Scraps and Threads
Sermon preached by the Rev. Lowell E. Grisham, Rector
St. Paul's Episcopal Church, Fayetteville, Arkansas
May 23, 2010; Pentecost Sunday, Year C
Episcopal Revised Common Lectionary
(Acts 2:1-21) – When the day of Pentecost had come, the disciples were all together in one place. 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. Divided 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.
Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven living in Jerusalem. And at this sound the crowd gathered and was bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in the native language of each. Amazed and astonished, they asked, "Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? And how is it that we hear, each of us, in our own native language? Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabs-- in our own languages we hear them speaking about God's deeds of power." All were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, "What does this mean?" But others sneered and said, "They are filled with new wine."
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. Indeed, these are not drunk, as you suppose, for it is only nine o'clock in the morning. No, this is what was spoken through the prophet Joel:
`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.
Even upon my slaves, both men and women,
in those days I will pour out my Spirit;
and they shall prophesy.
And I will show portents in the heaven above
and signs on the earth below,
blood, and fire, and smoky mist.
The sun shall be turned to darkness
and the moon to blood,
before the coming of the Lord's great and glorious day.
Then everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.' "
(John 14:8-17, 25-27) – Philip said to Jesus, "Lord, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied." Jesus said to him, "Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and you still do not know me? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, `Show us the Father'? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own; but the Father who dwells in me does his works. Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; but if you do not, then believe me because of the works themselves. Very truly, I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these, because I am going to the Father. I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If in my name you ask me for anything, I will do it.
"If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever. This is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, because he abides with you, and he will be in you."
"I have said these things to you while I am still with you. But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything, and remind you of all that I have said to you. Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid."
St. Paul's Episcopal Church, Fayetteville, Arkansas
May 23, 2010; Pentecost Sunday, Year C
Episcopal Revised Common Lectionary
(Acts 2:1-21) – When the day of Pentecost had come, the disciples were all together in one place. 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. Divided 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.
Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven living in Jerusalem. And at this sound the crowd gathered and was bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in the native language of each. Amazed and astonished, they asked, "Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? And how is it that we hear, each of us, in our own native language? Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabs-- in our own languages we hear them speaking about God's deeds of power." All were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, "What does this mean?" But others sneered and said, "They are filled with new wine."
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. Indeed, these are not drunk, as you suppose, for it is only nine o'clock in the morning. No, this is what was spoken through the prophet Joel:
`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.
Even upon my slaves, both men and women,
in those days I will pour out my Spirit;
and they shall prophesy.
And I will show portents in the heaven above
and signs on the earth below,
blood, and fire, and smoky mist.
The sun shall be turned to darkness
and the moon to blood,
before the coming of the Lord's great and glorious day.
Then everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.' "
(John 14:8-17, 25-27) – Philip said to Jesus, "Lord, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied." Jesus said to him, "Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and you still do not know me? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, `Show us the Father'? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own; but the Father who dwells in me does his works. Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; but if you do not, then believe me because of the works themselves. Very truly, I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these, because I am going to the Father. I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If in my name you ask me for anything, I will do it.
"If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever. This is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, because he abides with you, and he will be in you."
"I have said these things to you while I am still with you. But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything, and remind you of all that I have said to you. Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid."
______________________
Happy Birthday! Sometimes we like to say that Pentecost is the birthday of the Church. With the gift of the Holy Spirit, the new community of the Christian Church was founded.
Today is also the 162nd birthday of St. Paul's Church. On this day, May 23, 1848, the Rev. W. C. Stout and a small group of friends began meeting together in homes here in Fayetteville. Six years later, in 1854 they dedicated a small frame church building on the corner of College Avenue and Meadow Street. It was struck by lightning and burned a few years later.
In 1872, the Rev. Thomas May Thorpe arrived in Fayetteville, "full of religious fervor and energy," according to the memoir of Clementine Watson Boles, a congregant from that time. "He found us too poor to possess anything but a name and a little impoverished ground. With his fine ability he gathered up the broken threads of despair, breathed new life into our souls and began the task of building a new house of worship." (This house of worship.)
The senior warden, Dr. Charles W. Deane contributed the lot. William McIlroy had saved the contents from the 1854 church's cornerstone. Those items were placed in the new cornerstone, along with some mementoes from 1872. The records say that the building process was slow, and the church was still unfinished when Mr. Thorpe was called elsewhere. I don't know when the building was completed, but the first wedding here was in June 19, 1877 – Clementine Watson's marriage to Thomas Boles. Later Mrs. Boles gave the money for the reredos window which was installed above the altar in the late 1800's. (1) Twice since then this church building has been enlarged.
"He gathered up the broken threads of despair, breathed new life into our souls and began the task of building..."
