Listening for Your Voice

“Listening for Your Voice” was preached at Sunnyside Presbyterian Church on June 9, 2019. This sermon was inspired by Scripture, commentaries, pilgrimage, and Pentecost.  You can listen to an audio clip of this sermon here. You can watch a video of the entire worship service here.

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Genesis 11:1-9

1 Now the whole earth had one language and the same words. 2 And as they migrated from the east, they came upon a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there. 3 And they said to one another, “Come, let us make bricks, and burn them thoroughly.” And they had brick for stone, and bitumen for mortar. 4 Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves; otherwise we shall be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.” 5 The Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which mortals had built. 6 And the Lord said, “Look, they are one people, and they have all one language; and this is only the beginning of what they will do; nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them. 7 Come, let us go down, and confuse their language there, so that they will not understand one another’s speech.” 8 So the Lord scattered them abroad from there over the face of all the earth, and they left off building the city. 9 Therefore it was called Babel, because there the Lord confused the language of all the earth; and from there the Lord scattered them abroad over the face of all the earth.

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Acts 2:1-21

1 When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. 2 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. 3 Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. 4 All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability.

5 Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven living in Jerusalem. 6 And at this sound the crowd gathered and was bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in the native language of each. 7 Amazed and astonished, they asked, “Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? 8 And how is it that we hear, each of us, in our own native language? 9 Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, 10 Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, 11 Cretans and Arabs—in our own languages we hear them speaking about God’s deeds of power.” 12 All were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, “What does this mean?” 13 But others sneered and said, “They are filled with new wine.”

14 But Peter, standing with the eleven, raised his voice and addressed them, “Men of Judea and all who live in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and listen to what I say. 15 Indeed, these are not drunk, as you suppose, for it is only nine o’clock in the morning. 16 No, this is what was spoken through the prophet Joel:

17 ‘In the last days it will be, God declares,

that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh,

    and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,

and your young men shall see visions,

    and your old men shall dream dreams.

18 Even upon my slaves, both men and women,

    in those days I will pour out my Spirit;

        and they shall prophesy.

19 And I will show portents in the heaven above

    and signs on the earth below,

        blood, and fire, and smoky mist.

20 The sun shall be turned to darkness

    and the moon to blood,

        before the coming of the Lord’s great and glorious day.

21 Then everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.’

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There’s 15 of us young adults who have felt the call and have chosen to respond to a holy pilgrimage. While we call these young adults Sunnysiders; there’s more to our story. In our 15 young adults journeying on our pilgrimage, our youngest participant is 19 while our eldest is 31. We have eight married people and seven single people. We have some who are in college, some who are grad school, and some who are in their careers. We have a few that grew up here at Sunnyside and others who grew up in North Carolina, Michigan, North Dakota, Colorado, California, Virginia, Canada, and Malawi. We have some who will continue with us at Sunnyside after the trip and some who are, with our blessing, moving away from our community. While all of our young adults attending this Pilgrimage are members of Sunnyside and therefore “Presbyterians,” we have some who were raised Catholic, Baptist, Pentecostal, Evangelical, and Lutheran. Gosh, we even have two people going who have two kids of their own! So here we have 15 people with different backgrounds, upbringings, traditions, cultures, and stories. Sure, we speak the same language, but these people are the modern day Pentecost story; people from different backgrounds coming together in the name of Christ hoping to understand one another.

In four days, our modern day Pentecost group – our 15 young adults – will be driving 115 miles, flying on two flights for 4347 miles, riding three buses for 158 miles, taking two ferries for 13 miles, and then hiking 1 mile (just for good measure!) to take a holy pilgrimage to Iona, Scotland. That is a total of 4634 miles and over 24 hours of travel. We’re flying out of Chicago in the afternoon on June 13^th and we will be arriving on the Isle of Iona in the afternoon on June 15^th, with only a brief overnight pit stop in a coastal town along the way. Fifteen of us are literally traveling by air, land, and sea to retreat with a holy ecumenical worshipping community on a small island in Scotland. On the week of Pentecost, we are gathering in one place with strangers across the world. You see the parallels, right?

