Year: 2015 (b)
1
Day/Date/Occasion: Sunday, May 24 – Pentecost Sunday (Memorial Day observed)
Text(s) Romans 8:22-27, (John 15:26-27; 16:4b-15)
Sermon
God’s Zip Code
"Deliver to the oldest Patrick Murphy first."
That's been the practice in the Irish post office for many years. If you write a letter to
Patrick Murphy in Abbeyfeale, County Limerick, your message might not get to the right man.
In fact, it could pass through several other guys with the same name.
Towns in many parts of rural Ireland don't use house numbers. Some addresses even lack
street names. And unlike the rest of Europe, they don't have numbers called postal codes -- what
we would call ZIP codes here in the United States.
So when a 40-year-old man named Patrick Murphy moved to Abbeyfeale, he became the
third Patrick Murphy in the neighborhood. None were related. All had different homes. But their
addresses were exactly the same.
The postman first delivered mail to the Patrick Murphy who had lived in the village for
the longest time. Then he would pass it on.
"My neighbors would get it first," said the new Patrick Murphy. "They'd have a good
read, and they'd go, 'No it's probably not us.'"
Not the most efficient system.1
Although I have always been a strong supporter of the US Postal system – my
grandfather was a Rural Letter Carrier – there have been known to be inefficiencies in the mail
delivery here too over the years.
Back in 1940, a quarter century or so before the advent of zip codes here, a friend of
Florence Marion of Butte Falls, OR mailed her a postcard from Portland, OR. The post card
arrived in the Butte Falls post office in July 2013, and with the help of the country genealogical
society, was delivered to Mrs. Marion’s great grandson. 2
It certainly gives new meaning to the term snail mail
Recently during a bible study on prayer we were discussing those times in our lives when
our prayers seem to bounce off the ceiling or even puddle on the floor. There are times, I know,
in the lives of all sincere disciples of Christ during which we can become convinced that our
prayers must simply not be reaching God. There may be a number of reasons for this feeling, but
perhaps the most disheartening one may be the creeping feeling that God may not be hearing our
prayers at all.
During these times in our lives, it can seem as if the Divine Postal Service has lost our
prayer package, or perhaps simply misplaced it some obscure corner of God’s Heavenly
Kingdom.
1
Spirit Code, Homiletics 27:3 (May-June, 2015). Retrieved May 18, 2015 from
www.homileticsonline.com.
2
Sabrina Elfarra, "New meaning to snail mail as 1940 postcard finally arrives," http://abcnews.go.com.
April 17, 2014. Retrieved December 19, 2014. Retrieved May 18, 2015 from ibid.
Church/Charge: Morton Community UCC (Morton, IL)
Year: 2015 (b)
2
Day/Date/Occasion: Sunday, May 24 – Pentecost Sunday (Memorial Day observed)
Text(s) Romans 8:22-27, (John 15:26-27; 16:4b-15)
In Romans chapter 8, Paul provides his most focused thoughts on the Holy Spirit, and the
Spirit’s role in our lives of prayer. In v.26 he writes: “we do not know how we ought to pray,”
adding that “the Spirit himself pleads with God for us in groans that words cannot express.” This
means, I suppose, that not only are our well-composed and well thought out prayers delivered to
the very heart of God, but that even those desires of our own hearts which conform to the will
and purposes of God through Christ are delivered straight to God’s doorstep.
In Ireland, the government wants to end mail delivery confusion, so it's instituting its first
postal-code system. It will be more specific than our American ZIP codes, which can cover an
entire town. Even more exact than the system in the United Kingdom, which can cover more
than a dozen homes. In Ireland, the system will assign an individual number to every home and
business.3
No more letters bouncing from Murphy to Murphy to Murphy. No more residents having
to experience in their postal system the truth of the verse from Romans, "If we hope for what we
do not see, we wait for it with patience" (v. 25). Or worse yet, not ever receiving our affirming
postcards from the eternal realm, such as poor Mrs. Marion never received her friend’s postcard.
