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Fairhaven Sermon 6-22-2025

June 25, 2025

Fairhaven Sermon 6 22 2025

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In this week’s service, Rev. Dylan Parson explored the theme of “prophetic temper tantrums” found throughout scripture. He examined the story of Jonah, who tried to flee from God’s call, and Jesus cursing the unfruitful fig tree, highlighting moments of anger and frustration within biblical narratives. Parson then focused on the Old Testament story of Elijah, who, after a significant victory, faced terror and fled, feeling abandoned. Despite his fear and feelings of inadequacy, God met Elijah with provision, comfort, and a renewed sense of purpose, demonstrating God’s persistent and compassionate call on His people.

Parson emphasized that God’s unwavering commitment continues even when we feel weak, abandoned, or overwhelmed. He encouraged listeners to embrace God’s call, trusting that divine strength and guidance will be provided, even amidst challenges. Like Elijah, we should expect moments of difficulty and discouragement, but also recognize the quiet presence of God offering comfort and renewed direction on the journey of faith.

Transcript

A repeated occurrence throughout scripture that’s kind of funny, I think, is a prophetic temper tantrum. Jonah is probably the most famous. You know the book of Jonah. The entire book is about a guy that God has called to preach repentance to the city of Nineveh.

but he doesn’t want to. So he does everything he possibly can to get out of that task that God has given him. You know the highlights of Jonah. He gets on a ship.

He tries to go flee all the way to Spain on the other side of the world. He gets thrown overboard. He gets eaten by this great fish, and he gets spat up right at Nineveh, right where he didn’t want to be. So we know that part of Jonah, but the end often gets overlooked strangely because chapter four concludes with Jonah pouting.

Jonah is sitting on a hill overlooking Nineveh, which has been saved, you know, despite his very worst efforts to make sure they’re not saved, the people of Nineveh have all turned to God. And accordingly, God has decided not to wipe them out. So Jonah, who’s very mad about this, is sitting out there moping about his success on a hillside. And God sends him a bush to sit under so he doesn’t bake in the sun.

And Jonah really appreciates that. But the next day, hilariously, God sends a worm to kill the bush. And the bush shrivels up and it dies. And at this point, Jonah just loses his mind.

Jonah flips out. He screams to God that, you know what? I want to die too. But God speaks and God makes a point to Jonah. If you are so sad about this stupid shrub dying, Do you not understand why I am so passionate about trying to save all these people of Nineveh from sin and death? And Jonah doesn’t give us an answer that we know of.

The book just ends there with God’s question. But the reader gets the point that God is trying to make. We see a related little story in the Gospels, in three of the Gospels. It’s perhaps best told in Matthew 21.

Jesus is walking with the disciples to Jerusalem, and he gets hungry. And so they come upon this very leafy, this lush-looking fig tree, and Jesus naturally thinks, Cool, lunch, just what I needed right now. I’m hungry, and here’s a tree with some fruit. And here’s a tree with some fruit.

But he walks up to the tree and finds that despite its healthy appearance, there’s not a single fruit to be found on that tree. He curses the tree in his anger and the tree immediately shrivels up and dies, never to bear any fruit again. And there’s a symbolic meaning here, obviously. Jesus is demonstrating what happens to people, his disciples, the church, who don’t bear fruit.

Like a fruit tree, it’s our job to bear good fruit for the world around us. This is a very clear instance, too, of that prophetic temper tantrum theme. It’s kind of a mirror image from Jonah because Jesus is right. But God is using this moment of Jesus’ anger, Jesus’ rage to make a point about God’s relationship with us.

And so in the book of 1 Kings this morning, we encounter the prophet Elijah in a very similar sort of moment. Just to get you up to speed at what’s happening in chapter 18, The current king of Israel at this time is Ahab, and Ahab’s a bad guy. Ahab is an Israelite, but he’s married to the pagan queen Jezebel, which you were not supposed to do. If you’re an Israelite, you marry within the people of God because Jezebel is not a follower of the God of Israel.

Instead, she’s a follower of the Canaanite god, Baal, and she has exerted her influence on the king to tilt Israel away from God and towards worshiping Baal. And this culminates with Elijah telling the Baal prophets off and trying to bring the people back to God, but it culminates in this sort of prophet showdown. Elijah versus 450 prophets of Baal face off on a mountaintop on Mount Carmel, and they gather all the people in the kingdom to come and watch. And Elijah tells these 450 prophets of Baal to call down Baal’s power and set the offered sacrifice of a bull on fire.

You know, if Baal wants the sacrifice, he’ll come take it. And so these prophets pray and they pray and they dance and they yell and they dramatically slice themselves with knives, which is something that they did. And nothing happens. Elijah just stands off to the side, kind of making fun of them, making fun of Baal.

And whenever they’ve given up, Elijah takes his turn by himself. He builds a stack of wood. He places another bowl on top of it, and he douses it with tons and tons of water to try to make sure that it’s just saturated as non-flammable as possible because he’s showing off. And he prays to God.

And all of this just goes up in a roaring fire immediately. Even the water burns. And victorious, Elijah commands the people of Israel to go kill those 450 prophets of Baal. Just to take them, seize them, and kill them by the sword.

And they do. And as you might imagine, word gets back to Queen Jezebel. And she is not very happy with what has happened. And so here in chapter 19, where we start today, we are seeing the aftermath of this showdown.

The prophet Elijah’s mood changes real quick. He starts with this massive victory for God. He showcases what he’s been empowered to do as a prophet of God. And then he slides right to absolute terror.

Queen Jezebel in her rage has promised to kill Elijah. She says, May the gods do whatever they want to me, if tomorrow I haven’t made your life like the life of one of those prophets. Those 450 that were killed. She swears that he’s going to suffer that same fate.

And it’s interesting, I think, that Elijah has just seen, he’s participated in, he’s kind of done it, this incredible power of the God of Israel. He’s just done this miraculous thing. But when he faces this first personal threat, he just crumbles into pieces. Right? he should know that God is able to handle it.

But that’s not how he feels. Maybe you can empathize with that. You know that God can handle it, but that’s definitely not how it feels. Yes, God, you’ve been faithful up until now, but how do I know that you haven’t stopped? How do I know that this time you haven’t left me to fend for myself? Yes.

And so Elijah just starts spiraling. He flees Mount Carmel where this battle happened. Mount Carmel is in the far, far, far, far north of Israel on the coast. And he goes to Beersheba in the south as fast as he can.

And whenever he’s there, he ditches his assistant. I think that’s another kind of funny thing in the Old Testament that they seem to have interns, associate pastors, if you will. He ditches his intern and he keeps on traveling. And he runs and runs and runs until he makes it deep into the Negev desert where he figures no one’s going to track him down.

And just like Jonah, he plops down under a bush, a solitary broom bush. Okay. And just like Jonah, whenever he gets there, he says, God, I want to die. And I point out that that’s obviously not totally true since he’s just run 100 miles or so to flee from somebody who wants to kill him.

Clearly doesn’t want to die that bad. And God rightly recognizes that Elijah is a little bit hangry is the term, I think. He’s terrified and all of that. That’s all true.

But God and God’s messenger realize that he also just needs to eat. He needs to drink. He needs to rest from this long journey and for what’s coming next. And so God sends an angel to bring him bread, to bring him water, tells Elijah, get up.

eat and drink. And then he lets him lay back down again. He takes a long nap. And the angel comes back after he’s all rested up, after he’s strengthened again, and says again, get up, eat something.

Because he has a long journey now, 40 days and 40 nights, just like Noah’s flood that was purifying. He’s like, And I think it’s not really clear from the way it’s written whether God sends Elijah to Mount Horeb. That’s also known as Mount Sinai and other books of the Old Testament. Horeb and Sinai are the same.

