Prelude - How Great Thou Art [Arr. by S. K. Hine] - Sarah Park
We are a community seeking to have open minds, open hearts, and open arms, building community in a fragmented world.
Opening Scripture - Psalm 104:1-5
1Bless the Lord, O my soul. O Lord my God, you are very great. You are clothed with honor and majesty, 2wrapped in light as with a garment. You stretch out the heavens like a tent, 3you set the beams of your chambers on the waters, you make the clouds your chariot, you ride on the wings of the wind, 4you make the winds your messengers, fire and flame your ministers. 5You set the earth on its foundations, so that it shall never be shaken.
*Response - Weave
Weave, weave, weave us together, Weave us together, in unity and love.
Weave, weave, weave us together, weave us together, together in love.
*Call to Worship - Aspen Baynes
ONE: A wind breathes among us, calling us to gather in the name of the Holy One.
ALL: A fire burns within us, calling us to service, calling us to prayer.
ONE: A spirit moves between us, moving us to listen to the world with compassion and understanding.
ALL: Burning, breathing, Spirit of Love, we bring our lives to you.
*Opening Hymn - Come, Holy Spirit, Heavenly Dove #248, v.1&3
1 Come, Holy Spirit, heavenly Dove, with all your quickening powers;
kindle a flame of sacred love in these cold hearts of ours.
3 Come, Holy Spirit, heavenly Dove, with all your enlivening ways;
come, shed abroad the Savior’s love, and teach our hearts to praise.
Invitation to Generosity - Aspen Baynes
Invitation
Offertory
Music: “Great is Thy Faithfulness” [by William M. Runyan]
The Doxology #46
Praise God from whom all blessings flow; praise God, all creatures here below;
praise God above, ye heavenly host: Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Amen.
Offering Prayer - Aspen Baynes
Children’s Moment Rev. Chad Delaney
- Flashlight - batteries
- Powersource
- Church has a power source
Pastoral Prayer - Rev. Chad Delaney
Holy Spirit, Creator, in the beginning you moved over the waters. From your breath all creation drew life. Without you, life turns to dust. Bring to our minds where you have created life this week…. For this we give you praise...
Holy Spirit, Counselor, by your inspiration, the prophets spoke and acted in faith. You clothed them in power to be bearers of your Word. In the quiet of this moment, counsel us as to where we have lived out of our brokenness and caused harm to You, to ourselves, to others, to the earth.
Holy Spirit, hear our prayers of quiet repentance…
Holy Spirit, Sanctifier, you created us children of God; you make us the living temple of your presence; you intercede within us with sighs too deep for words. We welcome your forgiveness in our hearts. Bring to mind ways to seek reconciliation in relationships that are strained or broken. Give us the strength and courage to follow through. Help us to listen to one another and the cries of our hearts.
We lift to you the joys and concerns of our hearts….
God of power, may the boldness of your Spirit transform us, may the gentleness of your Spirit lead us, and may the gifts of your Spirit equip us to serve and worship you now and always. Amen.
Communion
Meditation - Roger Cram
Communion Hymn - Take Our Bread #413, v. 1 & 2
Refrain: Take our bread, we ask you; take our hearts, we love you;
Take our lives, O Dear God, we are yours, we are yours.
Yours as we stand at the table you set; Yours as we eat the bread our hearts can’t forget
We are the sign of your life with us yet we are yours, we are yours [Refrain]
Your holy people standing washed in your blood, Spirit-filled yet hungry we await your food.
We are poor, but we’ve brought ourselves the best that we could, We are yours, we are yours. [Refrain]
Prayer & Lord’s Prayer - Roger Cram
Words of Institution - Rev. Chad Delaney
Music: “Jesus, Keep Me Near the Cross” [by Fanny Crosby]
Scripture - Acts 2:1-13
When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. 2And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. 3Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. 4All 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. 6And at this sound the crowd gathered and was bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in the native language of each. 7Amazed and astonished, they asked, ‘Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? 8And how is it that we hear, each of us, in our own native language? 9Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, 10Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, 11Cretans and Arabs—in our own languages we hear them speaking about God’s deeds of power.’ 12All were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, ‘What does this mean?’ 13But others sneered and said, ‘They are filled with new wine.’
Sermon - A Crossable Divide
Have you ever heard of the language Malayalam?
I read a story this week told by writer named Debie Thomas. Malayalam is her native language. Her parents emigrated to the United States when she was an infant, and in their home they always spoke her native language. She grew up bilingual.Malayalam is one of 21 languages spoken in India and over 38 MILLION people speak it. Yet, when speaking to her friends or any other Americans, she had never once met anyone who had even heard of her language, let alone speak it. So isolated are most English-speakers to a world filled with different languages.
So you can imagine her surprise when at 9 or 10 years old, her uncle gathered the family for a “special surprise.” They gathered together and there was a woman named Sarah waiting for them -- Sarah was blonde-haired, blue-eyed, fair-skinned young women in a room full of Indian people. To their absolute astonishment, Sarah greeted them in Malayalam and spent the evening with them talking about her time in India and listening to their stories in their native language.