We’ll be spending 6 full days in Iona as part of our 10-day pilgrimage. Six days in which we are retreating from the world; retreating from our busy lives; work, school, or family; to spend time with one another, with strangers around the world, and with God. We’re going to be with God and with the people of God to hear of God’s deeds of power. This is Pentecost! Sounds wonderful, right?!

And it is wonderful! Wow, it is wonderful. And a gift and a blessing, and I’m sure I speak for all the young adults when I say we are grateful for this opportunity.

But just as excited as I am, I am nervous. And most of you know me by this point, you know I’m a nervous guy, a nervous pastor. Not to the point where I’m crippled by fear, but just enough to considerably and noticeably care for what’s about to happen in next couple of months, weeks, days, hours, or even minutes. Whether you want call it nerves or not, I’m sure some of you have noticed a difference in how I “feel” before a Sunday morning worship service and after a Sunday morning worship service. And trust me when I say, telling this nervous pastor not to be nervous isn’t going to make me any less of a nervous pastor. Besides, I kind of like being nervous about certain things; it’s my way of saying those things matter to me, and I like it when things matter to me.

So yes, although excited, I, for one, am nervous for our ten-day pilgrimage and our thousands of miles of travel by air, land, and sea. But it’s not the length of our trip or where our trip is taking us or even how we are getting there; it’s because I’m convinced that while we are there, the Spirit will intercede and we will experience a moment of Pentecost. And I’m nervous for this Pentecostal moment to happen because let’s be honest, when the Spirits feels called to intercede, it’s usually at moment when we are exhausted, vulnerable, emotional, uncomfortable, and desperate.

We’ve all been in a moment where the Spirit interceded, and sure, we might have known, “yes, I need that,” but if you’re like me, at one point, you may have groaned and said, “but no, I don’t really want that.”

So yes, I’m nervous because I think the Spirit will intercede and the young adults will experience a modern day Pentecost and all of us in our different backgrounds will come together and fully understand one another and bond tremendously and probably cry and laugh but at the same time, I’m like God, I’m exhausted; I don’t want to cry because I don’t want to feel exhausted, vulnerable, emotional, uncomfortable, and desperate because that’s just really too much right now but I guess you’re saying we need that, so I’m doing my best to be okay with that, so I’m just going to listen and follow your lead and know that it needs to happen and that it needs to happen because it matters and because it matters, I’m going to be nervous about it. All right, God, here I am; I am listening!

Hmm. Moment of Pentecost are tough.

But I feel like I get why they have to be; why moments of Pentecost are tough.

The first Pentecost was. There were a group of people from all over gathered in one place. Suddenly, a sound like a violent wind rushed through them and tongues of fire danced on each of their shoulders. People began speaking in different languages, and the crowds were bewildered. No part of this story is “calm” nor “collected” – violent wind and fire, unknown languages and large crowds – friends, this is the definition of tough.

But in this chaotic moment, as they each spoke in different languages but yet still understanding each other in their own languages, they were amazed and astonished and perplexed. This moment was so chaotic that some thought everybody had been drinking too much wine. It’s a humorous moment; in the chaos, in the wind and the flame and the different tongues, people were like, “Hold up; it’s cool; they’re just drunk. Ignore the wind and the flame and the tongues because look, wine does that to people.”

But it wasn’t the wine, after all it was nine in the morning; yes, nine in the morning, this is what the text says. It wasn’t the wine.

Instead, Peter, with the eleven other disciples by his side, addresses the crowd and he announced that was happened was the fulfillment of the prophesy spoken by Joel, in which the Spirit would be poured out among all flesh, men and women alike, old and young, everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord; the Spirit will come to them and they will come together.

This is Pentecost. This is the start of the church. And as I said, this moment was tough. Full of confusion and chaos, shouts and crowds; probably high emotions and exhaustions, the Spirit interceded. The moment was tough; Pentecost is tough.

