Dear Epiphany,
Happy Pentecost. This service serves to bracket the season of Easter. It began at the Great Vigil, where the light of Christ was brought into the Church, and it ends today with that light of Christ being carried out into the world. You are the Church that brings this light into the world. We prerecorded this special broadcast to offer you a beautiful worship experience that you could participate in, with your voices and your smiles and your love for this community, even at a distance, just as we did during The Triduum.
But much has happened in the last 24 hours that I would have liked to preach about today. Much of what I’d like to preach about, I heard from you last night, at the 8:00 pm Zoom Conversation and Prayer gathering that so many of you attended. Indeed, the opportunity has not been lost to speak about and work to heal the wounds incurred by social injustices and the violent reactions to that injustice that we saw even here, in Seattle, last night. A good, necessary, and thoughtful community gathered in Downtown Seattle to mourn the death of George Floyd and to bend forward of the arc of justice just a tiny bit with a collective voice. And then, forces of chaos took hold, and what had been honorable and healing, turned to tumult and destruction. That said, we must not let the larger and more important conversation of structural and systemic racism be sidelined by those who wish to exploit our pain.
As followers of Jesus, it is important to remember that, as Hannington Kule said so wonderfully last night, “at the end of the day we are Christians.” May the fire of the Holy Spirit move from your head, to your heart, to your eyes, so you can clearly see the world as it is, and work untiringly for the world God created it to be.
Once again: Happy Pentecost!
Doyt+