Bread and More Soup Kitchen continues to serve a free to-go meal every Monday, Wednesday and Thursday from 5:30-6:15.
June 2026
Father’s Day is Sunday, June 21. Please join us as the men of the church lead worship and the women host our Father’s Day brunch.
Sunday School: Sunday School is finished for the year. Please call our church office at 631-727-2621 if you would like information for next year. Sunday School is held during church services at 10:00.
Bible Study: Bible Study is held on Fridays from 10:00am - 11:00 am. Call the church office for the information. 631-727-2621 You can also join us on Zoom. All are welcome.
Thrift Shop: The thrift shop hours are Tuesday and Thursday 10-2 and Saturday 9-1. Clothing, knickknacks, and other small household items are accepted. No furniture or children's clothing. Please bring your donations only when we are open. Thank you for your support.
If you would like to join us on Zoom, please follow the link
Join Zoom Meeting:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86897065711?
pwd=a0FZcDg5MnRqKz-JMQXRLVzIBTGZFQT09 to start or join a scheduled Zoom meeting.
Meeting ID: 850 1493 9172
Second Sunday after Pentecost
Service of Word and Sacrament
June 7, 2026✦ 10am
We open our hearts to the presence of God and worship together.
PRELUDE: Prelude in A Major Chopin
*CHORAL INTROIT:
We are here this day to share God's love.
We have come with burdens and cares,
For within this place, we are bound as one
In this fellowship we share.
*CALL TO WORSHIP:
One: God calls us out of places known and secure.
God invites us into a living, trusting, relationship.
Many: Happy are those whom God chooses as a heritage.
God’s counsel to every generation comes to us.
One: God continues to bring new worlds into being.
God is constantly offering new opportunities to us.
Many: We are called away from empty pursuits.
God wants to employ our talents for the common good.
One: Let us worship God with our whole being.
Let us use all our talents to praise our Creator.
ALL: Praise God with instruments we have made.
Sing praises with voices God has given.
*HYMN: The God of Abraham Praise No. 24
WELCOME
PRAYER OF INVOCATION:
Teach us your word in this hour, faithful God, for we want to communicate your truth to our children and their children. We want to follow your commandments, to love you with all our hearts. We intend to walk in the ways you set before us. Preserve us, we pray, and grant us courage to face each day’s challenges. Help us to live by faith and to serve with abiding trust. Amen.
PASSING OF THE PEACE
ANNOUNCEMENTS, CELEBRATIONS & CONCERNS
Father’s Day is Sunday, June 21. Please join us as the men of the church lead worship and the women host our Father’s Day brunch.
A TIME OF PRAYER:
❖ Pastoral Prayer:
God of law and grace, who shared our common lot in Jesus Christ, we are drawn to your righteousness, believing that you will justify us and lead us to a wholeness that is freeing to us and attractive to others who need the good news of the gospel. Unite us in love for you and one another, that your will might find life in us and in all we meet….
❖ Silent Prayer
❖ 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 debts as we forgive our debtors. Lead us not
into temptation but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, the power, the glory, now and forever. Amen.
CHILDREN’S TIME
OFFERING & OFFERTORY ANTHEM:
We Come to Your Table, Lord Ruth Elaine Schram
*DOXOLOGY AND BLESSING OF GIFTS:
Praise God from whom all blessings flow;
Praise God, all creatures here below;
Praise God above, you heavenly host:
Creator, Christ, and Holy Ghost.
SCRIPTURE LESSONS:
❖ Genesis 12:1-9 NT Page 9
❖ Psalm 33:1-12 Hymnal Page 643
❖ Romans 4:13-25 NT Page 135
❖ Matthew 9:9-13, 18-26 NT Page 8
*GLORIA:
Glory to the Creator, the Christ, the Holy Spirit,
Three-in-one; as it was in the beginning
Is now, and ever shall be, world without end.
Amen. Amen.
SERMON: “A Little Scary…Journey Faithfully”
When it comes to reflections on Abram aka Abraham, it’s rare, at best, that any focus on his courage. Most will focus on his faith or faithfulness, obedience, trust, progeny or leadership. But as courage indicates some trepidation, for it doesn’t take courage to do the easy stuff, it’s seldom featured in Abraham’s life.
