06/08/2025 ~ Day of Pentecost ~ *Acts 2:1-21 or Genesis 11:1-9; Psalm 104:24-34, 35b; Romans 8:14-17 or Acts 2:1-21; John 14:8-17, (25-27) ~ Children’s Sunday ~ Christian Education Sunday ~ Seedling Sunday ~ Delayed from Previous Week Due to COVID ~ YOUTUBE VIDEO: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8TAvt0DFc_o
VIDEO OF FULL SERVICE: https://vimeo.com/showcase/7960701/video/1094404579

NOTE: PENTECOST CELEBRATED DELAYED ONE WEEK DUE TO COVID OUTBREAK

The Radical Dominion

“Rabbi,’ said Philip, ‘show us Abba, God, and that will be enough for us.’” — John 14:8.

I am what in some quarters is called a late bloomer since I did not enter Seminary, Bangor Seminary to be precise, until I was 44 years old. Hence back in the days before remote leaning I had to move, from Brunswick to Bangor to be precise.

Most students had landed in Bangor without any prospect of employment so student jobs did provide a little income. And one does have to eat occasionally.

My last job before Seminary had been at the Mount Ararat High School library, the old building to be precise. So the job I got— it was at the Seminary library— was a perfect fit.

In his off hours the librarian, the late Rev. Cliffton Davis, created home brewed beers. Cliff found out I could, on my computer, print large, nice looking labels on sticky paper, so one of my duties became producing labels for the brews he concocted.

Now, one other duty for students working at the library was to write brief reviews of books which had been sent in by publishers and we wrote those reviews for a monthly newsletter. Cliff, had one dictum about how to judge a book before we read it.

“You can, despite rumor to the contrary,” he intoned, “judge a book by its cover. If the cover says the author has a Ph.D. from Oxford or Yale, review the book.”

“On the other hand, if the cover says the author’s a retired car salesman from Saint Louis who did some research on the Bible, don’t bother. Those go to the circular file.”

You would be simply be amazed at how many books on Scripture are written by people with little or no formal training. Now, I once wrote a review of a book by an author who seemed to have good qualifications, a Jesuit with a Ph.D. in New Testament.

This is the claim made by that scholar: no church in existence today is as radical as the church we find in the New Testament. Let me repeat that: no church in existence today is as radical as the church we find in the New Testament. (Slight pause.)

These words are from the Gospel According to the School of John: “Rabbi,’ said Philip, ‘show us Abba, God, and that will be enough for us.” (Slight pause.)

A confession: I remember neither the name of the book nor the author I just cited. But this claim is fairly common claim among real scholars. The New Testament church was by far more radical than any church in existence today.

I want to suggest this radical church of the New Testament is exactly the place to which the reading from John points. You see, Jesus says (quote), “Whoever has seen me has seen Abba, God.” One way these words can be perceived is to understand that in Jesus we see both a living expression and a foretaste of the Dominion of God.

That statement begs two questions: “What is the Dominion of God” and “what does the Dominion of God look like?” Now, older translations of the New Testament refer to the Dominion of God as the Kingdom of God.

Dominion should be used because Kingdom says there is a territory that has limits. One might argue Dominion implies the same thing but that’s not a Biblical understanding.

Why? Both Kingdom and Dominion are translations of the very same Greek word: bascillia. We get basilica from that, something we think of as a church building. But the buildings known as basilicas carry that name not because they are a building, a static, limited location, but because they are a part of a journey, a pilgrimage.

And a pilgrimage is about a journey on which we encounter God not a result, not a location. Hence, this Dominion is not about place or a territory but a journey and that is the very thing to which the word bascillia is pointing is that: a journey, not a place.

Well, this leads to this question: if the Dominion of God is a journey, an encounter God, what does that encounter, that Dominion look like? The answer is look at and look to Jesus.

Jesus is a radically new, radically different way of understanding existence, a radically new, radically different way of understanding God. Hence, the Dominion of God calls us to a radically new, radically different understanding of existence and of God.

Further, the Dominion of God is not just a way of encountering God occasionally. On the journey God is or should be encountered all the time.

And so what does this Dominion look like? It looks like the theology of a journey, the theology we find the journey: when the Dominion of God is present healing takes place. People are made whole. The needs of all are taken care of. We help one another all the time.

When the Dominion of God is present there are no barriers, no name calling, no walls, no impediments between people, ever. When the Dominion of God is present people respect one another no matter what differences might exist.

The very radical idea of the Dominion of God is that together, as one, we are called to a wholeness. We are not called to be tribes, not called to be separate.

Given that, the challenge of Pentecost is clear to me. Can we live up to the task God lays out before us? Can we live up to the task of helping this world become an suitable environment for the Dominion of God, where that Dominion of God is felt, lived out?

And yes, the Dominion of God is this very radical environment, very radical— where no one is homeless, healthcare is available, access to education is a given, no one, no one goes hungry. The Dominion of God insists human rights are a given.

And yes, this wholeness, this completeness, this integrity, this unity, this harmony, this oneness, this identity, this picture of the Dominion can be and is seen in Jesus. The Dominion is seen and can be seen in Jesus— now that is radical. (Slight pause.)

Well, on this day known as Pentecost, when we celebrate Pentecost, we need to listen for the amazing unifying cacophony found in the wind of the Spirit. This is the Spirit to Whom Jesus points in this reading, the Spirit Who gathers us together as one rather than the tribalism which clearly exists in the superficial, distracting, disruptive noise of our society.

Indeed, it seems to me too often society pursues a goal which is overtly focused and determined to tear us asunder. I, for one, am convinced the grace of God can lead us as together we work toward establishing the radical Dominion of God. Amen.

06/15/2025 ~ Celebrated as Pentecost Sunday But a Week Late
Elijah Kellogg Church, Harpswell, Maine

ENDPIECE: It is the practice of the Pastor to speak after the Closing Hymn, but before the Choral Response and Benediction. This is an précis of what was said: “Here is another way to conceptualize the message we can hear when we acknowledge the presence of the Holy Spirit. This is what the Holy Spirit says: Play nice! Play with each other! Play together as one! Don’t break out into tribes! Tribalism— it’s the cause of many large and small wars over time. But we need to see us, see humanity, as God sees us: we are one people.”

BENEDICTION: The love of God is abundant and steadfast. When we give God’s love away, it returns in breathtaking abundance. Let us willingly participate in the grace God offers. May we love God so much, that we love nothing else too much. May we be so in awe of God , that we are in awe of nothing else and no one else. May the Word of God be on our tongues, the wisdom of God be with our thinking and the love of God be present in our hearts. Amen.