First Presbyterian Church
Pentecost for Strangers
Sermon for May 31, 2009
by Pastor Susan Barnes

The prophet Ezekiel preached during the Babylonian exile, when Israelite hopes for ever returning to their land and having a political region of their own were their lowest. The book is full of strange imagery, some of it scary, designed to warn people of the dangers of turning against God. Today's lesson speaks to us when we feel that all hope is lost, that we are dried up and lifeless and no possibilities for joy exist. Listen for the word of God as it is found in the book of Ezekiel 37:1-14.

1 The hand of the LORD came upon me, and he brought me out by the spirit of the LORD and set me down in the middle of a valley; it was full of bones. 2 He led me all around them; there were very many lying in the valley, and they were very dry.

3He said to me, "Mortal, can these bones live?"
I answered, "O Lord GOD, you know."

4 Then he said to me, "Prophesy to these bones, and say to them: O dry bones, hear the word of the LORD. 5 Thus says the Lord GOD to these bones: I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live. 6 I will lay sinews on you, and will cause flesh to come upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and you shall live; and you shall know that I am the LORD."

7 So I prophesied as I had been commanded; and as I prophesied, suddenly there was a noise, a rattling, and the bones came together, bone to its bone. 8 I looked, and there were sinews on them, and flesh had come upon them, and skin had covered them; but there was no breath in them.

9 Then he said to me, "Prophesy to the breath, prophesy, mortal, and say to the breath: Thus says the Lord GOD: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live."

10 I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood on their feet, a vast multitude.

11 Then he said to me, "Mortal, these bones are the whole house of Israel. They say, 'Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost; we are cut off completely.' 12 Therefore prophesy, and say to them, Thus says the Lord GOD: I am going to open your graves, and bring you up from your graves, O my people; and I will bring you back to the land of Israel. 13 And you shall know that I am the LORD, when I open your graves, and bring you up from your graves, O my people. 14 I will put my spirit within you, and you shall live, and I will place you on your own soil; then you shall know that I, the LORD, have spoken and will act, says the LORD."

This ends our reading from Ezekiel. This reading is about new life and restoration, and the great work of the Spirit. The exiles were returned to Jerusalem.

Our psalm reading is about the life God created through the spirit. Psalm 104 is our unison reading, found on page 555 of your pew Bibles. It is a hymn to God the creator, celebrating God's creation and continual care for earth's inhabitants, both animal and human. Usually the sea is symbol of chaos, but in this song, the creatures of the sea, even the great Leviathan, are just creatures God has made out of joy. Listen for the word of God as it is found in Psalm 104:24-35.

24 O LORD, how manifold are your works! In wisdom you have made them all; the earth is full of your creatures.25 Yonder is the sea, great and wide, creeping things innumerable are there, living things both small and great. 26 There go the ships, and Leviathan that you formed to sport in it. 27 These all look to you to give them their food in due season; 28 when you give to them, they gather it up; when you open your hand, they are filled with good things. 29 When you hide your face, they are dismayed; when you take away their breath, they die and return to their dust. 30 When you send forth your spirit, they are created; and you renew the face of the ground. 31 May the glory of the LORD endure forever; may the LORD rejoice in his works-- 32 who looks on the earth and it trembles, who touches the mountains and they smoke. 33 I will sing to the LORD as long as I live; I will sing praise to my God while I have being. 34 May my meditation be pleasing to him, for I rejoice in the LORD. 35 Let sinners be consumed from the earth, and let the wicked be no more. Bless the LORD, O my soul. Praise the LORD!

This ends our reading from the Psalm. The leviathan in verse 26 is just something big in the water. It was also known as Lothan, and is a sea monster who is defeated in ancient mythology. A leviathan could be a whale or a dolphin or a crocodile. But here, in psalm 104, it's a large water creature made by God to play and sport in the water.

The spirit of God is about renewal and creation.

In our new testament reading, the spirit continues to create. Listen for the word of God as it is found in Acts 2:1-21

1 When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. 2 And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. 3 Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. 4 All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability.

5 Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven living in Jerusalem. 6 And at this sound the crowd gathered and was bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in the native language of each. 7 Amazed and astonished, they asked, "Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? 8 And how is it that we hear, each of us, in our own native language? 9 Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, 10 Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes,

11 Cretans and Arabs-- in our own languages we hear them speaking about God's deeds of power."

12 All were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, "What does this mean?"

13 But others sneered and said, "They are filled with new wine."

14 But Peter, standing with the eleven, raised his voice and addressed them, "Men of Judea and all who live in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and listen to what I say. 15 Indeed, these are not drunk, as you suppose, for it is only nine o'clock in the morning. 16 No, this is what was spoken through the prophet Joel:

17 'In the last days it will be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh,
and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions,
and your old men shall dream dreams.
18 Even upon my slaves, both men and women, in those days
I will pour out my Spirit; and they shall prophesy.
19 And I will show portents in the heaven above
and signs on the earth below, blood, and fire, and smoky mist.
20 The sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon to blood,
before the coming of the Lord's great and glorious day.
21 Then everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.'

This ends our reading from the word of God.