Upon hearing our Gospel lesson, it’s easy, too, to skip over the courageous and instead focus on Jesus, his welcoming spirit, his command of unclean spirits, and his miracle working. That’s all well and good, too, as any of that could make for decent sermon, but how about the not-as-gifted or those who feel not-yet-called.
Yet courage in the face of the unknown and unsure speaks to us all. Obviously, few of us are being asked to leave our native land, preach to nations, or heal with a touch. But most of us are trying to take the next faithful step even when that step feels uncertain, costly, or frightening. And that is where courage lives. Courage is not the absence of fear. Courage is what faith looks like when fear is still in the room. It is trust with trembling hands. It is obedience with a racing heart. It is moving forward when we would much rather stay where life feels familiar, controllable, and safe.
Consider Abram. The Lord says, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you.” That is not a small request. God does not hand Abram a map, a timeline, or a guarantee that every mile will be easy. At the ripe young age of 75, Abram is called to leave home, leave routine, leave what he knows, and walk toward a promise he cannot yet see. That’s faith, of course, but it is also courage. It takes courage to loosen your grip on what you’ve known well and what you’ve even been led to trust. It takes courage to step away from the familiar patterns that have organized your life. It takes courage to trust that God can be present not only in the place you have loved, but also in the place you have not yet arrived.
Another important element is that Abram’s courage does not depend on having every answer first. He goes because God calls. That matters for us, because many of us delay obedience until fear has disappeared or until certainty arrives. But certainty is seldom given in advance. Often what is given is just enough light for the next step or two. Abram teaches us that courage is not knowing everything; it is trusting the One who does. In a foreign land, even with those Canaanites about, he pitches tents, builds altars, and keeps moving. His life becomes a testimony that fear does not have to have the final word.
Then there is Matthew, sitting at the tax booth. Tax collecting was not simply a job; it was a whole world, a defined role, a settled identity. Matthew knows how that world works. He knows where he sits, what he does, and likely what people think of him. Then Jesus passes by and says, “Follow me.” In the brevity of the account, we can miss how disruptive that invitation is. Matthew is not merely changing careers. He is leaving a whole structure of security, income, routine, and reputation. To rise from that booth is an act of courage.
There’s always at least a tinge of trepidation involved in the process of becoming someone new. There is courage required whenever Christ calls us out of a life that is settled, even if it is settled in ways that are not necessarily all that good for us. There is courage in leaving habits that have defined us, in stepping into vocations we did not expect, in saying yes to a path that others may not understand. Matthew gets up before he knows how the whole future will unfold. He gets up because the call of Jesus is stronger than the comfort of staying put. Sometimes courage is simply getting up from the place where we have been stuck.
And then there is the woman with the hemorrhage, whose courage may be the quietest and yet, in some ways, the most profound of all. She has suffered for years, as one who’s long been categorized as “unclean.” She has likely known exhaustion, disappointment, social isolation, and the ache of living in a body that feels like a battlefield. She comes from the margins. She does not make a speech. She does not ask for the crowd to part. She says to herself that if she can only touch the fringe of his cloak, she will be made well. Imagine that. Yes, again, that’s faith, but it is also deeply courageous because it is vulnerable. It is courageous because it even risks disappointment.
It takes profound courage to reach out when you have been disappointed so many times. It takes courage to believe healing, help, mercy, or change might still be possible. Some fears are loud and obvious. Others are hidden deep inside us: the fear that nothing will ever change, the fear that asking for help will expose us, the fear that hope will make fools of us. Yet she reaches anyway. She touches anyway. And Jesus does not shame her for her need or for her boldness. He assures her, even calls her “daughter.” Her courage becomes the path by which grace meets her in public and in tenderness.
Taken together, these stories remind us that courage comes in more than one form. Sometimes courage looks like Abram, leaving for a place not yet seen. Sometimes courage looks like Matthew, standing up and walking away from an old identity. Sometimes courage looks like a suffering woman, reaching out with one trembling hand toward the mercy of God. Courage can be public or hidden, dramatic or quiet. But in every case, courage is a response to God’s presence. It is not pretending nothing hurts. It is not denying that we are afraid. It is trusting that God can meet us on the road, at the moment of decision, and in the reach of our need.
