Making Room for the Spirit

 Sunday was such a great day for our church and a powerful witness to the gospel.  Sunday, we celebrated the gift of the Spirit given on the day of Pentecost. (Acts 2:1-21) Pentecost, also marks the beginning of the Church. We celebrated by having a combined worship service with the three congregations who worship in our building. First Baptist Church of Herndon, Iglesia Bautista Shalom and The Persian Church of Herndon.  Worship was very different, but it was also powerful. In opening ourselves to worship with each other we learned a little about love.  I learned something about the Spirit too because of three things I saw during worship.  Here is what I observed. 

1.       I heard a lot of people say, I’m a little nervous right now.

A lot of us were nervous Sunday because we were doing something important and very different. All of the worship leaders were nervous. I was nervous about the different pieces coming together. The music leaders were nervous because they were playing in front of new people, some of whom did not speak their language. The preachers were nervous because the preaching was different, it was to a blended congregation so some of the people spoke a different language and one preacher was preaching in a language he does not normally preach from. Our choir was even nervous because we were singing an anthem, which we don’t typically do and we were singing in a new place to make room for the other congregations’ worship teams.  People become nervous when they do something that is different or important. Sunday was both.  Our willingness to be nervous means we were stepping out in faith. 

2.       I saw people being flexible.

The only way we were going to pull this off was by being flexible.  The truth is I am not comfortable with being flexible when it comes to leading worship! I had to learn to let go last week. Some of our people had to sit in different pews. We changed the time of worship. The sound techs from each church had to adjust to a whole new way of setting up the sound systems.  The preachers had to sit to preach. There were parts of the service spoken in languages we did not understand.  The Deacons had to develop a new way to serve communion.  What I didn’t hear was complaining. We were flexible and the service was beautiful. 

3.       The Spirit showed up!

 I know Sunday was Pentecost and we were talking about the coming of the Spirit, but I really felt the Spirit this Sunday and it was powerful!  I have been preaching and leading worship around Pentecost for 14 plus years, but I have never felt the fullness of the spirit like I did Sunday.  The Spirit is not predictable and its hard to describe, but you know it when it comes. I have received more positive feedback from this service then any other service we have ever done.  I think our people felt the Spirit too.

When we do important things that make us nervous and when we allow ourselves to be flexible with things we hold so dear, such as worship, we create room for the Spirit.  Where there is room for the Spirit amazing things happen.  Part of loving God and one another is making room for the Spirit.

On The Bus, a Journey of Truth and Justice

Last week I traveled with a group of clergy from Northern Virginia on a racial healing bus tour of our state.  The newly formed group is called CURE, Clergy Uniting for Racial Empathy. The tour was made up of 23 clergy and included two Rabbis, an Imam and 20 Christian ministers.  We traveled to locations in Charlottesville, Danville, Drake’s Branch and Richmond.  It was a powerful, uneasy and uncomfortable experience that exposed me to the often-silent history of our state and some of the reasons race is still a troubling issue for our Commonwealth.  The trip also gave me hope!  Hope, because some stories are finally being heard. Hope formed from new relationships with others seeking to lead the way to justice.  Some may be wondering, why a clergy bus tour around Virginia? Why take the time and what good could it possibly do?  Here’s why going was important to me.

The events in Charlottesville in 2017 and the recent news that our Governor and Attorney General once dressed in black face reveal to us that we still have a major problem with race.   We want to believe we have moved beyond the troubles of race but we haven’t.  Charlottesville proves that there are people still burning with dangerous hate.  The behavior of our elected officials shows how deeply embedded racial practices are in our culture.  With the Governor and Attorney General we are not talking about conservative Republicans.  We are talking about progressive Democrats who grew up in a culture that says it’s okay to wear black face.  We simply cannot ignore the problem of race.  We are not over it and never have been!  It also becomes clear to me that a quick fix will not solve the problem. Certainly, a three day Bus Tour won’t solve it either but it’s a start.  It’s a start that leads to a longer process of understanding our true history. The tour is a start to listening and learning from those who have fought the fight before us. The tour is a way to build lasting relationships with fellow clergy who share the burden of leading the way.