One of the most profound theological statements, in my opinion—one of the most profound theological statements is something Jesus says as recorded in the Gospel in John. In Jesus’ declaration of himself as the gate for the sheep; Jesus concludes this by saying, “I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.”

Abundantly. Not perfectly or beautifully or divinely. Abundantly.

I’ve understood this as life that comes with all the joys and wonders and celebrations along with all the moments of roughness and toughness and exhaustion. To experience life abundant, we don’t get be complacent and enjoy just the good things. To experience life abundant, we must work through the toughness to enjoy the better things. We must experience tough moments in which we need the Spirit to intercede for the Spirit to intercede.

We see this in story from Genesis. God’s people have settled in the land of Shinar, all of them. This is a direct rebellion of what God has commanded of them; to “spread out and fill the whole earth” – three times in the previous chapters of Genesis, God says this to the people, “spread out over the earth!” So what did they do? The exact opposite and they stayed in one place. Here, the people are trying to make a name for themselves and they attempt to build a tower so tall and so great, that all who see it and hear about it will speak of their glory. Not God’s glory; their glory.

And everything is so easy for them that they quit listening to God all together. They quit listening.

So the Spirit intercedes; and their language became languages and they were confused. And because they were not able to listen to one another, they listened to God. And by listening to God, they were scattered and spread across the earth, like God had intended.

That moment, like our other moments mentioned today, must have been tough. To once understand but to no longer. To be so desperate to understand that all they could do was rely on God.

But immediately following the spreading of the people across the land, God blesses them through Abram as God’s chosen people. Once again, something tough was experienced for something better to follow.

I still think that happens today.

Maybe it makes sense that different languages aren’t the only thing that divides us today. Maybe it’s important that sometimes we don’t connect on generational topics or words. Maybe it’s necessary that not everyone believes the same things when it comes to politics. Maybe God wants us to have deep ecumenical and interfaith conversations about religion. Because if we always just understood each other, so complacent and carefree, would we be willing to listen for other voices? Would be willing to listen for God’s voice? Would we want the Spirit to intercede? Would we let it? Would we be willing to be challenged to learn and grow and make progress for everyone if we were already okay in the first place?

Friends, I’m saying, Scriptures shows to us that we are not always going to understand one another, not just in our languages but in our beliefs. And that’s okay because when we don’t understand one another and experience the toughness that life throws our way, the Spirit will intercede and then we will understand one another. And because we experienced the moment in which we didn’t understand each other, the moment we finally do will feel even better; more beautiful, more divine, more perfect because it wasn’t something we always had but something we had to strive to be given.

But friends, and this is important, to let the Spirit intercede so that we might understand each other; to let the Spirit intercede, we must listen. Having a voice doesn’t mean we are always speaking. Finding your voice happens when we listen for God. Listening for your voice is how we understand one another. That’s the modern day Pentecost.

As I wrote this sermon, I became a little more okay and accepting of the Spirit interceding. At this point, I might even say not only do I need the Spirit to intercede, but also that I want the Spirit to intercede. As we leave this for Pilgrimage, I’m praying and pleading; bring on the Pentecost!

For our young adults, traveling across the world by air, land, and sea to retreat on a small isle for six days as part of a ten-day pilgrimage, knowing it will bring out exhaustion and vulnerability, might be the tough thing we have to endure. But we all know, it will be worth it for what God will do for us there, hopefully bringing a new sense of renewal, rest, and fellowship to our community. So we hear this call, we are willing to be challenged, we are listening for the Spirit to intercede.

So for the rest of you… what is calling to you? What toughness must you endure? How can you be challenged? Do you need the Spirit to intercede? Will you let the Spirit intercede? Are you listening? Friends, are you listening?

In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.

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Sing Praises

“Sing Praises” was preached at Sunnyside Presbyterian Church on June 2, 2019. This sermon was inspired by Scripture, commentaries, LGBTQ+ Pride month, chosen families, the Ascension of our Lord, and Graduation Sunday.  You can listen to an audio clip of this sermon here. You can watch a video of the entire worship service here.

