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<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 6pt 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'">Here is a draft of my
sermon for Pentecost Sunday, May 31, on John 15: 26-27, 16:4b-15.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>A final version will be posted on our
church web site on the worship tab and sermon archives page by early this week,
God willing.<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns =
"urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /><o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 6pt 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'">Peace and Pentecost
blessings,<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 6pt 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'">Joe<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 6pt 0in 0pt"><B
style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'">St. John's Episcopal
Church<o:p></o:p></SPAN></B></P>
<H2 style="MARGIN: 6pt 0in 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: normal; TEXT-ALIGN: left"
align=left><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt">61 Broad Street<o:p></o:p></SPAN></H2>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 6pt 0in 0pt"><B><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'">Elizabeth,
New Jersey 07201<o:p></o:p></SPAN></B></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 6pt 0in 0pt"><B><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'">The Sixth Sunday of
Easter (B)<o:p></o:p></SPAN></B></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 6pt 0in 0pt"><B><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'">May 31,
2009<o:p></o:p></SPAN></B></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 6pt 0in 0pt"><B
style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'">A Sermon by the Rev.
<?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags"
/><st1:PersonName w:st="on">Joe
Parrish</st1:PersonName><o:p></o:p></SPAN></B></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 6pt 0in 0pt"><B
style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'">The Holy
Gospel according to<o:p></o:p></SPAN></B></P>
<H2 style="MARGIN: 6pt 0in 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: normal; TEXT-ALIGN: left"
align=left><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt">John 15:26-27,
16:4b-15<o:p></o:p></SPAN></H2>
<H2 style="BACKGROUND: white; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: normal"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt"><SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN><o:p></o:p></SPAN></H2>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 6pt 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'"><SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Be our Advocate and
healer, O Lord of our life. <SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Amen.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 6pt 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'"><SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>I have heard that
there are about 135 different languages spoken in the city of Elizabeth, New
Jersey, here, about the same number as in the United Nations.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>And if approximately ten or so percent
of those languages are close derivatives of others, the number of 120 languages
as were spoken on the first Sunday of Pentecost are right here in our city’s
midst!<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 6pt 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'"><SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>The city of Elizabeth is a
hub of immigration circled around the Newark International Airport, the (sea)
Port of Elizabeth, and the New Jersey Turnpike; now about 60 to 80 percent of
the people in the city speak Spanish, and here at St. John’s we are close to
taking in a large new Spanish Anglican Catholic congregation who want to become
Episcopalians.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN><o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 6pt 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'"><SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Almost every week I go
over as a volunteer chaplain to the Elizabeth federal immigration detention
center, the largest non-criminal facility of its kind in the United States.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Last week we had fourteen in attendance
at our Bible study, and they hailed as usual from all over the globe.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Some spoke Spanish, others French,
others Arabic, others various African dialects, some spoke Creole.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Fortunately about half also spoke
English, and the rest spoke Spanish; and we have a DVD of the Alpha Bible study
that has Spanish subtitles and English as the spoken language, so everyone was
able to understand the lesson.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>Hooray! I have had some in prior weeks who spoke Uzbek, Croatian,
Serbian, various Chinese dialects, Russian, Ukrainian, Danish, German, you name
it, they all probably have been spoken there in the past nine years I have been
a volunteer chaplain there.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Once I
came in to the facility, and the officers had mistakenly announced that a
Chinese chaplain was coming, so everyone in the group spoke Chinese, but
fortunately a few spoke English and could translate for me to the others.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>It is a rather amazing ministry!<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>But always, the Holy Spirit seems to be
right there, looking out for me, and looking out for all the detainees, as well
as for the officers.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Of course the
detention officers have much the same and even larger challenges than I have,
and thus a variety of languages are spoken by the guards in addition to
English.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>We in reality have the
world at our doorstep here, as we are only about forty minutes from JFK
International Airport and five minutes from Newark International Airport, where
most people arrive without all their necessary visa
documentation.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 6pt 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'"><SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Some escape from
difficult situations back home with only the clothes on their back and an
airplane ticket.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>A few years ago
when Rev. Novella Lawrence and I did Bible study program there for the women
detainees, I spoke to a woman who had been a mayor in a city of the South
American country of Colombia who had run afoul of one of the drug cartels by
trying to root them out of her city; she had been targeted to be ‘eliminated’
shortly before she boarded the plane north to New York.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>In other countries, some women had been
raped or harassed by unscrupulous police and were unprotected from the [quote]
‘protectors’ [unquote], so they escaped.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>Others constantly faced very tense lives--Christians in some parts of
Egypt are targeted regularly and suffer destruction of their automobiles, homes,
and businesses, as also happens in some other Muslim dominated cultures, and
there are quite a few of those countries and areas around the world.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 6pt 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'"><SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Sri Lanka is home to
all four major world religions: Buddhism, 70 percent; Hinduism, 15 percent;
Christianity, 8 percent; and Mohammadism, 7 percent.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Last Sunday, the orthodox Hindu Tamil
forces declared a virtual cease fire in their over 25 year long civil war, so
peace may finally be returning to that island country soon.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>But the numbers of people who had been
caught in the cross fire of the government and Tamil forces was great, and the
level of immigration was large, so almost every week since I have been going to
that center from the year 2000 I have had Sri Lankans in our Bible study; we
actually recently trained the prayer leader of Alpha Sri Lanka! And prayer has
played a major role, I think, in the final resolution of the conflict, as it did
in Northern Ireland, where Anglican Franciscan Brother David Jardine and Roman
Catholic Sister Margaret McStay raised up a mighty prayer team of over 100,000
people whose prayers for peace in Northern Ireland were finally answered just a
very few years ago.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 6pt 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'"><SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>The Holy Spirit is a
