Rev. Maureen Frescott
Congregational Church of
Amherst, UCC
May 24, 2015 – Day of
Pentecost
Romans 8:22-27; Acts 2:1-21
“Speaking in
Tongues”
Many
years ago, in a far away country, a group of men sat huddled together in a
darkened space.
They
were hiding from an enemy who wished to do them harm.
Suddenly
fire rained down from the sky and the sound of people shouting in many
languages filled the air.
And
then there was silence.
And
in the silence something wonderful happened.
One
by one, the men emerged from their hiding spaces and stood face to face with
the people they most feared.
Language
was suddenly no longer a barrier…
…and
they began to talk, and laugh, and sing.
They
looked into each other’s eyes, and said, “Peace be with you….”
And
peace was with them on that day.
This
day that I just described was not the Day of Pentecost.
This
was Christmas Day in the year 1914 on the western front of WWI.
Many
of us have heard this story known as the Christmas Truce,
when
British and German troops laid down their arms and agreed to a ceasefire for
just one day.
The
soldiers met half way between their trenches and exchanged Christmas greetings
and sang Christmas carols in English and German.
They
even exchanged small gifts of food, tobacco, and wine.
One
soldier described a scene in which officers snipped buttons off each others
uniforms as souvenirs, and a British machine gunner, who fancied himself as an
amateur hairdresser, gave haircuts to enemy troops as they kneeled at his feet.
This
impromptu truce repeated itself a year later, on Christmas Day 1915, this time
on the French side of the front.
A
German soldier who took part in that ceasefire shared this account:
When the Christmas bells sounded in the villages
behind the lines ..... something fantastically unmilitary occurred. German and
French troops spontaneously made peace and ceased hostilities; they visited
each other through disused trench tunnels, and exchanged wine, cognac and
cigarettes for bread, biscuits and ham. This suited them so well that they
remained good friends even after Christmas was over.
Another
soldier wrote of the Christmas truces:
“It
was absolutely astounding, and if I had seen it on a cinema film I should have
sworn that it was faked!"
Truthfully,
truces such as this were not all that uncommon during the early years of WWI,
when entire battalions were deadlocked and hunkered down in adjacent trenches
for months at a time.
British,
German, and French troops would at times arrange a half hour truce every
evening, to allow for the retrieval and burial of the dead, and the delivery of
food rations to the front lines for both sides.
During
these truces men would climb out of their trenches and converse with the enemy
openly. The men would exchange newspapers and ask how the local football clubs
were fairing. And in the evenings, when they were safely back in their own
trenches the men would often sing together, in English, German, and French.
As
the war dragged on, these peaceful truces happened less and less often.
Commanding
officers issued stern warnings against fraternizing with the enemy and
eventually orders from above ended the practice all together.
It
was becoming evident that men who became familiar with one another were less
likely to kill one another.
17
million people died in WWI.
7
million civilians and 10 million soldiers.
German,
French, British, American, Italian, Russian, Polish, Austrian.
In
all 32 nations sent men into battle who never came home.
Among
the dead were many of the participants in those impromptu truces.
Men
who once greeted one another and sang Christmas carols together eventually died
at each other’s hands.
We
might ask, “Where was God?” when the
sons of our nations were killing each other on the battlefield.
But
we don’t doubt that God was present when their guns fell silent.
How
else can we explain soldiers laying down their arms to sing songs about the Prince
of Peace coming into the world?
The
Holy Spirit moves in mysterious ways, we often say.
It
was the Spirit that sent the disciples careening into the streets on the Day of
Pentecost.
It
was the Spirit that broke down the barriers of language and culture and belief
that separated one from the other.
It
was the Spirit that lifted them up out of their fear and set them down in front
of each other so they could better greet one another in peace.
We
call the Day of Pentecost the “birth” day of the church.
Because
this is the day that God called us to step outside of ourselves and acknowledge
that we share a connection with every human being in creation.
Not
that the disciples weren’t already aware of this.
Most
of them were raised in the Jewish faith. They were well versed in the law of
Moses that commanded them to cause no harm to one another,
and
they knew well the words of the Prophets Isaiah and Micah, who urged them to love
kindness, to act justly, and to walk humbly with their God.
But
when Jesus imparted his teachings to his disciples they seemed to misunderstand
his words a good portion of the time. We do the same.
Jesus
said, “Love all” and we hear “love some.”
He
said, “Welcome all” and we hear “welcome some.”
He
said, “Forgive all” and we hear “forgive some.”
At
times Jesus directly addressed this tendency we have to hear one thing when God
intends for us to hear something radically different.
Jesus
said, “You have heard it said, “An eye for an eye” but I say to you if anyone
strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other also. You have heard it said,
‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your
enemies and pray for those who persecute you.”