But it’s not clear whether God sends him over there or if God just lets Elijah go where he was going. Maybe that’s where he was headed. to flee far away from Jezebel. But I think it’s that.

I think God lets Elijah go where Elijah wanted to go. Elijah was probably already on the way to Sinai, seeking to meet God in a place where God has been known to show up. You know, Moses met God face to face at the Sinai. It makes sense that Elijah, if he’s scared, would do the same thing.

And so finally, 40 days later, Elijah gets to Mount Horeb, Mount Sinai, and God speaks. And God just says, why are you here, Elijah? And Elijah, you know, like he’s just pushed play. God gladly picks up on his temper tantrum. He’s got this rehearsed in his head.

He knows what he’s going to say. The same breakdown he was having under the broom tree, he says this rehearsed script that he has in his head. I’ve been passionate for the Lord God of heavenly forces because the Israelites have abandoned your covenant. They have torn down your altars and they have murdered your prophets with the sword.

I’m the only one left. And now they want to take my life too. Okay. And I have to imagine that God sighs a little bit.

He’s frustrated that Elijah barely seems to remember this great fiery miracle that happened on Mount Carmel, this victory that put him in this situation to begin with. He’s only under threat because he had won. He’s only under threat because he had won. but God meets him there.

And what God says basically is, okay, I’m going to come to you. You came here to see me and you’re going to see me. So go stand in that crack in the mountain and I’ll pass by. And so we get this beautiful, dramatic moment, one of the most stunning depictions of God in the Old Testament.

And first there comes this enormous wind, so violent that it tears up the mountains, that it breaks the stone around him. But that’s not God. And then there’s an earthquake. It shakes the ground under Elijah’s feet, rattles the whole desert, but that’s not God either.

And then there’s this whipping wildfire that lights up the sky that I’m sure Elijah can feel on his face, but that’s not God either. And finally, there’s just a sound. And the CEB version of the Bible describes it as just two words. It says thin, quiet.

You might have heard it translated before as a still small voice, but I like that. Thin, quiet. Quiet. And that’s God.

And Elijah knows this. So he covers up his face so he doesn’t look straight upon God, but he goes out to meet God. And God asks him again while he’s standing there with him, Why are you here, Elijah? And what we might expect now in Elijah, since he got what he wanted, he went to see God and here he is. You might expect a miraculous turnaround.

He’s encountered the Lord God. He has seen God’s power and might again. And then he met God in a quiet sound of peace that is just for him. This is God just coming for him.

Not some grand sign in the sky, but God speaking to him in this thin, quiet sound. But no, it’s as if none of this has really happened, as if Elijah has just been waiting to get through this so God can address his issues. And so he just rattles off that same complaint, word for word, verbatim, this exact script that he had in his head. I’ve been very passionate about the Lord God of heavenly forces because the Israelites have abandoned your covenant.

Right? They have torn down your altars. They have murdered your prophets with the sword. I’m the only one left, and now they want to take my life too. And again, I think this is kind of funny.

God ignores him. God ignores what he said. Presumably, once more, God is sighing because he didn’t get it. And God just, all right, that’s enough.

Brush yourself off, Elisha. Get up. He says that again, get up. It’s time for you to do the next thing.

Your next job’s going to be in Damascus. You’re going to anoint a new king of Aram. That’s the next task that God has for Elijah. Go do it.

And Damascus, by the way, is well north even of Mount Carmel. So not only is God sending him back to where he came from, he’s sending him further. This is a big task he’s being given. He’s not taking baby steps back into it.

So what are we supposed to get out of this with Elisha? I think this story is a depiction of God’s firm, persistent, and compassionate call on God’s people. Presumably, whenever Elijah went to Horeb, whenever he fled the kingdom where he was prophesying into the wilderness, he figured he was pretty much given his two weeks’ notice. I’m done being a prophet. I’m done being a prophet.

I’m running away. I’m not going to be here anymore. It’s too much. I need to go somewhere else.

Things had gotten a little scary once it got personal with Jezebel. But the Lord who called him is not having that. That’s not even an option. God has chosen Elijah.

God has a job for Elijah. And God knows also that Elijah can do it. Elijah might not know that Elijah can do it, but God does. God does.

And so God has compassion. God meets him. God responds to him. But God also doesn’t let up.

And so the Lord ends up giving Elijah not what he wants, which is retirement. But what he needs to make it through, from the bread and the water and the desert supplied by the angel, enough to keep him fed for 40 days, to then this encounter with God’s very presence in Mount Horeb, because he needed that too in his soul. And so Elijah has fled Israel fully convinced that he’s a dead man walking. But God patiently, gently comes to him, provides for him as he takes this brief tantrum or sabbatical.

and then he sends him back to work. Elijah’s needs have been met. They will continue to be met. God has remained faithful, even on this brief detour.

And this is what we’re to understand here. God will give us what we need, even when we feel like it won’t be enough, even when it’s not what we personally have chosen, even when it’s not what we personally have chosen. in order for us to accomplish what God has for us. You and I have the resources, we have the stamina, we have the ability to get it done, whatever it is.

And I’d suggest, maybe you know what I’m talking about, whatever that is for you. But if you don’t, maybe lean into God’s will a little further, see what God is equipping you to do. Because a reliable feature of God’s call on people across all of scripture is that whatever we’re given to do is probably a little bit scary or frustrating or isolating or all of those. And Elijah gets all of them.

And so Elijah is this prophet who is in motion. Right? He’s one with a mission. And every one of us who is called and claimed and renewed by God in Christ is also supposed to be in motion on a mission for our whole lives. We’re building the kingdom of God within us, around us.

We’re growing in grace and love. We’re reaching out to other people with the good news of God’s love for them. And again, giving up on that really isn’t an option. And yeah, Elijah kind of in some ways gets tough love from God.

But more importantly than that, he also just gets love. He’s cared for. He has a need. He has this breakdown.

And God gives him a nice meal in the desert miraculously. Right? God comes, you know, like a mom who knows her little boy has just had a rough day at school, brings him a snack, says, take a nap. I’ll be here when you get up. When Elijah feels like he’s weak, like he’s abandoned, like he’s in danger, God physically comes to him.

He demonstrates with the fire, with the earthquake, with the wind, that there’s divine power that Elijah can rely on. But he also demonstrates with this thin, quiet sound that God is at work even when, or maybe especially when, the earth isn’t quaking, when the wind isn’t whipping, when pagan prophets aren’t being struck down by the dozen. God’s there in the action and God’s there in the quiet. God’s in the ups.

God’s in the downs. And so God takes a minute to give Elijah a bit of what he needs to keep moving. He tends to his wounded spirit. He nourishes his body.

But then he puts him back on the road. And that’s what God has for us as we participate in God’s mission of saving us, of saving the world, bringing us all and all things back to God. That’s what God has for us. So maybe this morning you’re sitting hangry under a tree in the desert and you’re sitting hangry under a tree in the desert.

Maybe you’re tired of praying and praying and praying and not seeing results. Maybe you’re tired of being part of the church with its flaws and its slowness and people you don’t always like. Maybe you’re tired of pursuing some kind of special task or vision, big or small, that God has called you to. Maybe out of fear you haven’t got to it yet.

