May 19, 2024 - Pentecost - Living a Plural Future

Each Pentecost Creator celebrates the transformative power of the Holy Spirit shown in the birth of the Christian community in Jerusalem. 

This year that means we are expanding and allowing ourselves in that dream space of future possibilities. Our mortgage will be fully paid in January which means more choice and capacity for ministry. We look forward to further staking out the promise declared years ago in Creator's Ministry Site Profile. We truly are a pioneering people.

Last week congregational summer cottage meetings were announced. This Sunday's service included an Affirmation of Baptism as new members at Creator were welcomed. Many languages were spoken, sung and learned throughout this Pentecost service. They served as gentle reminders of how wide our arms must stretch to fully embrace our neighbors and the diversity we seek.

Last year we looked forward to Pastor Emillie's arrival and remembered then that Pentecost was once primarily a harvest festival where far-flung people gathered together to rejoice in God-given abundance. Pentecost also commemorates the giving of the Torah to Moses. Creator also remembered through last year's sermon how the story elements in Acts echo the origin story in Genesis. Both emphasize wind (on the face of the water in the beginning) and breath (God breathing life into us).

Sunday Worship Service Setting - Glocal Music Selections

At today's service Lenia served as Assisting Minister and, besides giving the normal parts of the service associated with that role, opened the service with a Spanish greeting. Pastor Emillie shared this day's Reflection with a youth who belongs to the SE Portland Youth Collective. Jenny gave her passionate reflection on the impact of impending decisions regarding the Wichita Center and its importance to the Youth Collective and the local community. 

After all, Pentecost isn't simply a remembrance of the birthday of the church. There were no balloons or birthday cake served at worship. Rather the service shimmered as new communities at Creator were forged. One was a community of familiar faces. Our new members, who officially joined Creator today, have already been active. They have been both volunteers and leading members in the congregation. 

The other new community was animated by a similar fire and wind described in the first Pentecost. There was a glimpse of a wider world community through what were unfamiliar languages and rhythms for us. Partly this was planned, and partly more mysterious. What was enacted in the sanctuary triggered this mystery. 

Often the account in Acts is overwhelming with its spectacle of wind and miracle of language. Or perhaps the miracle of Pentecost is dwarfed by its close juxtaposition with the miracle of the resurrection. For whatever reason, examining why this day is recognized as the birthday of the church was something I have rarely questioned. 

Certainly there were disciples, followers and individuals baptized before Pentecost but something unique happened at this gathering. Something I'll call the knowledge of living a new life "in plural". What we would now call being part of the body of Christ. When Jesus was human this life was not possible in the same way. What follows shortly after today's reading was a mass baptism of many of those who were assembled. They were the first Christian converts. At the heart of the church is an embrace of our mutual life. Lloyd, Creator's current council president, emphasized this at the congregational meeting held after the service.

Much of the music we sang captured this as well. In particular there were the words and music of the Sanctus You Are Holy:

You are holy, you are whole.
You are always ever more than we ever understand.
You are always at hand.

Defining what is an individual's identity and effort and what is collective identity becomes interestingly blurred in this promise of new life in Christ. 

Rosie read beautifully this morning the Acts account of all those who were gathered at that first Pentecost. These were mostly people inhabiting lands under foreign occupation and that one detail is instructive. In contrast to the history that later happened, the first church crowd clearly stood against the recognition of empirical power as a supreme good. 

And yet, since this power is always present, what is the next step for today's church? Can our future be prophesied? Are there more visions for us to see? Are there more dreams for us to dream?

The last song in the service rang out a loud response. We are marching in the light of God, confident that God continues to breathe through all of us with those much needed visions and dreams.