Call to Worship
Come, Holy Spirit, come:
Enter our lives;
free us from fear.
Come, Holy Spirit, come:
Bring us courage and hope:
Teach us to be your children.

Unison Prayer:
Spirit of the Living God,
fall afresh on us.
Renew our hearts, minds, and spirits,
So that we may serve You with joy.
Amen.

Words of Assurance: Psalm 145:13-14
The Lord helps those who are in trouble; he lifts those who have fallen.

The Lord’s Prayer
Our Father,
who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name.
Thy kingdom come,
thy will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread;
and forgive us our trespasses,
as we forgive those who trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil;
for thine is the kingdom,
and the power,
and the glory forever.
Amen.

Opening Song: Francesca Battistelli, “Holy Spirit”

Scripture Reading: Acts 2:1-4, 17, Good News Bible

When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting.They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.

“‘n the last days,” God says,
    “I will pour out my Spirit on all people.
Your sons and daughters will prophesy,
    your young men will see visions,
    your old men will dream dreams.”

Sunday Sermon

Pentecost is one of the most important days in Christianity: the day when the church is born. At the Last Supper, Jesus told his disciples, “I will not leave you alone; I will send you a Helper, a Counselor, a Comforter, an Advocate.” At his ascension, he told them, “Go to Jerusalem and wait there for what I have promised.” And on Pentecost, the disciples were gathered together when the Holy Spirit descended like a dove or like tongues of fire, rested on each one of them, and helped them to understand each other. The same Spirit that was in Christ was now in them.

All of church history unfolds from this point: the universal church, comprised of believers from all nations; the possibility of being born again, by inviting the Holy Spirit in; the whole idea of being spiritual as a Christian. After Pentecost, the Holy Spirit became available to everyone, which means every Christian has the ability to access the fruits of the Spirit ~ love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control – and every Christian has unique gifts and combinations of gifts, which range from preaching and teaching to prayer and generosity to art and music. Everything we need is now accessible: the ability to be calm, the ability to transcend suffering, the ability to overcome our own impulses and to put Christ first.

Pentecost also sets up a huge battle. If the main conflict in the Gospels is Jesus v. organized religion, or Jesus v. the Devil, then the main conflict in the Epistles is human nature v. the Holy Spirit. This is the conflict we see unfolding in our own lives, struggle by struggle, day by day, and playing out across the entire world.

Here are some examples: Will the human race turn from its course of destruction, decide that peace is better than war, put down its weapons and start cooperating? Will humanity realize that it has everything it needs to feed, shelter and care for everyone, and prioritize these things over its selfishness desires? Will the rich continue to get richer and more powerful and the poor people get poorer and less powerful, or will someone say enough and lead a revolution? Will entertainment and social media continue to dominate our time and our thoughts, or will we find time for prayer and community action? Will we complain, or will be help?

Human nature is not only about what we do, but how we think. Paul writes, “Those who live as their human nature tells them to, have their minds controlled by what human nature wants. Those who live as the Spirit tells them to, have their minds controlled by what the Spirit wants.” Here is what human nature wants me to think, based on a quick look at the internet yesterday afternoon: I should be mad at politics. I should click on this actress to see how good she looks in a swimsuit. I should worry about my retirement. I should read about some crime in another state. I should take advantage of the Memorial Day sales this weekend. I should be very concerned about Ebola. I should not be very concerned about Ebola. I should be concerned about who to trust and not trust what I read, except for the article I’m reading now. Here are 5 foods I shouldn’t eat. Here are 10 things I should never say in a restaurant. Here are a thousand places I should see before I die. Am I dying? Will I ever have enough time to see all these places?

Here is what the Spirit says: Forget all that. It is natural to think all these things, which means it is human nature, but we can do better, and we should do better, and it’s not like the Holy Spirit is chastising us, but wondering why we keep ignoring the best life we could have when it is right here in front of us, and why we keep saying we are anxious and can’t sleep and are worried about the state of the world and everyone in it.

Here is what Jesus says: I have come to give you peace. (Not “I come in peace,” that’s what aliens say.) I have come to give you peace. Do you still want it? The other day I was at a friend’s house and I noticed an Amazon box on the table. “Aren’t you going to open it?” I asked. “No, I know what’s in it,” they said. Sometimes our peace, and the answer to all our questions, and the Holy Spirit, is like that Amazon box. We know what’s in it, but we don’t open it.

Here’s another analogy: every season I get an email from my credit card company. It says, this season you can earn 5% off of gas, or food, or travel, or online purchases; the type of savings changes every season. There’s no fee. All I have to do is click “Activate,” and I do. But I wonder how many people ignore it. And in terms of the Holy Spirit, I wonder, if we could make one aspect of our lives 5% better with one prayer, would we do it?

