Sermon ~ Pentecost

The first reading feels an awful lot like the state of our country and world right now. From the President, Congress & Supreme Court on down to each of us. Everyone is talking and no one is listening. I am guilty of it myself. What I always tell my older son, who is passionate about political and social issues, what I always try to remember myself, is that “everyone has a story”. Everyone has a reason for thinking the way they do. We see systemic racism, queerphobia, misogyny, anti-choice, etc. Those viewpoints have oftentimes been ingrained and reinforced by a person’s nuclear and extended family, their surroundings, their church community is they have one and their secular community, over generations. What we see as obvious compassionate truths are seen as against nature, against God, against common sense, against the moral order; what others see as truth is as obvious as the blue in the sky. So what happens then?  We “babble”. We talk at each other, past each other, over each other, as loud and as forcefully as possible. We don’t wait for an answer, or the other person’s viewpoint, because we ARE right after all. Why can’t they SEE it??? It’s as obvious…as the blue in the sky.

Why can’t they see it? Because many times we simply aren’t speaking the same language. What we hear are THOSE PEOPLE babbling at us. What THEY hear, is US PEOPLE babbling at them. It’s a stalemate before the game even begins; we have all decided that we aren’t going to hear each other because we’re right and they aren’t; they’ll hear the truth if we have to ram it into their ears.

So I have to do what I’ve exhorted my son James to do when he “others” those with whom he vehemently disagrees; Listen for God’s beloved person under the other, their language behind the babble. Hear their story if they’ll tell it. Offer my own story if they’ll hear it. Remember the truth that every single one of us is Beloved of God. Lead with compassion, a listening heart. Lead with love. We do not have to agree, be in lockstep with every issue or even most issues. We can BEGIN to quiet the babble by recognizing the dignity and goodness and worth of the person in front of us. Whoever they are. Whatever they believe. Begin there. And let the Spirit do Her work from there.

Let anyone who thirsts come to me and drink...

As for the Gospel,  I cannot think of a better way to describe St. Francis Community of Faith. All are welcome in this place. And it is fitting that now, with the Church celebrating her founding, we of St. Francis will celebrate a new beginning as well.

I remember walking into this church with my partner a few years ago in the middle of Advent. At the time I was in my 1^st year of interfaith seminary at One Spirit Learning Alliance (no relation). And I was searching. Before entering seminary, I made my break with the Roman Church official by resigning from the Secular Franciscan Order. It was heart wrenching to do, because the Roman Church was all I knew and I loved my Franciscan family; really the only thing that was holding me there.  I was learning much about the nature of Spirit through all the other world religions I was being exposed to through seminary. I was indeed experiencing the Spirit through Sufi dervishes, Buddhist sangha meditation, and Hindu prayer. But what I was gradually learning was that my heart and my lens through which I recognized Spirit most clearly remained Catholic Christian. But how could I reconcile this with leaving the Roman Church? I’d been aware of the Independent Catholic movement for quite some time and had always been intrigued. But there was no way to access it. There was nothing local. And at the time, I had no real exposure to the wonders of zoom. 

And then I found out about a little Catholic community that met in Plainview. A few towns over. I don’t remember if it was a Facebook search or what. But St. Francis came up in my feed. I remember reaching out to Bishop Ken on Facebook who said “Come on down!” So we did.  We were welcomed at the door by Ken and we found our seats. The big Christmas tree was in the corner and there were a couple of other congregants and that was it. I was fine with that; melting into a crowd would have been too easy. Being in the presence of Word and Sacrament for the first time in maybe 2 years was moving for me. As we were invited up to the altar to bear witness to the consecration, Jesus was waiting for me there like He’d been in every Tabernacle since my first Holy Communion. It was the strangest feeling of coming home.

After Mass, I had the opportunity to thank Bishop Ken for the beautiful Mass. We got to talking for a few moments and I mentioned I was currently studying in an interfaith seminary. He said, “Well then you’ll just have to come back when you’re ordained and say Mass for us!”

I can’t express my shock in that moment, though I am sure my partner could describe it. That was the beginning of my path to priesthood with the Catholic Diocese of One Spirit and St. Francis Community of faith.

And now we have come to yet another blind curve in our path; we don’t know what lies ahead, in a more profound way than usual. St. Francis Community of Faith will have new more comfortably fitting home, outside of the familiar structure of an established “brink and mortar” church for the first time. As Bishop Ken is fond of saying, our community is small but mighty!  And on this Pentecost our small and mighty community needs to reinvigorate and perhaps be born again in many ways. Each of us separately and all of us together should consider what gifts we can bring to the Table and share with the community at large. As I mentioned in my email last week, our weekly Mass is indeed the center of our Christian life, where we are nourished at the Eucharistic Table. But consider what we are being nourished FOR. The poor, those in emotional and spiritual need, the destitute… those who are “othered”. How can we bring the Spirit of St. Francis not only into our church gatherings but into the community at large? How do we fulfill our Great Commission to show the world the very face of Love? Each of us, all of us, have unique gifts that no one else in the world possesses; as Paul tells us, we are the firstfruits of the Spirt. Let us each discern together how to let the fruit of St. Francis blossom and fulfill God’s promise of a better world. It sounds so overwhelming, but Act as if ye have faith and faith will be given unto thee. Or to put it in more familiar terms… Fake it til ya make it. Jesus promised that He would be there where 2 or 3 are gathered in His name. Here we are. The Spirit has come and is with us.

Let us listen to Her.

A prayer for Pentecost~

Come, Holy Spirit, come!

Come as holy fire & burn in us,

come as holy wind & cleanse us,

come as holy light & lead us,

come as holy truth & teach us,

come as holy forgiveness & free us,

come as holy love & enfold us,

come as holy power & enable us,

come as holy life & dwell in us, convict us, convert us, consecrate us, until we are wholly Yours ❤