Bible Text: 1 Peter 3:13-22 | Preacher: Pastor Dorry Newcomer | Series: 1 Peter | Happy Pentecost!  Is that what we say for Pentecost?  I was thinking about “Happy Birthday”, and since Pentecost is the birthday of the Church, “Happy Pentecost” seems appropriate.  But is “happy” the best adjective for Pentecost?  Since Pentecost marks the coming of the Holy Spirit, we could wish each other an Exuberant Pentecost!  Or Lively Pentecost!  Or how about, “Have a high-spirited Pentecost!”

I like all those ideas better than simply saying, “Happy Pentecost.”  But maybe what we should really wish each for other is a to have an “over the moon Pentecost”!  The Book of Acts records how, on that first Pentecost Sunday after Jesus’ death and resurrection,  the disciples were all gathered together, awaiting further instructions as Jesus told them to, when “suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting.  Divide tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them.  All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability.”  (Acts 2:2-4)

This year on Easter Sunday we said, “It’s always moonrise somewhere”.  We spent the last several weeks thinking about the living hope Peter says we have been born into.  During this pandemic, we’ve been dealing with the stress of quarantine and the threat of illness by holding on to the moonlight while we wait for the sun to rise again.

But with Pentecost, a new light comes.  The light of the Holy Spirit.  That’s why we can have an “Over the Moon Pentecost”!  We’re done having to rely on the moonlight to guide us and sustain us.  We waited long enough.  Now we have the fire of the Holy Spirit, a light that perhaps glows brightest of all in the dark.  What do you think?  Are you ready for an “Over the Moon Pentecost?”

Granted, this is not a term you’ll find anyplace official.  But “over the moon” is how the Christian Church has been celebrating Pentecost for centuries.  On Pentecost we put away the white paraments with the butterflies and lilies that we have used all Easter season.  We put away the white of the moonlight, and change the paraments in the sanctuary to the red of the Holy Spirit.  In addition to red altar cloths, many churches even ask the people to wear red clothing on Pentecost.  Red symbolizes the joy and the fire of the Holy Spirit.  Here at Lima, our red paraments even have tongues of fire on them.  The tongues of fire inspired our United Methodist logo, which combines the cross and the flame.  The tongues of fire remind us that all year long, we are not only guided by the light of Christ, we are guided and sustained by the light of the Spirit.

And this light?  The Spirit’s light?  It’s fiery!  It’s powerful!  It’s so powerful, it enabled the disciples to speak in tongues, languages they were not otherwise familiar with.  Personally, I don’t know anyone who was suddenly able to speak and understand a completely different foreign language, like what happened to the disciples.  But I do know that we are still experiencing the Spirit enabling us to “speak in tongues” in our day and age.  That is why Peter says in our lesson today, “Always be ready to make your defense to anyone who demands from you an accounting for the hope that is within you.”  Christians speak a language that is hard for the world to understand—a syntax and life of hope instead of despair, trust instead of cynicism, meaning instead of futility.  Our lives tell a story, and the story our lives tell is markedly different because we have Christ in us.  Peter wanted every believer to be able to explain why they could “speak in tongues”—why they were filled with hope, even during times of persecution, even during times of suffering.  Christians continue to speak in tongues today by speaking a language foreign to our culture–proclaiming a message that is sparked with light in a time of darkness.

But it’s not just the content of our speech that is a witness to our faith.  It’s the method of speaking, too.  In the last two and a half months, I have found myself speaking in tongues I never spoke before!  Tongues like Video, which I could never imagine myself doing.  Tongues like “Zoom”, which I had barely heard of!  This week I tried speaking Facebook Live.  These are all “tongues” I never spoke before!

And it’s not just me!  We are truly witnesses to and participants in an extraordinary Pentecost as the whole world learns new ways of communicating so we can stay connected.  In all of that, God is at work in amazing and surprising ways, sustaining us to be good, and empowering us to do good.  This is an important point to hold on to as we think about “when we will get back to normal”?  Actually, from a spiritual standpoint, we never left normal.  On Pentecost we are reminded that God has been at work in amazing and surprising ways since Day One of the history of the Church! Throughout our entire history, God has not stopped working in amazing and surprising ways.  From a spiritual standpoint, we’ve been enjoying the status quo this whole pandemic time.

But from a practical viewpoint, of course, much has changed, and we long for many things to change back.  Last week, our Church Council and our Trustees met to consider the really tough question of when will be able to get back to return to having weekly worship in our building.  As you know, Delaware County is still in the red zone in PA, so for now, we are going to have to continue to do everything remotely.  We’re not allowed to gather in groups larger than ten, so there’s very limited activity here at the church.

But what happens when we move to yellow?  At the time of our Church Council and Trustees’ meetings, it did not look like, based on Delaware County’s COVID-19 case numbers, that we would be going to yellow anytime soon.  Recently Governor Wolf announced that Delaware County will move to the yellow on June 5th, so the question of “when can we come back to church?” is even more pressing.  In the yellow phase in PA that means gatherings of less than 25 people, so some smaller churches will begin to have in person worship again.  Last week, President Trump called for churches to “re-open”, and that got a lot of people excited.  But our Bishop, Peggy Johnson, has recommended that if your church’s average worship attendance is greater than 25, which is certainly true for Lima, that you don’t have in person worship until we move to the green phase.