What’s a bit scary for us these days? Likely more than a few things. For some, courage looks like facing an operation or beginning a difficult treatment. There is nothing easy about placing your body in the care of others when you do not know exactly how things will go. For others, like me, courage looks like major change: retirement, the end of a long chapter, the beginning of something new in a new place. For those here, it means the newness of leadership and of style in the weeks and months ahead. For others still, courage looks like a starting over, recovery, walking into a room where no one knows your name, a change in career or perhaps in hobbies and habits.
The take-away isn’t that we should all suddenly feel brave. It’s this: take the next faithful step, even if you take it with fear. If you are facing surgery or recovery, courage may be praying honestly, asking questions, letting others help, and entrusting yourself to God one day at a time. In a season of change, courage is releasing what was, even while you may still grieve it, and making room for what God is doing next. If you are in a new place, courage may be introducing yourself, showing up again, learning names, and resisting the temptation to retreat into isolation. Courage often looks very ordinary when we are living it. But even the ordinary can be courageous.
The good news is that in all three stories, the courageous one is not abandoned. Abram is led. Matthew is welcomed into discipleship and table fellowship. The woman is healed and addressed with tenderness. The point is not that courageous people are fearless; the point is that God is faithful. And because God is faithful, we can do scary things. We can leave what is familiar. We can rise from the booth. We can reach for the hem. We can go to the appointment, make the call, enter the room, begin again. Not because we are certain, and not because we are unafraid, but because Christ still passes by calling, healing, and leading his people onward. So if the road before you feels a bit scary, journey faithfully anyway. God has met frightened people before, and God has a way of making a future out of their courage, even out of ours.
OUR ORDER OF COMMUNION
The Invitation and Time of Confession:
❖ Call to Confession
❖ Silent Confession
❖ Unison Prayer of Confession:
God of justice and righteousness, we come to you as tax collectors
and sinners flocked to Jesus long ago. We have wavered in distrust
of your promises, yet cling to their truth. We believe that your ways
are far more fulfilling than any we can devise, yet we shrink from following
where Christ leads. Forgive our pursuit of lesser gods we create,
and wean us away from our fascination with the false values that tempt us.
Draw us closer to you, we pray. Amen.
❖ Words of Assurance
Thanksgiving:
Pastor: The Lord be with you.
People: And also with you.
Pastor: Lift up your hearts.
People: We lift them up to the Lord.
Pastor: Let us give thanks to God Most High.
People: It is right to give God thanks and praise.
Pastor: We give you thanks, God of majesty and mercy,
for calling forth the creation and raising us from dust
by the breath of your being.
We bless you for the beauty and bounty of the earth and for the vision of the day when sharing by all will mean scarcity for none.
We remember the covenant you made with your people Israel, and we give you thanks for all our ancestors in faith.
We rejoice that you call us to reconciliation with you and all people everywhere and that you remain faithful to your covenant even when we are faithless.
We rejoice that you call the entire human family to this table of sacrifice and victory.
We come in remembrance and celebration of the gift of Jesus Christ, whom you sent, in the fullness of time, to be the good news.
Born of Mary, our sister in faith, Christ lived among us to reveal the mystery of your Word, to suffer and die on the cross for us, to be raised from death on the third day, and then to live in glory.
We bless you, gracious God, for the presence of your Holy Spirit in the church you have gathered. With your sons and daughters of faith in all places and times, we praise you with joy as we say together:
All: Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of hosts,
Heaven and earth are full of Thy glory,
Hosanna in the highest.
Blessed is the One who comes in the name of the Lord.
Hosanna in the highest.
Words of Institution and Communal Proclamation:
Pastor: We remember that on the night of betrayal and desertion,
and on the eve of death, Jesus gathered the disciples for a shared meal of preparation.
Jesus took bread, and after giving thanks to God, broke it, and gave it to the disciples, saying: “This is my body which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.”
