What a pleasure it is to be back in this pulpit and be with you on this day when we celebrate the ministry of Richard Loring and welcome Suzanne as your new soon-to-be Deacon-in-Charge. For those of you who have joined the church in the past 10 years or so, you might be interested to know that St. Mark’s was my very first interim. I was pretty green back then, but fortunately I had the dream senior warden in Jean Ellis, and somehow we managed to survive --the building project as well as the interim time. Something else you should probably know is that once a priest has served in a congregation, he or she tends to be very protective of that parish. Enough said!

Today we also celebrate Pentecost, that day when the Holy Spirit, the Comforter that Jesus promised the disciples, came into their hearts, set those hearts on fire and empowered them to take a message of hope, love, reconciliation and peace out into the world. But remember this event did not happen in a vacuum, but followed after 50 days of extraordinary events and as such, it was a huge leap for the disciples. Battered by the betrayal, the arrest and the crucifixion of their beloved leader, they had been in a completely different place just a few short weeks before. As we heard in today’s Gospel, following the death, they had run away from the gruesome scene and retreated in fear behind locked doors. After all, the Romans knew who they were and where they were and who knew, but what they might seek them out as well. Then there were the appearances – appearances that were reassuring in some ways, but perhaps a little suspect in others. Certainly they were unusual in that rarely did they recognize Jesus until he did something – something like break bread with them, address them by name, or direct them to put their nets down on the other side of the boat. Then there was this matter of the ascension. As they stood there watching him, poof, he was gone!

So the Pentecost event came after a whole series of whirlwind events that probably felt more like an extreme emotional roller coaster ride than the logical sequence it does to us now, with our benefit of hindsight. This morning I’d like to ground this roller coaster ride in the very beginning of the story, in the place of fear. We all know what a powerful motivator fear can be. Since 9/11, it seems, the American people have not been allowed, for one reason or another, to live without fear. Like the disciples, metaphorically as well as often literally, we have retreated behind locked doors. Our politicians hype fear; the news media fixate on it. I think we can safely say that we have a pretty good idea how the disciples felt as they huddled behind locked doors, out of fear. So the first question to ponder is, what are the doors that we huddle behind in fear? Certainly we fear anything we do not know or understand, we fear anyone or anything that is different, and in this global, multicultural world in which we live, there is a rapidly growing number of ideas, people, religions, customs, you name it, that are different. Even technology is changing faster that we can keep up with it and that is scary. We also fear what we cannot control, and we fear those places in our lives that are out of control, unmanageable. Perhaps it is something in a relationship, something in our work, or an idea or assumption that we have long held onto that no longer makes sense. And then, in our fear, we hear all those outer voices that support our fear -- is your identity safe, your credit score high enough? Do you have enough money to retire? Is your email safe from hackers, our entry ports secure from terrorists? In our fear we also hear the inner voices of suspicion, doubt, self-condemnation, prejudice, judgementalism. And so we lock the doors, in the perhaps naïve hope that if I can put up walls that distance me from you— the you that is different, unknown, scary, the you that I don’t understand – then perhaps, we think, we will be safe. The disciples were hearing those same voices. Did it really happen? Who was Jesus, really? Was it all a dream, or even worse, a sham? Did they dare go outside, put themselves out there, acknowledge that they even knew Jesus? It was a scary time.

So here they were, huddled behind their locked doors in their fear and Jesus appears to them – peace be with you he says. Don’t be afraid. Jesus walked right into their place of fear and offered his peace which dispelled their fear. And Jesus still walks right into that place of fear in our lives, that place where everything is out of control and completely unmanageable, and invites us to listen, listen to his voice of love, the only thing that can overcome fear. What the disciples heard on the first Pentecost, were the voices of one another sharing their stories of a risen Christ who had managed to break through their fear and lack of control to hear the voice of love.

In my morning period of reflection and prayer, I’ve come across a wonderful prayer that I keep coming back to day after day. It goes like this: “May I have the courage today to live the life that I would love. To postpone my dream no longer, but to do at last what I came here for and waste my heart on fear no more”. I love that line, “to waste my heart on fear no more.”How often do we waste our hearts on fear, when our hearts have so much more they could be doing? How often do we give in to those voices of doubt and fear and suspicion when we could be instruments of peace and love in the world? What would it mean for you to waste your heart on fear no more?

By the first Pentecost the disciples had discovered it was OK to share their vulnerabilities, their stories of fear and loss, and in the sharing to redeem them. We don’t really know what really happened on that day, what they heard and what it all meant. What we know is that they entered the experience gripped by fear – doubt, uncertainty and probably still a bit of wonder and confusion. They came out the other side emboldened, on fire and ready to take on the world. And I think hearing that voice of love saying, Peace be with you, do not be afraid, had a lot to do with it.

Jesus still comes and says to us. Don’t be afraid. Don’t judge the other whose story you do not know; rather love those who hurt you, welcome the stranger, the person who is different whom you don’t understand. Pray for those who may wish you harm. For I give you my peace and I will not take it away. When we can move beyond the fear, then we can listen to each other, as the disciples did, and hear each others’ stories of vulnerability, suffering, joy and pain, that, my friends, is empowering. Let us all commit to living our lives in love and not waste our hearts on fear any more.