At Church Council last week, the vote was unanimous to follow Bishop Johnson’s recommendation.  This recommendation will be reviewed over time, and we may be able to make changes, but for now, Lima UMC is not planning on having public worship inside our building, or outside on our property, until Delaware County moves into the green phase.

Now I know this is hard to hear, because we miss seeing each other, we really do.  But you may remember that, back when we were able to gather together for worship every week, and we printed a bulletin every week, it said, “Lima United Methodist Church:  Christ centered, faith building, mission minded.”  These three values for Lima for chosen long before anyone ever thought about corona virus!  But amazingly, “Christ centered, faith building, mission minded”, we don’t actually have to be able to gather together in our building in order to continue to live out our values.

The first value is our Christ centeredness, the most important display of that is our discipline of gathering every week for worship.  And since we know we are not going to be able to do that any time soon in our building, we are working to enhance our online worship.  This week you should receive in the mail this blue worship booklet.  It has a page for every Sunday in June.  You can use it as you worship online, or by itself if you don’t have access to the online worship.  We know not everyone in our congregation has internet, so we are exploring a conference call option so people can call in on their phone and listen to the service.  We are adding a Zoom communion service on the first Wednesday of every month, and if you’d like to participate in that this coming Wednesday, all you have to do is email the church office, and we’ll send you a link, or you can call in using the phone number in the blue worship booklet.

Our second value is Faith building.  We know that worship is really important to our faith, but they say that faith is built in circles of friends, not in rows of pews.  That is why, historically, Methodists valued weekly worship as well as regular small group meetings.  Since large gatherings are prohibited right now, this gives us a chance to get back to our roots a little bit.  Our Tuesday night Bible study normally takes a break at the end of the school year, but we are going to keep that going all summer this year.  We’ve had some success with starting a small group that meets on Sunday nights, and we’d love to see more people get involved with groups like that.  Pastor Karen has decided to start a book club to help us learn and grow together.  And for those who aren’t comfortable meeting online, we are offering conference calling for prayers and devotions.  Supporting each other remains a top priority for Lima.  A team of volunteers is making calls once or twice a month to check in on every member.  Our Stephen ministers are available to offer support to anyone who needs it.  There’s a lot we can do, individually and in small groups, to keep our faith growing.

Our third value is Mission Minded.  One of the most important things we do in missions is through our denomination.  Each week when you send in your offerings, a portion of that goes to United Methodist missionaries around the world through our Connectional Giving.  Thank you for continuing to support the church with your offerings!  Also, Lima has a Mission of the Month program that is near and dear to us.  This summer we will be able to bring more information about these missions to keep us mission minded.  One of the best things we can do in missions is to get to know our neighbors better.  Since people are home a lot more these days, can you find a safe way—from across the street or on opposites sides of your fence, to get better acquainted with those who live near you?  Helping our neighbors has always been important to Lima, but it’s taking new forms these days.  No doubt, the Spirit will inspire and move us.  We will continue to learn to speak in new “tongues” and serve in new ways.

And that’s why I think we can say, “Happy Pentecost”, even though we are not together in person.  You know, I couldn’t imagine not being together in worship for Easter.  And then I couldn’t imagine not being together for Mother’s Day.  Now it’s the birthday of the Church, and instead of us all wearing red and driving to church and enjoying a piece of cake in fellowship hall, we are discovering new ways to celebrate and cultivate our faith.  We are discovering that, even without being able to gather in our building for worship, we can live out our Lima UMC values.  Through the power of the Holy Spirit, it is possible to stay Christ centered, build our faith, and be mission minded without actually being together in our building for worship!

But there is such a big loss, not being able to be together, and we are all feeling the heaviness of that.  But after this is all over, what I most want is for people of Lima to be able to say, you know my church went above and beyond to keep people safe, and my church went above and beyond to keep people connected.  As Delaware County moves into yellow, we will be working on ways to have small groups of people gather for fellowship and service.  That will be wonderful.  And even as we move into green, we will continue to offer online opportunities for worship and study.  We want to do all we can to do no harm, do good, and stay in love with God.

Today may be the quietest Pentecost we’ve ever experienced.  But it can still be lively, because the Spirit of God is alive and well and at work for good in and through us.  This Pentecost may be the loneliest we’ve ever experienced, but it can still be joyous and even exuberant, because we are connected in a mystical but undefeatable way by the Spirit who dwells in each of us.  This Pentecost may be the saddest we’ve ever experienced, but it can still be an “over the moon day”, because the light of Christ has sustained us through the Easter season.  The love of God has brought us to this day, and now the moonlight of waiting has been replaced by the fiery light of the Spirit.  Praise be to God!  Amen.

 

 

Let’s recite together our June memory verse as our benediction, 1 Peter 2:9, “But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people, in order that you may proclaim the mighty acts of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.”  Friends, I wish you an “Over the Moon Pentecost”.  We waited in the moonlight, and now the light of the Spirit is with us!  Go in peace, and serve your Lord.  Amen.