by Christine Sine
On Sunday I posted my Pentecost sermon with this prayer at the end. I plan to use it each day over the next few weeks to help me focus and thought that some of you would appreciate it too.
by Christine Sine
By the simple act of altering the position of one’s head a different kind of world may appear
(Robert Macfarlane Landmarks 241)
Some of you may remember that at the beginning of this year I decided to call this “A Year of Seeing Differently. I had no idea how true this would be or how much of an impact this concept would have on me. “Read life differently” has become so important to me over the last few months that we have decided to make it the Godspace theme for this post Pentecost season and it is quotes like this one above that are helping to move me in the right direction.
I have had fun over the last few weeks looking in different ways at all kinds of things from leaves to scenery to give me that different perspective I often need that is little more than a tilt of my head away.
Of course I could try standing on my head, lying on the ground or looking through the lens of a camera, or looking through my fingers or even just moving around a tree. All of these actions give me a different perspective, an important perspective that when combined together slowly give me a full understanding of what I am looking at. Just as the different perspectives I suggested yesterday give me a better understanding of who Jesus is.
Yes you are right, yesterday’s Pentecost sermon was part of the fruit of this reflection though I have not tried standing on my head yet to get a different perspective of Jesus!
As I look ahead there are a lot of questions revolving in my mind that I am hoping will give me different perspectives without needing to stand on my head.
Here are a few of my initial thoughts:
What if I rethink who I am not in terms of what Christ has done for me, but in terms of what Christ wants to do through me for others?
What if I read life:
through the lens of laughter and fun?
through the filter of joy and peace?
through the framework of gratitude and thankfulness?
these are the questions that will I think shape my posts and my thinking:
As the seasons change what do I need to let go of in order to fully enter the richness of this new season?
As I look at our world, what language do I need to change to become a better steward?
As I think about my faith what perceptions and understandings need to change in order embrace that which I normally exclude?
And with all these questions revolving in my mind it is not surprising that my initial thoughts have turned to poetry, that fertile ground of exploration and expression for me.
Read life differently
Read with love and not with hate
with compassion and not with judgment
with generosity and not with scarcity.
See your cup
not half full
not half empty
but overflowing with goodness and light and life.
Read life differently
look for the wonder of uniqueness
not the exclusion of sameness
Embrace don’t reject
Forgive don’t condemn
Seek the Son of God
work diligently to know
he who is the way, the truth, the life
follow his footsteps
in the way that leads to eternal life
Amen
by Christine Sine
It’s Pentecost Sunday and I am preaching at our church, St Andrew’s Episcopal here in Seattle. It is also the beginning of our new theme “Read Life Differently” and as Pentecost is for me an invitation to do just that, I wanted thought I wold share my Sunday sermon with you. Enjoy!
Preaching for Pentecost – St Andrews.
It’s Pentecost Sunday, and those of us that remembered are dressed in red! But Pentecost Sunday is about far more than that. For some it is about celebrating the beginning of the church, for others it is about praying for peace, but for me it is an invitation to see the world differently.
Preparing for today’s sermon brought back wonderful memories of a gathering Tom and I attended in England several years ago. It was the 200th anniversary of the British Bible Society and we joined 2,000 others in the magnificent St Paul’s cathedral for an inspiring celebration.
At the beginning Genesis 11:1-9 was read while a group of liturgical dancers all dressed in black swirled around the stage, reenacting the story of the Tower of Babel. They ended by dancing out through the congregation in different directions symbolizing the dispersal of the people. About half way through the service Archbishop Rowan Williams read out the Lord’s prayer, first in English and then in Welsh. It was very moving. The service ended with the reading of Acts 2:1-11. The dancers, now dressed in white returned to the stage in a joyous dance of reconciliation, and renewed understanding.
It was particularly impacting because just a few weeks before that I had met a Welsh theologian, Dewi Hughes who struggled with the traditional interpretation of the Babel story. He was very aware that the English had tried to annihilate his culture and language by forbidding Welsh speaking and celebrations.
He believed that it was God’s intention for human kind to spread out throughout the whole earth carrying their ethnic diversity into all the corners of our world and enriching it with the plethora of languages and cultures that God created.
