<html><body><div>Part two for Pentecost.</div><div><br></div><div>Bob</div><div><br></div><div><font color="#00000a" face="Arial" size="2"> Oh, wait! Right here, in our own congregation’s recent history, the congregation and clergy of First United Methodist Church right here in Albany gave us shelter; gave us spiritual encouragement; welcomed us into their house; gave us the keys, and invited us to do what we were used to doing, no matter if it differed from what they did; no matter that it might have looked and sounded unusual to them. They welcomed us so that we could establish our roots again, and swing our thuribles, and chant our psalms and prayers, and splash Holy water around. Or whatever it is that we do.</font><p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; color: rgb(0, 0, 10); font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>Jesus’ friends got together many times since His resurrection and ascension. They even met with Jesus some of these times. But there’s not much talk about witnessing, about telling their story to others, about really engaging with people to tell them of the limitless and unbounded Love of God. It would seem that much of their times was spent among themselves, not really looking beyond their own immediate needs.</span></p><p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; color: rgb(0, 0, 10); font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>This wasn’t necessarily a bad thing. They had to get their bearings. They had to put together their theology – to come up with an idea of what their relationship was with God. And they had to process what Jesus had been saying about Him disappearing and some Advocate being sent to them by God.</span></p><p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; color: rgb(0, 0, 10); font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>Who knows, they may even have had to draw up some sort of a very, very rudimentary understanding about Apostolic Succession, and Apostolic Tradition, although they’d <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"><u>NEVER </u></b>have put it in those terms.</span></p><p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; color: rgb(0, 0, 10); font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>But it was only fifty days after the resurrection of Jesus that things began to fall into place and they found their minds opened up to what were the basics of the Gospel teaching. It took time, in other words. It wasn’t simply overnight that they discovered what to say and how to say it. If they’d opened their mouths much before what we call Pentecost they’d probably have blown it. They couldn’t have guessed the limitlessness of God’s Love. It was only when they made themselves fully open to the Power of god taking over their lives; it was only when they allowed God to open their eyes and guide them in their every step that they became ready to put the call to be apostles into gear. In the Power of the Spirit, they began to talk about God and how God became visible in Jesus.</span></p><p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; color: rgb(0, 0, 10); font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>However, what they began to talk about <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"><u>WASN’T</u></b> theories and dogmas like Apostolic Succession. As the Methodist and Episcopalian study team stated; as we ALL need to recognize, it was the way that Jesus wants to draw people together; it was the way that God’s Love never excludes <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:
normal"><u>ANY</u></b>one, that was and should remain the focus of Jesus’ Church on earth.</span></p><p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; color: rgb(0, 0, 10); font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>Oh, of course, we need to come up with a few definitions now and again. We DO struggle with trying to know God and to understand God. Just <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"><u>WAIT</u></b> till next week, the Feast of the Most Blessed Trinity!</span></p><p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; color: rgb(0, 0, 10); font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>But the Love of God, the Call of God to come together is placed on our hearts as well as our minds. The Love and the Call grow out of the Peace of Christ which He extended to everyone. <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"><u>THIS</u></b> is what it all boils down to. As crazy as it sounds, whichever Pentecost story you follow: the one from John’s Gospel which describes the gift of the Spirit coming on Easter evening to bring calm and reassurance, or the one from the Book of the Acts of the Apostles, which talks about the fifty-day waiting period; as crazy as it sounds, the apostles responded to the gift of the Spirit by going out to engage people where they were, on the people’s own terms, however they dressed, however they related to one another, however they spoke.</span></p><p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; color: rgb(0, 0, 10); font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>The message of Pentecost is, curiously enough, the message of Christmas, and the message of Easter. Imagine that! God is consistent! The message of each is that it makes not the slightest difference what our external characteristics are. And, if we happen to be a little – or a lot! – different from one another, God accommodates us right there and then.</span></p><p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; color: rgb(0, 0, 10); font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>As the apostles discovered, they were given the gifts precisely so that they could fulfil God’s heart’s desire – to reach everyone, to invite everyone, to involve everyone, with no exceptions.</span></p><p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; color: rgb(0, 0, 10); font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>The invitations are given to us, Jesus’ Body, to deliver – <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"><u>NOW</u></b>. </span></p><p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; color: rgb(0, 0, 10); font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>Don’t worry! God will be sure that we’ll know how to speak, how to be welcoming. Peace <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"><u>WILL</u></b> be with you! Peace <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"><u>WILL</u></b> be with me! God <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"><u>WILL</u></b> lead us to do what we have to do!