The Rev. Deacon Dr. Bette Kauffman's homily from May 28, 2023

  “Extravagant, Furious Love”

Christ Episcopal Church, St. Joseph

Year A, Pentecost

Acts 2:1-21; 1 Corinthians 12:3b-13; John 20:12-23

I have wracked my brain for the past two days trying to come up with an experience or story to begin this sermon with that would enable you—and me; all of us—to connect with and experience fully the drama.. and the trauma.. of the first Pentecost—the coming of the Holy Spirit.

And I have come up empty handed. I have not thought of a single thing that would do that trick any better than the words St. Luke came up with to describe those events of the first Pentecost.

But simply rereading those words doesn’t make for much of a sermon, right? So I did what any other self-respecting academic would do. I looked up what some other people said about it!

And I found some gems. Here’s one:

Pentecost reminds us that Christ's spirit is not mild or temperate but a disrupting force, a caring love that disconcerts and unsettles the systems of this world, redefining power from the inside out and from the bottom up.

That was said in a sermon by Ivan Nicoletto, a Benedictine monk.

Remember that I referred to the drama and the trauma of Pentecost in my opening sentence. Did you ever think of Pentecost as a traumatic event? But it was and that is what Brother Nicoletto is talking about.

See, to the extent that the Holy Spirit is “mild and temperate,” WE have made it that way. And not just us; most of Christendom has conspired in making Christianity safely and solidly middle class, confirming of the status quo, all about pretty buildings and stained glass and candles.

And, boy, we Episcopalians are really good at “mild and temperate”! We like our religion calm, orderly, even a little boring. Certainly better boring than on fire with the Holy Spirit!

But as Brother Nicoletto says, the Spirit of God is a disrupting force, a love that disconcerts and unsettles and redefines the systems and the forces at work in the world.

Look what it did to those first recipients—the disciples of Jesus—and by “disciples” I do not mean merely the 12 Apostles but ALL of the many followers of Jesus. Remember the stories we have been reading since Easter.

The disciples were in disarray. Some headed back home, like the ones on the road to Emmaus. The fishermen went back to fishing. Jesus had to go cook breakfast for them on the beach to get their attention again. They huddled fearfully in upper rooms with the doors locked. Jesus had to appear to them over and over to keep them from fading into the woodwork.

Finally comes the ascension, and they stand their gazing up into heaven as Jesus disappears. An angel has to come jar them out of their stupor and tell them to go on into town and get ready for the next big thing. 

Then comes the Spirit and builds a fire under them. Artists always depict the coming of the Spirit as dainty little flames dancing over their heads, and that’s kind of what Luke says, but… I’ve always thought building a fire under them a better description of what happened! There they were: Propelled onto the streets to preach and carry on so wildly that people thought they were drunk at 9:00 in the morning.

The Holy Spirit of God is a disrupting force. It changes things—all things. It transforms lives.

What was the miracle of Pentecost anyway? We tend to think it had to do only with language. We read this story every year and marvel that this bunch of English speakers—I mean, they must be English speakers because there it is in the Bible in plain English, right?

So we think the miracle is that this bunch of English speakers suddenly could speak a bunch of different languages! No, no. The miracle is that this bunch of people who had been moping around for weeks thinking and acting like the story was over..,, that the story had died with their friend…, suddenly these people are on fire for sharing the good news of the living God., the God who is up to something new under the sun, the God who snatches victory from the jaws of death and builds a fire under ordinary people such that they go out and change the world.

Hear that again. A bunch of ordinary people are lit on fire by the power of the Holy Spirit and they go out and change the world. That is the miracle of Pentecost.

Today, we wear our red and say “happy birthday” to the church.

Oh, my. We are sooo boring. Nobody will ever accuse US of being drunk at 10:00 on a Sunday morning, right?

Another of the gems I found in my search for words to convey the meaning of Pentecost is a guy by the name of Brennan Manning. I’m paraphrasing here in order to pull out a couple of phrases that strike true to me today.

Manning says that the whole story of the New Testament, the very life of Jesus, is absurd and meaningless, unless we get that God’s purpose was and is to make something new in the world—a new creation.

