On Pentecost Jesus gave his disciples and thus gives us today two presents in particular: one is a confidence, the other is a command; one is an assurance, the other is an assignment.
The first gift is peace, shalom. Jesus comes to the disciples in the upper room and says, “Peace be with you.” The peace Jesus gives, the peace the world cannot give, comes by way of the Spirit. So, it is not a warm-fuzzy peace, not peace as PASSIVITY or as saccharine tranquility, but a peace rooted in trust or confidence (literally, con-fides—with faith) that—in the words of Julian of Norwich—”all shall be well, all shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well.” It works both ways: a deep trust in the Holy One brings true peace and this courageous peace enables us to choose to live in trust, to move in hope in the face of doubt or fear or indifference or despair. Peace is like a plant: above ground is the evocative beauty of the flower, but beneath the ground is the quiet fierceness of the roots that give it its flower power.
The second gift of the Spirit Jesus gives is a commissioning, an assignment. It’s our homework. And like any group homework assignment: we can do it, we can say the dog ate it, or we can choose not to do it and face the music for failing our group by not doing our part. We’re not lone rangers who need to readjust our masks so we can see that the Christ-life ain’t merely a me ‘n Jesus thing at all. Jesus says to his disciples and thus to us today: “As the Father sent me, so I send you.” When we go forth, when we live the in-Spirited life of Jesus beyond the walls of the upper room or a church, when we – in the words of our Orthodox brothers and sisters – live “the liturgy beyond the liturgy,” the meaning is in the mission itself which is to go forth “to love and serve the Lord.” The Poet William Blake wrote, “And we are put on earth a little space, / That we may learn to bear the beams of love.” It’s a double entendre—bear. We are here with the unspeakable privilege of receiving the gratuitousness of God’s love and we are here with the responsibility to bring, bring forth or carry the love we recieve to others.
In his book, St George and the Dragon and the Quest for the Holy Grail, Father Ed Hays, writes of an ordinary, 20th-century man who is led on a modern-day journey of the soul by a good and wise dragon.
At the beginning of the journey, the dragon asks the man, “Do you have a name?”
“Well, yes, I’m called George,” replies the man.
“George? Is that all, just plain George?” asked the dragon. “Nothing in front of it, like Saint George or Sir George? How can you expect to be treated with proper respect as one on a quest if you have no title? Who will believe you if you are just plain George?”
“Well, perhaps you’re right, Dragon,” the man replies . . . “But all that’s ever in front of my name are the two letters ‘M-R then dot.’ ”
“Sorry, George,” replies the dragon. “They won’t do; no romance in ‘M-R dot.’ . . . We will have to give you a proper title if you want to go on a quest.” With a dramatic flourish the dragon drew himself up full height and announced in a deep regal voice, “I, the Celestial Dragon, dub thee with the title of ‘S-T dot. You may have it printed on your laundry tags for your socks and underwear and have it painted on your mailbox—hence to be known by that title to everyone.”
“With all due respect, Dragon, you can’t do that. Only the Pope can make someone a saint.”
“S-T dot ” my dear quester,” said the dragon, “doesn’t mean ‘saint’; it is the abbreviation of the four-letter word ‘sent.’ You, my friend, are George-who-is-sent, or Sent George. You have to be sent before you can become a saint.”
Each and all of us are the image of God, the child of God, the beloved of God AND the partner of God. We are here to deliver to others what God has sent packaged in the body of Christ.
Who are you? “I am one who is sent.” To be a Christian, a Christ-one, is to be sent and to dare to go. To be a saint is to know and accept our mission (<Latin, past participle of mittere, to send), and to dare to go forth to incarnate love whereever we are. We do not go alone. We go with each other. We go with the Spirit at our back to nudge, guide, and encourage. We go forth as bread for the world, as a safe harbor for the weary, as the embrace of grace for the lonely, as a tender-hearted receptionsit to welcome the excluded, as advocates for the powerless, as companions for the lost and confused, as compassionate visitors to the imprisoned or the sick, as friends to the poor. We are the-ones-who-are-sent. LET US GO!
ARTWORK: (Top) Unknown; (Blue Prints) “Sent Out” by Brian Sal Corral.
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