How open am I to possibilities or, as Elaine put it in her sermon last Sunday, to expecting the unexpected? And, having experienced it, to travelling in a different direction?
Courtney Gore became a member of her local school board in Granbury, Texas. She was elected because she supported “conservative Christian values.” Those who put her forward for election, like her, were convinced that the curriculum in their local school was indoctrinating the children with inappropriate messages, particularly about sexuality and race.
Immediately after her election, Courtney spent a day and a night going through hundreds of pages of lesson plans looking for what she expected to find. She was shocked. Shocked by what she didn’t find. The indoctrination simply didn’t exist. She found the materials taught children “how to be a good friend, a good human.”
Courtney shared her good news with those who had put her forward for election, expecting them to be as surprised and relieved as she was. They weren’t. Her former allies shunned her and stuck to their story.
The Pentecost story is a pretty amazing one – rushing wind, tongues of fire and people speaking in multiple languages and yet understanding one another. Imagine the outcome if everyone had accepted the initial explanation – that they were drunk, “filled with the new wine.” But for Peter stepping in, it might all have been different.
Chris Dawson