Fair enough on all those because me too. But in the midst of life-threatening danger, of wild wind, of the quaking of the earth, of raging fires, this thin, quiet sound cuts through. God is there. God extends a hand to you to pick you up, to brush you off, to get you on the way, gives you a snack, gives you some encouragement, and scoots you out the door.

so get up, and God will give you what you need to make sure you can do what God has always known you can do. In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Fairhaven Sermon 6-15-2025

June 17, 2025

Fairhaven Sermon 6 15 2025

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Summary

In this week’s service, Rev. Peg Bowman addressed the congregation on Trinity Sunday, reflecting on the enormity of understanding the Holy Trinity while also sharing updates from the recent Western Pennsylvania Annual Conference. Conference highlights included the upcoming relocation to California University of PA next year, a resolution allowing for potential church reaffiliation after realignment, and discussions surrounding special Sundays focusing on various ministry needs. Rev. Bowman emphasized the importance of thoughtful and purposeful giving, encouraging the congregation to align their donations with specific needs and drawing inspiration from the United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR) and Bishop Steiner Ball’s challenge to find personal missions.

Continuing her reflections, Rev. Bowman highlighted UMCOR’s focus on critical global issues like forced migration, food security, education, health care, and peace and stability. She encouraged the congregation to consider how they can contribute to these efforts, either through direct support or local outreach. Connecting this to the Trinity, she explained how faith and reliance on God, through the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, provides hope and endurance, especially in times of suffering, and ultimately inspires a spirit of compassion and action.

Transcript

Again, good morning and happy Father’s Day to all our fathers, grandfathers, great-grandfathers, future fathers, and surrogate fathers. And as you know, today is also Trinity Sunday, a day in which we attempt to understand something that even the greatest minds of the human race have not been able to comprehend. It doesn’t stop us trying, though. As David said in Psalm 8, When I look at the heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars that you have established, what are human beings that you are mindful of them, or mortals that you care for them, yet you have made us little lower than the heavens and crowned us with glory and honor.

And even just that much can be tough to get our minds around. But before I tackle the Trinity, I did want to fill you in on the goings on at annual conference this past weekend. It was wonderful to be back Bayside and Erie again. And as it turns out, sadly for the last time, next year’s annual conference is going to move to a more central location, they said.

namely the campus of California University of PA, which might be a slightly less long drive. Some of you are going, No, I don’t think so. Anyway, so that’s gonna be next year. This is one of many ways in which the Western PA Conference is reorganizing of necessity after the realignment.

And I’ll leave it to Pastor Dylan to talk about the financials. I did not hear anything remarkable along the financial lines, though, other than there’s been a change in the company providing some of the retirement benefits, and that’s basically, that’s the biggest thing. There are a few other resolutions of interest, though. One resolution sets a policy for reaffiliation.

Now, after our realignment, Western PA Conference ended up losing about, roughly, numerically speaking, roughly half its members, pastors, churches, and districts. So the people attending this week were a bit puzzled, both lay and clergy, when a process for re-affiliation was proposed. And of course, the question immediately was, have any of the churches who have left asked to come back? And while no details could be provided at this point in time, it sounds like there have been some noises in that direction. So the resolution was passed to allow for this, following the general instructions in the Book of Discipline for organizing a new church.

And that would include having a minimum number of members and other requirements that the Book of Discipline has for new churches. And overall, I think that was a good decision. Also this week there were the usual nominations, recognitions of retirees, memorial service for clergy, and tucked away in all those details, that little resolution that allows me to serve your communion, yay. So I’m so pleased to finally be able to be a full pastor to all of you, it’s just wonderful.

I’m still not officially Methodist yet, we’re still working on that. But I think that’s going to be a small step after this one. This is one last thing. And once that’s signed off on, I’m officially official.

But still, in the meantime, the Lord’s table. I can’t wait to serve that for you. So praise God. The other big topic of discussion.

.. both formally and informally over meals, was the list of special Sundays, as they call them, that focus on the variety of ministry needs, things like Rural Life Sunday, Disability Awareness Sunday, Christian Education Sunday, so forth. These weekends usually have either special envelopes or special offering of some kind, And the list of these weekends is fairly long.

There are quite a few of them. The formal conversations during the plenary sessions centered around the need to focus on these weekends and not forget them. Because the needs are great. And the needs are great.

And the needs are great. Informally over meals, the conversations went more like this. These days, people are getting requests for money right and left. And it seems like every nonprofit I have ever spoken with in my life has been hounding me for money lately.

And not only that, but giving just once isn’t good enough anymore. They want a donation a month. all the time. And this is a reflection of the times that we’re living in.

And the problem is there’s only so much any one person can give. And if people keep on being hounded for money like this, the result is going to be donor burnout and less giving rather than more. Now, I’ve talked with all of you about giving before we’ve had sermons on giving. And most of you know that I’m a strong believer in giving the way foundations give.

That is, I make use of my little own mission statements, okay? I don’t believe in giving just because somebody has their hand out. I do, I mean, if my heart is moved and I say, okay, five bucks here, you are fine. But, I mean, in terms of..

. giving on a regular basis, I do a little bit of thought about that. I put some thinking behind it. And the question is, what needs, what do I want my money to accomplish, and what needs do I want to meet? So for my own personal mission statement, I may say, just as an example, I might say something like, I would like to give in such a way that no one in my neighborhood goes to bed hungry.

Okay. That would be my mission state, but that would be the goal. And in meeting that goal, I might talk to neighbors, I might donate to the Pittsburgh Food Bank, I might buy food to stock our food pantry out here. You get the idea.

Rather than just giving on impulse, I set goals and try to meet them. And what I like about this way of giving is first off, I can actually see the goals being met. And secondly, I can help more people with whatever money I can afford to give. Big bang, small bucks, right? So that leads me to the other thing that I wanted to share about this weekend at the conference.

I have mentioned to you all in the past how incredibly impressed I am with UMCOR. And for anyone from outside Methodism, that’s United Methodist Committee on Relief or Commission on Relief. Committee on Relief, yes. Yes.

Bishop Steiner Ball basically said the same thing at conference this year, and I was so delighted to hear her say that. And she challenged each one of us to find your mission. Those are her exact words, find your mission. And that’s kind of like that mission statement I was talking about.

So the bishop said, when we look at what Amcor is doing, find what touches your heart, and ask, how can I help provide hope and love and comfort in this situation? In other words, who are we in here? And what is God calling us to do? What has God created us to do? And this is what the bishop asked us, especially in relationship to Umcor. Now, two days before I left for Erie, Umcor sent out a flyer by email. Did you guys get this or no? Some did, some did, some didn’t. Okay.

Okay. I like this little thing. I mean, most of the time it’s like, yeah, donation stuff, you know, but not this one, okay? This announces five goals that the United Methodist Church has set for this year. And these goals were also mentioned at conference a number of times.

And from what I can tell from the research that I do for my own giving, UMCOR has absolutely nailed the greatest areas of need in our world right now. So along with our bishop, I invite you to look at these five areas of focus and choose one. Choose one that speaks to your heart. Choose one where you can identify ways of helping, either globally or locally, and not even necessarily with money.

Okay. It could be outreach. It could be neighborhood projects. It could be just about anything.

So the five areas of focus that were identified here are forced migration, food security, food security, education, health care, and peace and stability. And when they talk about peace and stability, what they mean is things like ministering in places like Gaza, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ukraine, Sudan, places where battles are being fought right now. And one personal comment on that fifth item, that peace and stability. Most of us are at least somewhat familiar with what’s happening in Gaza and Israel and Ukraine and Russia.

And this is why we pray for them every Sunday. Sudan’s not as familiar, but I have a classmate who’s currently serving in South Sudan. and he runs a Christian school there. Now, just a little bit of background.

Sudan and South Sudan are now two different countries as of 14 years ago. Sudan, the northern country, is currently in a civil war, which has then spilled over into a region known as Darfur. You guys have all heard of that because there was big trouble there a couple decades ago. And then South Sudan is down below and receiving a lot of refugees from these areas.