No more hoping against all hope, instead, accurate deliveries.
On Pentecost Sunday we celebrate the coming of the Holy Spirit upon the followers of
Jesus after his resurrection appearances had ended and he had “disappeared from their sight”
(Lk. 24:31). Seven weeks before, on the night that he willingly gave himself up for their sake -and for our own -- he had promised them that “The Helper” would come – “The Spirit who
reveals the truth about God and who comes from the Father. I will send him to you from the
Father, and he will testify on my behalf” (John 26b, GNT/NRSV).
Quite a delivery system was instituted on that Pentecost day – one that assured accurate
delivery of messages to and from the heart of God’s Being on behalf of Christ by the Holy Spirit.
We might call it God’s Zip Code, or even the Spirit Code. It assures accurate deliveries, no more
hoping, no more waiting in vain.
Still, because we are humans, frail and sometimes confused – as much a part of the
creation, which itself groans for salvation (Rom. 8:22-23) as we are of the Divine Spirit of God
which lives in us through Christ – we will have those inevitable seasons of life when our prayers
seem to go nowhere and the voice of God is muted to our soul’s hearing.
The Twentieth century theologian Karl Rahner said “that the Holy Spirit is effectively
working in us "when one dares to pray in silent darkness and knows that one is heard."
Reflecting on this statement Abbott Don Talafous of St. John’s Abbey in Collegeville, MN
writes:
Those who have discontinued prayer or never seriously made it a
part of their lives often seem dissuaded by just this essential aspect
of prayer: we speak to and trust a being who seldom if ever
3
Homiletics
Church/Charge: Morton Community UCC (Morton, IL)
Year: 2015 (b)
3
Day/Date/Occasion: Sunday, May 24 – Pentecost Sunday (Memorial Day observed)
Text(s) Romans 8:22-27, (John 15:26-27; 16:4b-15)
speaks in return. The Holy Spirit is working in us, we know we
have some beginning of faith, when we keep on praying and
know that we are heard. Only time and experience can bring us
the Holy Spirit's assurance and a response of God’s making.4
So there will continue to be times in which we pray, groaning inwardly, or perhaps even aloud,
convinced that God has not heard us because our loved one is not, or did not get well, because
our broken relationship could not be salvaged, because violence and injustice still run amok in
the world, or on any number of other such accounts. But as Jesus told his disciples on that last
night before he was crucified: The Holy Spirit sets all things right, correcting the mistaken
perceptions of the world (16:8-11) and bring the heart of God’s message through Jesus Christ to
us that it may grant us peace and that we might share this peace with the world at large.
In addressing the question, “Does prayer work?” Rabbi Brad Hirschfield agrees with
Rabbi Paul and Rabbi Jesus. He writes: “[P]rayer works not as a manipulation of God, but as an
opportunity to connect more deeply with ourselves and to experience the reality that we are not
alone, no matter how much we may feel that we are at any given moment.”5 Prayer works, he
says, because it offers comfort and hope from within ourselves, from those we care about and
from God – the source of all comfort and hope.
Just as prayers of gratitude and praise are heard and responded to by God, so are our
prayers for help in a time of need for others and for ourselves. We may not get the answer that
we want, but we will be given the answer we need, in accordance with the will of God.
Accurate delivery is guaranteed. We have the Spirit Code, God’s very own Zip Code.
Amen.
4
Today's Reflection, 7th Sunday of Easter. Retrieved May 17, 2015 from
http://www.saintjohnsabbey.org/your-visit/praying-us/todays-reflection (intensification added)
5
Rabbi Brad Hirschfield, "Does prayer work?" Fox News Website, January 29, 2012. foxnews.com.
Retrieved May 19, 2015 from www.homileticsonline.com.
Church/Charge: Morton Community UCC (Morton, IL)