Monday, May 24, 2021

Sermon: Sighing prayers on Pentecost (May 23, 2021)

 View the full service here. Sermon begins at 38:00. 

Day of Pentecost

May 23, 2021

Romans 8:22-27

 

INTRODUCTION

         Pentecost is one of my favorite days of the church year. I just love hearing about all the different facets of the Holy Spirit. As usual today, we will hear the story of Pentecost from Acts, when the Spirit came rushing among Jesus’ followers. Remember where this story is situated in the narrative – we are now 50 days after the resurrection, and 10 days after the Ascension. Jesus’ parting words to the disciples before ascending into heaven were instructions to go to Jerusalem where they would receive power (Holy Spirit!) and be his witnesses. The story of Pentecost is when that promise comes about. It is often called the birthday of the Church, the day the promised Spirit came to equip and accompany Jesus-followers in spreading the good news to the ends of the earth.

         But we’ll also hear about several other ways we experience the Holy Spirit – not just as a rushing, disrupting, empowering, igniting wind, but also as advocate, comforter, pray-er, creator. As you listen to the readings, see how many different ways you can catch the Spirit moving among us, and consider when in your life you have experienced those different expressions of the Spirit. Let’s listen.



[READ]

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

         I recently started seeing a new spiritual director. A spiritual director is what you might imagine – someone with whom I can talk through some of my personal spiritual musings and struggles without the purpose of making it into a sermon, who will ask me the right questions to help me delve deeper into my spiritual understanding and my relationship with God. It’s an invaluable gift for someone who spends a lot of time working to help others deepen their spirituality, to focus with intention on my own! One thing this new spiritual director does with me that my previous one didn’t, is she begins each session by lighting a candle, offering a short invocation, and then having us sit together in silent prayer.

         Now, I know this will shock you, but… I’m pretty good at talking. I’m an external processor. In fact, when I was 13, I had a sweatshirt that said, “I’m talking and I can’t shut up!” and I wore it with pride. Unfortunately, this trait extends also to my prayer life. That is, in my conversations with God I tend to do a lot more talking than listening. So, you can imagine, 5 minutes of silence was… not easy for me. I was open to it – and in fact I have been trying to include more contemplative prayer into my life for quite a while. But that five minutes was mostly… a lot of monkey brain. You know the kind – where you’re thinking about your to-do list, and remembering something you want to mention later, and imagining what you’ll make for dinner. By the time it was done, I felt no closer to God, nor was I more in tune with my heart. Later in our session I admitted, “I’m going to need some help with that. I’m not so good at listening in silence.”

         With all that in mind, I turned my attention to preparing for Pentecost. There are many things I love about Pentecost. I love the drama of the violent, rushing wind and tongues of fire, the confusion, the spontaneous preaching, the dreams and visions and the calling into the future of this newly formed Church. And that’s just in the Acts story! I also love the Holy Spirit as Advocate, as named in John, as the one who speaks up on our half, and the one who guides us into the way of truth. I love the creating Spirit of the Psalm. I love the Spirit at baptism, descending and claiming us as God’s own beloved. It’s all such good stuff!

         Well, I tried for this sermon to get excited about that dramatic stuff, I did – because today is exciting! Today we are welcoming more people into in-person worship, and (at the 11am service) having communion for the first time in the sanctuary in over a year. Furthermore, schools are opening, masks are coming off, life as we knew it is starting to return. Hope and newness are all around us, to be sure.

But what I am drawn to this year is not any of that exciting, dramatic stuff. I’m drawn instead to Romans, and one of my favorite lines in all of scripture: “The Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes for us with sighs too deep for words.” This spoke to me because, even in the midst of all of the excitement, I, and I think many of us, find ourselves exhausted. In one of the New York Times’ most-read articles this spring, this feeling is identified as “languishing.” It’s not depression, but it’s also not flourishing. It’s just… languishing. Aimless, joyless, stagnant, and empty. Many of our wells have run dry. We’ve got nothin’ left to give.

         And this brings me to that image in Romans: of a Spirit who sees us in our weakness, in our languishing, and intercedes with sighs too deep for words; who enters our aimlessness and walks alongside us; who enters our dry wells and fills them up; who searches our hearts and offers the prayers on our behalf that we cannot muster ourselves, entering into our deep sighing, and carrying those prayers to a God who, in infinite wisdom, knows exactly what we need.

         This past week I had a session with my spiritual director. At first, she actually forgot to do the guided meditation at the beginning (that’s what we settled on – I can’t do full silence yet, but I can do several guided and focused moments of silence in a row). She asked me at the beginning of our time how I was doing, and my mind was a blank (a symptom of languishing, perhaps!). But then she remembered, lit a candle, and together we listened for the Spirit, interceding in our sighs and breaths. By the end of that time, that same Spirit had stirred in my heart several things I suddenly needed to talk about with my spiritual director. We had a fruitful conversation in which the Spirit continued to intercede, offering that telltale truth and wisdom.

         So today, I wanted to give you the same opportunity, a space to be still, breathe deeply, and let the Spirit intercede for you in your weakness or languishing, or even in your joy, a chance to listen and let the Spirit guide you into the way of truth. Since some of you may be new to this practice, as I am, we’ll ease into it. I’ve asked Jonathan to play some music to support your prayerful sighing, and I will offer some spoken guidance throughout. I encourage you to use this time not to talk to God, but to listen, to let the Spirit intercede and talk to and for you.

I know, this might be vulnerable, uncomfortable, or weird for you. I totally get that. But trust in the Spirit, the Comforter and Advocate, who will take good care of you. Get into a comfortable position, put your feet on the floor, make your back straight but not rigid, and close your eyes. And breathe deeply…

         Toward the One who is our life and our sustenance, the giver of wisdom and the hearer of our prayers… start music

         As you breathe deeply, notice your feet on the ground, the way they connect to the earth. Feel how steady the ground is. Feel that security…

Notice any tension or rigidity in your body – in your shoulders, back, jaw – and on your next sigh, send the healing breath to that tension and release it…

         As you sigh, feel the wind going in and out of your lungs. As you inhale, let it fill you from head to toe, bringing life… As you exhale, send your prayers with the Holy One, to the ears of God.

         The holy breath enters your heart, searching. What is found there?

         The sacred wind enters your mind, bringing peace and truth. Listen to what the Spirit is saying…

         As we offer these sighs, Holy Spirit, intercede for us. You know what we need. Lovingly carry our prayers to God….

         We sigh these prayers in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen. 

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