So… There is now peace between Sudan and Darfur, but there are refugees throughout the region living in poverty and illness, and that spills over into the categories of forced migration and food insecurity and health, which UMCOR has also identified.

See, these things are all tied together, so there’s no just one separately. And so one of the reasons the United Methodist Church is stepping into these areas right now is because so many programs that used to be run by USAID have disappeared. And I think the UMC is really courageously trying to step up and make some of the difference there. Other projects that Amcor mentions in this brochure, in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the DRC, which is not as well known here in the States, the DRC has also seen civil war, violence, child labor, mass rapes, and sexual slavery.

And so for these reasons, I would like to add the DRC to our prayer list from now on. When I mention Ukraine and Russia, I’m going to mention the DRC as well. And then of course, I was very glad to hear UMCOR say on the very first page in here that we live in a time marked by the greatest forced migration crisis since World War II. Now, most of us here are not old enough to remember what Europe was like when Hitler was finally defeated.

We know how many people died under Hitler. Those numbers are well known. But do we know how many survived? It is estimated that about a quarter million people survived the camps and the ghettos at the end of the war. And all of these quarter million people had to try to find their way home.

They’d been carted off to foreign countries. They had no idea where they were, no idea where their relatives were, or even if their homes were still standing. And so it took people, some people, a decade or more to locate their families after Hitler was defeated. So when Umpcor talks about the greatest forced migration crisis as World War II, they’re not Whistling Dixie.

I became aware of this issue back when, I’m sure many of you remember that terrible, terrible photo in the news of that little Syrian boy lying face down on the beach. That was in 2015. That was 10 years ago. That was the year the migration crisis surpassed World War II.

That was the year. It’s been like this for 10 years now. Now. And for me, that photo has a personal turning point and ties in with my dad here.

My father, of blessed memory on this Father’s Day, told me once that World War II was the defining moment of his generation. Now, he wasn’t quite old enough to fight in it, but he remembers it. He remembers all the different things that they couldn’t buy and the different things that they collected to support the troops. And he said, And something in my gut, when I saw that photo, something in my gut said that that little boy’s death was the defining moment of my generation.

And so far, we haven’t done as well as dad’s generation did so far. We’ve been trying. We’ve been trying. But migration in some ways is a tougher battle to fight because it’s estimated as of May of last year, when the numbers we’re looking at is now about 120 million people who are homeless in the world because of violence or starvation or things outside their control.

And most of them, by the way, are not here. Most of them are over in Asia, Africa, Europe. But this issue is way too big to tackle. And so are all the issues in this brochure, if we try to take them on by ourselves.

But then I think, okay, well, World War II was way too big for Dad’s generation to tackle, and they tackled it anyway. And so through programs like UMCOR, we can make real progress. As the brochure says on the cover, This moment matters. This moment.

So that’s a lot to take in, and I thank you for your patience on that. I promised that I would say something about the Trinity today when we started off, this being Trinity Sunday. So let me put this aside now, and we’ll take a brief look at the Trinity. There is a passage in the book of Romans that is one of the alternate scriptures for today in the lectionary.

And as I read this, I wanted to ask you to listen to for what the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit are doing. So this is, and I forgot to jot down the actual verse there, but this is from the book of Romans. Paul writes, Therefore, since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand, and we boast in our hope of sharing the glory of God, And not only that, but we also boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.

I think the main point of this passage, this writing of Paul’s, is to explain how to keep on keeping on in tough times, which is a great message in itself, and I would love to preach that another day. Suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope. Great stuff. But this is only true because God is present, and not just any God.

Our three-in-one trinity, God. Listen to Paul again. We have peace with God, there’s the Father, through our Lord Jesus Christ, that’s the Son, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, that’s the Spirit, there’s your trinity. I think sometimes maybe the Trinity is better understood by the experience of living our faith rather than just mulling over the concept of God in our minds, which makes sense because we get to know someone by spending time with them, not by just thinking about them.

So Paul writes in the context of faith and the fact that we are saved by faith, not by anything that we do. We can’t earn salvation. We are not saved by how often we come to church, although we should still come to church. We are not saved by how much we give, although we should still give.

We are saved by faith. by trusting God, by believing God’s words. We know God is faithful. We know God doesn’t lie.

We know God never plays games with us. God never says one thing and means another. God is the word. Jesus is the Word made flesh, and the Holy Spirit brings that Word to us, making God’s Word known to us from the inside, and that’s the working of the Trinity in our lives.

So, on this Father’s Day, our relationship with our Heavenly Father is a relationship of faith and love. For those who’ll be seeing your dads later today, have a wonderful day. For those of you like myself who are missing our dads today, we give thanks to God for the men who raised us, taught us, fed us, clothed us, encouraged us, gave us dreams to aim for. By the grace of our Father God, we look forward to seeing our dads again one day in the kingdom of heaven.

Thanks be to God. Amen.
Fairhaven Sermon 6-8-2025

June 10, 2025
Fairhaven Sermon 6 8 2025

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Summary

In this week’s service led by Rev. Alyce Weaver Dunn, she drew parallels between doors and spiritual journeys using various examples from popular culture like “Let’s Make a Deal,” C.S. Lewis’s Chronicles of Narnia series featuring Lucy Pevensie through her wardrobe to Wonderland via Alice in the rabbit hole leading to an enchanting garden. She also counted 27 distinct types of ‘doors’ within someone’s home, emphasizing their integral part in our lives and how they represent different paths we take daily – both literal ones like entrance or exit doors but metaphorical too such as opportunities for growth that may require us leaving something familiar behind.

Rev. Dunn then related this concept to the story of Pentecost from Acts 2:1-41, where locked doors symbolized fear among Jesus’ followers after his ascension into heaven; however on Pentecost day those ‘doors were blown open,’ allowing them freedom and prompting an outward movement towards evangelization – a powerful transition which Dunn likened to God’s Holy Spirit being released. She encouraged the congregation at Fairhaven United Methodist Church in Pittsburgh, through this analogy of door-opening or closing within our churches leading us into transformative adventures as disciples for Jesus Christ’s teachings.

Rev. Weaver then ended with Terry’s prayer found on RevGal Blog Pals website that calls upon God to open up life and allow fresh ideas from different people; forgive the closure against change while praying it be so in everyone’s lives through Pentecost Sunday, 2025.
Transcript
When I was growing up in the 1960s and 70s, there was a popular TV game show called Let’s Make a Deal. My husband reminded me yesterday that there’s a new version of that that’s probably in about its 16th season, but I like to watch those old reruns of the original show, and I’m sure you’ve seen that. You might remember then that the premise of that game is that the host presents the contestants with three doors. Behind one of the doors is a valuable prize, while behind the other two doors are what they call zonks, or less than desirable prizes.

And the host invites the contestant to choose which door he or she wants to open in order to win the prize hidden behind the door. And along the way, there’s some trading and bargaining and some shenanigans, people dress up in crazy costumes, but ultimately the contestant must choose a door and the prize is revealed. And although there’s risk involved, if you don’t open the door, you can’t win a prize. I was thinking about doors and thinking about how in literature there’s some interesting doors that lead to adventure.

One of my favorite book series is the Chronicles of Narnia, written by theologian C.S. Lewis. You might, if you’re familiar with that story, you might remember that there’s a door, there’s a wardrobe door through which the four Penvenci children are.

enter a magical world of Narnia where they experience life-changing adventures. And if they don’t go through the door, they don’t receive that prize. And of course, how can I not talk about Alice in Wonderland? Although I am an Alice with a Y. Alice enters Wonderland through a rabbit hole, but at one point in the story she finds herself in a room full of doors, all of which are locked except one tiny door that eventually leads her into a magical garden.