Dewi believed the building of the Tower of Babel interrupted the story of the scattering of humanity. He saw its building as the first proclamation of empire in human history with, in this case, one city seeking to dominate the rest of humanity and keep people from moving apart from each other and filling the earth as God intended. Seeing that a united humanity with one language would have an endless capacity for rebellion, God confused their language, thus hindering their ability to communicate freely and to cooperate with each other in opposition to God’s will.
The final outcome was precisely what God originally intended for the human race, that is, for the whole earth to be filled with people of ethnic diversity.
I don’t think we realize what an incredible miracle Pentecost was. People didn’t come together as a homogenous mass that spoke the same language and expressed the same culture wanting to dominate those around them. Each person understood the other in their own language and culture. The diversity God desired was preserved. Collaboration was once more possible. And I think in today’s world we can appreciate that this is not just about acceptance of ethnic diversity. It is about acceptance of all the different cultures of sexual orientation, as well as those of different age groups, disabilities and marginalized communities. It is about seeking to understand and accept other faiths and other perspectives within the Christian faith too. It is accepting that creation too has a voice that needs to be heard and understood.
Wow that’s a big order, that stretches all of us well beyond our comfort zones if we take it seriously. It will indeed take a miracle to accomplish, a miracle that requires us to see the story of God and the people that fill our world, differently.
Who remembers Father Rich’s Easter sermon – how the children taught us to see things differently. I would love to see their take on Babel and Pentecost. I know we need their eyes to truly understand how we should view diversity.
When I was writing my book The Gift of Wonder someone sent me a link to a delightful video in which a kid is paired with a friend and asked “What makes you different from each other” Their answers are completely different from what any adult might say. To our adult eyes each kid is very different from their friend. Some are Caucasian, some Asian, some Afro-Caribbean. Some in wheelchairs. Their replies have nothing to do with wheelchairs, or race however. “She never stops talking! Says one white boy of his Asian friend. “I have smaller toes than Artie says another athletic child of her wheel-chair bound companion.The best of all is two little boys the video cuts back and forth to. One is Indian, the other Caucasian, though they are in matching school uniforms. They look at each other in puzzlement, unable to observe any differences. Finally with many sighs they decide they like different games.
Jesus saw people differently too, maybe because he never lost his childlike eyes. He ate with tax collectors and prostitutes as well as synagogue leaders. And he didn’t just heal on the Sabbath but he touched outcasts and unclean women in the process. He even healed gentiles. Talk about different.
I think that some of this ability to look at life differently brushed off on Jesus disciples, otherwise I am not sure that they would have coped with the amazing and miraculous gathering of Pentecost and their ability to suddenly understand, appreciate and therefore collaborate with all the cultures gathered together.
Do we really get the message? Or do we still look at those who are different with the spirit of Babel and want to control them?
It’s not easy to accept and appreciate other cultures. Growing up in Australia with one Scottish and one Greek parent, I was often confused by the acceptance or lack there of I experienced. It was a little like my Big Fat Greek wedding only more so. The Greeks were noisier and the Scots were quieter. Yet behind it all there was the Australian cultural dynamic. In the 1960s Scottish was good, Greek was bad. So I hid my Greek identity. It was not until I was in my 30s and visited Greece that I learned to appreciate this rich culture which is so much a part of who I am.
During my 12 years working as a physician on board the mercy ship Anastasis my cross cultural understanding was stretched out of shape again and I saw how easily we move towards the tower of Babel model rather than the Pentecost one.
Sometimes we would have 20 different nationalities on our medical team and it is amazing what we found to argue about and try to assert our authority over. How strong do we make the coffee? Do we stop for coffee break? Do we read temperature in centigrade or Fahrenheit? All of these created major conflict, making me realize what a miracle it was that we were ever able to work together in any sort of collaborative way. Only by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Now as an Australian living in the U.S. I am still very aware of the challenges of being from another culture. I have had to change my language, my diet and even the way I dress. My love of Vegemite fills most Americans with horror. G”yday mate how’d ya be” gets me blank stares. And calling someone “a silly galah” makes them think I am bonkers.
The great British theologian, missionary and author Lesslie Newbigin said “The fact that Jesus is much more than, much great than our culture bound vision of him can only come home to us through the witness of those who see him through other eyes.”
