Sermon 05.28.2023: Blest Be the Tie

On The Day of Pentecost, we reclaim the love of God that unties us and binds us together. Claim your space in the household of faith! Let nothing separate us.

Scripture

Acts 2:1-8

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, “Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? And how is it that we hear, each of us, in our own native language?”

Romans 8:14-39

For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God. For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received a spirit of adoption. When we cry, “Abba! Father!” it is that very Spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God,

and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ—if, in fact, we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him. I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory about to be revealed to us. For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the children of God; for the creation was subjected to futility, not of its own will but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and will obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. We know that the whole creation has been groaning in labor pains until now; and not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly while we wait for adoption, the redemption of our bodies. For in hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what is seen? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.

Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words. And God, who searches the heart, knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose.

For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn within a large family. And those whom he predestined he also called; and those whom he called he also justified; and those whom he justified he also glorified.

What then are we to say about these things? If God is for us, who is against us? He who did not withhold his own Son, but gave him up for all of us, will he not with him also give us everything else? Who will bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? It is Christ Jesus, who died, yes, who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who indeed intercedes for us. Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will hardship, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, “For your sake we are being killed all day long; we are accounted as sheep to be slaughtered.” No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Sermon Text

Nothing Shall Separate Us

Great Tongues of Fire!

In the name of the Holy Spirit, welcome to her big day: Pentecost. In scripture, the Spirit is female (she/her pronouns). In fact, the Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit are made manifest in countless ways and gender expressions throughout the Bible. That’s some of what’s behind the new banner out front: God, the original they-them.

Rev. Joann will read the old story a little later, about how tongues of fire descended on an ancient multicultural congregation, enabling them to understand every language. The Holy Spirit is the original translation app. Who here uses translation apps? At Coffee Hour, those of you who do apps, why not show someone who doesn’t do apps (my age and older) how a translation app works. It’s a great way to celebrate Pentecost and make a connection.

The liturgical color for Pentecost is red, symbolizing the Holy Spirit’s fire, burning away division. Wearing red today symbolizes unity, and it’s more than a Bible story.

There’s a Chinese proverb that says an invisible red thread connects all people who are destined to meet regardless of time, place or circumstance. The red thread may stretch or tangle, but it will never break. Red symbolizes destiny. Red is the color of the blood that flows through every person Jesus commanded us to love, the color of love and sacrifice and humility.

Over your head hang swaths of fabric, artistic tongues of flame, foreshadowing this morning’s opening hymn. Oh, for a thousand of those to sing our great redeemer’s praise!

So, welcome to you and to what you carry on your shoulders. Welcome to you, your defensiveness, your loneliness. Welcome to you, your worry, your tardiness, your new hip. Welcome to you, your politics, your rage, your exhaustion. Welcome to you, your trans children, your trans parents. Welcome to each of you, for you are each made in God’s image. You bear the face of Christ. You don’t have to fit in to belong here. If we trust the words of Acts 2, during this hour of worship, the Spirit could easily remove everything that separates us, if we let her. Are you ready to believe and let her be God?

Acts 2:1-8.  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, “Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? And how is it that we hear, each of us, in our own native language?”

Preparation

The choir just sang Michael’s setting of Blest Be the Tie. A word about the term “Christian love.” It’s a misnomer. Jesus never told us to be Christians. We invented Christianity. He called us to follow him and commanded us to love one another. Christian love, selfless agape love, is no greater its Jewish counterpart, or Buddhist, or Muslim love. Love is love.

Please open your Bible open to Romans 8, you’ll be able to follow along with this sermon. Hopefully. Don’t worry, I will eventually stop, and we’ll get back to the singing.

Context is Everything

Paul wrote this book to the Romans. What do you think of when you hear the word Romans? I imagine Romans from central casting: haughty citizens in togas, enjoying peeled grapes and spaghetti, chariot races, Ben-Hur, Russell Crowe. You know, Romans. Think again. Paul writes to the Jesus-following Romans who meet on the down low. Many were poor. Most were slaves.