And she won’t experience the garden unless she goes through the door. So as I was preparing today’s message, I was obviously thinking about doors. And one day earlier in this week as I was thinking about doors, I decided to walk around my house and count how many doors were in my house. And I came to the total of 27.

Now that was entrance doors and doors to rooms and closet doors. Wow, I had not realized how many doors were in my house until I performed that exercise. And I probably missed a few that we would qualify as a door. Maybe you should do that someday.

Count how many doors are in your house. For doors are part of our daily lives, maybe not on game shows or in literature. We might not be opening doors to win prizes, but we do open doors to go outside of our homes, We step indoors to go into our homes and to places of work. We lock doors to keep ourselves and our possessions safe.

And we unlock doors to gain access to the world around us and precious things. We encounter metal and wooden and glass doors, and we see doors of all sizes and for all purposes. Some doors we need to manually turn in order to open, and other doors are automated for us. Some doors are wide, others are narrow.

Some doors are welcoming, other doors we want to avoid. Doors are part of our everyday life. And sometimes they even reveal prizes or lead to magical adventures. Doors are also an important part of the Pentecost story that we are celebrating today.

Now in Acts 2:1 we read, They were all together in one place. And so based on some other post-resurrection scripture passages, we can discern in this moment on the day of Pentecost that the disciples were behind locked, closed doors. If we read in John 20:19, it says, The doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear of the Jews. Following the ascension of Jesus to heaven, we read in Acts 1:13, They went to the room upstairs where they were staying.

You see, Jesus was no longer with them at this point. And even though Jesus had told them to wait for His Spirit to come to them, they were obviously afraid. Now, it’s not explicitly stated in Acts chapter 2, but I believe that the disciples were in the same room referenced in these other scripture passages. And they were in that same room because they were hiding behind locked doors.

They were tucked away safely in home base behind doors that were shielding them from the world outside and the people who wanted them dead like they had killed Jesus. This But on this Pentecost Day, the doors were soon opened. The transition in the story is as abrupt and powerful as God’s Spirit is. Scripture says, Suddenly from heaven there was a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting.

Divided tongues as a fire appeared among them and a tongue rested on them. On all of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and they began to speak in other languages as the Spirit gave them ability. God had sent the promised Holy Spirit to His followers and everything changed. Now, the interesting thing for me is that it’s not directly written in our scripture lesson today, but after the Spirit came and the disciples were speaking in tongues, we hear that a great crowd gathered in the streets of Jerusalem.

The scripture tells us that the crowd gathered because they heard the sound of the disciples speaking in their own language and they wondered how this could be. And the scripture tells us that Peter stepped up and began to preach, proclaiming the good news of Jesus Christ in a stirring sermon. And the scripture tells us that that day 3,000 people were baptized and became followers of Jesus Christ. On that first Pentecost day, there was a powerful, powerful movement of God’s Holy Spirit.

it. So here is what strikes me as interesting, and I think what we as God’s people need to pay attention to today. If the disciples had remained behind locked doors, how did all of the people in Jerusalem hear the sound of their voices speaking in their own languages? Okay. The only explanation that I can come up with is that when the Holy Spirit rushed in, the doors of that house were blown open and the disciples were compelled to go outside.

to walk through the doors that were once locked and leave behind their closed-in, locked-up existence of fear and uncertainty and uncertainty. You see, the doors of that house were no longer entrance doors, they were exit doors. Doors that urged the disciples to follow Jesus’ command to go into all the world and make disciples, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and teaching people to obey everything that Jesus had commanded. So the unwritten part of this story is that the disciples left the building.

And for us Pittsburghers, we know that that means that, like at a hockey game, that Elvis has left the building. The disciples left the building. You see, this story in Acts chapter 2 reminds us that the doors of our church need to be Pentecost doors, not closed doors designed to hide the prize or to protect the occupants. but doors that swing outward and that lead God’s people to go into their neighborhoods to live out the good news of Jesus Christ in both word and deed.

. With the coming of the Holy Spirit, the mission of the church moves from behind locked doors into the streets of communities and neighborhoods where citizens of the world are ready to hear and receive the gospel. The open doors that the Spirit blows open leads us into that magical adventure of being witnesses of Jesus Christ, of being people who share God’s love and tell others about the grace of Jesus Christ. So in this Pentecost Sunday, I invite you to consider what are the ways that the doors of your church, the Fairhaven United Methodist Church, can be opened? See, God continues to come and to pour out on his sons and daughters yet today the power of the Holy Spirit.

And that means that that Spirit is poured out upon you and me, those of us in the pews, in the building this morning. The Spirit has come to us, God’s people, in 2025. Okay? Now, I know the world is filled with challenges, many of which concern us, some that even frighten us, yet the same spirit who transformed the frightened, locked behind closed doors, disciples on that first Pentecost, is the same spirit which breathes into us a passion for making disciples and transforming the world. And so today, on this Pentecost Sunday, I believe the Spirit can still come and blow open the doors of our churches so that lives can be changed and hope can be found.

Discipleship Ministries, which is one of our United Methodist agencies, has a resource page for preaching. And on the information for today, they tell a story about an advertising campaign in Baltimore many years ago that featured a story called Keys to the Kingdom. It was about two boys who broke into a church to play pool in the basement. When the pastor found them, instead of reprimanding them, he gave them a key to the church.

And he told them they could come at any time and play pool whenever they wished. The story goes on to say that one of those boys grew up to be a United Methodist pastor by the name of Richard K. Swanson. That’s a story that doors were opened, not closed, and a life was changed.

And so how can the doors of your church be opened, literally and figuratively, so that the grace and mercy of Jesus can be shared with those who are hurting and afraid? How can the doors of your church be welcoming and welcoming? to those who need good news and hope? How can the doors of your church be opened so that God’s people can go and make a difference in this neighborhood and beyond? How can the doors of your church be revolving doors designed for members to go out and new friends to come in? I would invite you to think about the doors this morning on this Pentecost Sunday, and to think about how we can make those doors open by the power of the Spirit so that the good news can continue to be proclaimed and that we are not disciples who are locked up, but that we are free to go and make disciples in the name of Jesus Christ. So as I close this morning, I want to share with you a prayer that was written by a woman named Terry that I found on a website that’s called RevGal Blog Pals. It’s a place for online prayer sharing and conversation. and Let us be in prayer as I share with you Terry’s prayer for us today.

O God, you who are always doing a new thing, we confess that we sometimes close windows and doors against the fresh air of new ideas, against the noise of other people’s worries, against the winds of change. God of every place and time, we confess that we often draw the curtains against people who are different, against world news or community concerns. is Forgive us our insulation in our locked homes, our shuttered churches, the security systems on our hearts. Open up our lives and let your spirit blow through.

In the name of Jesus, we pray. Amen. Amen. May it be so, friends, on this Pentecost Sunday.

They told us we only would have read and we did and all of them. – Yeah, well, it was just time, ’cause then we have my favorite way. – I’ll ask you about it. – Okay.

I’m gonna get this old. – She was kind of in the room. – I would like us to help with her to that staple up in the door. – You’re great.

Yeah. – You’re seeing that? – Yeah. – You’re putting out the window left? – No.
Fairhaven Sermon 6-1-2025

June 5, 2025

Fairhaven Sermon 6 1 2025

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Summary

In this week’s service, Rev. Peg Bowman reflected on the significance of the seventh week of Easter and focused on the biblical account of Jesus’ ascension. She explored what that event might have been like from Jesus’ perspective, drawing parallels to the experience of children separated from their parents. Bowman emphasized that, like parents who must sometimes leave their children, Jesus’ departure was motivated by a desire to care for and prepare a “forever home” for those who love him. She highlighted the importance of faith, reminding the congregation that true understanding often comes through action and words rather than physical sight, and that Jesus’ love remains with us through the Holy Spirit.

