SUNDAY, MAY 19 2024 - THE MESSY MIDDLE
Sunday, May 19 2024
Deborah Laforet
The Messy Middle
Let us pray. May the words from my lips and the meditations of my heart be guided by
your Spirit and be words of wisdom for this day. Amen.
The people of Jerusalem were bewildered. Who were these people speaking in languages
not their own? And who was this man, Jesus, they were shouting about? They had no idea what
any of it meant. Before this day, the disciples struggled. They had watched as Jesus, their
mentor, their rabbi, their friend, was arrested, tried, convicted, and executed on a cross. They
were bewildered and had no idea why this was happening to their beloved friend. Even before
that, as Jesus travelled and preached his wisdom, healed the sick, included the outcast, and stood
up to oppression, the disciples were bewildered. They tried, and often failed, to understand his
words and his actions, constantly getting it wrong, often making mistakes.
It’s hard to understand sometimes when you’re in the thick of things, when you’re
surrounded by change and instability, new ideas and different ways of being, events that happen
that sometimes are beyond your control. Maybe the reason we don’t have any Christian writings
before the apostle Paul, about twenty five years after Jesus’ death, is because the disciples were
still trying to put the pieces together, still processing the events of the last three years. Maybe
they needed time to figure out what came next.
We’ve all been there. It might be as simple life change, a lateral career change or a move
from one home to another that’s not too far away, a birthday, getting to know a new friend. Even
these small events can take time to adjust and time to process. Life’s big events though can
really turn us on our heads. A job change that takes us away from family and friends and to a
new community. The death of a loved one who was a major part of our life. A new child born
into a family or all the children leaving the nest. An accident or a cancer diagnosis that changes
your life. A pandemic that changes everyone’s lives. A church that has decided to sell its
property and do something different.
When we are in the midst of such changes, sometimes we do what needs to get done in
the moment and put aside our feelings, our emotions, our trauma for another day to process, and
hopefully that day comes, because when it doesn’t, those feelings and emotions, and sometimes
even the responses from our bodies, because trauma affects our whole being, become trapped
and they begin to accumulate and cause us a lot of trouble.
A lot of people who experience dysfunction in their families or trauma in their childhood
put away those feelings in order to survive, not able to work through them in order to stay safe in
the moment. Of course, all of that messiness doesn’t just go away over time. It comes with us
through the different stages of our lives and affects the way we live. Sometimes we aren’t even
aware of these affects until there is a trigger or an event that helps puts it front and centre,
awaking our minds and our bodies. That’s usually when help, sometimes professional help, is
needed.
Imagine these disciples of Jesus. They walked with Jesus for three years, hearing new
ideas, exposed to a whole new way of life. Then their friend is abruptly taken from them in a
violent way. As they being to process their fear and their grief, they see Jesus, in their midst
again, but only briefly before he disappears again. Then, as we heard in today’s story, those
disciples are filled with fire and able to speak to thousands of people from all over their world,
people who spoke languages they had never even heard. I mean, what does one do with all of
this!
“The Messy Middle” is a phrase I heard this week. That point after a major life change
has happened, and you’re now dealing with its consequences. The hope is that eventually you
will come through to the other side, after the messiness of these consequences, and possibly with
some wisdom and maybe even stories that will be wisdom to others. In the meantime though,
that middle is messy. It’s often when we make our big mistakes in life because we’re not
thinking straight. It’s when we can’t contain our emotions and they spill all over the place. It’s
when we have to take, if possible, a break from work and responsibility to focus on our own
healing.
I feel like I’m in the messy middle right now. Not only as a minister here, where we have
decided to try church differently but haven’t quite figured out how to do that, but in my own life.
I’m one of those people who grew up with some childhood trauma and, with a lot of support
from a few friends and a really good therapist, I’m processing what happened and how it affected
and affects my life. It’s messy. There are days when I want to hide in my closet, days when I’m
weepy, and days when I’m extremely tired, but knowing though that it is the messy middle, gives
me some hope that this is a process and I will eventually get through it to the other side.
Today we celebrate Pentecost, the birthday of the church. We wear our colours of fire
and we celebrate the wildness of the Spirit and its work in our lives. It’s like celebrating a
significant birthday and looking back at a full life with its challenges and its beauty. It’s like
when we celebrate New Year’s Eve, and look back at a year of events, wonderful and tragic.
We celebrate Pentecost after seven weeks of Easter, signifying the time in ‘between’, the
time it takes to process death and resurrection. Pentecost means 50, fifty days after Jesus rose,
but in our own lives, it might be 50 weeks, 50 months, or 50 years, but if we are open and
willing, we will come out of that messy middle, and into the celebration, pondering our next
steps.