A second reason for going on the bus tour for racial healing is that we haven’t dealt truthfully with our history and it is time for me to hear some of the untold and under told stories of Virginia’s past. There is a troubling truth to our history that we haven’t owned up to.   Christy Coleman, the CEO of The American Civil War Museum says, “We will never get right with each other until we get the history right.” The right history of Virginia is that the Confederacy was not a “lost cause” but an empire planning to extend slavery into central and South America. The truth of our Commonwealth is that the University of Virginia was built to hide enslaved people from view.   Out of sight, these slaves were abused physically and sexually by the wealthy white men permitted to be students there.   The history of Virginia is that fire hoses were used in Danville too and Danville was known by Civil rights leaders to be the worst police force in the country when it came to segregation.  Virginia’s soil is full of blood.  Yes, the blood shed in the Civil War over enslavement but also the blood of nearly silent tragedies such as  Drakes Branch and Lumpkin's Jail. Places, I am ashamed to say, I have only heard about because of the tour.   There are voices of our past longing to be heard and truths that need to be told. The systems and institutions of our day are built from and influenced by the dark hidden past of white supremacy.  It is time to tell the truth!

A third reason for me to go is that Clergy are the ones who need to lead when it comes to racial justice.  In order for us to lead the way we need each other. Rabbi Holtzman, one of the Rabbi’s on the trip, shared with us that political leaders in Washington are asking for and are in desperate need of clergy to lead the way when it comes to race.  We listened to clergy in Charlottesville tell us that people were waiting to see what the clergy would do when the unite the right rally came to their town. The people were willing to follow but only where the clergy would lead.  In such times Virginia needs leadership from its clergy and to effectively lead, the clergy need each other! One of the reason’s the Clergy Collective in Charlottesville was able to mount a counter demonstration to the unite the right rally is because they already had a relationship with each other. They knew each other, they had worked together before and they trusted one another.  What better way to build a stronger connection than a multi-day bus tour.  Through hearing difficult truths, discovering hard to handle history and the bus breaking down in the middle of the road,  we truly grew together! Now that the tour is over there is still work to be done and I’m committed to the long hard work of justice! Stay tuned.

A tree at Drakes Branch similar to the one used to lynch
Richard Walker

Praise as Prelude to Love

This week I’m pondering Jesus’ command to Love One Another, John 13:31-35.  It seems such a basic part of our faith to love everyone, yet I wonder how hard it is becoming for us to love  in the political climate we find ourselves today.  It seems to me that we are being asked over and over again to tear ourselves away from those who hold different political opinions then we do. Love seems to be the last thing we want from those who are on the other political side.  How do we live faithfully into Jesus’ command to love one another when we have Donald Trump on one end and Pete Buttigieg on the other?   Both of them claim Christ.  Loving one another means we have to love both of them.  How?  I’m going to explore this in my sermon Sunday but for now I want to share where I think it all begins.  I think it begins when we answer the call to Praise!

Psalm 148 is a grand call to praise for every single piece of creation.  Everything is called into a single voice of worship to God. And the psalmist seems to point to the great differences of those who are called to join the praise. The call goes to the angels from their heights and to the sea monsters in the depths. The Sun and the moon. Wild animals and cattle, creeping things and flying birds. Old and young together and on and on.  Every part of creation is called to praise maybe because when we join the praise, we come to the realization that 1. We are not God 2. We have value and purpose just as we are created 3. So do those worshiping right beside us.  Our differences create an amazing chorus of praise that God loves to play on a loop on God celestial play list.

How do we take serious the commandment to Love one another? Perhaps it begins with praise.  When we offer praise to God, we put ourselves in a place to expand our heart. When we join the chorus of creation in praise it becomes harder to hate. Praise may not be all we need to love our enemies but it’s a good start.  You are always welcome to Worship with us at First Baptist Herndon. We gather every Sunday at 10:00 a.m.