mighty force, always has been, always will be.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>The visible appearance of tongues of
fire on that first Pentecost was a special manifestation of the Spirit of God,
who has been with us from the beginning of time and has continued with us
always.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>The Spirit moved over the
face of the Earth in the story of Genesis, producing the vitality of life in the
first human being.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>And since the
Ascension of Christ, the Spirit’s function of bringing to us the recognition of
Jesus’ words filled the gap of the ascended Savior’s physical absence from
us.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 6pt 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'"><SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>So if today you are
seeking power in your life, get right with God’s Holy Spirit.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>That may seem easier to say than to do,
but that is the secret to all spiritual success.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>I don’t think it is so much exactly how
we pray, but that we do pray that counts--being open to God’s cleansing in our
lives and in our thought world.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>The
Spirit sees all, knows all, understands all, yet remains our friend as long as
we are doing God’s will in our lives.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>Now that may be the challenge we all face, determining just what God’s
will is for our lives.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>We can pray
and pray, but if we are praying against God’s will, our prayers will appear
feeble and ineffective.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>So we need
to “get right with God”, seek God’s direction for our lives, and get on with
living a God-empowered life.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 6pt 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'"><SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>One of the biggest
challenges for most churches in encouraging God-empowered lives, including ours,
is not racism but classism.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>Classism is something that pervades New Jersey, as we are organized into
about 560 separate townships and cities, and each unit has major control over
its budgets, schools, and municipal services.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>What has happened is that the areas with
more expensive housing have rooted out less expensive housing, they have better
schools, but also have lower tax rates; whereas less expensive housing is
associated with poorer schools yet higher tax rates just to keep critical
services afloat.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Several years ago
the State Supreme Court ruled these housing divisions are unconstitutional and
mandated that twenty percent new affordable units be available in every area
when new housing is built, but of course that has not happened.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>The state legislature recently
overturned the loophole for keeping the affordable housing out of the richer
areas, but now real estate developers are seeking other ways of discriminating
based on economic class, probably in cooperation with local authorities, and
still they do not want to build affordable housing amongst the higher priced
housing, even though studies have shown that mixed housing produces more stable
communities.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>The not so subtle
discrimination in new housing production is still with us.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 6pt 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'"><SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>And in our diocese,
the churches pretty much mirror the communities they are in: we have richer
churches in richer communities and poorer churches in poorer communities.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>And even here in the Diocese of New
Jersey we don’t effectively share resources between richer churches and poorer
churches, so we can’t point fingers at the townships really.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>So our economic issues remain unsolved
and our spirituality, I believe, suffers greatly.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>This year, there was about an enormous
twenty-five percent cut in the budget for mission churches, and those of us with
no aid who are struggling financially are essentially ‘left out in the
cold’.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Times are very tough, in
other words.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>We have to have
different worship services to provide for different needs of people, and that
results in having four different services each Sunday: one with organ, two with
karaoke, and one acapella.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Each
service has to bear its own cost, or so we think, and as a result, we are a
microcosm of the same malady that affects the state as a
whole!<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 6pt 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'"><SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>How do we
approach this problem as Christians?<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 6pt 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'"><SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>I think that
prayer is the only way out of these difficulties.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>If prayer worked for Northern Ireland,
South Africa, and Sri Lanka, why not here in Elizabeth and the Diocese of New
Jersey?<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>So my suggestion is that we
begin to set up a larger and larger prayer team in the diocese and among
churches to seek God’s way through this problem we all have here.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>And that prayer has also to extend to
our separate worship services as well, I think.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>How can we be more inclusive, in
economic terms?<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 6pt 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'"><SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Bishop Romero said he
was a part of a church in Guatemala that did try to intermingle economic levels,
and it didn’t really succeed.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>That
just means we have quite some praying to do!<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 6pt 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'"><SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>So let us try the Holy
Spirit’s route, which is the same as God’s direction.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Let us begin praying fervently for a
solution to our economic disparities, in our church, in our churches, and in our
diocese.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Can we join together in
this?<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>We will need some prayer
leaders, some regular times to pray together, a day or days we will do this, and
go from there.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>How does that sound
to you?<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>We need to create some new
prayers for resolving classism in our midst and in our diocese.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>So that is an assignment for all of us,
to suggest prayers, write them down, suggest days for praying, and times each of
us will be here to pray together, since when two or three are together, Jesus
says he will be with us, through the Holy Spirit.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 6pt 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'"><SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>The power of Pentecost
is the power of prayer.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>So let us
drink from the waters of the Spirit, let us breathe the Spirit’s passion for
justice and peace, and let us work together to make New Jersey new, to make St.
John’s new, and particularly to renew ourselves as well.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 6pt 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'"><SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>May God continue to
bless you and keep you.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>And may God
continue to guide and enable us to do God’s will here at St. John’s and in our
diocese, and in our world.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 6pt 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'"><SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Amen.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 6pt 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'"><SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"></SPAN><o:p></o:p></SPAN> </P></FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>