Sermon Recap: Our Pre-Pentecost Hinge Moment

Earlier this week, our church got the go-ahead from our insurers and our bishop to have more participation in the worship service, meaning we can now have others at the lectern as part of the worship service.  My pastor asked me if I wanted to preach on Sunday, and I said yes.  It's Pentecost, after all--the sermon practically preaches itself.

For the first part of my sermon, I talked about knowing Easter people and Christmas people, but no one says that Pentecost is their favorite church holiday.  I said that lately, the time between Easter and Pentecost has been speaking to me, with the disciples not being sure what to do with themselves, so they go back to doing what they had been doing before--witness the end of John, where the disciples go back to fishing.  I talked about the disciples hiding in a room before Pentecost--sound familiar?

I talked about the disciples as traumatized people--we tend to forget or underplay the trauma that they have experienced.  We know that traumatized people don't snap back immediately or automatically.  I talked about our current age as one of traumatized people and that we should be gentle with ourselves.

But the Holy Spirit doesn't come to leave us there.  The Holy Spirit makes it possible to go bigger.  I talked about what that would look like, in terms of the first believers:  going out 2 by 2 and bringing the good news, being part of the community that is open to the message, being the type of disciple that has resources to share, being part of the community that does the hard work of staying rooted and growing the seeds that the disciples plant before they move on.

I talked about the hinge moment where we find ourselves.  We've been through a huge trauma, and we shouldn't undercount that.  We have an enormous opportunity to reshape our world--and there's the danger that we'll go in the wrong direction.  I talked about God's dreams for us, that we're here not just winning our entrance into Heaven, that God announces the inbreaking Kingdom, right here and right now.  What would that look like as we move forward?

I finished with a sort of prayer, although I don't know that the congregation realized that I was praying:

Give us comfort as we cope with our collective trauma.

Give us a vision of the better world that is possible.

Give us the energy to begin what the vision requires.

Sustain us to see our vision to completion.