Speaking With Tongues Of Fire
A Sermon preached by Anne Erskine
at Christos Metropolitan Community Church, Toronto, ON
8 June 2003 -- Pentecost (Year B)
When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability. Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven living in Jerusalem. And at this sound the crowd gathered and was bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in the native language of each. Amazed and astonished, they asked, "Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? And how is it that we hear, each of us, in our own native language? Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabs-- in our own languages we hear them speaking about God's deeds of power." All were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, "What does this mean?" But others sneered and said, "They are filled with new wine." But Peter, standing with the eleven, raised his voice and addressed them, "Men of Judea and all who live in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and listen to what I say. Indeed, these are not drunk, as you suppose, for it is only nine o'clock in the morning. No, this is what was 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. And I will show portents in the heaven above and signs on the earth below, blood, and fire, and smoky mist. The sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon to blood, before the coming of the Lord's great and glorious day. Then everyone who calls on the name of God shall be saved.' Acts 2:1-21
Saints, here in this place let us pray together
that the Holy Spirit will touch my tongue and all of our hearts
with the love of our Christ Jesus.
On this birth day of the Christian church,
when some good Jews who believed Jesus to be the Anointed One
gathered to pray and study and praise the Holy One
and were moved on out of their old ways
by a powerful, noisy wind that left tongues of flame dancing on each one’s head
and gave them tongues to reach out to tell all nations the good news -
not in the old ways or in their own language
but in ways that those who heard them would understand.
On this day full of the power of the Holy Spirit
that Paul tells us was promised by Jesus to undergird our hope and promise,
Paul tells us that this gift
this new birth has been laboured for like a mother labours in her birth pangs
- yes you were there - everyone of you -
when your mother cried out at your birth -
when you cried out as the first breath came into your new lungs -
has been laboured for like creation groaning to bring forth new life
when the Spirit passes over the chaos over the tower of Babel
not to make everything alike not to make every tongue alike
not to make us understand each other by conformity
NO!
has been laboured for to give the unique birth day gift of new life,
the good news that we live life eternally
in the Spirit of God through the love of our Christ Jesus.
Amen? Amen!
On this day I am proud to be a committed member
of Christos Metropolitan Community Church
a congregation gifted by the Holy Spirit to labour here from Toronto
to spread the really queer news of the gospel
so it may reach those outside our church walls in their many tongues
on the Web, at the dances, at the rallies, in the clinics, in the streets....
We take our Spirit filled prayers and prophesy !
And YES we prophesy!
We tell the church world wide and the world outside the church
the good news we have been given as those queer Christians.
We take our deep knowledge of scripture,
we take our loving community that labours to accept all,
we take the good news beyond our walls, beyond our own cultural languages
because the Spirit won’t let us do anything less
because the Spirit moves us to share our good news
because the good news belongs to all the children of the Holy One
and that Love won’t rest until everyone knows themselves beloved.
Amen? Amen!
I am proud to be a member of the Universal Fellowship of Metropolitan Community Churches,
a Christian denomination that arose from the flames of the Spirit
in the heart of a defrocked - ah the church ever in drag -
deflocked, hot tongued justice making Pentecostal preacher, Troy Perry.
(Who has a gifted tongue like so many of us. )
Yes, Troy has just been given an honorary Doctorate by Boston’s Episcopal Seminary
and certainly UFMCC found its first home in the heart of Catholic Los Angeles,
but the songs that most MCCers have in common are from our gift from the Holy Spirit
through our founder’s Southern roots in the Gospel tent with Bessie Smith
and worshipping with Pentecostal and Baptist and evangelical friends and relations.
Never let it be said that Troy thinks that any denomination
has all of the Spirit of Truth within it.
I am proud to be a member of a church that goes beyond
the conformities of the World Council of Churches
proud to be a member of a church that goes beyond the conformities of gender
and other stigmatized social barriers
proud to be a member of a church that has come through the groaning labours
of establishing congregations where homophobia cripples lives
of rebuilding churches after fire and hate and the deaths of so many of its leaders,
to labour for justice not only for ourselves but all who need new life
I am proud to follow Jesus into new life surrounded by people
who are not among the worshippers of the God of Mammon.
I am proud to have companions in Christ’s labour of love who are touched by the Spirit
and eagerly reaching out to those who are dis-spirited with the birth day gift of new life,
the breath of the Spirit in an oppressed and depressed world
a stuffy and suffocating world.
Yes, this is hard work,
and when we are open to spiritual renewal,
praying and studying and learning to love every soul,
praising the source of all new life,
the fierce wind of the Holy Spirit empties us out
empties out all our judgmental grudging fearful barriers
and the Spirit’s flames come to rest upon our heads
the Spirit of Truth heals our spirit
and the Spirit of Truth comes forth from us to all who need it.
Some will accuse us of being "not sober"
as they also accused the disciples of Jesus at the Jewish Feast of Pentecost 2000 years ago,
and in a way that is true.
Though not drunk with the wine of forgetfulness,
we are not sobersides in the Spirit.
We follow Jesus who celebrated at dinners and weddings
Passover and Pentecost
and eternally in the Holy Spirit
and asked us to remember him in the feast of love
in the communion of saints who have gone before us
labour with us and will come after us
until he could feast with us again at the heavenly banquet.
So why be starved of the Spirit of the Living Christ
when you can be proud to be a member of a blessed people?
Open yourself to speaking with tongues of fire!
Reach out to all those who need to be touched with the good news
that inflames the world with dreams and visions of justice
and mercy and life eternal for all.
If the Holy Spirit can inflame Ezekiel to prophesy
when confronted with the reality of the dry bones of his people,
if the Holy Spirit can inflame Peter
to preach good news when confronted with the reality
of the fears of a small community and the jeers of the crowd,
if the Holy Spirit can inflame a married pastor of the Church of God
to come out and found a queer church and call us all saints,
the Holy Spirit can inflame you to labour
until you reach everyone you can in their own languages.
Are you ready like Mary to be impregnated with the Holy Spirit?
(Take taper and light votive in window and wait to pass it to any who wants to light one.)
If so, I invite you to come forward and light a flame
that the Holy Spirit may show you the flame over your own head
that you may inspire a community that needs to hear your truth
from your own fiery tongue
the good news you have been given as a birth day gift
by the love of our Christ Jesus.
Amen.
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