In the same way, he took the cup after supper.
Again he gave God thanks and praise and said:
“This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as
often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.”
Therefore, we proclaim the mystery of our faith:
All: Christ’s death, O God we proclaim.
Christ’s resurrection we declare.
Christ’s coming, we await.
Glory be to you, O God.
Prayers of Consecration:
Pastor: Eternal God, we unite in this covenant of faith, recalling Christ’s suffering and death, rejoicing in Christ’s resurrection, and awaiting Christ’s return in victory. We spread your table with these gifts of the earth and of our labor. We present to you our very lives, committed to your service on behalf of all people. We ask you to send your Holy Spirit upon this bread and wine, upon our gifts, and upon us. Strengthen your universal church that it may be the champion of peace and justice in all the world. Restore the earth with your grace that is able to make all things new.
All: Be present with us as we share this meal,
and throughout all our lives, that we may know you as
the Holy One, who with Christ and the Holy Spirit,
lives forever. Amen.
Sharing the Bread and Cup:
Pastor: Alleluia! Christ our Passover is offered for us.
People: Therefore, let us keep the feast.
Pastor: The gifts of God for the people of God.
We celebrate the grace of God in our midst.
Unison Prayer of Thanksgiving:
We give you thanks, Almighty God, that you have refreshed us at your table through the body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. Continue to heal us, we pray, and strengthen our faith. Increase our love for one another, and send us forth into the world in courage and peace, rejoicing in the power of the Holy Spirit; we ask these things in the Name of Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.
*HYMN: Be Not Dismayed No. 460
https://youtu.be/N7a1hDWtj_M
*PASTORAL BENEDICTION
CHORAL BENEDICTION:
May the light of God shine on us today.
May the light of God shine on us today.
May it show us where to travel,
Lead us back if we should stray,
May the light of God shine on us today.
POSTLUDE: Petit Jacquet Claudio Merulo
Pass code: 727262
Trinity Sunday
A Service of the Word
May 31, 2026 ✦ 10am
OPENING WORDS:
We open our hearts to the presence of God and worship together.
PRELUDE: Allemande HWV 433 Handel
(Once the music begins we ask that you would please maintain respectful silence)
*CHORAL INTROIT:
We are here this day to share God's love;
We have come with burdens and cares,
For within this place, we are bound as one
In this fellowship, we share.
*CALL TO WORSHIP:
One: How majestic is God’s name in all the earth!
We see God’s glory in the expanse of the heavens.
Many: All plants and animals are God’s creation.
All that God has made reflects God’s goodness.
One: We are created in God’s image, to relate to God.
We receive great abundance and care from our Creator.
Many: God blesses us day by day with good things.
We are given dominion over the works of God.
One: Gather to praise God and greet one another.
Celebrate all the ways God is revealed to us.
ALL: We worship the Creator and Sustainer of all things.
We rejoice in Christ’s promise of the Holy Spirit.
*HYMN: Come Now, Almighty God No. 275
WELCOME
PRAYER OF INVOCATION
Amazing God, revealed to us in more ways than we can count, yet binding in unity all that was and is and yet shall be, we worship you. Source of mountains and seas, giver of light and darkness, we marvel at the work of your hands. Reconciler and Redeemer, we are awed by the forgiving love that draws us to you and empowers us to care for one another. Spirit of truth, whose guidance is available to us every day, we rejoice in your transforming presence. Triune God, bless, we pray, this gathering of your disciples. Amen.
PASSING OF THE PEACE
ANNOUNCEMENTS, CELEBRATIONS & CONCERNS:
Memorial Bricks: On Sunday, June 7, weather permitting, we will dedicate new bricks in our
Memorial Walkway. Please join us.
A TIME OF PRAYER:
❖ Pastoral Prayer
Spirit of truth, you open to us the Word of life and help us to see the possibilities of each day. Guide us now that we may hear your truth and embody it. As we face suffering, help us to endure, to hope, and to love. Grant wisdom and strength of character to overcome former limitations, that we might represent you well each moment we live, doing the work you call us to do…
❖ Silent Prayer
❖ 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 debts as we forgive our debtors. Lead us not
into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is
the kingdom, the power, the glory, now and forever.