Bowman further explained that while we may not understand the timing of Jesus’ return, our mission is to be witnesses to his love and teachings – starting locally in our own communities and extending outward to the world. She encouraged the congregation to embrace their role as “spiritual kids” patiently awaiting Jesus’ return, trusting in God’s plan and continuing to carry out his work until that time. Ultimately, the sermon underscored the enduring nature of God’s love and the promise of a future reunion.

Transcript

Well, again, good morning. And this morning is the seventh week of the seven weeks of Easter. And since seven is the number of perfection in scripture, I feel very appropriate that we have seven weeks of Easter. And every year around this time, we also talk about Jesus’ ascension, the day that Jesus left the disciples here on earth and returned to God in heaven.

And usually we tell the story from the point of view of the disciples who were watching him ascend, which makes sense because we are disciples too, and we can relate to them. We can relate to what they were seeing, and we can relate to their surprise and their misgivings and their not wanting Jesus to leave. We can relate to all the questions that started to crowd into their minds. But what was the ascension like for Jesus? And the best way I think I can answer that question is to sort of collect up bits and pieces because God and Jesus are so far beyond us.

We can get parts of it at least. So let’s take a look at what’s happening and what we do know, and then see if maybe we can catch a glimpse of what Jesus was thinking and feeling on this day. Let me start to say at the start that for the disciples who had traveled with Jesus for three years and had lived with him and eaten and worked and ministered alongside Jesus for three years, that they’d gotten used to Jesus being there. It’s not just being one of us.

It’s not all that Jesus was. Jesus was both human and divine. His mother, of course, being human, his father being God. So Jesus is totally both.

But they were just so used to having him there. within arm’s reach, right there. And Jesus also loves his disciples very much. And toward the end of his life and toward the end of his time here on earth, Jesus was praying for them a lot and also praying for us.

And even on the night that he was crucified, Jesus was praying for us. So the first thing we can know for sure from Jesus’ point of view is that Jesus loves the disciples and loves us and is going home to God because he loves us. For the disciples who were Jewish and knew the Jewish scriptures back then, Jesus’ ascension would not have been quite so unusual for them as it is for us. They already knew about people ascending to God.

It had happened before. They could remember from their own history the prophet Elijah ascending into heaven while he was still alive and that this was witnessed by the prophet Elisha. And in Elijah’s case, he was taken into heaven in a chariot of fire. That’s where that expression comes from.

And when that happened, the mantle that he was wearing fell to the ground at Elisha’s feet, a symbolic passing of ministry from one prophet to the next. In Jesus’ case, shortly after his ascension, the Holy Spirit fell on the disciples, which was another passing on of the ministry. And the disciples would have understood this. For us today, the mantle of Jesus falls on us as well.

We as believers and followers of Jesus also receive the Holy Spirit, and Jesus has said, You will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. So the ministry that Jesus started is now in our hands. Our mission and our commission is to take it up and carry forward the work that Jesus started. And we can do this in his way, in his power, and in his name.

The message the disciples shared, and the one that we have to share as well, is that Jesus, who knew no sin, became sin for us, that the one who never tasted death entered into death for us, and after three days he rose again. And doing these things, Jesus conquered both sin and death. Jesus has won the victory for us, for all of us, and this is our message. The other thing we see in Acts chapter 1, which we just heard, is that the disciples leave the place of the ascension together.

They were together with Jesus when he ascended, and they were together later on in Jerusalem. They pray together, they eat together, and after the Holy Spirit comes, they go out in Jesus’ name together. They are of one body, one heart, and one mind. And It’s just one problem for us, and that is that all these events are history.

So long ago, these events are in a very real way beyond our experience. So how can we relate to what the disciples were doing and feeling being where we are in our time over 2000 years later? So let me try by approaching this from a different direction. It is biblical to talk about our relationship with God and God’s relationship with us, his people, as being like a relationship between a parent and children. In fact, Scripture uses this parallel a lot to help us understand how God feels toward us.

how much God loves us, how much God protects us and provides for us. That’s why we think of God as Father, and we call God Father. And because many of us are parents ourselves, and all of us have had parents, we can, to some extent, understand something of what Jesus is doing and feeling on Ascension Day. To give an illustration, There may have been times when we were growing up when our parents needed to go somewhere for a while and didn’t take us kids along.

They might have taken a vacation without the kids. They might have had business trips. For me, I can remember a time when my brother and I were very, very young, like preschool age, when our mother became ill and had to be in the hospital for a while. And dad had to keep working to keep the insurance and to keep the house.

So we kids were sent to live for a little while with aunts and uncles. And we were sent to live for a little while with aunts and uncles. And my brother and I at that age had no way of understanding what was going on. We were too young to understand the medical terminology that the grownups were using.

We were too young to understand why a person would need to go stay at the hospital because they were sick. All of us, all we knew is that we weren’t going to be home and that mom and dad, while we could still talk to them on the phone, they weren’t going to be with us. They couldn’t be with us, and nobody in the family was happy about having to do all these things. And of course, everybody wanted mom to be well and for things to be back to normal.

But our parents assured us that they would be home as soon as possible, and so would we. And they wanted us to know how much they loved us, and they wanted us to know that we were going to be okay, and that everything was going to be okay. In a very similar way, as the time of ascension draws near, Jesus is doing the same thing. The disciples don’t understand why Jesus has to leave.

And Jesus is assuring the disciples that they are not going to be abandoned, that Jesus will be back, first in the form of the Holy Spirit, and then finally, he will actually return physically, which he had told them about. Now, unlike with us kids, there’s one other challenge that the disciples are facing, and that is that Jesus seems to have changed somewhat physically since his resurrection. He looks different than he used to. There are a number of times in the Bible where the Bible tells us that after Jesus’ resurrection, the disciples didn’t recognize him physically, not by the way he looked.

Luke tells us in the first chapter of Acts that Jesus presented himself alive to the disciples by many convincing proofs. Well, why would he need convincing proofs if he could have just said, well, look at me, it’s me. Somehow, something had changed. And maybe this is a way of God saying to us that seeing is really not believing, and that faith, as Scripture says, comes by hearing and not by seeing.

Right? The disciples recognized Jesus through his words and his actions. And I think this tells us something important about heaven, specifically that appearances don’t mean everything. In fact, that’s kind of where we are with God right now in these days post-ascension. It’s not that Jesus doesn’t want to be here with us physically, he does.

It’s just that Jesus needs to take care of some things that he can’t do if he’s physically limited to one place. And part of what Jesus is doing right now is healing, healing the planet, healing human society, preparing a home for us who love him, a forever home. Because unlike with our mom and dad, when it comes to God, we’re not going to go back to the old house. We’re going to a new home.

And Jesus is getting that ready. In the meantime, he knows that this world can be a scary place, sometimes, sometimes a dangerous place, especially when those who love us best aren’t here with us. So Jesus gives us each other to look after each other, to create safe spaces where people can be welcomed, where people can be seen and heard and cared for. Amen.

And as Pentecost approaches next week, God will take all of us who were once strangers and create a community, create a family through the Holy Spirit. Our community of faith is to carry on the teaching of our Lord Jesus and to carry on the work that Jesus did of healing and of feeding and of welcoming. And for some reason we don’t understand. Jesus is not able to give his followers the gift of the Holy Spirit while he’s still physically here on earth.

I think that’s just one of those grown-up things that we spiritual kids are too young to understand right now. But we will understand it someday. For now, we trust our Heavenly Father, our Heavenly Parent, who loves us. And we try to be patient, and being patient is not easy.