And that new creation, he says, is not just people with better morals. We get so tied up in morality, don’t we? And in evaluating people and judging whether they are sufficiently moral—according to our standards—and with trying to get others to live by our moral code. But that was not and is not God’s purpose.

Rather, God’s purpose, says Manning, is to “create a community of prophets and professional lovers.” Think about that. That’s what God wants us to be, a community of prophets and professional lovers who speak the truth of God’s love in a hurting world.

Manning goes on to describe that community as ‘men and women who surrender to the fire of the Spirit, who enter into the very heart of Christ, which is a flame that consumes, purifies, and sets everything aglow with peace, joy, boldness and extravagant, furious love.’

Imagine that! “Extravagant, furious love” afoot in the world. That’s the miracle of Pentecost. And that, brothers and sisters, is our call today. What a different world we will create, with God’s help and extravagant, furious love!

In the name of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. AMEN.

Services at Christ Episcopal, Saint Joseph

 

The Rev. Deacon Dr. Bette Kauffman will lead us in Morning Prayer with communion, Sunday, May 28th at 10am in observation of Pentecost.  Our tradition is to wear red on Pentecost Sunday.

Other Sunday services will be Morning Prayer also at 10am as usual.

Pentecost, also called Whitsunday, (Pentecost from Greek pentecostē, “50th day”), major festival in the Christian church, celebrated on the Sunday that falls on the 50th day of Easter. It commemorates the descent of the Holy Spirit on the Apostles and other disciples following the Crucifixion, Resurrection, and Ascension of Jesus Christ (Acts of the Apostles, chapter 2), and it marks the beginning of the Christian church’s mission to the world.

(from www.britannica.com)

Information regarding Mr. Lutken's book regarding WWII Burma Warfare

 

Ms. Emily Lutken sent a note to say her father's book: "A Thousand Places Left Behind: One Soldier's Account of Jungle Warfare in WWII Burma" is now available:

A Thousand Places Left Behind | University Press of Mississippi (state.ms.us)

The Rev. Deacon Dr. Bette Kauffman's homily, May 7, 2023

 

God With Us

Christ Episcopal Church, St. Joseph

Year A, 5 Easter

Acts 7:55-60; 1 Peter 2:2-10; John 14:1-14

During Easter season, our first lesson every Sunday comes not from the Old Testament, but from Acts of the Apostles—the New Testament book that tells the story of the founding of Christianity.

It’s worth pointing out—because so many people seem to miss this—that Jesus did not found Christianity. The Apostles did. Acts 1 tells the story of Jesus’ ascension into heaven, and then proceeds to tell the story of the founding of Christianity by the Apostles.

As a teacher of religion, I have been asked the question in a most incredulous tone of voice, “You mean Jesus was not a Christian?” The correct answer is, “No, he was not. He was born, lived and died a Jew!” In some quarters, that is almost enough to get one stoned to death!

From my perspective, the story we read this morning of the stoning of Stephen in Acts Chapter 7 does not get enough attention in the church today. We read it just once every three years—on the 5^th Sunday of Easter, Year A. That’s it.

Stephen might get mentions at other times, for example, on his feast day. But that’s Dec. 26, the day after Christmas, a “low church day” if ever there was one! And when he does get mentioned, it is typically focused on the fact that he was the very first martyr.

Another thing that will often get mentioned is that bit about people laying their coats at the feet of Saul. And we all know the next chapter of that story. Saul encounters the risen Christ on the road to Damascus, is struck down, blinded and converted into a believer and Apostle, and, indeed, pretty much the author of the New Testament. So that’s important, for sure.

But… what about Stephen? Who was he? Why was he stoned to death? What was his death-deserving sin? And who, in fact, stoned him to death?

Don’t feel bad if you haven’t a clue about any of that. It really doesn’t get talked about much. So… guess what?

The first thing to know about Stephen, which will give you a bit of insight into why I think he is important, is that he was not an Apostle and he was not a priest. He was a deacon.

The second thing to know is that he was not stoned for feeding the poor, which was his ministry, nor for being a activist on behalf of the poor, as so many deacons are. Rather, he was stoned for preaching.