Amen.
CHILDREN’S TIME
OFFERING: The Prayer by Sager and Foster arr. Fettke
* DOXOLOGY AND BLESSING OF GIFTS:
Praise God from whom all blessings flow;
Praise God, all creatures here below;
Praise God above, you heavenly host:
Creator, Christ, and Holy Ghost.
SCRIPTURE LESSONS:
❖ Genesis 1:1-2:4a NT Page 1
❖ Psalm 8 HYMNAL Page 624
❖ 2 Corinthians 13:11-13 NT Page 153
❖ Matthew 28:16-20 NT Page 29
SERMON: “Celebrate the Spirit of Creation”
We get another good Jeopardy clue this week: “What’s the first Sunday after Pentecost called?” Of course, with bulletins in hand, the answer (in the form of a question) isn’t tough: “What is Trinity Sunday?”
Interestingly enough, the word “Trinity” is never mentioned in the Bible, and the official doctrine of the Trinity was only very slowly established during the first three centuries of the church. And yet, it’s the reason we get the last two reading today. They get slid into the lectionary because of their direct mention of the persons of the Trinity. In 2 Corinthians we get, “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with all of you,” and Matthew records Jesus’ baptismal instructions to include, “in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.”
The Trinity is certainly less apparent in the first lesson of creation we read today. There are the personal pronouns “us” and “our” that are used by the Creator, as God says, “Let us make humankind in our image”, which suggest plurality, but that’s both subtle and considerably less than precise. One has to know that the word wind and spirit is the same in Hebrew to clearly see the Spirit of Creation at work. But we know it was and is even still.
Yet clearly, the focus of the day is on the first, and quite long lesson, of the first creation account in our Bibles. I’ve found that kids in Conformation classes are always a surprised to discover we have two creation stories. There’s this one of 7 days… and it’s all good. And it’s also all done, complete with a resting God. And there’s the next one, that begins immediately after this one and reads, “These are the generations of the heavens and the earth when they were created. In the day [singular] that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens.” That one is the one with Adam and Eve, and it’s not all good. Ever since then, we seem to be in the tough struggle of getting back to good while the earth around us suffers from the hands of the descendants of Adam and Eve.
The Pogo comic strip of 1971 Earth Day became famous in this regard. It consists of a dialogue between Pogo Possum and Porky Pine. The strip consists of a brief, poignant walk through a heavily littered section of the Okefenokee Swamp:
Porky Pine opens the conversation by looking out at the swamp and remarking, "Ah, Pogo, the beauty of the forest primeval gets me in the heart."
Pogo Possum responds as they step onto a massive pile of discarded tin cans, garbage, and debris: "It gets me in the feet, Porky Pine."
Porky Pine looks down at the mess and notes, "It is hard walking on this stuff."
Pogo Possum looks directly out at the reader in the final panel and delivers the legendary closing line: "Yep, son, we have met the enemy and he is us."
Earth Day. The one day of the year that care of the planet gets a nod. Most folks would be hard to name the date. One day. In April, the 22nd to be exact, at a time when it may well run into Holy Week and Easter happenings, so that its acknowledgement is often just limited to schools, and even then, it just comes and goes without much notice at all.
Given the environmental problems we’re seeing: extreme and odd temperature swings and massive storms, fires and floods, along with the struggle for clean air or fresh water in some parts of the world, one would think that we could do with more than one Earth Day a year.
Yet out here on the North Folk, we do pretty well with the care of the earth. It’s rare that we see piles of trash on our beaches or roadsides. The railroad station and riverfront see a bit of litter, but our town does well in picking things up. There’s an active Anti-Litter Committee, and even a Anti-Litter Advisory Committee on the Town level. Those with some free time and desire for service, might consider getting involved. Plus, thankfully, our town makes recycling easy. Most everyone I know recycles. Even here at church, where such isn’t readily apparent, our sanitation service culls through our trash and separates the recyclables from the not. A number of years ago, Ron Blake went out and watched it happen and gave quite the report of how astounded he was by it (and how gross a task it is).