So Peter quotes from the prophet Joel. The spirit of the Lord has come upon the twelve disciples, and they prophesied.

Kristin Chenoweth is a famous singer, actress, and dancer. You might have caught her as Marian in the tv version of The Music Man (2003); she originated the role of the good witch Galinda in Wicked (2000-2004) on Broadway. Chenoweth is an evangelical Christian. Christians are in short supply in Hollywood and on Broadway. She doesn't try to convert people; she tries to be gracious and kind to everyone, which does get her into trouble from time to time. If people ask her, she tells them she is a Christian. Now that she is a celebrity, and has written a book and been on plenty of talk shows, most people think they know what kind of Christian she is, and assume she judges everyone she meets.

She wrote, “I don't recall being pinned with a Junior Deputy Jesus badge that authorizes me to police what others do in this life or the next.” 1

It's hard when we know that following Jesus is about celebrating God's good creation and love, but others assume it is about judgment and restriction.

Having the spirit doesn't mean you know what is right and wrong for everyone else to do. At the first Pentecost, having the spirit meant that everyone could understand the words, each in their own language.

And there were a lot of languages, at least fifteen, according to the list in Acts.

Jerusalem was filled with immigrants and visitors for the Jewish fest of Pentecost. The Galilleans were not from Jerusalem; they were visiting. The “devout Jews from every nation” who were living in Jerusalem were what we would call immigrants. They came from Parthia, Medea, Elam, Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus, Asia, Phrygia, Pamphylia, Egypt, Libya, Cyrene, Rome, Crete and Arabia.

I have a friend who likes to travel. We asked him once how many countries he'd been to, and he had to ask us, “Well, it depends on how you define a country. Do you mean any place that's recognized by the United States? Any place that's recognized by the United Nations?”

The UN doesn't recognize these entities as countries: Somaliland, Nagorno-Karabakh, Transnitria, Abkhazia, Taiwan, Kosovo, Northern Cyprus, Palestine, Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic, South Ossetia. We never did get a number from our traveling friend. He keeps sending us postcards, and we have about thirty.

I remember when I was ten in New Hampshire, I had a friend whose family was Armenian. My social studies teacher said that Armenia was not a country. I was confused – how could my friend come from a place that didn't exist? At that time, Armenia was part of the Soviet Union. Throughout its history, Armenia has been invaded and occupied by Assyria, Greece, Rome, Byzantia, Arabia, Mongolia, Persia, Ottoman Turks, and Russia. In 1915, the Armenian genocide began. Over a million were killed. My Armenian friend's grandmother was a child when that happened.

In 1991, Armenia became independent from the Soviet Union.

The list from Acts included Parthia and Medea, Cappadocia and Pontus, which were regions that were once part of the kingdom of Armenia. In the fourth century, Armenia became the first Christian state. And now Armenia is once again a country on its own, recognized by the UN. Its dry bones are living.

My friend Mary Aslanian made Armenia a real place for me, despite what my social studies teacher said. I can't imagine why he wasn't more sympathetic to us when we talked about Armenia. Some people just aren't willing to hear about a refugee or immigrant experience.

Sometimes churches are. I read about a seminary professor telling this story: “years ago, …a Catholic church in Appalachia ….[experienced ] … tensions resulting from the influx of immigrants from a wide variety of cultural backgrounds…[A] Vietnamese member declared that a certain traditional hymn in the Mass was particularly meaningful to him, because that was the last hymn he heard his father sing before he was taken away by force, never to be seen again. Deeply moved, the congregation learned the words in Vietnamese. When they sang these words that they did not even understand, the hymn itself gained new meaning for the entire congregation. They welcomed the stranger, not by condescending to him, nor even by telling him, ‘you are as good as we are,' but by sharing his pain and by accepting and celebrating his contribution to the life of the whole.” 2

In that first Pentecost, the birthday of the church, the celebration was filled with immigrants, foreigners, strangers. Some of them were probably living in exile, as refugees from their countries. And in the movement of the spirit, they all understood the message of Pentecost, from the poor Galileans.

In Revelation, the vision of John of Patmos, the holy city of God is filled with “a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, robed in white, with palm branches in their hands.” So even then, God's people included not just nations, countries recognized by the powers that be, but different tribes within the countries, and peoples who spoke different languages within the tribes.

So the church was born among people of different nations, tribes, and languages, and the vision of its future includes the same—the different peoples of the earth.

And so that means for us that we have to learn to welcome the stranger, to make room for the immigrant not just in our community, but in our church. Welcoming strangers is an ancient Hebrew custom, tradition, and law. Churches also take on that tradition, making way for people who are new, asking them to be a part of a congregation, showing hospitality, ready to see the Spirit move among others, not just themselves.

Let us pray.

Life of the world, you breathed life into the flesh you created. By your spirit breathe new life into the children of earth. Turn hatred into love. Sorrow into joy, and war into peace. Amen.

1 p. 202, A Little Bit Wicked.
2 Gonzalez, Catherine Gunsalus and Justo L. “Preaching That Welcomes the Stranger,” Journal for Preachers, Pentecost 2009, p. 20.