This
message is contradictory to the one we hear in the wider culture.
In
the disciples’ time - and in our time.
We
may wonder what it will take for these words to truly take root in us.
As
we saw with the truces of WWI, once the peace and oneness of the Day of
Pentecost died down it didn’t take long for people to return to their trenches
and resume distrusting and fearing one another yet again.
In
fact, only a few decades after Jesus’ death, the Jesus movement broke into two
factions – One that believed all followers must observe the Jewish law in
addition to committing to Christ, and one that believed it was not necessary
for non-Jews to follow the law, because Jesus had instructed them to open the
faith to all nations in fulfillment of the law.
If
we know anything about Christian history, we’re aware that the divisions only continued
from there.
On
the Day of Pentecost it all seemed so clear.
The
people who were there that day were literally engulfed in the Spirit in the
form of wind and fire and voices all around them –
They
were engulfed in the Spirit of peace, forgiveness, love and understanding – moving
in them and through them.
This
wasn’t just an intellectual “aha!” moment -
It
was a physical and emotional realization that this intangible force of God that
we call the Holy Spirit is real and it connects us all to one another.
Paul
attempts to describe this connection in his letter to the Romans:
“The
whole creation has been groaning in labor pains until now”
“In
our weakness…the Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words.”
Creation
is groaning, the Spirit is sighing…as it molds and changes us.
Words
escape us as we try to explain this presence of God in our midst.
Too
often the words do escape us.
We
often struggle to describe or explain how and when we’ve felt the Spirit of God
move through our lives…
...and
lacking the appropriate words to talk about it we may file the experiences away
and assume they have no relevance to our daily lives.
We’re
not unique in doing this.
It
was not long after that Day of Pentecost that a kind of spiritual forgetfulness
set in.
The
peace and harmony the first believers experienced in each other’s company faded
from memory.
The
ability to understand and speak one another’s language was lost.
Old
divisions and slights were easier to hold onto then the wistful desire to live
as one.
Once
a year, on the Day of Pentecost we Christians remind ourselves of the powerful
presence and mysterious movement of the Spirit that connects us to God and to
one another.
But
perhaps we’re not reminding ourselves often enough.
Perhaps
we’re not allowing ourselves to experience and express the emotions the help us
to remember.
Earlier
this week, I attended the final project presentations of some of our high
school seniors. One of our teens,
Hannah, did her project on the effects of music therapy on people experiencing
dementia.
One
of the key symptoms of dementia is aphasia – the loss of the ability to recall
names of objects and commonly used words.
This
loss of ability to express oneself is frustrating to say the least.
As
one of our seniors in our Woman’s Association recently said to me,
“Why
is it that I can think of 18 words to describe the word I’m looking for but I
can’t think of the word itself?”
It’s been found that people with
advanced dementia, who have all but lost the ability to communicate and have
retreated within themselves - suddenly come alive when exposed to music.
Hannah
experienced this firsthand when she took her guitar to a local nursing home and
sang for the residents.
She
noticed one particular gentleman who was slouched over in his wheelchair and
essentially non responsive to any effort to engage him.
Then
Hannah began to play Can’t Help Falling
in Love by Elvis Presley and the man immediately began to sing without
missing a word.
Neuroscientists
say it is the predictable structure and rhythm of music – verse followed by
chorus followed by verse - that is soothing to people with dementia.
But
it is the emotional memories that we attach to music that help us to recall and
sing entire stanzas to a song even if we no longer have the ability to speak
the words on their own.
It
is our emotions coupled with our physical experiences – sound, sight, taste,
touch, and smell – that leave the most lasting impressions on our memories.
These
deep rooted memories are akin to the memories we carry of the Spirit.
The
memories of the times in our lives when we’ve felt God’s presence in a very
real and visceral way.
The
times when we’ve felt overwhelming joy.
The
time we’ve felt calmness in the face of fear.
The
times we’ve felt a soothing sense of hope in the midst of heart wrenching
grief.
It
is these Spirit filled memories that keep us coming back to God.
Despite
our tendency to forget the words we might hear here in church,
or
our struggle to interpret the words we read in scripture.
Regardless
of how often we disregard Jesus’ teachings or bend them to better fit the world
around us.
It’s
our experience of God that makes all of this real and meaningful for us.
The
Spirit moves in mysterious ways.
It
helps us to do things we never thought we were capable of doing,
and
it inspires us to do things that strengthen our connections with one another.
The
Spirit coaxes us out of the trenches we’ve dug and breaks down the barriers
that keep us from communicating.
It
doesn’t always take a rush of wind or a rain of fire to get us moving.
Sometimes
all it takes is a song…and two who are willing to sing it together.
Thanks be to God and Amen.
