June 4, 2017 - Pentecost - A Listening Heart

 "...and he said, 'yeah, you guys are really good at welcoming the stranger when the stranger is a young, transgender kid. But sometimes the stranger looks like your mom and dad..."

(Nadia Bolz-Weber - talking to Krista Tippett, On Being)

These words came to me during Creator's Pentecost worship last Sunday. Worship is uncomfortable at times. That discomfort can translate, particularly for those holding an opinion that is not broadly shared, to feeling unwelcome.   

Pastor Michelle's sermon was about how we, at Creator, should be and are celebrating Pentecost as the church's birthday.

The Pentecost story tends to emphasize speaking in tongues, a speaking miracle where an international crowd of many understood what disciples were saying, each in their native languages.

This year I was provided with a different context to view Pentecost when Pastor Michelle opened a meeting that contained the following 1 Kings 3: 9 verse:

So give your servant a listening heart to govern your people and to distinguish between right and wrong. For who is able to govern this great people of yours?”

The listening heart was what Solomon asked for as God's gift. This year I considered Pentecost as a hearing miracle rather than a speaking miracle. Can we listen to someone speak in another tongue and hear it as our own?

For worship last Sunday our Glocal young adults and youth led the service. They sang Reamo Leboga, Njalo (Always), Gado de wan bun Gado, Dios es Nuestra Paz, and Yarabba Ssalami to open the service. Ryan was Assisting Minister and the Youth and Young Adults volunteered to for the Acolyte, Reader, Usher and Greeter positions and for vacuuming.

During the last part of the sermone they also witnessed to the activities they had been involved in for the past few months. Pastor Michelle introduced their stories in this second part as evidence of the birth of a new church, more fiery, courageous, and active, with a stronger resemblance to the first church.

Those qualities are natural to youth, those who long for change and want their Christian beliefs to guide their actions and lives. It appeared other places this week as well. Consider Pastor Michelle's reflections on the funeral she attended on Monday: 

I just attended the funeral mass for Ricky John Best, one of the heroes who was killed while trying to protect two young Muslim girls on the train on May 26. (Ricky's wife, Myhanh, did math tutoring at Creator Lutheran Church, where I serve, and sometimes Ricky and some of their kids would drop by, too. Such a gentle, faith-filled family!...)

The whole mass was a beautiful and fitting tribute, but the part that moved me most was the brief address by Harris Zafar from Portland's Rizwan Mosque, who led an adult forum on Islam at Creator last fall. Harris quoted the passage from the Qu'ran that states whoever kills another person, it's as if he had killed all of humanity, and if a person saves another person's life, it's as if he had saved all of humanity.

Then, as he choked back tears, Harris said, "Now I will go home to my children and tell them that I was wrong: Superheroes DO exist...." (Thank you, Harris!)

Jesus said, "No one has greater love than this, to lay down one's life for one's friends." (John 15:13)

Part of me swells with emotion and is inspired as I read these words. Another part of me aches to learn how to bring about a different outcome. A film, The Americanization of Emily, encapsulates and addresses this underlying concern throughout the picture, particularly when the main character observes our best inclinations to honor those sacrificed through violence. He addresses this under the broader issue of war:

We shall never end wars by blaming it on the ministers and generals, or warmongering imperialists, or all the other banal bogeys. It's the rest of us who build statues to those generals and name boulevards after those ministers. The rest of us who make heroes of our dead and shrines of our battlefields. We wear our widow's weeds like nuns and perpetuate war by exalting its sacrifices.

Pastor Michelle preached today against those who feel Christianity must be more violent, particularly against Islam. I equally worry that the nobility inspired John 15:13 may lead to future violence. Here, as far as the facts that I have seen, the lives of the two girls were no longer in the balance. What does laying down one's life for one's friends mean in this situation?

I do not necessarily disagree with the sentiment expressed at the funeral mass but are there other, better, ways to protect the vulnerable?

Perhaps we can journey to an answer through the gift of a listening heart.