</span></p><p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; color: rgb(0, 0, 10); font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>Just leave that Apostolic Succession stuff to those to whom God is entrusting it. Our job is to talk. And to listen. And to welcome. And to heal. Everywhere. All the time. So we need to be ready. You and I never know when our Pentecost call may come, or where.</span></p><p style="background: white; margin: 0px;"><span style='margin: 0px; color: rgb(0, 0, 10); font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>“</span><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'>Chris Parker was there, reportedly, because it was a good place to beg. Stephen Jones, 35, was sleeping nearby. Now, both homeless men are being praised as heroes after the Manchester Arena bombing.</span></p><p style="background: white; margin: 0px;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>“As Manchester and the rest of Britain were trying to come to terms with the country’s<span style="margin: 0px;"> </span><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/23/world/europe/manchester-arena-attack-ariana-grande.html"><span style="margin: 0px; text-decoration: none;"><font color="#0000ff">deadliest</font></span></a><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/23/world/europe/manchester-arena-attack-ariana-grande.html"><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="margin: 0px; color: windowtext; text-decoration: none;"> </span></span><span style="margin: 0px; text-decoration: none;"><font color="#0000ff">terrorist attack</font></span></a><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/23/world/europe/manchester-arena-attack-ariana-grande.html"><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="margin: 0px; color: windowtext; text-decoration: none;"> </span></span><span style="margin: 0px; text-decoration: none;"><font color="#0000ff">in more than a decade</font></span></a>, the two men are<span style="margin: 0px;"> </span><a href="https://twitter.com/CouldbeYue/status/866969595810385922"><span style="margin: 0px; text-decoration: none;"><font color="#0000ff">being hailed on social media</font></span></a><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>for their selflessness and courage.” <sup>4</sup></span></p><p style="background: white; margin: 0px;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>Probably we all know the rest of the story, how they set to work immediately, bringing some peace, some comfort, some hope to the dying and the injured, reminding them, reminding us, as Chris said, “Just because I’m homeless doesn’t mean that I haven’t got a heart.” And, I might add, just because he’s homeless doesn’t mean that he doesn’t have God’s Spirit. And same can be said of those on the MAX train in Portland, and of those in Kabul last Wednesday.</span></p><p style="background: white; margin: 0px;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>The Spirit speaks many languages, in so many different situations, for so many reasons.</span></p><p style="background: white; margin: 0px;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>The work, the Love of the Spirit is limitless – and now, that is ours.</span></p><p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'> </span></p><p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'>NOTES:</span></b></p><p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'> </span></b></p><p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style='margin: 0px; line-height: 115%; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'>[1]</span></span></span></span></span><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>A Gift to the World: Co-Laborers for the Healing of Brokenness. <span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>The Episcopal Church and The United Methodist Church. <span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>A Proposal for Full Communion<span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>- Sixth Draft - <a href="http://www.episcopalchurch.org/files/documents/a_gift_to_the_world_0.pdf"><font color="#0000ff">http://www.episcopalchurch.org/files/documents/a_gift_to_the_world_0.pdf</font></a></span></p><p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'> </span></p><p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";'><font size="2">2</font></span></span><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";'><span style="margin: 0px;"><font size="2"> </font></span><font size="2">Liturgy of Holy Baptism, The Book of Common Prayer, page 308</font></span></p><p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";'><font size="2"> </font></span></p><p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";'><font size="2">3</font></span></span><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";'><span style="margin: 0px;"><font size="2"> </font></span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal"><font size="2">“A Gift to the World”,</font></i><font size="2"> Op cit., lines 114-127 </font></span></p><p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'> </span></p><p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'>4</span></span><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>“<i>They Went to Manchester Arena as Homeless Men. They Left as Heroes.” </i><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="margin: 0px;">By</span></span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span></span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="margin: 0px;"><a title="More Articles by DAN BILEFSKY" href="https://www.nytimes.com/by/dan-bilefsky"><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="margin: 0px; color: windowtext; text-decoration: none;">DAN BILEFSKY</span></span></a> </span></span>MAY 24, 2017 <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/24/world/europe/homeless-hero-manchester.html?smid=fb-nytimes&smtyp=cur"><font color="#0000ff">https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/24/world/europe/homeless-hero-manchester.html?smid=fb-nytimes&smtyp=cur</font></a></span></p></div></body></html>