Gertrud Mueller Nelson tells a story about spending an afternoon sewing. She says, "The waste basket near my sewing machine was filled with scraps of fabric cut away from my project. This basket of discards was a fascination to my daughter Annika, who, at the time, was not yet four years old. She rooted through the scraps searching out the long bright strips, collected them to herself, and went off. When I took a moment to check on her, I tracked her whereabouts to the back garden where I found her sitting in the grass with a long pole. She was affixing the scraps to the top of the pole with great sticky wads of tape. 'I'm making a banner for a procession,' she said. 'I need a procession so that God will come down and dance with us.' With that she solemnly lifted her banner to flutter in the wind and slowly she began to dance." (2)
Scraps of people – "Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabs" – were suddenly filled with the Holy Spirit. They could speak each other's language, hearing and understanding. They began the dance with God that we call the Christian Church. But some sneered and said, "They are filled with new wine."
There is a Calvin and Hobbes cartoon. First frame: Calvin is pictured, wearing a pith helmet, up to his shoulders in a very deep hole, shoveling dirt. Hobbes asks: "Why are you digging a hole?"
"I’m looking for buried treasure," replies Calvin.
"What have you found?" asks Hobbes.
"A few dirty rocks, a weird root, and some disgusting grubs."
To this Hobbes, with a big smile on his tiger face, says:
"On your first try?"
And Calvin says: "There’s treasure everywhere." (3)
Yes. There is treasure everywhere. The Holy Spirit has been working since Pentecost to breathe new life into our scraps of people, our dirty rocks and even our disgusting grubs, to create the divine dance with humanity which brings us reconciliation and peace.
I look around and I see so many treasures and banners of God's work. It is as though we are living in a new time of Pentecost. The Internet allows us to speak with each other around the world. Travel and trade and communication are creating a smaller, more interdependent planet.
Thursday I went to graduation at Fayetteville High School. The names of the graduates represented families from across the globe – Europe, Africa, India, China, Central and South America, the Middle East. This was the 100th graduating class from FHS. I wonder how different the names are now from that first graduation, or from even fifty years ago. Many of these young people will study abroad as a normal part of their education. Not long ago, I had one child living in China and another in South Africa.
Today we instantly know about earthquakes, floods, and disasters around the world. And so often we respond with charity and prayers. This afternoon our children will present a musical play about Noah's Ark, and the money they raise will go to the Sisters of St. Margaret, an Episcopalian order whose convent in Haiti was destroyed in January.
There is so much good will among the peoples of the world. In ways as never before, we are speaking each other's languages, and learning to honor each other's spirit. Many religions are beginning to recognize their shared heritage of devotion and ethics. Many nations and non-governmental agencies are working together to confront the common ills we share – poverty, disease, pollution, violence and mistrust. So many scraps of fabric are being woven together into banners of compassion and understanding.
Whenever the Spirit does a good work of uniting people of many languages and lands, there are always the skeptics, the ones who can only see fearful threats when others drink the new wine. This past Thursday, at another church, a group gathered to cheer and support efforts to drive out Christians and others who have lived in the Holy Land for centuries, in order to give their homes to Jewish settlers. Several from St. Paul's and from our Jewish Temple were present, and respectfully disagreed.
Earlier that same day a diverse group gathered at St. Paul's for a vigil on behalf of immigrants in this nation, asking for humane and rational laws, especially for children who have grown up here as our neighbors.
Whenever the Spirit does new work to overcome divisions of language, tribe and nation, there are those who think that work is crazy. But the Spirit cannot be thwarted forever. Jesus told us that the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father sends in his name, will teach us everything, and remind us of all that Jesus has said to us.
Peace, he leaves with us; his own peace he gives to us. Jesus does not give to us as the world gives.
So, do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid. There are treasures everywhere. Little scraps make great banners. And the Spirit blows where she will. Healing, reconciliation, compassion and peace. This is the agenda of God's Holy Spirit. It is our inheritance to receive and to grow in our generation. We too can gather up the broken threads of despair and let the Spirit breathe new life into our souls.
Grow in peace, to love and serve the Lord.
Today is also the 162nd birthday of St. Paul's Church. On this day, May 23, 1848, the Rev. W. C. Stout and a small group of friends began meeting together in homes here in Fayetteville. Six years later, in 1854 they dedicated a small frame church building on the corner of College Avenue and Meadow Street. It was struck by lightning and burned a few years later.
In 1872, the Rev. Thomas May Thorpe arrived in Fayetteville, "full of religious fervor and energy," according to the memoir of Clementine Watson Boles, a congregant from that time. "He found us too poor to possess anything but a name and a little impoverished ground. With his fine ability he gathered up the broken threads of despair, breathed new life into our souls and began the task of building a new house of worship." (This house of worship.)
The senior warden, Dr. Charles W. Deane contributed the lot. William McIlroy had saved the contents from the 1854 church's cornerstone. Those items were placed in the new cornerstone, along with some mementoes from 1872. The records say that the building process was slow, and the church was still unfinished when Mr. Thorpe was called elsewhere. I don't know when the building was completed, but the first wedding here was in June 19, 1877 – Clementine Watson's marriage to Thomas Boles. Later Mrs. Boles gave the money for the reredos window which was installed above the altar in the late 1800's. (1) Twice since then this church building has been enlarged.
"He gathered up the broken threads of despair, breathed new life into our souls and began the task of building..."
