"Paying Attention to Our Tears"

Ezekiel 37:1-14   Acts 2:1-4

 

     Wednesday was Katie Couric's last day as co-host of the Today Show.  I am not a big Today Show watcher.  It conflicts with Sportscenter.  But I just happened to be watching when they showed a showed a clip of events that had taken place while Katie has been on the air over the last fifteen years.  There was the Oklahoma City bombing, Nine Eleven, the Columbine High School shooting, Hurricane Katrina.  As I watched the suffering tears began to well up in my eyes.

 

      The tears made me think of Frederick Buechner.  I remembered that he had written something about tears.  I found it on Wednesday morning.  It is in his book Whistling In the Dark.  "You never know what may cause them.  The sight of the Atlantic Ocean can do it or a piece of music.  I pair of somebody's old shoes can do it.  A horse cantering across a meadow, the high school basketball team running out unto the floor at the start of a game.  You can never be sure.  But of this you can be sure.  Whenever you find tears in your eyes, especially the unexpected tears, it is well to play the closest attention."

 

      "They are not only telling you something about the secret of who you are, but more often than not God is speaking to you through them of the mystery of where you have come from and summoning you to where, if your soul is to be saved, you should go to next."

 

       As I drove to church on Wednesday morning the scenes from the Today Show kept replaying in my mind and I began to think about the baptismal font and the fact that we are baptized into the death of Jesus.  I didn't realize until Wednesday how much I had missed not having a sign of baptism in the sanctuary.  These waters connect us with Jesus.  His seal has been put on us.  I have heard that people who visit Israel bring back holy water from the Jordan River so that their children and grandchildren can be baptized with it.  Usually just regular tap water is used.  But wouldn't it be something if we could take the water from the tears of the people left after Oklahoma City and Columbine, Nine Eleven and Hurricane Katrina, and grieving parents and spouses and children from this congregation and baptize new converts and the children of converts with the water from those tears.  Wouldn't that be a powerful symbol of whose we are.  It would serve as a reminder that life is not easy, that the one being baptized will not only experience joy and happiness but also suffering and death. 

 

     But on this day we know as Pentecost we are reminded that Jesus baptized with more than water.  He baptized with Holy Spirit.  We believe it is the Spirit of God that gives new life to dry bones and empowers scared disciples to witness to Jesus.  It is the Spirit of God that empowers us to do things that we could not do on our own.  

 

       According to the book of Acts it was then that they began to fill their charge.  Chapter 1, verse 8. "You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth." 

 

       That charge was carried out but only after some kicking and screaming.  It was one thing to share the gospel with Jews but something else again to share it with Samaritans and Gentiles and Ethiopian eunuchs and Roman army officers.  When word got back to Jerusalem that Philip had baptized Samaritans and that the Samaritans had received the Holy Spirit, Peter and John were send to investigate.  Another early convert was an Ethiopian eunuch. That must have sent the church leaders into a frenzy.  It may be that the most difficult baptism to accept was that of Cornelius.  He was not only a Gentile but a Roman army officer.  After he was baptized by Peter they had to have a powwow in Jerusalem to decide whether or not it was okay to baptize the uncircumcised.  And it wasn't until after Paul spoke and told of the signs and wonders being done among the Gentiles that James, the leader in the church of Jerusalem, declared that Gentiles did not have to become Jews in order to become Christians.  Jesus died for all and we are called to witness to that not only here in Jerusalem, not only to people like us, but to all people.

 

      We have been baptized into the death of Jesus so that we can share the good news of new life with those who deal with tragedy and with those who are different from us and with those who live just outside the walls of the church.  Pentecost is not just about the people of the church receiving the Spirit, it is about what they do after they have received it.  We are called to be witnesses to the ends of the earth. 

 

       The seal of Christ has been put on us with water in baptism, we have been given the gift of the Holy Spirit.  And now we share in the Sacrament of Holy Communion.  God gives us everything we need to be faithful disciples.  May we be witnesses to the good news not only to the ends of the earth but right here in our own neighborhood.