Putting Skin on God St Patrick's Cheektowaga Pentecost 2019

During a search for a quite from a previous sermon I came across this sermon that Pete wrote in 2013. I offered it today with a few edits for time and place.
Pentecost is frequently described as the “birthday of the church”, and while that’s a nice, comforting, pretty image to have, I think it’s a wrong and woefully misleading image.
Pentecost isn’t sweet, it isn’t safe, it isn’t warm and fuzzy and familial. No, Pentecost is dangerous.
The story begins with a group of believers, isolating themselves.  Afraid of outsiders, they’d stayed together.  If they’d known what was going to happen, they probably would have headed for the hills, each man for himself!!! Because what was about to happen would have freaked out even the bravest of us.  On that fateful day, the disciples ARE in danger… but not from who they suspect— the Sanhedrin—-but rather God, in God’s most wild form—-The Holy Spirit.
  God is crashing in, entering with a violent wind, and bringing, upon those  tongues of fire, an enlightenment that was all at once, thrilling and terrifying. The Holy Spirit shakes us to our core, causes us to do and say things we never thought we would...or could. She is the surprising, risk taking and wild part of the Godhead.
       Once upon a time there was a little boy who woke after a nightmare.   Convinced there were all kinds of monsters and goblins lurking under his bed and in the corners of his room, he ran to his parents’ bedroom. After his mother had calmed him down, and took the little boy back to bed she said, “You don’t need to be afraid, you aren’t alone here.  God is right here with you in your room.”  The little boy said, “I know that God is here, but what I need is someone in the room with skin on!”
 For 33 years Jesus was here on earth—-God in the flesh, God with skin on; healing, teaching, reconciling.  But now he’s gone, ascended into heaven.  The time when God was physically present, physically touchable, physically knowable is over.  And here we are, left behind, bereft.  And our consolation?  Our comforter?
Is a violent, mighty wind.  A wind that leaves tongues of fire on the apostles’ heads, a wind that causes a cacophony of languages to be spoken.  Where oh where is our God in the Flesh?  A God we can see and hear and touch and smell?  A God who is with us at work, in difficult meetings, and in scary illnesses and accidents? A God who’s with us when we’re lonely,  hungry, cold, rejected.  A God who’ll share our laughter when we’re happy, who’ll dry our tears when we’re sad; a God who’ll challenge us, poke us, prod us and most of all a God who makes us believe we are loved and lovable.
  What kind of God would be here for 33 years and then just take off on us, leaving nothing tangible behind? What kind of God would enter human history and then just disappear into the heavens? The kind of God who knows we can do it...a God who knows we can absorb the Holy Spirit into our very beings and then  be the hands and feet of the Divine in this world. The gift of Pentecost is knowing that we are now the skin of God on earth.... the heirs of Jesus’ teaching, the bearers of Jesus’ light, the instruments of his love.
       Folks,  there's a Pentecost happening everyday in the world.  All day long, every day of our lives, we have the chance and the choice to breathe in the wind and the flames of the Holy Spirit, becoming the skin,  bones, and heart of God. Right here. And right now.
God uses us as we are, our flaws,  our faults,  our passions and  our gifts.  All of it.
I mean, just look at the apostles:  one was impatient, one was cranky, one was uncertain, one was unfocused, one was self-centered, one was thoughtless, and on  and on. Pentecost isn't about being perfect, it isn't even about being good enough. It's about hearing what sounds foreign to us and making sense of it, about hearing what strangers have to say and understanding what they want and need. And by the way, when I say strangers I don't necessarily mean people we don't know, people we’ve never met.  We can be here week after week, at work week after week, and sadly enough, at home day after day and still not really know each other,  it can still seem as if we come from different countries and speak different languages.  The gift of the Holy Spirit dwelling in us is that we can hear and understand what each other is saying. By the gift of the Holy Spirit we can be Christ to one another.
Through the Holy Spirit God takes on flesh again.  When we receive the Holy Spirit, when we accept the Holy Spirit, when we claim the Holy Spirit,  God awakens in us the gifts that God needs  so that God can continue to be  present in the world.
From Advent until now we've been watching and listening to Jesus.  He’s taught us how to bring God's kingdom here on earth.  He’s modeled for us how to be God with skin on for one another.  And now it's up to us.
We’re the church, we’re the body of Christ.
Today we celebrate. Tomorrow through the power of the Holy Spirit, we get busy being God with skin on for all the world.
Amen.
copyright The Rev. Deacon Lucinda "Pete" Dempesy-Sims, 2013 RIP