Hmmm. Does that make you wonder a bit about his sermon? What in heaven’s name did he say?

Well, it’s all there in Acts Chapter 7! You might want to go home and read the whole thing because I’m not going to read it to you. I am going to tell you a bit about it, but first….

To whom was he preaching? That’s an important question because it was precisely the people to whom he was preaching who rose up, dragged him out of the city and stoned him to death.

So who do you think? A bunch of pagans who didn’t want to hear about a bigger, better god than the ones they worshiped? Nope. A bunch of Romans who didn’t want to hear about a god greater than Caesar? Or perhaps didn’t want to hear that they had executed an innocent man? No, and no.

Here’s a quickie version of the back story: In Acts 6, Stephen and six others are chosen and ordained as the first deacons, their job being to correct bias that had developed in the daily distribution of food, such that poorer and less powerful people were getting less than their fair share. Sounds familiar, doesn’t it?

Acts 6 goes on to tell us that Stephen stood out from the beginning, that he was full of grace and did many “wonders and signs among the people.” The powers-that-be who ran the synagogue became more and more worried. They tried to argue with Stephen to no avail because Stephen spoke with wisdom and the power of the Spirit. Quite literally, Stephen became a threat to their power and control over the spiritual lives of the people.

What did they do? They pressured some men to lie that Stephen had blasphemed against Moses and God. Stephen is arrested and hauled before the Council—that is, the priests and elders who ran the synagogue, and thereby control the people because the synagogue was the people’s access to God.

So that’s the context in which Chapter 7 begins with the high priest asking Stephen, “Are these things so?” Did you, in fact, blaspheme against Moses and God? Stephen’s sermon is his answer. In sum, Stephen is preaching to the high priest himself and the group that runs the synagogue—the good church people of the day—and he is defending himself against lies told about him.

So, what does he say? Well, most of it sounds pretty non-controversial. Verse 2 through verse 47, over a thousand words, is the history if the Israelites. Stephen begins with Abraham and God’s covenant with him. He tells the story of Joseph sold into slavery by his jealous brothers, becoming ruler there and bringing the Israelites to Egypt, who in turn became slaves there. He tells of Moses and the burning bush and leading the people out of Egypt, and, of course, he tells of their wandering in the wilderness for 40 years because they didn’t trust God, begged to be taken back to Egypt and made themselves a golden calf to worship.

Then comes the punch line. Stephen tells these powerful religious men that they are wrong about God. God, he says, does not live in houses made by human hands. God is everywhere; the creation that God made is God’s house.

This is a direct affront to their power. If people come to believe that God is everywhere and that they can worship God—in spirit and in truth, just as Jesus had taught—then those who rule via the synagogue are little more than custodians of a building.

Finally, Stephen drives his point home by explicitly connecting their dishonest power—power based on keeping God in a box of their own construction—and their rejection of Jesus. He says,

You stiff-necked people… you are forever opposing the Holy Spirit, just as your ancestors used to do. Which of the prophets did your ancestors not persecute? They killed those who foretold the coming of the Righteous One, and now you have become his betrayers and murderers.

And that drove them right over the edge. Enraged, they drag Stephen out of the city and stone him to death.

So… what is the lesson in all of that for us today? I think of two things, and they are related. First, don’t try to keep God in a box. Humans of all races and nations have a strong tendency to believe that their “God box” is the best, even the only “right” one. We really want to think that we have God figured out and that if everyone else just thought the way we did, the world would be a hunk-dory place.

Second, don’t get between God and people. Don’t try to build earthly power by inserting earthly institutions and constructs between God and people. “The church” is not God. “Christianity” is not God and most assuredly is not the only way to God. Those are our God boxes, and they can easily become idolatries. God will find a way around or through every barrier we seek to put between people and God.

The high priest and the Council perhaps appeared to have prevailed by killing Stephen, but at best they had won a small skirmish. Saul went from guarding the coats of the killers to encountering the risen Christ on the road and to becoming the chief herald and preacher of the liberating news of God with us, everywhere, at all times.

 

  In the name of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. AMEN.