Fortunately, too, we also have some fine places to take in the beauty of the earth. We’re surrounded by parks and beaches, farms and garden centers where the blessings of the earth are easily celebrated. The Riverhead Townscape Summer Concerts and “Reflections Riverhead: Art in the Park” are great ways to take in some of the blessing. I think we’d do well to consider a fellowship outing or two to take them in and celebrate the Spirit of Creation still at work around us. Consider that another seed for thought.
Even closer at hand are our gardens. With special thanks to Allan Repp and to his helpmate Nancy who gives a hand when needed, the gardens are both clean and beautiful. One can sit on the bench along the walkway or on the front steps and experience the Spirit of Creation at work around us. But that work, too, especially as the years roll by, will likely need others to get involved. And particularly when I’m no longer living in the parsonage, largely depending on who comes next, the gardens on that property are likely to need a hand or two by church volunteers so that creation can indeed be pronounced “good” and not “uh oh.”
As we make our way through this spring that seems a bit slow to arrive, consider how you are celebrating the Spirit of Creation around us. Help keep things clean. Plant and grow. Get out along the riverside, at a beach, or in a park, and take in the blessings of the earth as even as you pause and offer a prayer of thanks to God, our artful creator who remains at work within us and around us.
*HYMN: Praise with Joy the World’s Creator No. 273
https://youtu.be/lQnFlu8HcOgs
*BENEDICTION
CHORAL BENEDICTION:
May the light of God shine on us today.
May the light of God shine on us today.
May it show us where to travel.
Lead us back if we should stray.
May the light of God shine on us today.
POSTLUDE: Selection from Biblical Sonata No. 5 Kuhnau
Pentecost Sunday
A Service of the Word
May 24, 2026 ✦ 10am
OPENING WORDS:
We open our hearts to the presence of God and worship together.
PRELUDE: Sarabanda BWV 1004 J.S. Bach
(Once the music begins we ask that you would please maintain respectful silence)
*CHORAL INTROIT:
We are here this day to share God's love;
We have come with burdens and cares,
For within this place, we are bound as one
In this fellowship, we share.
*CALL TO WORSHIP:
One: The peace of God be with you today.
Receive with joy the gift of the Holy Spirit.
Many: We feel the winds of God blowing among us.
We sense the tongues of fire empowering us.
One: How amazing is the power that God gives us.
How manifold are the works of our Creator.
Many: The breath of God fills us with confidence.
The Spirit creates new life within and among us.
One: God calls us to be dreamers and prophets.
God gives us a vision for a world of peace.
ALL: May the glory of God endure forever.
We will sing praise to God as long as we live.
*HYMN: Let Every Christian Pray No. 261
WELCOME
PRAYER OF INVOCATION
Powerful God, whose ways are beyond our knowing, we long to grow spiritually. We are thirsty for the living water you have promised to those who seek. We are eager to catch the Spirit, to be set on fire with confidence and trust to use the gifts you have given. Let Pentecost happen again in this gathering of your people. Inspire us to witness to your love and prophesy your name. Give us courage to speak of your deeds of power, and to take the risks of daring discipleship. Amen.
PASSING OF THE PEACE
ANNOUNCEMENTS, CELEBRATIONS & CONCERNS
Musical Concert: “From Bach to Broadway!” On Friday, May 29th at
7:00 p.m. the Old Steeple Community Church will be hosting a
musical concert featuring Anyi Cai, the musician at Old Steeple,
on piano and Lingli Zhou, Anyi’s colleague, singing soprano. Freewill
donations in support of the church’s music fund will be accepted
at the door.
Joint Board Meeting: The Boards are scheduled to meet after
worship next Sunday, May 31st.
A TIME OF PRAYER:
❖ Pastoral Prayer
All-knowing God, whose gifts to us evoke a variety of activities and services for common good, guide us to use all the resources you grant us to build up the body of Christ and empower the church’s ministry, extending the good news to those who suffer, who ignore, who doubt and deny, that all may be drawn together by the one Spirit to the peace you give and the high purpose to which you call us, in Jesus’s name. Amen.
