Ezekiel: Canticle and Shower Chant

Ezekiel: Shower Chant

“I will sprinkle clean water upon you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleanness. A new heart I will give you, and a new spirit I will put within you; and I will remove from your body the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. I will put my spirit within you. Ezekiel 36:25-27.

I am up early watching light come to day as a gentle rain sounds outside my window and on our roof. I can imagine this rain cleaning our planet as well as my heart. Maybe later I will have the courage to go outside and stand or sit and feel the rain on my face, hair, and clothes and pray for a heart of flesh instead of stone for just this day.

One of the first priests I worked with when I was a deacon in training shared with me that he chanted these few verses from Ezekiel in his shower each morning. I think of and pray for him each time I recite these words which are now one of the alternative canticles in Morning Prayer in Enriching our Worship I.

As I talk with people in spiritual direction who share about the heart of stone they carry, I also let them know, I suffer from the same dis-ease. My experience is that our responsibility is an awareness of when we cannot feel the Spirit within us and our hearts turn to stone. Awareness is a major gift that God calls us to develop and discern. Only God can change our heart. We keep that prayer to be open to change in our hearts every day. We try to put ourselves in relationship to others who also desire a heart of flesh and not of stone and we pray for each other.

Joanna  joannaseibert.com  

Pentecost Continues

Spirit

“When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, Receive the Holy Spirit.” John 20:22

USA TODAY

 We are now in the season of Pentecost remembering, celebrating that the Spirit was given to us on the day of Pentecost. If you want to see what happened that day when the Spirit moved through a large room of people who do not have a clue what is happening, watch Bishop Michael Curry’s sermon at the wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle on the morning of Pentecost Eve. Usually the minister’s words at a wedding are called a homily, a short sermon, but as one of the British commentators says, Curry’s message is a true sermon, and it is all about love.  He first describes love by reminding us that when two people fall in love, almost the whole world shows up as it does on that Saturday morning.  That is how important love is.

 Bishop Curry reminds us that love has the energy of fire, and his enthusiastic, passionate words are indeed like the Pentecost flames of fire running throughout St. George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle.  Bishop Curry is so filled with the Spirit that he has to keep holding on to his lectern to stay in place. His body language signals that he wants to move out and reach out more directly with the young couple and his congregation. As you watch people’s faces, you can tell they have no idea what to do with him or his barnstorming message. They look mystified, amused, indignant, comical, questioning. Some look down at their program so others cannot see what they are thinking. Some glance at their neighbor to get a clue from them about what is happening. Some almost fall out of their chair! Some look at Curry as if they are mesmerized.  

Perhaps the ones who seem to understand his message the most are indeed the royal wedding couple, especially Meghan who has a radiant smile with an occasional twinkle for the whole sermon.

 Bishop Curry’s presentation and delivery are not in the British style, but his message of love is true to his Anglican and African roots. He speaks out of his African American tradition from his ancestors in slavery and out of his training in an Episcopal tradition that Americans modified from immigrants from England who settled this country. Bishop Curry speaks his truth that comes from deep inside of him as all these traditions come together and kindle tongues of fire from the power of love that flame around the world.

Bishop Curry is our role model of what it is like to be filled with the Spirit.  We have no choice but to speak the truth. Many people will not have a clue what we are saying, but everyone who hears us will be changed in some way. Bishop Curry also reminds us that the truth from God should always be about love, loving God, loving ourselves, and loving our neighbor. Period.

Happy Pentecost Season.

Joanna   joannaseibert.com.

Pentecost: God's Breath

Pentecost

“When the Day of Pentecost had come, the disciples were all together in one place. And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind.” Acts 2:1-2.

“..he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit.” John 20: 22

Pentecost banner and dove St. Luke's Episcopal Church North Little Rock

Barbara Brown Taylor describes two versions of Pentecost, the gentle breeze in John as Jesus breathes into the few disciples  fearfully gathered the night of his resurrection and the violent wind Pentecost described in Acts where the Holy Spirit goes all over the place with tongues of fire to over at least 100 people.  The disciples with the gentle wind Pentecost are commissioned to take the Spirit out into the world. The ministry of the violent wind disciples is to seek and fan the Spirit already present in the world.  Taylor  challenges us  that disciples in both Pentecost stories, those of a gentle breeze or the violent wind congregations are commissioned  to find that Holy Spirit within them and others and take it out of their churches into the world.

The same is true of the Spirit, the Christ, within us. We are called to connect to that Spirit within us and then go out and connect to the Christ in others. If we don’t we are like the disciples in John locked up in a dark room for fear of losing what we have. Only when we connect our Spirit to the Christ in others do we know that peace, joy, love that we are seeking. Our God also becomes larger as we become aware of the magnitude of God’s creation and love.

Happy Pentecost.

Barbara Brown Taylor, “God’s Breath,” Journal for Preachers, Pentecost 2003, pp. 37-40.

Joanna Seibert joannaseibert.com