We need cultural diversity to fully understand who Jesus is, but how do we get beyond our culture bound vision of Jesus and of those who inhabit our world? How do we learn to collaborate with those who are different?
Only with a miracle and that miracle is the coming of the “Advocate that will be with us forever” that Jesus promises. The Spirit of God that sweeps through that diverse gathering at Pentecost and makes it possible for them to collaborate and communicate across their diversity of cultures.
I wonder however if part of God’s intention we still don’t do well at is taking that new found spirit of understanding and collaboration between cultures manifested at Pentecost and scattering it out across all the cultures of the world. My Indian friends still resent the fact that Paul’s journeys around the Mediterranean made it into the New Testament but Thomas’s to India didn’t. Chinese friends grieve that the early spread of the gospel into China is almost entirely unknown. And of course we are all well aware of the cultural tensions and misunderstandings that exist throughout our world today.
It’s hard but the Spirit still calls us to work for understanding and I think we need a fresh “Pentecost” in every generation.
One of the keys for me has been sitting down with people from other cultures and listening intently to what they say, then being prepared to change. My perspectives were disrupted by Native American and African American friends who have challenged me in life changing ways.
I still remember sitting in a tee-pee with Native American evangelist Richard Twiss not long before he died. I was the only white person in the circle. The others were leaders from African American, Asian and Native American backgrounds all frustrated because white people invited them to speak at their conferences but never really wanted their input on how to plan the event. I still grapple with his words: “We don’t want to come and sit at your table. We want to sit down and build a new table together.”
African American leader Leroy Barber made me aware of how white my images of Jesus are and the Interfaith gatherings we have held here at the church make us all aware of how we need to move across barriers to understand the cultures of other faiths.
There are however things that we can do to make us receptive to the building of that new table, just as Jesus actions made his disciples receptive to the “new table that Pentecost built in their midst.
So as we leave today here are a few things I want to encourage you to do:
Diversify your images of Jesus. I deliberately look for African, Asian, and Native American images of Jesus to enrich my understanding of him. I particularly love those by Chinese artist He Qi and the African group Jesus Mafa from the Cameroons. Mafa Christians in North Cameroon wanted pictures of the gospel in their own culture. They acted out Bible stories in their villages photographed them and enlisted French artists to create sketches. The resulting images are probably closer to what Jesus culture looked like than anything Western artists produce.
Some of the most powerful cross cultural Gospel paintings I have seen were created to help us understand Jesus journey to the cross from different perspectives. Gwyneth Leech used refugees from Iraq and the Sudan as spectators in her paintings and Karel Stadnik in Prague uses contemporary images of human suffering to make the journey of Jesus more real.
Second, diversify your music. Listen to gospel music from other cultures. I love the way we have been introduced that this here at St Andrews. It helps all of us shape new joy filled images of God’s worldwide community and opens us to collaboration.
Diversify your traditions. One simple way to explore other culture is to ask your friends about the traditions they grew up with. St Andrews is such a great place of hospitality and welcome that I would love to see us host a multicultural Pentecost feast, maybe a potluck, where we could all share about our cultures of origin. I am sure it would bring new appreciation for who we are and the wealth of diversity that is here in our midst.
The coming of the spirit at Pentecost, that Advocate that Jesus promises in our gospel reading, was a miracle that makes it possible for all of us to understand each other and collaborate together just as those gathered at Pentecost did. May we continue to allow the spirit to draw us together not so that we become one big homogenous mass, but so that we continue to seek to build a new table together based on understanding and collaboration across ethnic differences.
So let us end with a prayer adapted from my book The Gift of Wonder
Let us go forth today,
In the joy of our Creator,
In the love of our Redeemer,
In the wisdom of our Advocate,
In the company of family
From every tribe and nation and culture.
Let us go forth today,
United in the Sacred Three,
In the image of the Holy One,
Made in diversity,
Desiring understanding,
Proclaiming with enthusiasm
All people matter,
We care,
God loves,
All lives are extraordinary.
