Pentecost Sunday

Today we commemorate the arrival of the Holy Spirit upon the disciples:

When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability.

Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven living in Jerusalem. And at this sound the crowd gathered and was bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in the native language of each. Amazed and astonished, they asked, ‘Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? And how is it that we hear, each of us, in our own native language? Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabs—in our own languages we hear them speaking about God’s deeds of power.’ All were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, ‘What does this mean?’ But others sneered and said, ‘They are filled with new wine.’ [Acts 2:1-13 NRSV]

The "filled with new wine" bit always amuses me. The story goes on:

But Peter, standing with the eleven, raised his voice and addressed them, ‘Men of Judea and all who live in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and listen to what I say. Indeed, these are not drunk, as you suppose, for it is only nine o’clock in the morning. No, this is what was spoken through the prophet Joel: “In the last days it will be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams. Even upon my slaves, both men and women, in those days I will pour out my Spirit; and they shall prophesy. And I will show portents in the heaven above and signs on the earth below, blood, and fire, and smoky mist. The sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon to blood, before the coming of the Lord’s great and glorious day. Then everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.” [Acts 2:14-21]

Peace to you today, the birthday of the Church.

Reading Week Update

Preaching for the Second Time

Last Tuesday, I presented my second-ever sermon to a small group of fellow-students who are in my preaching section. The text, Genesis 37:1-4, 12-28 is from the set of lectionary readings for August 7, 2005. Genesis 37 is the famous story of Joseph and his "coat with long sleeves" (which is traditionally translated "the coat of many colors").

A copy of the sermon manuscript can be found here.

Technorati Tags: Presbyterian Church USA, PCUSA, Seminary Life, Sermon, Preaching

Laura Bush Assumes Control...

...of the White House Correspondents Dinner in Washington, DC. I enjoy the Bush family primarily because they are so good at self-deprecating humor. This is, well, an extreme example, and it is totally hilarious. Even if you cannot stand President Bush, if you still have a sense of humor, you will enjoy this video. Several of the jokes are really outrageous. My heart actually went out to Cedric the Entertainer, who had to follow the First Lady's wonderful performance.

Monkish Reality TV in the UK

Interesting:

Five men, ranging from an atheist in the pornography trade to a former Protestant paramilitary, have found their lives unexpectedly transformed in the latest incarnation of reality television - the monastery.

More Oh Brother! than Big Brother, the five underwent a spiritual makeover by spending 40 days and 40 nights living with Roman Catholic monks in Worth Abbey, West Sussex.

...

The participants, none of whom was a Roman Catholic, shared meals with the monks, worked in the grounds and joined in the daily office, from early morning Matins to Compline. They were also obliged to follow the monks' rules of silence, obedience and humility.

The Abbot of the monastery is said to be"delighted" with the results.

Now THIS is Very Cool

A revolutionary technique reveals long lost Greek and Roman texts:

Now, in a breakthrough described as the classical equivalent of finding the holy grail, Oxford University scientists have employed infra-red technology to open up the hoard, known as the Oxyrhynchus Papyri, and with it the prospect that hundreds of lost Greek comedies, tragedies and epic poems will soon be revealed.

In the past four days alone, Oxford's classicists have used it to make a series of astonishing discoveries, including writing by Sophocles, Euripides, Hesiod and other literary giants of the ancient world, lost for millennia. They even believe they are likely to find lost Christian gospels, the originals of which were written around the time of the earliest books of the New Testament.

The Oxyrhynchus Papyri were discovered in an ancient junkyard, thus comfirming the old aphorism about one person's trash. Some of the newly deciphered texts will be published within the next few days.

Modernity and the Church

On the eve of the next Catholic conclave of cardinals, George Will writes:

The challenge confronting the church can be expressed in one word: modernity. The church preaches that freedom is life lived in conformity to God's will as manifested in revelation and interpreted by the church. Modernity teaches that freedom is the sovereignty of the individual's will – personal volition that is spontaneous, unconditioned, inviolable and self-legitimizing.

So what does this mean here in America?

In America, a market-driven society, there is a religion market in which the most successful competitors for congregations are churches with clear doctrinal and strict moral positions. For these churches, the "crisis of Christianity" is congestion in their parking lots.

Interesting. Will's observations about Europe's forthcoming population decline are also worth noting.

[Hat tip: Real Clear Politics]