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Luke 24:44-53

44 Then he said to them, “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you—that everything written about me in the law of Moses, the prophets, and the psalms must be fulfilled.” 45 Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures, 46 and he said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Messiah is to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day, 47 and that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. 48 You are witnesses of these things. 49 And see, I am sending upon you what my Father promised; so stay here in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high.”

50 Then he led them out as far as Bethany, and, lifting up his hands, he blessed them. 51 While he was blessing them, he withdrew from them and was carried up into heaven. 52 And they worshiped him, and returned to Jerusalem with great joy; 53 and they were continually in the temple blessing God.

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Psalm 47

1 Clap your hands, all you peoples;

    shout to God with loud songs of joy.

2 For the Lord, the Most High, is awesome,

    a great king over all the earth.

3 He subdued peoples under us,

    and nations under our feet.

4 He chose our heritage for us,

    the pride of Jacob whom he loves. Selah

5 God has gone up with a shout,

    the Lord with the sound of a trumpet.

6 Sing praises to God, sing praises;

    sing praises to our King, sing praises.

7 For God is the king of all the earth;

    sing praises with a psalm.

8 God is king over the nations;

    God sits on his holy throne.

9 The princes of the peoples gather

    as the people of the God of Abraham.

For the shields of the earth belong to God;

    he is highly exalted.

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RuPaul Charles; a gay performer, LGBTQ+ activist, and a drag queen – yes, I’m about to quote a drag queen for my opening line for this sermon – RuPaul Charles, after hearing how a younger gay man, a mentee of his, was abandoned by his mother at a bus station, famously said, “You know, we as gay people, we get to choose our family. We get to choose the people we’re around. You are my family.”

It was a moment of love and affirmation for this young gay man; after the trauma of being abandoned by his own blood family; this was the moment he was told that the people that surrounded him, those who did support him and love him, those people were his family. People he chose and the people that chose him; that’s his chosen family.

Chosen families are a well-known concept in the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer Plus community. They publicly date back to the 1920s but really emerged in the 1960s, as young queer people were abused, assaulted, and disowned by their own blood families. Homeless and abandoned, they would move to cities, mostly along the northern east coast, including New York City. Those who were fortunate would be “adopted” by other queer people. In apartments and studios full of queer people, houses and families were formed. And usually, there would be a head of each family, respectfully called Father or more often, Mother. These families were not united by blood, but by a common experience, similar stories, and most importantly, love for one another.

I admire this about the history of LGBTQ+ community and their creation of chosen families… but I no longer believe they are alone in this. The healthiest of churches – communities of faith – are also chosen families, something we might have subconsciously learned from the LGBTQ+ community.

There was a time, and some of you remember this time, that going to church was the thing to do. Every Sunday morning, families were to be in church. Not only was it a normal practice; it was an expected practice. Over time, due to shifts in culture and a secularization of Sundays, what was once expected became more optional. Families with children and youth, due to busy weekend schedules for sports or performances, jobs and vacations, attending church became a less frequent practice. And as those children and youth became adults and due to even greater shifts in culture and a further secularization of Sundays, many of them quit attending church altogether.

Now as part of our Engaging Young Adults research grant, we at Sunnyside in collaboration with other Indiana churches, have learned that spirituality and the belief of a higher power has not decreased among young adults compared to earlier generations, but instead, it’s their participation in a church that has significantly decreased. Along the way of the generational shift that church is now optional, many young adults came to the conclusion that coming to church even occasionally is not necessary to the praise and worship of God.

And to an extent, I can agree with that. Coming to church is not a requirement for a Christian to follow Christ nor is it the only way any of us can praise, worship, or have a relationship with God.

Yet you all are still here, sitting in church this beautiful Sunday morning. Children, youth, and adults; young and old alike—all here gathered together in the name of Christ.

And I’m sure each of us have our own reasons as to why we are here this morning, but I think for some of us, especially here at Sunnyside, we are here to sing praises for God with people who share a common experience, similar stories, and most importantly, love for one another. This is our own chosen family.

