June 4, 2006
(The Day of Pentecost: Whitsunday)

Return to Your First Love

By The Very Rev. Terry White, Dean

Acts 2:1-11  •  Psalm 104:24-34,35b  •  1 Corinthians 12:4-13  •  John 20:19-23
(From The Lectionary Page)

Alleluia! Christ is risen!

I wish to remind us all that when St. John refers to the doors being locked for fear of the Jews, he is referring to how the disciples feared the religious authorities who conspired to kill Jesus and who might now be seeking them, and is not a condemnation of the Jewish people.

I want to reveal something that you may not know about me: from time to time I like to poke fun at things.

The years that Holy Week and Passover coincide, I look forward to watching Cecil B. DeMille’s movie The Ten Commandments. Among the moments I look forward to is when God calls to Moses from the Burning Bush. God has some voice! (And how do you get that job?) If you cup your hands over your mouth just so, you can produce a good imitation of that voice: Moses! Moses!

In the movie the voice returns when Moses is on Mt. Sinai and receives the Ten Commandments. As fire strikes the rock of the mountain, God speaks each law, and the law is written. In the Jewish calendar, the day the Law – Torah – was given to Moses is called the Feast of Weeks, or Feast of Harvest, or Gathering of First Fruits concluding the weeks of harvesting the grain. But in Greek the festival is called, Pentecost, the Fiftieth Day, 50 days after Passover.

When St. Luke writes in our first lesson that the Day of Pentecost had come, he was referring the celebration of the Giving of the Law.

And as much as I like to poke fun, Mr. DeMille’s movie does a fair job of capturing how Jewish tradition describes the original day of Pentecost, when the Law was given.

• On Mount Sinai, a mighty wind turned into flame, and a voice proclaimed the law.
• The fire then split into seventy flames, representing the known countries of the world at that time, for the law of God was to be proclaimed not just to the Hebrews, but to all humankind.

In our prayer book, the Ten Commandments are also called by a Greek name: The Decalogue. The Ten Words. The 10 Words of God.

And so Luke writes that on the festival celebrating God speaking these most important Ten Words to all the known world, the Ten Words that most described God’s relationship with God’s people, on this festival the Holy Spirit was given to the followers of Jesus, empowering them to speak to all people of God’s love seen in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. Surrounded by wind and fire which recalled the first Pentecost on Mt. Sinai, the disciples proclaimed not the Ten Words of God, but The Word of God Made Flesh. And so the body of believers, what became the Church, was born.

You and I have experienced the essence of Pentecost in Baptism. The Holy Spirit is given us, and the same Spirit gives us words to speak, the gospel. Our proclamation will take many forms as Paul says in his letter to the Corinthians, the gospel of Christ will be expressed through various gifts. But no matter what form our message takes, it will always point to Christ Jesus.

When a former bishop of mine was a newly ordained priest, he joined several newly ordained Roman Catholic priests at a monastery for a retreat led by gifted priest and monk. For several days, the newly ordained priests donned their cassocks and joined the monastic community for the daily offices of prayer and praise, for work and recreation, and then met as group with the retreat leader. Indeed he was wise, and they lapped up his talks on spirituality and piety.

In the concluding session of the retreat, the leader read the following from the second chapter of the Book of Revelation, where the Risen Christ says these words to the Church in Ephesus:

“I know your works, your toil and your patient endurance. I know that you cannot tolerate evildoers; you have tested those who claim to be apostles but are not, and have found them to be false. I also know that you are bearing up for the sake of my name, and that you have not grown weary. And the monk paused.

The new priests practically glowed with beatific glory. Yes, these words truly described who they now were. Priests of God, so ardently committed to doing God’s work. They would have to endure difficult lay leaders who challenged them and misguided parishioners who didn’t under the liturgy and church law as well as they. For Jesus’ sake they would endure all this and more, and they would not grow weary. The new priests almost winked knowingly at each other.

And then wise monk read the concluding verse:

But I have this against you, that you have abandoned your first love. (Rev. 2:2-4)

The monk concluded by saying: Right now the newness of Holy Orders fills you with great desire. From the joy of wearing of a clerical collar to celebrating a 7 a.m. Mass, you are eager to serve. But the day will come when the novelty wears off, and you will learn that parish ministry is different from what you imagined, and pressures will build. At some point you will realize that you have been reduced to being a technician of the sacred.

That is when you will be ready to hear the Risen Christ say to you: “Return to you first love – me. Proclaim me, not your priesthood, not you notions of what is right and wrong, not yourselves, but proclaim me. And you will be renewed by my love.”

This day of Pentecost is such a call to each of us. It is meant for all of us who feel that our baptism has little or no connection to our daily life. This feast is for all of us who regularly perform our tasks in the liturgy and our ministries in the parish and in the world, but who get little joy out of our work, and too often complain about its demands or even resent the responsibilities of our calling.

Pentecost is a call to return to our first love. To proclaim Christ, whose love and life have triumphed over death, who has broken every chain and every hold which sin has on us.

On this day you and I are given a language to speak, good news to share.

• To those occupying the seats of economic and political power, we need to tell the story of God’s unconditional love for all, and the special need to care for the most vulnerable and rejected.
• Our city’s streets too often run red from bloodshed, and the noise heard in the streets is of gunfire. We need to raise our voices and work diligently for the justice and peace of Christ, that the fire of God’s passion for all people might fill our streets.
• If Jesus is our first love, then we must use our creativity and money to blast through walls of separation, walls so cowardly constructed, intent on dividing us from others based on differences in race, gender, sexual orientation, economic status, or political affiliation.

The first Christian Pentecost was acted out in the streets of Jerusalem. We must act out Pentecost in the streets of Kansas City.

I’ll always poke fun at the voice of God in the movie The Ten Commandments. But let us never make light of the fact that God expects the Church, the Body of Christ, you and me, to speak up, to act up, and to get up and out into the streets. God expects us to speak in new ways, that God’s love, reconciliation, forgiveness, and justice may be understood as clearly as our first language, enabling all people of good will to embrace and live out God’s vision for humanity.

We are not technicians of the sacred – we are a royal priesthood, beloved of God, saved by Grace and born of the Spirit. Claim your first love! Be God’s voice! Speak God’s Words! Be Pentecost!