What happens when we do let the Holy Spirit in? Here’s what happened in the early church: they met together, ate together, prayed together and shared their belongings. No one lacked for anything miracles happened every day, and the disciples were filled with joy ~ so much joy that everyone wanted to be a part of it, and the church grew from 12 to hundreds to thousands to tens of thousands in a short period of time. The early church was characterized by meaning and purpose and praise. Human nature was always trying to creep in, but together they were able to transcend it.

When do we know it’s the Holy Spirit? When God helps us to do something that we doubt we could have accomplished alone; or when prayer prompts us to think in a more positive way; or when we lose our taste for something harmful and feel compelled to change our lives. Through the Holy Spirit, I’ve seen older couples adopt abused children and raise them as their own; I’ve seen people with incurable diseases who exude gratitude and peace; I’ve seen people whose hearts were completely shattered find the courage to love again. But the Holy Spirit is not restricted to big things. Sometimes the Holy Spirit simply gives us the strength to get out of bed, or a quiet prayer changes the trajectory of our day, or Scripture suddenly reveals the path that we should have been on all along.

We can be like everybody else, and no one will fault us for it. We can feel disillusioned and think that people are terrible and the world is getting worse and we don’t have the power or the agency to do anything about it. We can get mad at people who cut us off or have 13 items on the checkout line that says “12 items or less.” We can repeat the scary stories that we only know because we clicked on them. On a sunny day, we can complain about the rain that’s supposed to happen the next day. We can leave the Holy Spirit on the counter, unopened, and go about the rest of our lives.

But don’t we want to do better? Don’t we want to feel better? Don’t we want to become better persons? Don’t we yearn for peace and patience? Wouldn’t it be great to feel joy every day, if only for a moment, and to know that God is real and right beside us and within us and all around us? Wouldn’t it be amazing to feel like the early disciples felt? Thanks to the Holy Spirit, we can. Thanks to Pentecost, these amazing, astonishing gifts are only a prayer away.

Closing Song: All Sons and Daughters, “Rest in You”

Benediction:
May the Holy Spirit rest upon you;
May the Holy Spirit fill you with peace;
May the Holy Spirit energize you;
May the Holy Spirit flow through you.
Amen.

This Sunday is Pentecost Sunday, remembering the day on which the disciples received the Holy Spirit. The Spirit appeared as a dove and as tongues of fire, enabling people of all nations to understand each other and eventually to work together for God’s Kingdom. The Spirit brought both fruits and gifts, which are still around today. Come Sunday at 10 to learn more about the Holy Spirit and this special day in church history!

Call to Worship (Chief Seattle)
Every part of the earth is sacred,
Every shining pine needle, every sandy shore.
Whatever befalls the earth befalls the children of the earth.
We are part of the earth, and the earth is a part of us.
This we know, all things are connected,
Like the blood that unites one family.
Thanks be to God, the God of all.

Unison Prayer (Navaho tradition)
May all be beautiful before me.
May all be beautiful behind me.
May all be beautiful above me.
May all be beautiful around me.
I am restored in beauty.  Amen.

Words of Assurance: Genesis 1:31
God saw all that he had made, and it was very good.

The Lord’s Prayer
Our Father,
who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name.
Thy kingdom come,
thy will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread;
and forgive us our trespasses,
as we forgive those who trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil;
for thine is the kingdom,
and the power,
and the glory forever.
Amen.

Opening Song: “Joyful, Joyful” (cover from “Sister Act 2”)

Scripture Reading: Psalm 8:3-9, Good News Bible
When I look at the sky, which you have made,
at the moon and the stars, which you set in their places—
what are human beings, that you think of them;
mere mortals, that you care for them?
Yet you made them inferior only to yourself;
you crowned them with glory and honor.
You appointed them rulers over everything you made;
you placed them over all creation:
sheep and cattle, and the wild animals too;
the birds and the fish
and the creatures in the seas.
O Lord, our Lord,
your greatness is seen in all the world!

Sunday Sermon

When is the last time you saw the stars? I don’t mean the handful of stars visible in our area, but the full night sky? King David saw a canopy of stars every night, as did everyone who lived before light pollution. David imagined the day of creation. Others saw constellations and characters, in the same way as we see images in clouds. Stars helped people to get their bearings, to tell time, to navigate the sea. To see evidence of God, all one had to do was look up.

You may remember the news stories a few years back of 911 calls during a blackout. People were panicked by strange lights in the sky that some thought might be an alien invasion. It was the Milky Way. The last time I saw the full night sky was on a farm with a youth group in Pennsylvania. This was the first time for most of them and they were amazed. One of them said, “It looks just like a planetarium.” I wonder if part of the success of the movie “Project Hail Mary” is due to the unfamiliarity people have with stars and the wonder of seeing them again.

“When I look at the sky,” David writes, “at the moon and the stars, what are human beings that you care for them?” He is overwhelmed by beauty and by the breadth of God’s creation. But what if we can’t see the stars?

