Pentecost, Yr B (2012)The Rev. Karen C. Barfield
Acts 2:1-21 St. Joseph’s Episcopal Church
Romans 8:22-27
John 15:26-27; 16:4b-15
In the name of the one, holy and living God:
Creator, Redeemer and Sanctifying Spirit. Amen.
William Willimon, Methodist Bishop of North Alabama and former Dean of Duke Chapel, says,
“It is the nature of the Spirit to provoke and enable change.” (pulpit resource)
Again…“It is the nature of the Spirit to provoke
and enable change.”
Recently I have been thinking a good bit about the mission and ministry of St. Joseph’s.
This past Wednesday night as I was walking into the kitchen in the parish hall, I noticed the “Memory Book” of St. Joseph’s, a photo album with not only photos of St. Joseph’s throughout the years, but portions of written history as well.
“Change” seems to be a constant theme in our history.
I noticed that as a Sunday school begun in 1894, with its first building consecrated in 1908, that no Vicar or Rector served longer than 7 years, with most tenures lasting 3-4 years until John Steed had been here for 8 years in 1983. That is not very long ago.
Just as clergy changed frequently, I read in the history the following:
“When considering St. Joseph’s future development Rev. Carter [who served 1941-1948] believed it would be toward a transient-type parish.”
While a majority of the members were residents of Durham, a significant number of members were part of the Duke community, both faculty and students. For the Rev. Henry Nutt Parsley (now retired Bishop of Alabama) who served here 1937-1940, “it became clear during his tenure that St. Joseph’s mission was to serve both St. Joseph’s and the Duke community.”
Over the past few weeks as I have been talking with various folks about St. Joseph’s, it has struck me how much change there is in this community. We have students who come here and share their gifts, and then they move on as God calls them to ministry in other places.
Due to theological differences with the consecration of Gene Robinson as bishop and to conflict with clergy, almost all of the people who were members here 10 years ago have left. Only a handful of long-term members remain.
Rhonda served here for 3 ½ years and then left when she received a grant to write a book. Her departure was a premature and painful loss for many.
Members of the homeless community we serve move on to different places, and new folks take their place.
Living in the presence of so much change can be unsettling and uncomfortable, yet change seems to be in the DNA of the St. Joseph’s community.
In today’s reading from Acts we hear that when the Holy Spirit descended upon the disciples that all the Jews who were living in Jerusalem, “Jews from every nation under heaven,” each heard the disciples speaking in their own native language.
And yet, as these devout Jews pointed out, “Are not all these who are speaking Galileans?”
All these people were from the same place – Galilee.
Shouldn’t they all be speaking the same language?
And only one language?
The great diversity bewildered them.
We then hear these words 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.”
The Spirit of God will be poured out on ALL flesh:
old and young, men and women, slaves and free, people of all races and nations,
and they shall prophesy.
It is not uncommon that eyewitnesses to a single event will narrate that event differently.
We each see through our own lenses.
How do we hear the truth of Jesus in the world?
How do we speak the truth of Jesus to the world?
How do we live out our hearing without demanding that others hear the same way?
When there is so much change within the life of a community, there is bound to be a constant change in the hearing and speaking of the truth of Jesus. And yet, we are all in community in one place: St. Joseph’s Episcopal Church.
We are professor and student,
housed and homeless,
rich and poor,
churched and unchurched,
newborn and retired.
At James Richardson’s memorial service that we held in the garden, there were 51 folks present. I have no idea who some of the people were; I had never seen them before. There were members of St. Joseph’s, clergy from various Episcopal congregations and from other denominations; there were nurses and social workers; homeless folks; Jews, Christians and Muslims; men, women and children; students from the Divinity School; people of varying races and genders and sexual orientation.
Following the service someone said to me: “This is who St. Joseph’s is…in all its diversity.”
The visual image of that gathering rang deeply true to who we are as a community, and this is not a community that gathers all together at one time.
There are folks who only come to pray the Daily Office,
there are folks who only come to worship and fellowship on Sunday mornings, there are folks who only come to breakfast,
and there are a few folks who participate in all.
But if Will Willimon is right:
it is the nature of the Spirit to provoke and enable change.
On that Pentecost Day some 2,000 years ago it was the Spirit which came in a sound like the rush of a violent wind, so powerful as to propel the disciples out into the streets…it was this Spirit that gathered the crowds, overlapping barriers of race, language, gender, age, class and creed.
This Spirit of God swept through them,
and the power of God was unleashed among them.
A new life, a new creation, came into being.
Each heard the Spirit move in a different voice,
but each was empowered to witness to this voice in their own way in the world.
A couple of weeks ago someone asked me what my vision for St. Joseph’s was when I accepted the call to come here.
My vision was that St. Joseph’s would be a place where people of diverse backgrounds could come together and be in community - people who would not necessarily meet under normal circumstances. James’ memorial service was that vision enfleshed in a very powerful way.
I envision a community in which each person is respected and honored, whether that person has been here one day or 70 years.
In the midst of all this change and diversity, I have begun thinking about what it is that unifies us – what we all hold in common.
Perhaps our mission simply put is: to embody Christ in the world.
And the ways in which we do that are through: compassion, prayer and hospitality.
As we now enter into the Season after Pentecost, also known as “ordinary” time, I pray that we will continue to enter into conversation and relationship with one another, supporting each other as we seek to spread God’s grace and reconciliation in the world.
I close with the final words from Bishop Curry’s address to our diocesan convention this year. He was speaking of the Episcopal Church in this diocese, but I think his words apply to each individual congregation as well….certainly to us at St. Joseph’s:
“There is something rich and strong and good and holy within this Church.
“It may be that deep within and among us we know we already have what we need for this hour.
“Maybe we just need the Spirit to help us to name it,
claim it
and proclaim it with our lips and in our lives.
“We already have what is needed.
A God to commend.
A loving and liberating Lord to follow.
A Gospel that is good news to proclaim.
A way of being Christian that is faithful and orthodox,
Loving and compassionate,
Open and generous.
A way of following Jesus that is radically welcoming toward all and unafraid to proclaim, as the saying goes, that ‘God loves you, no exceptions!’
“A church witnessing to these extraordinary truths has a message for this moment.
This is the truth for the 21st century.
This is a voice for these times.
“This, in fact, is the voice of Galilee.” (Pastoral Address to the 196th Annual Convention)
Amen.