Sunday: The Day of Pentecost
Reading: John 14:8-17-27
Preacher: Anne Benvenuti

"If you have to ask, it ain't jazz." That's a nice quote and we intuit its meaning, just like we intuitively do a jazz Eucharist for Pentecost here at SPR. But what is jazz, really? And why do we intuitively recognize it? I'm no expert, but I think it might be safe to say that jazz is a creative kind of music, built on some fundamentals that everyone knows, like the rhythm, the number of measures, the home key. But it takes off from there, and like the Holy Spirit, who knows where it's going to go, or what it is going to do? Because it isn't all planned in advance, and it happens inside of the individual musicians who bring it out of themselves into the musical community of the moment, this moment. Something new and satisfying happens every time. And I think it's also safe to say that we recognize it because there's something inside of each of us that recognizes creative and beautiful things, and that knows when to let ourselves be moved.

Today we celebrate the Holy Spirit within each of us and within the community of us; today we claim God incarnate, ... this time in us! And how do the scriptures describe this third -and perhaps fourth, fifth, and 500th person of the Trinity? As wind, as water, as fire, as a bird that alights and flies again; God mutable and ever-changing; ever changing us!

And how does this Spirit work with us, work in us? The Spirit who is in us, individually and collectively, making ever new music, that holy spirit distributes gifts amongst us, gives consolation, makes us wise, teaches us to recognize what is pure gift from God and also helps us to see that the fearful world does not know how to receive God's gifts. The Spirit frees us from slavery and gives us a sense of family belonging with God and each other, even causing us to understand other languages and other ways of being human. The Spirit keeps us from going back to the harsh yet familiar comforts of slavery. You know it! That we are not just economic units, no matter how tough the times; we are children of God. And the Spirit penetrates us deep inside, where it is not easy to reach. At the creation of the world, the Spirit hovered over the waters, and at the Annunciation the Spirit impregnated young Mary. The Holy Spirit is never stale, but always fresh, always new, always ready to move.... to do something new, something unpredictable.

Today is Pentecost. We celebrate the birthday of the church today, and I have to confess that the first time I heard those words this year, I felt a big yawn coming on... But then I attended the consecration of the two newest bishops of the Episcopal Church and that yawn became a whoop, and yelp, a welling up of tears, over and over, and finally a sigh of satisfaction, as I watched the cultures of Los Angeles hook up with the traditions of Anglican Christianity in this new, confident, and forward looking Episcopal Church.

There in the Long Beach Arena, last Saturday, was a rush of wind that filled the whole house. The Taiko drummers played the prelude and the Chinese lions danced the procession in, followed by a band of bearded patriarchs in miters and copes, accompanied by not a few now matriarchs of the church, minus the beards as far as I could see, but mitered and coped themselves. Barbara Harris, Chester Talton, Sergio Carranza, each impregnated in his or her own time, and all delivered by the Holy Spirit to this new moment.

All of us assembled gasped in pain when, during the opening prayers, a lone child stood to wave his bible and rant against homosexuality; we loved him and hurt for him, as those who had so wantonly used him angered us, and found our forgiveness almost in the same moment.

Then divided tongues of fire appeared amongst us and we began to speak in other languages. We were all South African for the drummed and chanted gospel alleluia, with Lester Mackenzie, singing and shouting, "Amen, sia-kudu-misa; amen ba-wo!" and each understood it in her own language. We listened to the three readings in Korean and Tagalog, and we prayed for the church and the world.

Bishop Bruno preached simply and directly, saying that we have chosen to be the inclusive gospel community and so must drop any and all rancor or grievance from our hearts in order to come to the table as one people. We recognized the call of God in this, and released the spirit of fear and of slavery. I mean this truly; I'd been irritated with my spouse for two days, and gave it up right then and there---and that dove carried my irritation away.

Presiding Bishop Katharine, in the manner prescribed by the canons and incorporated into our Book of Common Prayer, with the full consent of the community, consecrated the duly elected Diane Bruce, so recently treated for breast cancer, and Mary Glasspool, present not just as token lesbian but as a committed and charismatic leader of long standing-these were consecrated as the newest bishops in the line of our episcopacy. Through all of it, the bearded patriarchs who had not just allowed this to happen, but who had made it happen, quietly took the back seat, nodding their approval, as the women principals conducted the business of the community.

Finally, joining the ranks of all the bishops down the ages, these two new bishops celebrated the Eucharist, each taking her turn, reading the prayer in Chinese, English, and Spanish. After communion, a Mariachi band led us out of the arena.

Something had happened in there. Each of us knew that we are in a new church, that we are a new church. We were amazed, we looked around saying, how can this be, that the church so recently strained and divided is whole ....and palpably pregnant? And that, for all of our differences, we understand it, we each know what it means? God incarnate, again.

Well, of course, if you have to ask, it ain't the Holy Spirit, but when it is the Holy Spirit, you know it. If you weren't there for this particular moment of consecration and you can't quite believe the Pentecost of it, then believe the works themselves; Diane and Mary are really bishops in a church both rooted in tradition and wildly improvisational, doing something new for a new generation, alive and responsive right now.

Here at SPR, we know that the Holy Spirit is not a spirit of slavery that causes us to fall back into fear, into blind obedience to something cast in stone long ago, but a spirit of recognition that tells us we are God's own, really God's own, such that we contain God within us. And that same spirit tells us that these events in Los Angeles are our events, too. We, too, have received an invitation to become pregnant and to bear within us and deliver anew God incarnate in human life. We make a jazz Eucharist in the many voices of God incarnate. This spirit of the truth that Jesus promised us lets us do new and great works-not just lets us, but compels us to do great new works in every generation, improvising on top of the fundamentals we share and rely upon, even as we hand them down to the next generation.

Where is the Spirit going to light next here at SPR? Who among us is going to be impregnated? If we don't know now, we will soon know because the Holy Spirit will fly in on a breath, or rush in on the water, or spark a fire deep within; and we'll know it. That's jazz, and we know it when we hear it because the spirit of God within us recognizes the spirit of God outside of us. Look, then, and listen....