Disparate Strands that Coalesce.

They call it synergy, synchronicity, and synthesis— that time when disparate strands come together, particles coalesce, and in that catalytic moment, something completely new is born. Pentecost launches one of those times. The readings for this week brings the strands of Israel’s history to the moment.

The great prophet Elijah calls down divine, consuming fire on the prepared holocaust after he has called the community closer and called out to God.Solomon dedicates the temple that his father David so desperately wanted to build, and in that discourse he foresees the temple being a place of refuge and outreach to the foreign nations who will be drawn to its magnificence and offer a prayer there.

Our Gospel reading from Luke give us so much in the story that is unexpected. We do not expect a Roman centurion to be kind to his slave; we certainly do not expect the generosity that he shows to his Jewish charges; nor do we expect the kind things they have to say about their oppressor. Jesus does not expect to find such faith in a Gentile— well, maybe he does, but he certainly uses the expectation of the crowd to good advantage.

And, perhaps most surprising of all, we most likely do not expect Jesus to heal the slave in the way that he does. This gospel reading recalls the centurion, who is the image and symbol of oppression and abuse, who kindly builds a synagogue for worship and receives grace for his child from the God for whom he built it.

God is so very often the God of the unexpected— especially when it comes to grace! If the lections have a synergistic, synchronistic, synthesizing theme it is inclusivity. That openness to others who are different from us is the conduit through which the Spirit arrives in powerful fire to cleanse, heal, and ignite the mission of God. Our exclusivist dogmas, rituals, and practices are the valves that block and quench that Spirit.