05.27.07

Pentecost Sunday

Posted in gospel at 2:11 pm by len

We attended a local gathering this morning and listened to “preach by wire” on the big screen.. I think this is my third experience with it now. This is not growing on me, and if it keeps up I may become a preacher as a protest. Worse.. I heard a Pentecost sermon that ran the entire Pentecost story through the smallest grid possible: the uniqueness and exclusiveness of salvation in Jesus. (While its part of the passage, the story is much larger.. and I’ve made this complaint around reductionist messages before or what Willard calls “the gospel of sin management”). Enough complaining.. here is Pentecost through another lens, and still too narrow in its own way. If you are in need of alternatives visit Maggi Dawn. or listen to Send the Fire.
IV

The dove descending breaks the air
With flame of incandescent terror
Of which the tongues declare
The one discharge from sin and error.
The only hope, or else despair
Lies in the choice of pyre of pyre”?
To be redeemed from fire by fire.

Who then devised the torment? Love.
Love is the unfamiliar Name
Behind the hands that wove
The intolerable shirt of flame
Which human power cannot remove.
We only live, only suspire
Consumed by either fire or fire.

V

What we call the beginning is often the end
And to make and end is to make a beginning.
The end is where we start from…

TS Eliot, “Little Gidding”

9 Comments

  1. fresno dave said,

    May 27, 2007 at 3:00 pm

    Len, we had so much fum today (Sunday) for our worship gathering. Peopel are still hanging bout…we had lunch.. being a smaller. nore organic group, no need for video feed (or pews etc) But I don’t think it’s ever a good idea for several reasons…Shane Hipps helps:

    http://davewainscott.blogspot.com/2006/04/is-there-such-thing-as-christian-music.html

    I also was feeling like I didn’t have much to say this morning…is that OK, I am the pastor!?

    So I didn’t say much (see this:
    http://davewainscott.blogspot.com/2007/05/how-can-i-be-spokemen-when-all-ive-gpt.html)

    and I thnk what folks will remember even years from now is the fellowship and what the “lay people” said..

  2. fresno dave said,

    May 27, 2007 at 3:14 pm

    oops sorry. that was wrong link for Shane Hipps. should be:

    http://3dff.com/php/viewtopic.php?t=181

  3. len said,

    May 27, 2007 at 4:13 pm

    dave, in the end we are the message eh? not something easily packaged or fit into a sermon series… And to be fair the preacher was closing the sixth part of a series on “tough questions” and part six was “the uniqueness of the message.”

  4. Owen Abrey said,

    May 27, 2007 at 5:25 pm

    Fire,
    Not the the weakly sputtering flame
    But what can be heard from miles away
    Earth shaking roar that quietens a jet in takeoff
    That sets about buffeting gales from across the valley
    That touches the top of the heavens
    And towers above the clouds

    Wind,
    Not a breezy whisper
    But one that rends the self
    Atomizing gales that pierce the soul
    Where nothing stands to brace your self
    That obliterates ears long dull of hearing
    That with the slightest opening wrenches one
    From here to the throne of God

    A voice,
    Chaos
    Nonsensical
    Loud and soft
    Still against the din
    and yet unknown apart from it
    A lovers whipser spoken to the beloved
    That only she can hear

  5. ron said,

    May 27, 2007 at 9:18 pm

    Hey Len, I was musing on Pentecost Saturday evening, almost having an anxiety attack just thing about waht I was going to hear Sunday morning…you would think after 2000 years we would have it figured out. Peace…Ron+

  6. len said,

    May 28, 2007 at 9:57 am

    Ron, yeah I felt that way yesterday. I’m more reflective this morning..we’re all still learning, and I could tell the preacher himself is in process on this, and the Lord knows I still have my own blind spots.

  7. len said,

    May 28, 2007 at 12:40 pm

    owen, reminds me of the Exodus story :)

  8. Owen Abrey said,

    May 28, 2007 at 10:45 pm

    Pentecost began there perhaps. Neo-Lukan theology suggests an intentional OT borrowing of both language and imagery. Classical theology falls into the technique of splitting NT Lukan genre from its OT roots.
    Despite being greek, who is to say that Luke wasn’t intentionally considering the Pentecost phenomena as an extension of OT miracle and myth.

  9. len said,

    May 29, 2007 at 12:35 pm

    Sure, check out this sermon by NT Wright.. outstanding..

    http://westminster-abbey.org/voice/sermon/archives/030610_eucharist.htm