Paul doesn’t supply this context until chapter 16. Turns out, there are five tenement churches in Rome. Some had women leaders like Aquilla and Priscilla. There were Jews in the crowd, along with unclean Gentiles and sexual minorities.[1] Some biblical translations called those Jesus people downright “peculiar.”

The camera-ready Romans from central casting did not follow Jesus because they didn’t want to. Their religion was empire, power, money, the exploitation of slaves both female and male, acquiring stuff, and more stuff. They wouldn’t hang out with “those” people. Sound familiar?

Don’t Shoot the Messenger

The year is 56. Phoebe makes her way through the streets of Rome. She strides into a meeting of those peculiar Jesus people, under her arm a scroll, Paul’s message to the Romans. This vulnerable remnant of The Notorious Nazarene is about to experience something astonishing: words that sow seeds of hope for a world in which oppression is state-sanctioned. [2] Some of them scoffed. How could a woman deliver such a message? What if word got out to those whose power relies on subjugation?

As Paul ends Roman epistle, he exhorts us to listen to Phoebe. Roll out the red carpet for her. She’s a religious leader, an evangelist, a preacher, a benefactor[3] (keeps her pledge current). And Phoebe is the first ever deacon (diakonos). Like our deacons, she was an instrument of God’s compassion, ordained through God’s love. How did she find all that power and freedom? Until the love of God sets us free, we’re not really living. Either love sets us free or we’re not. To this gathering of non-citizens—this Island of Misfit Toys[4]—Phoebe unfurls the scroll, and the Holy Spirit says to the church:

Romans 8:14-18, 31-39. For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God. For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received a spirit of adoption. When we cry, “Abba! Father!” it is that very Spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ—if, in fact, we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him. (18) I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory about to be revealed to us.

Release the Clutter

Notice verse 18. One of the great mysteries of our faith is that the kingdom of God is imminent, always approaching, forever coming near. Whatever you are going through is nothing to compared with the glory that’s on the way. In other words, don’t give up ten minutes before your miracle. Preaching on this verse, 13th-century mystic Meister Eckhart said, “God is not found in the soul by adding anything, but by a process of subtraction.” We don’t need to add anything. We’ve got too much stuff already. Release the clutter. Become as a child.

Notice the Signs

Eckhart wrote about how God leaves us little hints all over nature. This is how God finds us when we get separated—great parenting. As Californians, we know that nature is healing. When’s the last time you marveled at the Pacific Ocean? How about the Botanical Garden? I love sitting in the redwood grove and how it feels, how it smells, how it sounds.[5] Somehow God wrote compassion into the DNA of those redwood trees. When one tree gets sick, the other trees use the fungus in the soil to transmit their own nutrients for sick neighbors. Sacrificial agape love is mapped out in nature.

And how is it even possible that cells in the human body know what to do? They build and rebuild our bodies, heal infection, mend broken bones. They’re busy at work right now. Every little cell fulfilling its purpose, unifying the whole organism of you and me.

Sometimes a cancer cell comes along. It says, “I’ll do whatever I please. I’ll take over everything in my way. I know what I’m supposed to do. Those rules are not for me. I don’t care about the health of this body. It’s all about me.” That’s why we always want to eradicate cancer before it destroys everything.

Cancer cells are examples of insanity, power-hungry little nothings that cause great harm. They scare us. Cancer’s purpose is to show us how to be in this world. There are strong voices today with cancerous behaviors. They tell us to fear one another. They identify the most vulnerable members of the community, destroy their peace, and do whatever they please. The social contract does not apply to them, or so they say. A Florida legislator is advocating for “erasing” the LGBTQ community.[6] A tree has more compassion. This week, a new Florida law intends to let the state remove transgender minors from their families. What could be more mean and crazy than this brand of moral cancer.