Our Psalm today, an actual song of praise, glorifies this; how God chooses to be with God’s people and how God chooses for us to be together. The Israelites, God’s chosen people, are glorifying God in this Psalm. With shouts of certainty and joy, they are celebrating that God is in control. This Psalm has no moments of doubt or distress, no moments of lament or desperation; it only lifts up the confident trust in the authority that God is their God and they are God’s people. And since God is their God and since they are God’s people, they proclaim that God is in control, God is in power, and God is in charge; a king over them, a king they love and trust and celebrate and glorify!

And this is incredible, because when we think of kings or rulers today, we might associate them with controlling dictators or aggressive authoritarians or as the youth might put it, downright haters. But not here; not God. This ruler is one that holds all authority and power, but does so with love and mercy. And the best way they describe their king, the king of the earth and the king of the nations, is by saying their king, their Lord, the Most High, is awesome. Our God is an awesome God.

I’m hoping I’m painting this picture in your head, how great the Israelites viewed their God, the same God that rules over us today. Because it’s why they were so thankful to be a part of God’s family, brothers and sisters and siblings part of one chosen heritage. God chose them; God chose them! And so together, since they were a part of the chosen family, they praised God together. They sang God’s praises, with shouts and trumpets; they sang God’s praises.

And so we do that today, in joy and celebration, we sing God’s praises, for we too are part of the chosen family. God’s chosen family, and our own chosen family, our Sunnyside community. As I said earlier, we all have our own reasons of why we are here together this morning, but in those reasons, whatever they are, our chosen family is here singing praises to God.

And I don’t think our family came to be by accident or by chance or even by luck; that it is something God created and chose for us from the very beginning. The Israelites praised how much power and control God has; so we too can praise that God did this.

And God does this often, the creating and the choosing – the big picture planning – we see it in Christ and his ascension into heaven. This story is sometimes skipped over each year. This is because the Ascension of the Lord, according to the Christian liturgical calendar, is to be celebrated on the 40^th day following Easter. Since Easter always falls on a Sunday, the 40^th day after Easter falls on a Thursday. And since many churches don’t worship on Thursdays, including Sunnyside, sometimes we just miss this story. That is unless we take what was supposed to be celebrated on Thursday and celebrate it on the following Sunday, like we are doing today.

But this story is important and shouldn’t be skipped over because it’s the conclusion to the earthly life, death, and resurrection of Christ. The Ascension isn’t the end to Christ’s divine story or his relationship with humankind; it’s the beginning! The point of the Ascension is not that Jesus left this world and is somewhere off in heaven waiting for us to die to go meet him there, but rather the Ascension closes the door to Jesus’ earthly life where he was only with his chosen family in Jerusalem over 2000 years ago and opens the next door in which Jesus is now with his chosen family in every time and place, including this time and place. The Ascension completes the theology of who Jesus is. Jesus withdrew from his disciples not to leave them, but to finish his plan; Jesus the Incarnate Son of God who has been resurrected and glorified ascends into heaven to fulfill his role and take his proper place at the right hand of God as the Lord of Creation, the king of all the earth and the king over the nations.

And we already lifted up this today, our Lord of Creation is one who rules with power and might but also with love and mercy, the head of our Chosen Family, the Mother of our house.

I lift up chosen families for many reasons this day: I heard it in our Psalm. I feel it our Gospel reading. It’s Pride Month, and we need celebrate our queer siblings. And because I want us to be reminded that no matter what we go through; pain or celebration, transition or transformation; we too are a chosen family.

And for our graduates today, remember that. We are your family, and we celebrate you and give thanks for you and love on you. But! But soon, you will go out and make new families, maybe new church communities or clubs or teams or organizations or friends or partners; new chosen families. And so we send you forth with a blessing; a blessing that is ongoing.

We too get to choose our family. Or maybe God chooses it for us. But still, we are here together, surrounded by people whom we love and who love us. I give thanks for this chosen family. Sing praises. Thanks be to God. Amen.

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