Metropolitan Community Church Los Angeles

Every year the church’s liturgical life moves through the life events of Jesus.

Birth, life and ministry, death, resurrection, ascension – and this Sunday we celebrate Pentecost.  Pentecost marks the gift that Jesus promised and later was received by the early followers and is often referred to as the “birthday of the church”.

As the disciples gathered together at the feast of Shavu’ot they experienced a move of the Spirit that presented as a large wind that filled the whole place and appeared to settle on each of them as tongues of fire, filling them with the Holy Spirit.

The Spirit was no longer just an external presence it was now an internal gift that caused them to leave the comfortable room in which they had gathered, sending them out into the world to make known this revelation of God and God’s desire to be in personal relationship with all humankind.

In the same way today, the Holy Spirit is the gift of God offered to everyone of us.  It is the gift in the world that we get to invite into our everyday lives, offering transformation and providing us with a vision and a hope for a deeper relationship with the Divine.

It is this relationship that opens up our internal vision and enables us to see what transformation is needed in order for us to become more “Christ-like” in all of our ways.  It provides us with a personal understanding of what that means and through this transforming grace, provides us with the compassionate self which makes real, through us, the compassionate world.

The gift is personal and it is a gift that we are compelled to share.

Just as the early followers were taken out of their upper room to greet the world with this “Good News”, spoken in various languages, so today we are taken out into the world to share our lives in gracious acts of compassion and kindness.  We get to speak in the various languages of the soul that yearns for a world of peace, acceptance, inclusion, justice and love.

Our current sermon series, “The Gospel According to Avenue Q” continues this Sunday through the song, “There is Life Outside Your Apartment” and I will incorporate these themes as we explore life “outside the lines”, outside the borders and boundaries of exclusion that we have so often created.

If you have missed any of this series and want to catch up, remember all of our services are broadcast 24/7 on ourwebsite.  This past Sunday’s service are ready to watch now!

Founders MCCLA 11am-May 12, 2013

For those of you who follow the liturgical calendar, you will note the liturgical color changes this Sunday from Gold to Red.  Red is the color of Pentecost and I want to invite you to wear something red this Sunday!

Earlier this year Facebook turned Red for marriage equality.  Overnight Facebook was a sea of red as people showed their colors.

This Sunday we can celebrate Pentecost and our openness to God’s Spirit within us as we gather to celebrate the faithfulness of God who is both personal and communal.

This God “sets us on fire” with passion and purpose, reminds us that this journey is a life journey, beginning with each and every one of us and having its greatest impact when we live in the now and make our lives count in the world; transforming us, transforming the world’s values, and making real this experience of Shavu’ot, Pentecost, today.

I do hope to see you (in Red) this Sunday as we come with an expectant Spirit that can rest on and in us.

Sincerely, in Christ

 
The Reverend Neil G Thomas

Senior Pastor

PS… A lot is happening on the marriage equality front.  In the past couple of weeks more states have made history by making marriage or civil unions available to lesbian and gay couples.  Now 12 states are marriage equality states. In June the Supreme Court will rule on DOMA and Prop 8 and Founders MCC Los Angeles will keep you up to date with breaking news.  Please pray with me for a day where justice and equality for all will be the norm, not just here in the Califronia or the United States, but throughout the world, both in the cause of marriage and all other issues of justice and equality.