia, USA: Westminster Press, 1970)]

O God: you welcome us by baptism into one holy church, and join us by faith to Christians in every time and place. May your church on earth be a sign of the loving communion you promise.
Make us one with Christ, and joyful in your kingdom.

Deliver us from evil, Lord: From religious pride that belittles the faith of others, or claims true wisdom, yet will not love…
Good Lord, deliver us.
From mistaken zeal that will not compromise; from honouring tidy doctrines, rather than you…
Good Lord, deliver us.
From a worldly mind that drums up partisan spirits; from division and divisiveness; from preserving systems that have served their purpose and seen their day…
Good Lord, deliver us.

As you sent disciples from every land, O God, gather us now, from the ends of the earth, into one fellowship that responds to your calling and praises your name.
Gather us in one faith, one hope, one love.

Make us one, Lord, in our eagerness to speak good news and set all captives free.
Give us your Holy Spirit.
Make us one, Lord, in concern for the poor, the hurt and the downtrodden, to show your love.
Give us your Holy Spirit.
Make us one, Lord, in worship; help us find the way to break bread together in unity and to sing your praise in a harmony of voices.
Give us your Holy Spirit.
Make us one, Lord, in faithfulness to Jesus Christ, who never fails us, and who will come again in triumph.
Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord.

God our Father: Give us your Holy Spirit so that we may have among ourselves the same mind that was in Christ Jesus, and proclaim him to the world. May every knee bow down to him, and every tongue confess him Lord, to the glory of your Triune name.
Amen.

The Lord’s Prayer
in the language of one’s choice

Blessing

Let us embrace this new day, confident of God’s mercy, grace and saving power.
Thanks be to God: Alleluia! Amen.

Halle-, halle-, halle- luja
Halle-, halle-, halle- luja
Halle-, halle-, halle- luja
Halleluja, Halleluja!

A Song of Ascents - An Easter Sermon by Theodore Gill

A Song of Ascents

Rev. Theodore Gill, WCC Communication
Ecumenical Centre chapel, Geneva
Tuesday 6 April 2010

Scripture lessons: Psalm 118:19-24 and Luke 24:13-35

Christ is risen!
He is risen indeed!

“I thank you, for you have answered me and have become my salvation.
“The stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone:
“This is the Lord’s doing! It is marvelous in our eyes.”

The verse from Hebrew scripture that is most often quoted in the New Testament is found in our reading from this morning’s psalm: “The stone which the builders rejected has become the cornerstone” (Ps.118:22).

Literary critics would give a name to this form of observation: “Irony”. Academics, as is their custom, distinguish among several categories of irony, and one such category is called “situational irony”. In this form of verbal construction, an obvious discrepancy is discerned between what might be expected to happen, normally or logically, and what actually occurs – a discontinuity between assumption and reality. The purpose of literary irony, we are told, is to intensify meaning.

The gospel of Jesus Christ is rich in ironic images. To cite a few …
- the all-powerful Word of God is revealed as a newborn baby
- the divine child is laid in a manger, for there was no room in the inn
- the promised Messiah, the Son of David, enters Jerusalem on a donkey
- behind him there is no conquering army, but the poor of the earth and children bearing leafy branches
- the eternal Son of God discounts equality with God as a thing to be grasped, taking the form of a servant, finally dying on the cross
- and along the way, Jesus teaches in parables that routinely turn people’s everyday expectations on their heads.

No wonder the apostles and evangelists so frequently employed the psalmist’s metaphor: The stone rejected as worthless has become the head of the corner; it now bears the principal load and is found to have the highest value of all!

This verse is part of one of those psalms that are called, in English, “a song of ascents”. It is a psalm of pilgrims ascending – going up – to a festival in Jerusalem, making their way from the plains and foothills below. It is their song of spiritual preparation as they journey toward the gates of righteousness and the Temple precincts beyond.