For the disciples, it meant they were ready to spread the word, baptize others into this
new way of life, and sacrificing their own as they followed in the steps of Jesus. Now, we only
ever hear about the twelve and the myths and legends that surround their lives. Twelve is a
sacred in a sacred number in our faith, so there were probably many more disciples we don’t hear
about, including a number of women. Maybe some returned home, processing what they’d
learned and passing it along to their own families. Maybe some went to far off places and were
never heard of again. Maybe even some decided that they’d had enough and returned to their old
lives. We all deal with our messy middle in different ways.
How about you? Are you in the thick of it? Have you come to the other side? Maybe
you’re in the midst of a major life change and haven’t really processed it yet. I think our story
today gives us hope, to see the Spirit work upon these disciples, who watched their friend die,
who hid from Roman soldiers, afraid the same would happen to them, who followed Jesus for
three years and struggled to understand him. The Spirit helped show them the way out, guided
them on their next steps.
We too can call upon the Spirit to walk with us, to bring us comfort when we are
struggling and to give us motivation and inspiration as we come up out of the valley, into the
sunlight, where we can look back at a breathtaking view of that valley and move on to the next
stage on our journey. For that, we say, thanks be to God. Amen.
Acts of the Apostles 2:1-8, 12–21
(Introduce yourself.)
This morning, we’ll hear our Pentecost story, the story that started it all. Pentecost
is an ancient festival that did not begin with Christianity. Hellenistic Jews gave the
name “Pentecost” to the Jewish “Festival of Weeks” (Shevuot), which occurs 50
days after Passover. Pentecost was one of the days Jews were required to go to
Jerusalem, so there was a large number and a vast variety of people visiting
Jerusalem that day. Let’s hear what happened.
When the day of Pentecost arrived, they all met in one room. 2 Suddenly they
heard what sounded like a violent rushing wind from heaven; the noise filled the
entire house in which they were sitting. 3 Something appeared to them that seemed
like tongues of fire; these separated and came to rest on the head of each one.
4 They were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages,
as the Spirit enabled them.
5 Now there were devout people living in Jerusalem from every nation under
heaven. 6 and at this sound they all assembled. But they were bewildered to hear
their native languages being spoken. 7 They were amazed and astonished: “Surely
all these speaking are Galileans! 8 How does it happen that each of us hears these
words in our native tongue?
Pause: What languages do we have here today? What nations? What cultures?
9 Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and
Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, 10 Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of
Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes,
11 Cretans and Arabs—in our own languages we hear them speaking about God’s
deeds of power.”
12 All were amazed and disturbed. They asked each other, “What does this
mean?” 13 But others said mockingly, “They’ve drunk too much new wine.”
14 Then Peter stood up with the Eleven and addressed the crowd, “Women and
men of Judea, and all who live in Jerusalem! Listen to what I have to say! 15 These
people are not drunk, as you think - it’s only nine o’clock in the morning! 16 No,
it’s what Joel the prophet spoke of:
17 ‘In the days to come -
it is our God who speaks -
I will pour out my Spirit
on all humankind.
Your daughters and sons will prophesy,
your young people will see visions,
and your elder will dream dreams.
18 Even on the most insignificant of my people,
both women and men,
I will pour out my Spirit in those days,
and they will prophesy.
19 And I will display wonders in the heavens above
and signs on the earth below:
blood, fire, and billowing smoke.
20 The sun will be turned into darkness
and the moon will become blood,
before the coming of the great and sublime day of God.
21 And all who call upon the name of our God will be saved.’
May the Spirit guide our understanding of this sacred scripture. Amen.
Genesis chapter 2, verse 7
Then God formed the human from the dust of the ground and
breathed into the nostrils the breath of life, and the human
became a living being.
Exodus chapter 3, verse 2
There the angel of God appeared to Moses in a flame of fire out
of a bush; Moses looked, and the bush was blazing, yet it was
not consumed.
Exodus chapter 13, verse 21
The Holy went in front of the [Israelite people] in a pillar of
cloud by day, to lead them along the way, and in a pillar of fire
by night, to give them light, so that they might travel by day and
by night.
Exodus chapter 19, verse 18
Now all of Mount Sinai was wrapped in smoke, because the
Holy had descended upon it in fire; the smoke went up like the
smoke of a kiln, while the whole mountain shook violently.
Psalm 33, verse 6
By the word of God the heavens were made
and all their host by the breath of God’s mouth.