Dear Friends, 

Of  all the painful experiences we are apt to endure in our lives, I suspect that the experience of being misunderstood is among the most painful of all.  You have a casual conversation with someone and, through no fault of your own, your words are somehow misconstrued and feelings are hurt and suddenly the air between the two of you is thick with clouds of misunderstanding and bitterness – and you wonder, “What did I say?”  Or, you talk with someone you trust about a very personal matter, something from the heart that is still very tender and painful and delicate, and that person dismisses it as “nothing” or “no big deal,” or gives you advice that sounds more like a cheap cliché than anything that might be even remotely true – and you wonder, “Did he not hear me?  Does she not understand what I am going through?”  Or you commit yourself to some great personal goal, or some social cause, pouring every bit of energy into fulfilling some new calling, and someone minimizes your efforts or the significance of the cause – and you wonder, “Does this person not see what this means to me, or what it means to others?”

Several years ago John Grey, in his popular book, noted that the reason men and women struggle to communicate with one another is that they are from different planets.  But I am not so sure our inability to communicate and understand one another is merely a gender issue; rather, it’s very much a spiritual one.  It’s a problem in every circle of human relationships – even in the church.  Which is why the Day of Pentecost is a pivotal moment in the life of the church.  On that day, fifty days after Easter, the early Christians – from just about every corner of the earth – began to understand one another, because the Holy Spirit was finally and fully among them.  It wasn’t that they all suddenly agreed with one another on every issue, or that they put aside their diversity in order to conform to one particular perspective.  Rather, it was that God’s Spirit showed up, blowing through them like wind, clearing the air, so that they could see and hear one another truthfully, and with love.

See you Sunday as we celebrate Pentecost,

Rev. Mark