Jesus and the disciples had made such an ascent to celebrate the Passover in Jerusalem. But what transpired there confounded his followers’ expectations. In Luke’s gospel, we are told of two disciples in particular who soon left Jerusalem, descending in confusion from the high country, to a town called Emmaus on the plain. Before they left the city, they had heard of the discovery of the empty tomb; they had heard the account of the women’s angelic vision; they had heard of respected disciples who had gone to the tomb and found the earlier reports credible. But none of this was enough to persuade these two to stay in place and see what would happen next. They made their way instead along the road that led downhill and away.

Along their path they encountered an apparent stranger. (Perhaps he resembled the figure whom Mary Magdalene mistook for a gardener near the tomb – but that is another story.) When this stranger met them on the Emmaus road, he saw that they were profoundly sad. He enquired as to what was troubling them so.

The traveler named Cleopas responded rhetorically: “Are you the only person coming from Jerusalem who does not know the things that have happened there in recent days?”

And here Luke presents us with one more example of situational irony: In fact, this stranger was the only one who truly understood what had been happening.

So the stranger – whom they would recognize as Jesus only later, in the breaking of the bread – first called them foolish for indulging their doubt and self-absorption; then, he proceeded to give them hope that scripture was indeed being fulfilled, hope that God’s promises were being kept.

And once the bread had been broken, and their perception was transformed, Luke tells us that “within the hour” they took to the road again, ascending once more to Jerusalem where the community of Jesus’ followers was gathering to share their experience, their insight, their renewed assurance. And Luke tells us that when they were gathered together, Jesus stood among them; the disciples remained in the city for some time, worshiping daily in the Temple.

Now, of course, that is not the end of the story – not even within the New Testament, much less over the 19 centuries after it. But the gospel writers do emphasize narratives like this for our continuing edification and improvement…

After all, those two travelers on the road to Emmaus were not the last would-be followers of Jesus to go wandering off on their own, in the wrong direction…
(my wife and I spent Easter weekend in Avignon – a majestic medieval city, but also something of a hiccup in the history of western Christianity… a bridge too far…)
No, they would not be the last to head the wrong way, only to be pulled up abruptly, to be forced to turn around and start over again on the ascent to community.

Nor were these the last disciples to be found standing, sad and dejected, so absorbed in a sense of confusion, doubt and abandonment that they momentarily lost the plot of the gospel narrative. Maureen Dowd, a columnist for the New York Times, wondered just this past weekend: “Why does the church seem more prone to self-pity than self-reflection?” I believe the answer to that question is that disciples are only human – and we disciples require regular doses of revelation to rekindle our hearts and minds.

In the case of Cleopas and his companion – perhaps Mrs Cleopas? or possibly just a very close friend? – the central revelation of the day came with the breaking of bread.

Sometimes disciples go astray. For more than sixty years, the constitution of the World Council of Churches has held out as a chief goal of our movement the establishment of one, common eucharistic fellowship, so that we together may join in sharing the one bread and together may recognize Christ in our midst. We feature this vision of “one eucharistic fellowship” in our WCC promotional brochures, but…

What have we done about that goal, lately? Have we made six decades’ worth of progress in this area? Or four-and-a-half decades’ worth, since Vatican II?

My wife and I have known one another for forty years. She comes from one tradition of Christianity, and I come from another. Whenever we have taken communion together in the same service of worship, the action has been considered illicit by someone or another. Will we ever share the same bread, licitly? Perhaps at the feast in the kingdom of heaven…? Again, I wonder: What are we honestly doing to hasten the day of a common eucharist, in this life?

Disciples sometimes wander off, making impressive progress in the wrong direction. At such times, a word of correction should be welcome. Accepting a word of correction may lift us from the mire of self-pity and move us to self-reflection, and at last place our feet once more on the upward road that leads to a more abundant life, together.

Let us pray.

We thank you, Lord: For you have answered us and have become our salvation.
The stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone.
This is your doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes!

In the name of the Triune God we pray. Amen.