One of the best that I ever heard was by Mother Ginger. She was wonderful.
Mother Ginger is Deaf and has an interpreter to speak with her. Not for her... as she speaks also with words and hand motions,,,but along with her..kind of a tag team thing. However,I soon learned that for me...blocking out the interpreter ... and just closely focusing on her and listening to her made me understand her far better. For me the interpreter was a distraction. I know this was not true for everyone but for me it was.
I was lucky enough to hear her a few times and each time it was good but the Pentecost homily... the best.
With the story of Pentecost she managed to place me right in that room with the rushing wind and the all the voices and fire licked tongues. It was riveting to watch her. It was the day my real love of and more importantly,what I believe is the message of the passage was born.
Westboro Baptist Church is a fundamentalist church that spews a message of hate, hellfire and damnation. They feel it is their mission to point out...the errors of everyone by methods such as picketing, and screaming in front of churches.
They even have a website called "God hates fags" On the website you can see all the places they will be picketing, at what time and for what reason. Gays...hell bound...Women ministers...hell bound...women with short hair...hell bound and the list goes on.
The most recent target is the late Ronnie Dio. For those of you who don't know he, former Black Sabbath lead singer, recently died.. after a long and courageous battle with stomach cancer ...and they will be picketing his memorial service.
Communication. For me the day of Pentecost was an example of communication borne out of love. No time was that made clearer to me than by a gifted deaf Priest.
The Holy Spirit made it possible for everyone to understand the message no matter what language they spoke.
When I picture that room and I hear the rush of the wind and all the different voices speaking the message I hear is one of love... It is one of welcome..It is one of unconditional acceptance.
Communication. The Westboro Baptist Church also communicates....intolerance...hate... and that no one really is welcome.
Their God is a God of retribution and damnation. Their message is not one of love but of fear.
It is not my theology. Thanks be to God it is not my theology. What a terrible way to view the world. What sad and awful way to go through life and what a dismal way to view God and mankind.
So I offer a prayer for every member of the Westboro Baptist Church for open hearts and for the Holy Spirit to enter it. I offer a prayer that they will know the God of love.
Amen