❖ Silent Prayer
❖ 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 debts as we forgive our debtors. Lead us not
into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is
the kingdom, the power, the glory, now and forever.
Amen.
CHILDREN’S TIME
OFFERING: God Breathe Vicki Tucker Courtney
* DOXOLOGY AND BLESSING OF GIFTS:
Praise God from whom all blessings flow;
Praise God, all creatures here below;
Praise God above, you heavenly host:
Creator, Christ, and Holy Ghost.
SCRIPTURE LESSONS:
❖ Acts 2;1-21 NT Page 102
❖ Psalm 104:24-34, 35b HYMNAL Page 690
❖ 1 Corinthians 12:3b-13 NT Page 153
❖ John 20:19-23 NT Page 101
SERMON: “You’re Speaking My Language”
It often happens in a foreign land, where everyone is well engaged in a deep conversation, but you can only struggle to catch on. You try to smile and nod, but if asked if you knew what they were taking about, you’d confess, “no idea.” Years ago when my German was considerably less than wonderful (not that it’s all that good today), as I began a Sabbatical there, I was lost in a sea of babel more often it not. Given the pace of a conversation, it still happens. Such hints at the pre-Pentecost ache. If you’ve been there, you know what it is to feel outside the conversation, disconnected from the moment, unable to find the words—or unable to make sense of the words being spoken around you. Yet sometimes it doesn’t only happen when we travel. Sometimes it happens in school or at work. Sometimes it happens in families or in social settings. We can be surrounded by people and still feel alone because we do not feel connected.
Yet if the folk are really speaking our language, we are hooked in, connected and engaged. Another travel story: Years ago, when I was working as a waiter in France, I remember waiting on an American couple. Her French was quite good, and she obviously enjoyed being able to use it. He was pretty much clueless. I greeted them and took their order and answered her questions, all in French. It wasn’t until the very end of their dinner course that I said, in English, “I hope you enjoyed your meal, and perhaps you’d like to consider dessert.” They were astounded. “You speak English!” announced the husband. He was instantly connected after being left in the sea.
Pentecost is God’s answer to that human struggle: the struggle to understand and to be understood. The Holy Spirit meets a disconnected people, forms a bond even with the diverse crowd, and sends a faithful people to a world in need.
The backstory of our Christian Pentecost is that of the tower of Babel. In that story, humanity builds a tower, not because they want communion with God, but because they want control. They want one name, one project, one prideful vision. Babel is the dream of uniformity used for domination. So God confuses their language—not as petty punishment, but as mercy. God interrupts a human project that would have crushed difference and turned sameness into a weapon.
Then comes Pentecost, a Jewish holiday turned very Christian. In Judaism, Pentecost is known as Shavuot (the Feast of Weeks). It’s celebrated exactly 50 days after Passover and honors the giving of the Torah to Moses at Mount Sinai. That explains the gathering in Jerusalem which sets the stage for our Pentecost.
In our account, Jews from every nation under heaven gather in Jerusalem and hear the disciples speaking in their own native languages. The Spirit doesn’t erase difference. The Spirit doesn’t flatten culture. The Spirit doesn’t demand that everybody become alike. The miracle is that each person hears the mighty works of God in a language they can receive. God speaks in the language of the heart. The Spirit meets people where they are.
That matters for us because many of us are still waiting for God to meet us in places where we feel out of touch, places that feel too foreign to us or too complicated, or even too painful. But notice too, that in the gospel lesson, Jesus comes to frightened disciples behind locked doors and breathes peace on them. He does not wait until they are brave. He does not wait until they are organized. He does not wait until they are spiritually impressive. He comes into the locked room. The reminder is a good one: we’re not to assume that we have to get our life cleaned up before God can speak to us. If you have a locked room in your life—grief, anxiety, conflict, shame, exhaustion— invite the Spirit to meet you there. Begin each day with a simple prayer: “Holy Spirit, meet me where I am, and teach me to hear your peace.”