The first Earth Day was partially inspired by William Anders’ photo “Earthrise,” which was taken from Apollo 8. At the time, he said, “Oh my God! Look at that picture over there! There’s the Earth coming up. Wow, that’s pretty.” This year the crew of the Artemis II took a follow-up picture from the Artemis II, speaking the memorable words, “Woah, dude!” When they had time to reflect, they mentioned that Earth looked like a lifeboat in the vast expanse of space, and said that all humankind should be looked at as one “crew.” When astronauts first landed on the moon in 1969, President Nixon declared, “For one priceless moment in the whole history of man, all the people on this Earth are truly one.”

 What the view of space from Earth and Earth from space have in common is a sense of scale. We are very, very big in our own little worlds; we are very, very small from the universe’s perspective. Yet somehow, God cares for us ~ God cares for us more than the sun, the moon and the stars. This revelation stuns David into humility. Imagine how David would have felt if he were on Artemis II, looking at earth from the other side!

The fact that we are small and insignificant and have been around for only a short time could make us depressed; but to God we are large and important and precious. David can’t wrap his head around it, and neither can we. How ~ in a world so filled with narcissism and selfishness and unnecessary suffering ~ does God see beauty and worth in us?

Not only does God see worth, he sees potential, and makes us stewards of the earth. In Genesis, he tells Adam and Eve to take care of the earth and to till it, and to eat only vegetables, fruit and grain. In Psalm 8, David writes that we given power over all other creatures: the wild animals, the fish of the sea, the birds of the air.

The word “steward” means “a person who looks after people or things.” A stewardess makes sure that everyone on a plane is safe and calm; a stewardship campaign is a way to ensure the longevity of a church. To be stewards of the earth is to take care of God’s creation as a sacred trust. But what if we break this trust? Here’s a Scripture that sounds remarkably contemporary considering the fact that it appears in the Old Testament:

The Lord says: “I will judge between the fat sheep and the lean sheep. Is it not enough for you to feed on the good pasture? Must you also trample the rest of your pasture with your feet? Is it not enough for you to drink clear water? Must you also muddy the rest with your feet? Must my flock feed on what you have trampled and drink what you have muddied with your feet? Because you shove with flank and shoulder, butting all the weak sheep with your horns until you have driven them away, I will save my flock, and they will no longer be plundered. I will judge between one sheep and another.“

In other words, approximately 2559 years before the first Earth Day, rich people were already being selfish and messing up the environment. And even back then, God is connecting the care of the earth with the care of the poor. There are lots of connections that we don’t want to see, and just like the night stars, we won’t see them unless we look really hard. People in poor nations are forced to sell their land for short term gain to keep from starving, which results in the loss of stabilizing forests. The same thing happens because of the world’s love for beef. Children are put to work making components for our phones, getting sick and even dying in the process. Overfishing destroys entire ecosystems. The Great Pacific Garbage Patch, made mostly of plastics, is now twice as large as Texas.

The list goes on. 48,600 species are currently threatened with extinction, and while each individual loss may seem small, each loss has a ripple effect. Biodiversity shrinks; feeding chains collapse; our own food supplies are disrupted. Earth Day, which was originally meant to celebrate the Earth, is now a call to action. The little things we do make a difference: recycling plastics, picking up trash at the beach, buying less, buying wisely, avoiding products from companies who pollute. But the only way to make a big difference is collectively, at the ballot box.

The biggest question to ask is “Do we really buy into this?” In other words, do we really believe that a) all humankind is truly one, no matter what nation, religion, gender or economic level; b) that we are supposed to protect the poor and less powerful; and c) that we are supposed to extend this protection to animals, plants, forests and seas? If so, many actions will follow. Our core beliefs determine not only who we are, but what we do.

There are signs of hope: through collective efforts, evaporated salt lakes are filling again, species have been brought back from the point of extinction, and despite what we hear in the news, global poverty has consistently decreased over the course of our lifetimes. In many areas, we are already on the right track.

Those of us who are older can remember when the oceans were cleaner, the forests were larger, the air was clearer. the ice cap was wider, there were more birds and butterflies and bees, autumn came earlier and there weren’t as many hurricanes and fires and weather extremes. But if we do things right, our grandchildren will think differently about the past. When they are our age, they may look back and say, “the weather sure has improved since I was a kid. Every day they discover a new species. Can you believe that once upon a time, there were always nations at war?” They may see the night stars again. They may be able to swim in every stream. They may look back and call us the clueless generation. Or they may call us the generation that saved the world.

Closing Song: Chris Renzema, “Springtime”

Benediction
May you grow like the trees of the forest;
May you flourish like the flowers of the fields;
may your love flow like the mountain streams. Amen.

We’ll be celebrating Earth Day in church this Sunday, because every day is Earth Day! We hope you can join us for our 10 a.m. service as we thank God for all of creation!