Debie related that this was a huge moment for her--she even says that it “altered her world.”
She says:
Something became possible for the first time — an alliance, a bridging, a new kind of empathy and friendship. When my family experienced the unprecedented pleasure of hearing "an American" speak our language, we realized that the many distances separating "us" from "them" were not, in fact, un-crossable. Sarah — the stranger — had taken a risk, made herself vulnerable, and entered our world. In doing so, she had rendered us less strange. Less alien. Less Other.
A Powerful Story!
We live in a world of many different languages. EVEN within our American culture there are many different languages. And I’m not talking about English and Spanish and Italian and French and Pennsylvania Dutch. There are other kinds of “different language” even within English.
- In learning from young people I’ve learned what “meme” means. I’ve learned crypto words like hodling and bulls and bears and Non-fungible means.
- Or what about human sexuality and gender? Lots of new language -- queer, pan, bi, intersex, cis, trans, non-binary, asexual. More than a few times I’ve spoken to people in our church and beyond who are confused and even frustrated by all these new terms and ideas.
- What about saying “vaccine-hesitant” instead of “anti-vaxxer”
- Calling immigrants migrants, sojourners, and seeing them as fellow humans…not as alien, foreigner, or “illegals”
- We have churchese -- deacons, fellowship, narthex, worship, ecclesiology, saved, word…
- So much diversity and difference within a language.
Something powerful and amazing happens at this Pentecost event in our passage today. The HOLY SPIRIT invades their world and seems to make the impossible possible.
Jerusalem was a place many different people from many nations gathered and certainly there were so many barriers between them. Yet…these that were moved by the Spirit of God could understand one another in their native languages. It is the inverse of what happened in the wonderful story in Genesis 11 at the Tower of Babel. At the tower of Babel, the people had one language and due to their arrogance God gave them different languages and spread them out across the earth. Here, in the book of Acts, these who were gathered--though of different tribes, tongues and culture--could understand and hear one another. Their languages and cultures are NOT extinguished by the Spirit…instead the Holy Spirit connects them in a powerful and transformational way.
Today, there seems to be a chasm of understanding even between those who follow the Christian Tradition. Gaps in values, beliefs, theology, and perspective. Many of those are healthy and create generative dialogue. Others however are destructive to our witness as those who follow Jesus. They continue to contribute to the spirit of division, hatred, and prejudice in our country and our world. We may never agree on certain things, but could we at least hear one another in our native language?
Embedded here is a lesson for our day and time and a recognition about what God’s Spirit can do inside of us and in between us. To make gaps of language and belief, politics and religion perhaps more CROSS-ABLE than we ever imagined. How will we take the first step? In the example of Sarah in our story earlier to take the risk, the vulnerability of entering into another person’s shoes and world…and trying to learn more and understand them better--to really hear them in their native language. It is an act of Love. An act of grace. To hear in their own way of speaking their hurts and pains, their joys and celebrations, their passions and concerns. It would take time, energy, tolerance, and generosity…but what an extraordinary gift that would be!
Would that even be possible? We see in the story that there were those who believed and were in awe….and there were others who weren’t and even accused them of being drunken fools. But might we believe it possible that the Holy Spirit would come so powerfully that people actually could understand one another. Notice that the Holy Spirit didn’t prompt them to scoff at the other languages. Or prompt them to expect others to speak their own language. Or to dismiss each other for speaking as different, foreign, other.
Think what the world would say….
“7Amazed and astonished, they asked, ‘Are not all these who are speaking Christians? 8And how is it that we hear, each of us, in our own native language? 9Liberals, Conservatives, men and women and non-binary, East coasters and West coasters, Baptists and Disciples, 10Straight and Gay, Millenials and Boomers, Black and brown and white, all different accents, colors, and cultures—in our own languages we hear them speaking about God’s deeds of power.’
Church Family, may the Holy Spirit be like the rush of a violent wind around us, light a fire within us, build bridges between us…so that together we might share the Good News of God’s deeds of great power in the world. May it be so.
*Closing Hymn - Breathe on Me, Breath of God #254, v.1-3
1 Breathe on me, Breath of God, fill me with life anew,
that I may love what thou dost love, and do what thou wouldst do.
2 Breathe on me, Breath of God, until my heart is pure,
until with thee I will one will to do and to endure.
3 Breathe on me, Breath of God, till I am wholly thine,
until this earthly part of me glows with thy fire divine.
Benediction - Rev. Chad Delaney
Go out into the world, and serve one another to bring forth new life.
Dream dreams, pursue visions
and listen with your whole heart to your neighbors, enemies, and friends.
And may the God who breathed life into creation be your delight.
May Christ Jesus give hope to your living and loving,
and may the Holy Spirit set your hearts ablaze with a passion for peace.
We go in peace to love and serve the Lord, Amen.
Postlude - “I am Thine, O Lord, I Have Heard Thy Voice” [by W. Howard Doane] - Sarah Park