This week, I'm doing something unusual, in that I'm also contributing to the email newsletter for St Peter's, our partner congregation who worship with Anglican liturgy at 12:30 in Luganda, one of the languages of Uganda. I wanted to write to thank them for our joint Pentecost service and the work we've shared this year with Paul Hartge, our Micah Intern, and also to think together for a moment on the meaning of Pentecost itself. Paul's last Sunday will be July 17, and we hope to welcome a new intern in September.

We are not "Pentecostal" churches, but we do celebrate in the light of Pentecost. On that first Pentecost, the diversity of human community was all in one place. We think Waltham is diverse! Jerusalem had more cultures, more languages, more beliefs than we could imagine, all in one place. Even more people than usual were in Jerusalem for Pentecost on that day 2000 years ago-50 days after Passover, they gathered to give thanks to God for Mt Sinai, when God called the people of Israel into covenant. So it wasn't only the ordinary diversity of Jerusalem, it was every last breed of traveler and pilgrim, on top of all the year round-inhabitants of Jerusalem, pagan, Jewish, Christian, all there to give thanks.

All there, and all very seriously divided by substantial issues-the question of circumcision, of women, of dietary laws-all of these topics were incredibly contentious. We argue over different issues today, but they are no less-and probably no more-fervently debated.

But even in the midst of that, such a glorious outpouring of the Spirit gave birth to the church. Pentecost teaches us that Church is more of a verb than anything else. Church happens when each of those different people heard what the other was saying, even though they spoke different languages, even though they came from different places, and probably believed pretty different things. Pentecost teaches us that church isn't a club. It's not about like minded people coming together to improve themselves, or even coming together to improve the world. Pentecost is about a new reality, a reversal of those old divisions and desires for ownership and control that came to be at the tower of Babel, that ancient pre-cursor of division. Pentecost is about our souls and bodies being a home for Jesus Christ.

On Pentecost, each could understand the other; but each understood in his or her own language. The languages-the differences-were preserved. The Gospel is about unity, not homogeneity. We are unified in our love of God, in the grace of the Holy Spirit that we have each received at baptism. But the song of that love is sung with different words in all of our lives. We may hear and embody different songs, but we are all sustained by one God. We here at 750 Main Street in Waltham are particularly blessed that we have evidence of God's riotous diversity right here, right now. With the politics of the Anglican Communion swirling around us, we pray for that unity, but if it is not to be, it is not to be.

One of my favorite prayers in the prayer book shows up in some different places--at the Easter Vigil, but also Good Friday, and the liturgy for ordinations. Our church is a "wonderful and sacred mystery." We don't quite know how it really works, or why. How some relationships begin, how others end. So much comes down to mystery-an invitation to us for humility, I think, to remember we don't have it all figured out. How is it that we in the Anglican Communion can share a space and be so different? What will it be like if the differences prove to be too contentious? What would it be like, really, to truly trust in God?

O God of unchangeable power and eternal light: Look favorably on your whole Church, that wonderful and sacred mystery; by the effectual working of your providence, carry out in tranquillity the plan of salvation; let the whole world see and know that things which were cast down are being raised up, and things which had grown old are being made new, and that all things are being brought to their perfection by him through whom all things were made, your Son Jesus Christ our Lord; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

Blessings,

Sara+