Pentecost, the birthday of the church, when everyone wears red, and where all reds are welcome!  Oh, and also yellows, blacks and whites!  Or to use Bible language, Elamites, Pamphylilans, Cretans, even Ohioans!  It’s Christianity’s Oscars and Emmys – a chance for us to celebrate our profession, our calling, our great institution!  The Church!  So we call upon our Trinity Trio to languish and luxuriate in the perfection they hath wrought!

But this can only last so long before someone figures out not everything smells so sweet in Farmville.  Red is also the color of stop signs!  Along with our celebration comes evaluation, even investigation – as we consider that Jesus just may be telling us what he told those first Pentecostals, “Hey, I see what you’re doing, yep it’s broken, but I’m going to fix it!”

The Church is broken?  A Problem on Pentecost?  Say it ain’t so!

We more than suspect that North American Christianity has become a consumer commodity.  We notice that people shop for faith communities that make them feel comfortable instead of spiritually challenged.  We consider that in 1955 only 4% of Americans switched religious affiliations in their lifetimes, today it’s 44%.  When asked why, people say it’s because they found something they liked better.  This is not to say switching is always bad, but it is to say it always has consequences.

This Pentecost we consider that the Church’s biggest temptation may be for us to become a business.  While the government calls us one (501c3!), God doesn’t.  We know that we are not here to satisfy wants, but to transform them.  We are not here to cultivate desires, but to make them holier.  We are here to help people rise above our lower natures and care deeply about higher things – like the needs of the less fortunate, and the rights of the marginalized.  These are tough sells.  We see why Jesus got so mad in the marketplace.

So while this Sunday is foremost a celebration it does not come without our serious consideration that we’ve become more self-indulgent than self-sacrificing - complacent and immune to the call to leave behind everything for the cause of Christ.  So let us pray for a mighty rushing wind and tongue-talkers to shake us up!  Let us pray for a return to our distinct calling!  Let us root ourselves even more deeply in our call to be a particular people in a particular place, cultivating our own culture, living lives of sacrifice, holiness, and genuine concern for the world.

Reading

Thieves in the Temple – G. Jeffrey MacDonald

The Gospel of Inclusion – Carlton Pearson

Jerusalem: One City, Three Faiths – Karen Armstrong