You know how frustrated kids get when they ask us why, and we tell them, well, you’ll understand when you’re older. I used to hate that. I think that’s the kind of how we feel with God sometimes, not knowing why Jesus can’t be here right now, not knowing why God doesn’t step in and put a stop to the wrong things in the world right this very minute. It’s not easy to deal with the fact that there are some things we just don’t know yet.

It is tough not having Jesus here physically. And I think it’s probably just as hard, if not harder, for Jesus being away from us. Just like kids miss their parents and parents miss their kids. Jesus knows more than we do about how soon he’ll be back.

But we can almost feel in our reading from Luke today how tough it is for Jesus to say goodbye, even for a little while. Because when we love someone, we want to be with them. And Jesus wants to be with us. So for now, through the Holy Spirit, that’s how Jesus is with us, through the Holy Spirit.

Having the Holy Spirit within us is kind of like having that ability to call home. It’s not the same as being face to face. And we know that, and Jesus knows that, but we’re not out of touch, we can still call. So Jesus’ final words as a loving parent are words of blessing.

Jesus not only blessed the disciples, it says in the scriptures, as he was ascending, he kept on blessing them, kept on speaking words of blessing, even while he was being taken up into heaven. So Jesus’ love is always with us, and we can trust that. So where does this leave us for now? What do we do while we’re waiting for Jesus to come back and take us home? Well, back in the day..

. The disciples were thinking, well, maybe it was time for them to take Israel back from the Romans. So before Jesus left, they asked him, is this the time when you’re going to restore the kingdom? Is this the time we’re finally going to get rid of these nasty Romans? And Jesus’ answer is an important one. He said, it’s not for you to know the times or the periods that Father has set by his own authority.

But… you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.

That’s what we’ve been given to do until Jesus gets back, to witness to the truth that we have seen, to be faithful to the love that we have known, and to do this in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. Now, what does that mean for us? Because those places are…

thousands of miles away. What does that mean for us? I once heard somebody explain it this way, somebody who lived here in Pittsburgh in contemporary terms. He said, from our point of view, from where we live right now, we are to bear witness to Jesus in the South Hills, in Pittsburgh, in Pennsylvania, in the United States, and around the world. Makes sense.

That’ll keep us busy for a while, yes? And while we’re doing this, what is Jesus doing? We don’t know exactly what exactly he’s doing, but the Apostle Paul gives us a few hints in his letter to Ephesians. He said, Jesus is being given great power, including the power of resurrection. He says Jesus is being given authority and dominion for both this age and the next. He said that Jesus is the head of the church, that is, of all Christ followers everywhere forever.

And finally, when the time is right, Jesus will be back. And we don’t know that time as in the day or the month of the year, and we don’t know that time as in when’s the right time. We don’t know. but we can trust that God does know and the God who sends the Holy Spirit to walk with us through this life and to help us be witnesses to God’s truth and love.

In both Luke’s gospel and in the book of Acts, the focus is on the promise of the Holy Spirit to come and we are to wait for that spirit to be continued next week. Amen. Amen.
Fairhaven Sermon 5-25-2025

May 28, 2025

Fairhaven Sermon 5 25 2025

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Summary

In this week’s service, Rev. Dylan Parson explored the readings from Acts, highlighting the significance of the Holy Spirit’s movement in the early church. He explained how the lectionary’s focus on Acts alongside the Gospel of John illustrates the fulfillment of Jesus’ promises about the Holy Spirit, emphasizing the Spirit’s role as a “paraclete”—a comforter, advocate, and defender. The sermon used the story of Lydia’s conversion as a prime example, noting that her embrace of Paul’s message wasn’s the result of skillful preaching, but rather a work of the Spirit.

Dylan challenged the congregation to move beyond personal plans and expectations, recognizing that God’s timing and methods are often mysterious. He encouraged openness to the Spirit’s movement, drawing parallels to John Wesley’s experience of having his heart “strangely warmed.” Ultimately, he urged the church to wait on God, anticipating His action and being ready to receive whatever He offers, rather than attempting to force outcomes or control the process, and to trust that God’s guidance is far greater than our own.

Transcript

All through the Easter season, you might have noticed the lectionary moves away from the Old Testament. We don’t have any appointed Old Testament readings except for the psalm in the Easter season. And instead, we get these snippets from Acts of what life for the church, for the apostles after Jesus’ ascension looks like. And I don’t totally understand why the lectionary does that, why it goes ahead of what’s happening during Easter.

But it’s sort of fascinating to be reading on one hand what Jesus is promising the apostles while he’s still with them, which is what we just heard from John, and see all that alongside the fulfillment of those promises, which is what we just heard in Acts 2. And that’s very much what we’re seeing here. In John 14, Jesus tells the apostles not to be afraid because the Father will be sending the Holy Spirit. In Greek, he calls the Holy Spirit the paraclete.

Sometimes you see that untranslated. It means comforter, as it was in Flo’s translation. It means advocate. It means companion.

Most literally in Roman Latin, it would be Roman Greek, it would mean defense attorney. That was the most literal reading of what a paraclete was. It’s the defender between you and God in the world, the one who advocates for you. And then in Acts 16, we see this Holy Spirit at work, first sending a vision to Paul in the night, calling him to ministry in Macedonia.

Macedonia is a region in the Balkans. It’s northern Greece today. And then the Spirit works on Lydia’s heart, this seller of purple cloth. She would have been a very wealthy woman.

That was a really luxury good in those days. But the Spirit works on Lydia’s heart to enable her to hear, to embrace Paul’s proclamation of Jesus’ good news. And now this instance of the Spirit’s movement in Acts is not a particularly dramatic one by the standards, excuse me, of the book. It’s notable that Lydia becomes the very first Christian in the European continent.

So whenever Lydia is converted in Macedonia, that’s our first Christian in Europe. Everyone else has been in Asia so far. And that’s important, right? But throughout Acts, we see the Spirit do much more dramatic things than that. The tongues of fire that we’re going to remember at Pentecost in two Sundays that enable the gospel to be miraculously heard in every language, that’s a little bit more dramatic.

Then there’s that sudden conversion, that mystical conversion of Saul from a murderer of Christians into an apostle of Christ as he’s knocked to the ground on the road, and As you probably know, Acts is abbreviated. That is not the entire name of the book. In almost any Bible, if you turn to the first title page of Acts, you’ll find it referred to by its full name, the Acts of the Apostles. But the pastors and professors Andrew Root and Blair Bertrand point out, they say this, the title of Luke’s sequel, and remember that’s what Acts is, it’s the second volume to Luke’s gospel, the title of Luke’s sequel is all wrong.

It’s not the Acts of the Apostles, but the Acts of God, The apostles wait and God acts. In the biblical scholar, Christopher Matthews says something really similar. He says, as a descriptive title, Acts of the Apostles is a misnomer. And his reasoning is a little bit different, but it points out something that also should be obvious.

The only one of Jesus’ 12 apostles who really even plays a role in the whole book is Peter. Peter. Paul doesn’t even claim that title in the book, so calling it the Acts of the Apostles is a little strange whenever there’s like one and a half apostles in the whole book out of 12. It’s really not the apostles who are acting.

It is the Holy Spirit that is acting in the book. It’s the Holy Spirit through the early Christians around them. They, whether it’s the apostles of Jesus or a disciple converted later by the apostles, they aren’t the ones acting. The people aren’t the main focus of this book.

God is. The people are just putting themselves in the position to tag along for the ride. And it’s ironic for us, I think, especially given our history as Methodists, but my experience is that we tend personally and collectively to steer clear of the Holy Spirit as much as we can. The Father and the Son are comfortable to us.

The Holy Spirit… And this is really bizarre if you think about it.