Amen
If you follow the church year calendar, Pentecost is celebrated 50 days after Easter. It’s the day that the Church remembers and celebrates the coming of the Holy Spirit when the Holy Spirit descended upon Jesus’ followers with a rushing wind and tongues of fire. These regular, everyday folks who had seen Jesus and followed him are now filled with the power of God and speak in other tongues and 3000 people choose to follow Jesus, all in one day! That’s why Pentecost is celebrated as the birthday of the Church, not the church building, or a denomination, but the people, the followers of Jesus, the new Kingdom community.
This year, Pentecost falls on Sunday, June 9th. And in some churches everyone will wear red (the liturgical color of Pentecost) and wave banners and even have cupcakes to celebrate the Church’s big Birthday!
For other churches it will just be a regular Sunday morning and no mention of Acts 2 will be made.
That’s sad because when we forget Pentecost, we forget a really amazing part of our story! We miss the Gift that God had promised and Jesus told would be given! It’s the day that the Prophecy was fulfilled that the Spirit of God would be poured out on ALL people. Now, not just the prophets and the teachers or the special anointed ones could experience the Holy Spirit. Now the Holy Spirit is poured out on everyone who chooses to follow Jesus!
I often say that I would probably have missed Pentecost, missed the gift of the Holy Spirit. If I had heard Jesus say go into all the world and make disciples and he sent me out, I would have missed the second part, the “stay in Jerusalem and wait” part. I don’t like waiting. I am a really bad wait-er. I want to go do the good stuff of the kingdom! But that’s not what Jesus had in mind. These followers were not supposed to go do this great stuff on their own. They were not supposed to just jump in and try it all just because they could. Jesus went back to the Father so that the Holy Spirit could come and live in us! And live through us and be the comforter and the helper and the teacher and the reminder of all Jesus said and did!
Why is it that we so often don’t’ hear the WAIT part? Why is it that we make our own plans and we run ahead hoping that God will bless our actions after the fact? Are we, am I, just that arrogant and self important? Yep. Too often I am. I need help and I need a BIG reminder that often God says to wait.
Go back to Jerusalem WAIT for the gift. God often says be still, or even just BE.
How are you doing with waiting on God?
Are you willing to stay if God says stay?
How are you doing with being still?
The beautiful thing about Pentecost is that it isn’t just one day. In the church calendar, we get a season of Pentecost! We get time to live out and live into the experience and the receiving of the Holy Spirit.
What aspect of the Holy Spirit are you interested in learning more about during this new season? The Power Gift Giving Holy Spirit? The Comforter who comes along side us? The Teacher, who reminds us of all Jesus did and said? Talk to God about this and ask the Holy Spirit to show you!
Spend some time in the Book of Acts during the coming weeks. What do you notice? What surprises you? What is the Holy Spirit inviting you to do more of,or less of in response?
Create a ritual or a reminder to receive more of the Holy Spirit in your life. This is a photo of a red ceramic bowl at the Cincinnati art museum. It reminds me to be open to what the Holy Spirit has for me, and like Oliver in “Oliver Twist,’ to ask for more power, peace, and love in my bowl! You can pick a red bowl, or a red cup to remind you to be filled with the Spirit, or you might light a candle each morning as a reminder to be filled with the Spirit, or even put out a container of fireplace matches as a symbol of your desire to be fired up with God’s Spirit.
Be Honest with God …like the Disciples, you may still have doubts about what’s next, or doubts, fears or baggage around the Holy Spirit. Spend some time talking to Jesus about where you are. Take time to journal about what you know or what you don’t know about the Holy Spirit and write about your fears or frustrations. Give these to Jesus and allow Him to carry these for you.
With your family, friends, small group, or on your own, get out a world map and pray each day for a new place to be filled with God’s Spirit. You can place a tea light on the country, or a battery tea light candle, or a book of matches as a symbol of your prayers for that place. You could also use a map of your city or state as a prayer tool and pray for the Holy Spirit to fill each neighborhood with God’s power, love and healing. You could color the flames of the Holy Spirit on your map!
So let’s use the next few weeks to actually experience Pentecost. When you see the wind blowing outside your window, or feel the cool breeze on your face, or even when you see a ceiling fan, let these be reminders that the Holy Spirit is here!
Pay attention. Don’t be afraid to make space for Pentecost! Don’t be afraid to wait on the Gift of the Holy Spirit!