Gertrud Mueller Nelson tells a story about spending an afternoon sewing. She says, "The waste basket near my sewing machine was filled with scraps of fabric cut away from my project. This basket of discards was a fascination to my daughter Annika, who, at the time, was not yet four years old. She rooted through the scraps searching out the long bright strips, collected them to herself, and went off. When I took a moment to check on her, I tracked her whereabouts to the back garden where I found her sitting in the grass with a long pole. She was affixing the scraps to the top of the pole with great sticky wads of tape. 'I'm making a banner for a procession,' she said. 'I need a procession so that God will come down and dance with us.' With that she solemnly lifted her banner to flutter in the wind and slowly she began to dance." (2)
Scraps of people – "Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabs" – were suddenly filled with the Holy Spirit. They could speak each other's language, hearing and understanding. They began the dance with God that we call the Christian Church. But some sneered and said, "They are filled with new wine."
There is a Calvin and Hobbes cartoon. First frame: Calvin is pictured, wearing a pith helmet, up to his shoulders in a very deep hole, shoveling dirt. Hobbes asks: "Why are you digging a hole?"
"I’m looking for buried treasure," replies Calvin.
"What have you found?" asks Hobbes.
"A few dirty rocks, a weird root, and some disgusting grubs."
To this Hobbes, with a big smile on his tiger face, says:
"On your first try?"
And Calvin says: "There’s treasure everywhere." (3)
Yes. There is treasure everywhere. The Holy Spirit has been working since Pentecost to breathe new life into our scraps of people, our dirty rocks and even our disgusting grubs, to create the divine dance with humanity which brings us reconciliation and peace.
I look around and I see so many treasures and banners of God's work. It is as though we are living in a new time of Pentecost. The Internet allows us to speak with each other around the world. Travel and trade and communication are creating a smaller, more interdependent planet.
Thursday I went to graduation at Fayetteville High School. The names of the graduates represented families from across the globe – Europe, Africa, India, China, Central and South America, the Middle East. This was the 100th graduating class from FHS. I wonder how different the names are now from that first graduation, or from even fifty years ago. Many of these young people will study abroad as a normal part of their education. Not long ago, I had one child living in China and another in South Africa.
Today we instantly know about earthquakes, floods, and disasters around the world. And so often we respond with charity and prayers. This afternoon our children will present a musical play about Noah's Ark, and the money they raise will go to the Sisters of St. Margaret, an Episcopalian order whose convent in Haiti was destroyed in January.
There is so much good will among the peoples of the world. In ways as never before, we are speaking each other's languages, and learning to honor each other's spirit. Many religions are beginning to recognize their shared heritage of devotion and ethics. Many nations and non-governmental agencies are working together to confront the common ills we share – poverty, disease, pollution, violence and mistrust. So many scraps of fabric are being woven together into banners of compassion and understanding.
Whenever the Spirit does a good work of uniting people of many languages and lands, there are always the skeptics, the ones who can only see fearful threats when others drink the new wine. This past Thursday, at another church, a group gathered to cheer and support efforts to drive out Christians and others who have lived in the Holy Land for centuries, in order to give their homes to Jewish settlers. Several from St. Paul's and from our Jewish Temple were present, and respectfully disagreed.
Earlier that same day a diverse group gathered at St. Paul's for a vigil on behalf of immigrants in this nation, asking for humane and rational laws, especially for children who have grown up here as our neighbors.
Whenever the Spirit does new work to overcome divisions of language, tribe and nation, there are those who think that work is crazy. But the Spirit cannot be thwarted forever. Jesus told us that the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father sends in his name, will teach us everything, and remind us of all that Jesus has said to us.
Peace, he leaves with us; his own peace he gives to us. Jesus does not give to us as the world gives.
So, do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid. There are treasures everywhere. Little scraps make great banners. And the Spirit blows where she will. Healing, reconciliation, compassion and peace. This is the agenda of God's Holy Spirit. It is our inheritance to receive and to grow in our generation. We too can gather up the broken threads of despair and let the Spirit breathe new life into our souls.
Grow in peace, to love and serve the Lord.
____
(1) from Our Church History pages on our web site, www.stpaulsfay.org
(2) Gertrud Mueller Nelson, To Dance With God, Paulist Press, p. 3
(2) Gertrud Mueller Nelson, To Dance With God, Paulist Press, p. 3
(3) Bill Watterson, The Rocky Mountain News (Universal Press Syndicate), June 3, 1995; quoted by Janice W. Hearn; in her sermon Treasures Found in the Attic, published at goodpreacher.com.
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The Mission of St. Paul's Episcopal Church is to explore and celebrate
God's infinite grace, acceptance and love.
God's infinite grace, acceptance and love.
For information about St. Paul's Episcopal Church and it's life and mission, please contact us at
P.O. Box 1190, Fayetteville, AR 72702, or call 479/442-7373
More sermons are posted on our web site: www.stpaulsfay.orgP.O. Box 1190, Fayetteville, AR 72702, or call 479/442-7373
Visit our web partners at www.explorefaith.org
posted by Lowell @ 5/22/2010 01:56:00 PM
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