And not just because of the stories we see in scripture. Last week, I don’t know how much Pastor Peg focused on it, but we remembered Aldersgate Sunday. That was the day in 1738 when John Wesley’s heart was strangely warmed, he said, at a London prayer meeting. He felt Jesus’ love for him at a deeply personal level.

This was a spiritual experience. Yeah. That wasn’t something that he was trying to make happen that evening. And I think that’s very important.

He wasn’t trying to make it happen. This experience was something that was a work of the Spirit. It came upon him. It happened to him in spite of him.

And that becomes very clear when you know the guy’s biography. Right? By 1738, when this happens, he has been striving for years to really get to know God, to have an experience of God’s love. He’s already 35. He’s been an Anglican priest for about 15 years before he has this experience, this overwhelming experience of God’s love.

And in that moment, he’s transformed by the Spirit. He had no say whatsoever in when or where or how it was going to happen. God did it when and how God was going to do it. And that moment marked this turning point for him in the Methodist movement that would ignite the whole English speaking world on both sides of the Atlantic.

This was a moment the spirit decided something was going to happen. Amen. And the thing is, I don’t really like that very much. And maybe you feel the same way.

I’ve been dwelling on this for a long time now, months, a year maybe, to really get personal about what I’ve been feeling. Every time I come upon the Aldersgate story, and this happened as I stood in that spot in London last summer. I find myself wanting that very same sort of unambiguous, clear encounter with the Holy Spirit that Wesley got that I can mark on my calendar and say that was the day. There it was.

I felt God just the way I needed to that day. I want to see a complete transformation in that moment in my life. I want to have the same moment in your lives, in this church. I want to see the miraculous healing of the kind we see across the New Testament.

I want to see the revival that the Wesleys saw of people flocking in the doors. And then we go pouring out to show people the love of Christ, just like what God did in the wake of Pentecost. Thousands of people were added to their number. Amen.

I want to see these powerful church-led movements for justice, like we saw the abolitionist movement, the civil rights movement. And I really want all that to happen right now. If there was something that I thought I could propose at church council or at annual conference that would help us get to any of those goals, I would. I would.

We could have a fundraising campaign for it, maybe. We could strategize about how to make all that happen. We could make plans. We could advertise.

We could do all that we could to make it as successful as it could be. But that’s not how it works, as it turns out. No more than Wesley planned to have his heart strangely warmed that evening in May 1738. No more than Paul planned to evangelize in Macedonia.

God decides when the Spirit will move. We can’t plan for that. We can’t light that fire ourselves. We can’t catch it.

We can’t tame it. And as far as revival and conversion go, you and I can’t preach that into anybody. You can’t make anyone care. You can’t make anyone love Jesus.

And we get to this here in this Acts reading. Because Lydia, you might have heard, was enabled by the Lord to embrace Paul’s message. She didn’t decide, and Paul didn’t decide. It had very little to do with how good or bad Paul’s preaching was, right? Right? And the quality of my preaching has very little to do with whether you’ll change your hearts and lives or go home as if you never worship this Sunday.

All we can do is get ourselves into the right position to wait on God, to act with openness, with willingness, with anticipation in the way that we interact with God, just being open and ready. That seems to be where Lydia was, doesn’t it? Your work as a Christian and our collective work of ministry, which is partnering with God, only works whenever we’re trying to be aligned with the movement of the Spirit, whatever the Spirit is doing in this moment and in the time to come. It doesn’t work when it’s independent, when it’s self-driven, when we’re following our own visions. Right? So consider that if Paul had stuck to his own plans in Acts 16, none of this would have happened.

All of this would have fallen apart. They’d have never encountered Lydia. They’d have never sparked the founding of the church on the European continent. Paul had not planned to go to Macedonia.

He had not planned to go to Europe. It’s worth rewinding. This is just going back two verses from where we started today because I think it gives some helpful context. When they approached the province of Mycenae, they tried to enter the province of Bithynia, but the spirit of Jesus wouldn’t let them.

Passing by Mycenae, they went down the Troas instead. Okay. Isn’t that amazing? That so in tune with the Spirit are Paul and his companions in ministry that they are literally not able to do what the Spirit does not want them to do. The Spirit will not let them do something that God is not planning for and ensures that they’re directed on the right path.

The Spirit turns them around at that border and says, Hold it. You’re not going here. Not right now. There’s somewhere else you’re supposed to be.

So wait. And then God gives Paul a dream, tells him exactly what to do in this vision of this man from Macedonia. So think about how close of a relationship with God all of them must have cultivated, but especially Paul. And compare that to how you experience God, how you approach God, and how that might change so that you can hear God better.

Think about this. How often do you feel like prayer, whether that’s before a council meeting, whether that’s at the start of your day, whether that’s before a meal, does that feel like it’s a ritual or a one-way conversation? Do you actually expect that God’s going to say anything? Because if you don’t, well, maybe he won’t. Maybe you won’t hear it if he does. but what if you expected that God really was going to answer you, and you listened for that, whether or not it ended up happening, because it won’t a lot of the time.

And I know how hard this is. Who in their right mind actually expects, you know, whenever we’re talking at 8.15 on a Sunday morning at a church council meeting, that God’s going to show up there and do something? Right? but we have to expect that or there’s no point. You know, if the church is Christ’s body, if it’s empowered by the spirit, certainly God is interested in guiding us on the right path.

No less than in sending Paul to Macedonia. We’re involved in the same ministry Paul was. So God’s still not going to leave us alone to figure things out for ourselves. And if we’re not hearing, maybe we’re not listening.

Okay. And if we’re not receiving vision and promise, maybe we’re too focused on our own preferences, on crafting our own plans, tending to our own fears, our own anxieties. And so I invite you today, as I think the Spirit does, to get yourself in the right position for God to get to work. Open yourself up to receiving that, to setting aside your own plans, your own worries, your own hesitations, and instead waiting for the Holy Spirit to move in power, expecting it.

Whether that’s for healing, whether that’s for vision, We’re in a far more faithful place if God doesn’t have to knock us to the ground on the road like he did to Paul. If instead we’re reaching for what God is offering, hoping for it, expecting God to do something the way that God wants to do it. Now see the difference here. Here.

It’s not desperately trying to make what we want happen. It’s not saying, God, do this. God, do this. God, do this.

Instead, it’s wanting God to get to work in our lives in whatever form that takes, leaving it open. It’s a very open-ended ask. Every year at annual conference, one of my favorite traditions that we do is during the ordination service, the close of the ordination service. The bishop will stand up at the end, play some music, and will invite anyone who’s feeling a call to ministry to come down, to be prayed for at the front, to discern what God has for them.

Amen. And that’s exactly the kind of moment that I’m talking about. How do we live like that every day with our hearts open? What is God calling me to, offering me right now? This service is just so moving to me every year. I try to get down there as fast as I can.

Sometimes I’m trapped in the middle of an aisle. But I try to get down as fast as I can, hopefully to be in the position to pray for somebody. I’ve prayed for youth, kids that are 13, We prayed for retirees, people who are going on their second career in ministry. All these people who feel like God is speaking to them, and we go down and try to amplify that for them, to pray for them, to pray with them.

The same thing happens, you know, when we dare to pray for healing. There’s something powerful about opening ourselves up to God and saying, I know you can do this. I know you’re doing something. And not demanding anything, not on our own terms, not on our own timetable.

And lo and behold, miracles happen when we open ourselves to receive those. So this day, like Paul, like Lydia, put yourself bodily, spiritually, where the Holy Spirit, the companion, the advocate, the comforter, can move you. Where you can hear God if God has something to say to you. Where you can receive a calling or a gift or simply the assurance of Jesus’ love for you like Wesley got.

invite in the advocate, the companion, and receive the peace that is given to you through Jesus Christ. In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.