Liturgy: Pentecost Sunday, Acts 2:1-21/Numbers 11:24-29 (May 19, 2024)

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Hymns

Hymn GTG #291, “Spirit, Spirit of Gentleness”
Hymn GTG #284, “Holy Spirit, Come to Us”

Hymn GTG #280, “Come, O Spirit, Dwell Among Us”

Sermon: "Follow the Thread", Acts 2:1-8/Romans 8:26-30, 38-39 (May 28, 2023)

Today is Pentecost. It’s the day that we mainline Protestants finally remember that the Trinity is more than just the Father and the Son, that there’s another divine person who often gets forgotten in our sacred storytelling. So the pastors all unpack their trusty metaphors for the Holy Spirit and the props that help drive their descriptions home: pinwheels, bubbles, red streamers, candles; basically anything that can be used to represent wind or fire.

Sermon: "The Holy They", Matthew 28.16-20/2 Peter 1.16-21 (June 12, 2022)

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Today is Trinity Sunday; the day that the Church sets aside specifically to celebrate and explore the beautiful mystery of God’s nature. I say “mystery” because, while we all pretend that the notion of one God in three persons is a completely logical idea, the truth is that it doesn’t actually make any sense at all. (If you think I’m wrong on this point, then congratulations; YOU get to do the children’s sermon next year.) The doctrine of the Trinity is an idea that many of us have been parroting our whole lives without really understanding it. Sure, we all have our favorite analogy to describe it (water, the sun, a three-leaf clover, an egg) but at the end of the day, there’s something heretical about every single one, leaving us exactly where we started.

Sermon: "Speaking in the Spirit", Acts 2:1-8, 12-13/Ezekiel 37:1-10 (May 23, 2021--Pentecost)

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When we think of the story of Pentecost, we usually think of the dramatic visuals: the individual tongues of flame alighting on each person; the confusion of the crowd; the jeering of the unbelievers. When we think of Ezekiel and the “Valley of Dry Bones,” we likewise think of the incredible imagery: the deserted low place full of dry, sun-bleached skeletons; the spectacle of these bones suddenly becoming covered in sinews and flesh and skin; the great earthquake that accompanies this miracle. If you close your eyes, it’s easy to picture these events. They’re two of the most vivid scenes in all of scripture. No wonder we’re drawn to them.

Sermon: “The Paraclete Sandwich”, John 14:15-21 (May 17, 2020)

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This week’s reading from John follows directly after the passage that we read last week. Last week, we learned that there’s no “magic feather” that we need in order to do ministry, that we already have all the knowledge and skills we need to share the gospel. But just because we don’t need anything outside of ourselves to follow God’s call doesn’t mean that we’re on our own. This week, Jesus assures us that he’ll send a companion to be with us forever: the Holy Spirit.

Sermon: “Unity Without Uniformity”, Genesis 11:1-9/Acts 2:1-21 (June 9, 2019--Pentecost)

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I feel compelled to begin my sermon today with a disclaimer. Nothing I say here today will be a new idea. None of this is groundbreaking. The thoughts that I’m sharing with you this morning occurred to me immediately after reading the scripture passages, and then nearly every commentary I read afterward affirmed them—which leads me to believe that this particular interpretation of Pentecost is based in a deeper, already-known truth. But you can judge for yourself.