Pleasing Meditation, a Message from Pentecost Sunday, Year B
“Pleasing Meditation”
Pentecost Sunday, Year B May 20, 2018
Acts 2:1-21 Psalm 104:24-34, 35b Romans 8:22-27
First Presbyterian Church of Sandpoint, Idaho
Pastor Andy Kennaly
Who is famous for asking this question: “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?” Fred Rogers, Presbyterian Clergy, Host of Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood which broadcast on Public Television for decades. There’s a new documentary coming out on June 8 that highlights his work with children through the medium of television. He has such a great reputation that it’s hard to imagine he had critics, but he did. His soft spoken approach didn’t match up with society’s definition of being masculine, like a John Wayne or a Clint Eastwood as a rugged individual manly-man. Fred Rogers articulated love and care, and he did this in gentle ways that affirmed the value and importance of each person. He taught children that they are special, simply because they are living creatures and sharing the happy and challenging times of life.
One of the main reasons he worked so hard to teach kids was to address what he called, “the mad inside,” as everyone has to figure out how to handle anger and that animal nature that we’re born into as humans. He basically taught coping skills; helping children learn what it takes to live a civilized life in community, one that gracefully faces societies struggles, and finding the ability to recognize emotions as they arise, such as anger or sadness. He was teaching the first steps in the process, or art, of awakening.
Ed McNulty, in a Special article to the Presbyterian News Service shares the perspective from one of Mr. Roger’s minister friends, the Rev. George Wirth, as he provides the rare theological comment that helps us see and more fully understand Mr. Rogers as more than just a humanitarian concerned for the welfare of children. As Wirth explains, Rogers managed to preach Christian values without using the doctrinal language of a sermon. Better than most ministers, and undoubtedly than any other children’s program host, he understood and shared Jesus’ concern for children.
Some of his critics, such as Fox News, accused Mr. Rogers of pandering to the Middle Class, saying he helped create the selfie generation. In a commencement speech clip in the documentary, Rogers effectively counters this when he denies that he is saying that middle-class children should have a selfish sense of entitlement. He gently reinforces his broader message of what it means to be special, by saying: What that means ultimately is you don’t ever have to do anything sensational for people to love you. As Pastor Wirth points out, This for people of faith, of course, is a description of grace. (Won’t You Be My Neighbor? Presbyterian News Service May 10, 2018 Documentary on Fred Rogers’ legacy scheduled for release June 8, by Ed McNulty | Special to Presbyterian News Service)
What that means ultimately is you don’t ever have to do anything sensational for people to love you. Wow. What an affirming reminder that simply by being who we are as children of God, created in the image of God, as part of God’s larger creation filled with divine light and life, we are worthy of love. Simply by living our ordinary, everyday life, without any need to do anything sensational, we are worthy of love.
Indeed, love is not based on worthiness as a category at all. In a culture that tends to quantify value, that commodifies basic essentials, even human rights of life like air, water, healthy food, housing, and health care, just to name a few; that determines personal worth based on productivity – this is a counter-cultural statement. This makes grace counter-cultural. That makes simply being unacceptable in view of society’s values. To not have to do anything sensational for people to love you goes against the grain of reality TV, dramas, and our own internalized assumptions about our self-worth. No need to be sensational implies unconditional love, total acceptance, a very high level of tolerance, and openness to diversity.
But how is it that this type of love is possible? It is possible because of what has always been the case: love is a gift of God. It is a gift from God, and a gift of God, of God’s very nature. God is love, and love is of God, and God’s love is what sustains all things because love is more of an action than a noun, just as God is more of an energy or a dynamic than a static entity, which would presume detachment. God is imminent, infused in the very fabric of life, of all things, all time and space. This present moment is held, cradled, and is surrounded by God’s love. God’s love is a gift, just as much as your next breath. Try and deny that gift, and things don’t last very long, and, in fact, it is an impossibility.
Today is Pentecost Sunday, the day we remember the disciples gathered in one place in Jerusalem during the biggest feast time of the year. Devout Jews from all over the known world would come and when the Holy Spirit filled the disciples with the ability to speak fluently in the various languages, this is another way of recognizing the universal impact of the Christ mystery, the relevance of who Jesus is and what Jesus did, and the powerful difference it makes in life to awaken to the Presence of God, to the active, ongoing work of the Holy Spirit, to the living Christ in our midst.
In this story, not only did the disciples speak in other languages, but the visitors understood them. This story symbolizes how the message of the Christ mystery resounds throughout the world, and resonates in every culture because it connects with the human condition that goes beyond cultural expression.
This weekend was Lost in the 50’s and one of the things that becomes very apparent is how particular car collectors can be when it comes to classic automobiles. The weather probably kept some of the potential participants away simply because the owners didn’t want their vehicles out in the potentially stormy weather. Collecting and maintaining vintage, classic cars is an entire subculture to the larger American scene. Subcultures of people with similar tastes or traits are how traditions are passed, values maintained, and identity created within specific groups. Yet God is in this mix, in ways that are larger, deeper, or more subtle than any one particular group can capture.
This morning’s scriptures, through image and story, whether the disciples are touched by tongues of fire, or the whole creation is groaning with birthpangs, through the verses draw us deeper into silence as prayer, closer to a hope that is beyond something seen or understood with our minds, and as we enter into this gift of grace we discover a larger patience in which to live by, a patience that relinquishes the need to control, that releases our clinging to how it is we thought we found our identity, that loosens the tight grip of our despair over the seemingly agonizingly slow pace of global spiritual growth and enlightenment, and we allow God’s Spirit to redefine our lives.
In my garden there is a tree that I sometimes call my Charlie Brown Tree because most of the time it’s just this little sapling of a walnut tree that has very few branches and no leaves. But this spring shows great signs of life. Those brown, hard twigs for branches have each sprouted several inches of new growth, bright green twigs coming out from the young tree. These soft, new twigs then have also produced buds, which are now opening into young leaves. The Charlie Brown Tree is coming into it’s own, and is a great illustration of the power of life, the energy of creation moving along patiently, moment by moment, with an unstoppable mandate to bring vitality and renewal. As the summer progresses, the new growth will get bark that hardens to protect it through the tough winters, preparing it for another spring and a few more inches of growth. Patience, hope, grace, nourishment, gift, and eventually life unfolds in redemptive ways that provide, in this case, shade, branches for nesting, food in the form of edible walnuts, and the satisfaction of participating in something that will outlast the life of the gardener.
As Pentecost and this morning’s scriptures remind us, we are participants in God’s larger purposes, in God’s ability to create, in God’s deeper desire to define us in ways that matter beyond the superficial or culturally driven ways that we so intensely settle for and defend. Pentecost invites us to trust God’s patience, even as we are embraced by that which truly defines: grace, love, peace.
As we live into the groaning, as we learn coping skills to release the drama of being human, as we share God’s Presence even without the need to be sensational, but rather quiet, attentive, and aware, may God be glorified, now, even as forever. Amen.