Another nice reminder and practical lesson is that although we’re united into one body, it’s a blessing that we’re not the same, as the body needs all the parts. Paul tells the Corinthians, “In the one Spirit we were all baptized into one body.” Mind you, Corinth was a church full of differences, lots of family dynamics there: tensions, personalities, and preferences. Yet Paul does not solve that by telling them to just unite as one. He kinda’ says the opposite: there are different gifts, different forms of service, different workings. He lifts up the differences, yet he adds, “the same Spirit, the same Lord, the same God.” Unity in Christ is not sameness. It is belonging.
Diversity is a gift, but it’s not always a easy one to handle. There are different backgrounds, different testimonies, different temperaments, different ways of praying, serving, leading, comforting, organizing, teaching, and encouraging, and some of the difference can cause friction. Pentecost shows us a multilingual church. Corinthians shows us a many-membered body. In both cases, the same truth emerges: the Spirit is glorified not when one voice drowns out the others, but when many gifts bear witness to one Lord.
The application of the lesson is to learn to honor the grace of difference. Listen before you correct. Ask before you assume. Make room for someone whose experience, age, culture, or personality is not like your own. In the church, this may mean inviting younger voices into meaningful service, learning from older saints instead of sidelining them, or recognizing that not every faithful Christian sounds like you. In the home, it may mean speaking to one another in ways that can actually be heard rather than merely said. And personally, it means refusing to despise your own gift because it is not somebody else’s. The Spirit did not make a mistake when the Spirit made you part of the body.
And clearly, Pentecost is not only about an experience but also about a mission. The disciples are filled with the Spirit, and immediately they begin declaring the mighty works of God. The Spirit is not given merely for comfort, though the Spirit does comfort. The Spirit is not given merely for inward renewal, though the Spirit does renew. The Spirit is given so the church can bear witness to Jesus in word, deed, mercy, courage, and truth.
That mission is not reserved for preachers, missionaries, or people who seem especially confident. It belongs to the whole church. Some are sent to speak from pulpits, but others are sent elsewhere, including places like classrooms and offices, kitchens and neighborhood sidewalks. Our mission is always to offer encouragement to those who are carrying burdens. Our presence, our gentle conversation and awareness of the needs outside and beyond ourselves carry the Spirit which lightens burdens.
We are living in a world full of noise, division, and locked doors, in a world of disconnected people. Many are hungry to hear a word that is true, gracious, and life-giving. The promise of Pentecost is that God is still speaking. God is still uniting within diversity. God is still sending.
May we all open our hearts to the Spirit this day and every day. And may God empower us to speak the good news of God in the language our neighbor can hear—through our words, our compassion, our forgiveness, and our courage. That’s Pentecost. And living it out remains our mission.
*HYMN: On Pentecost They Gathered No. 272
https://youtu.be/b1aOsU0qEpo
*BENEDICTION
CHORAL BENEDICTION:
May the light of God shine on us today.
May the light of God shine on us today.
May it show us where to travel.
Lead us back if we should stray.
May the light of God shine on us today.
POSTLUDE: Giga BWV 1004 J.S. Bach
We're biblical, traditional, yet progressive.
We honor and take pride in our
Congregational roots.
We covenant with one another and with God,
as revealed
in Jesus Christ through the illumination of
the Holy Spirit.
We endeavor to walk humbly with God and
strive for justice and peace.
My house shall be called a house of prayer for all people.
Isaiah 56.7
We are an open and affirming congregation in which all persons regardless of race, ethnic background, economic status, gender, age, or personal ability, are equally affirmed into membership, leadership and employment
and joyfully welcomed.
Our church office is open for phone calls at 631-727-2621. Pastor Sean will return your calls. Our secretary is in the office Wednesday and Thursday mornings.
Our church office is open for phone calls at 631-727-2621. Pastor Sean will return your calls. Our secretary is in the office Wednesday and Thursday mornings.
Worship on Sundays at 10:00am.
No matter who you are or where you are in life's journey, you are welcome here.
103 1st Street, Riverhead, New York 11901, United States
Today | Closed |
Our church office is open Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays from 9:00am-12:00. Church services are held on Sunday at 10:00am, and coffee hour in the fellowship hall following the worship service. Sunday School will be held at 10:00 am. (To run concurrent with our worship service)
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