Romans 8:31-37. What then are we to say about these things? If God is for us, who is against us? He who did not withhold his own Son, but gave him up for all of us, will he not with him also give us everything else? Who will bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? It is Christ Jesus, who died, yes, who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who indeed intercedes for us.

Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will hardship, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, “For your sake we are being killed all day long; we are accounted as sheep to be slaughtered.” No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.

Drag Queens Can Also Love Jesus

On June 18 at 2pm in the chapel, an ordained Presbyterian pastor who does drag under the name Joann Fabrixxx. and a San Diego-based Christian-contemporary singer-songwriter called Flamy Grant will share their faith. We don’t have to obey those who want to divide us in order to control us. We are Jesus people. We welcome every person. Every person. If you believe this, be like Phoebe or Paul. Better yet, be like Jesus. Somehow, deliver the news of God’s unconditional love, especially to the victims of empire.

To the trans children of God—youth and adult—in this congregation, listening online. God loves you. God made you. We are one with you. We will defend you. Hear what Paul has to say about this.

Romans 8:38-39. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

The Fellowship of Kindred Minds

The Word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. And now for the sermon. Please put away your Bible and reach for a hymnal. A story. My hometown was half the size of this congregation. Calvary has about 700 members. Plainville, Georgia, population around 340, ish. As a child, whenever an ambulance roared by our house, I would count down—ten, nine, eight—the phone would ring, and my mother would consult her network. Where did that ambulance go? Down toward the river? Up the hill? Oh no. Well, she hasn’t been feeling well… By the time the ambulance came back headed toward town, everybody knew who we should be praying for. Rides to the hospital were already being figured out. Plates of food were already heaped and covered in foil. We were bound together. We might not have liked everybody, but we loved everybody.

My Aunt Geneva was much taller than her little brother, my father. Now, Geneva sang bass in the church choir. Gender nonconformity must run in my family. Geneva loved hymns that fed her faith. Whoever left church humming a sermon? Hymns are the seeds of hope.

When my father died of cancer, the community came through. Everybody loved Don Floyd, although he went by the nickname, Tater. I inherited his physique. The Sunday morning after we buried him, Geneva raised her hand during church.

“Could I ask y’all to do something? Telling people to do stuff was her spiritual gift. Could we please sing Blest Be the Tie? I sing at home, but it’s not the same. I need all y’all to sing it with me. That’s just how it’s supposed to be.”

Blest be the tie that binds
our hearts in Christian love;
the fellowship of kindred minds
is like to that above.

When we are called to part,
it gives us inward pain;
but we shall still be joined in heart,
and hope to meet again.

Amen.

—

“The Way It Is” by William Stafford

There’s a thread you follow. It goes among
things that change. But it doesn’t change.
People wonder about what you are pursuing.
You have to explain about the thread.
But it is hard for others to see.
While you hold it you can’t get lost.
Tragedies happen; people get hurt
or die; and you suffer and get old.
Nothing you do can stop time’s unfolding.
You don’t ever let go of the thread.

[1] See Kyle Harper’s From Shame to Sin: The Christian Transformation of Sexual Morality in Late Antiquity (Harvard, 2013)

[2] Tom Hanks (theologian), “Romans” in The Queer Bible Commentary 2nd Edition (London: SCM Press, 2022), 602.

[3] We don’t learn about these things until the very end of the epistle, chapter 16. It is as if Paul is setting a rhetorical trap for the reader. Perhaps he never meant for our eyes to see this scroll. We have to pay careful attention to context if we want to understand it. Theologian Tom Hanks (not the actor) suggests that we must read Romans in reverse if we are to grasp its depth.

[4] https://youtu.be/Gr6GbKciNCY

[5] I was told after the service that this is called “forest bathing.”

[6] https://www.clickorlando.com/news/local/2023/04/12/florida-lawmaker-on-concept-of-erasing-lgbtq-community-over-drag-show-drama-damn-right/