What is the Holy Spirit reminding you of today? Take the time to be still and listen. Feel the wind of the Spirit and be refreshed and renewed to go and love as Jesus did.

painting by Jason Micheli
©lillylewin and freerangeworship.com
by Christine Sine
Today is D-Day, the 75th celebration of this heart wrenching day that marks the beginning of the campaign to liberate Nazi-occupied Europe and honors the sacrifice of those who died in the ensuing battles.
As I listened to some of the few remaining veterans share and heard world leaders commemorate the fallen I was in tears, especially as it seems that we are still so far from peace in our world.
Then I went for a walk in my garden where my peace rose is in full bloom and I decided to share this story, one that is probably known by few of my readers, that gives me a sense of hope as I look to the future of our war torn world.
History of an Incredible Rose
The Peace rose is one of my all time favourite flowers, and even more so because of the history that goes with it. I first read about this rose in the book For Love of A Rose, and immediately fell in love with it.
It was developed by French horticulturist Frances Meilland in the years 1935 to 1939. When Meilland foresaw the German invasion of France he sent cuttings to friends in Italy, Turkey, Germany, and the United States to protect the new rose. It is said, by some that it was sent to the US on the last plane available before the German invasion. Others think that it was smuggled out by the French resistance. In the U.S. it was safely propagated by the Conrad Pyle Company during the war. In early 1945 Meilland wrote to Field Marshal Alan Brooke, principal author of the master strategy that won World War II, to thank him for his key part in the liberation of France and to ask if Brooke would give his name to the rose. Brooke declined saying that his name would soon be forgotten and a much better and more enduring name would be “Peace”.
His words were prophetic. The naming of the rose as ‘PEACE’ was publicly announced in America by Robert Pyle on April 29, 1945 , the day Berlin fell, officially considered the end of World WarII in Europe. The next showing of the Peace rose came on V-E Day, May 8, 1945. At the very first United Nations Conference in San Francisco, a Peace rose with the message: “We hope the ‘Peace’ rose will influence men’s thoughts for everlasting world peace”, was presented to all 49 U.N. delegates.
August of 1945 came the announcement that the Peace rose was the winner of the All-American Rose Selections Award of Honor. Simultaneously, the war ended in Japan.
Another memorable occasion came in 1951 when the American Rose Society made the Peace rose the first rose to receive its Gold Medal Award. This award corresponded with the signing of the treaty of peace with Japan.
Peter Beales, English rose grower and expert, said in his book Roses: “‘Peace’, without doubt, is the finest Hybrid Tea ever raised and it will remain a standard variety forever”. It is still the most popular rose in the world.
Plant a Peace Rose
My peace rose always gives me a sense of peace, and hope for a future in which we will one day accomplish God’s peace.
So go and plant a Peace rose, or better still plant some peace in God’s garden. God desires peace in our world and I think that the history of this rose shows that. I always have a peace rose in my garden. its fragrance reminds me constantly of God’s dream of peace and the efforts God makes to ensure it continues to thrive.
Pentecost is this Sunday. Enjoy this beautiful poem by John Birch —
Pentecost
When was the last time
that we heard the wind of your Spirit
roar through this place?
When was the last time
your fire lit up this room?
When was the last time
we took you at your word
and met together in expectation
of your Spirit filling this place,
and these lives with your Glory and Power?
Lord, you challenge us with Pentecost.
Do we believe that this
was a once in eternity experience,
never to be repeated?
That the Holy Spirit was poured out
on your followers for a single purpose,
and ended His work at that instant?
If so, then maybe that is why the Church
seems so powerless in this age,
helpless when faced with the needs
both spiritual and physical,
that we see in the world.
Lord, as we meet together,
and celebrate once again
the memory of that first Pentecost,
may it be for us as it was then
a moment of empowerment,
an awareness of your Glory in this dark world,
a life-changing experience.
With the Easter season drawing to a close and summer (or winter) just around the corner, it is time to get ready for some hospitality. If you are heading into summer BBQs and picnics are probably on the agenda. If you are getting ready for winter then some good meals around the fire with friends should be at the top of your list.
Hospitality was our theme several years ago and I have just revisited this enriching series of articles. I thought you might like to revisit them too.
Here are a few of my favorite books on hospitality to get you in the mood.
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