Park your donkey for a minute and look around.

I know, I know, it's been forever since I posted...part of the reason is because I wanted as many people as possible to see the first thing on my blog, my note titled, A Circle of Wisdom. (If you haven't read it yet, please take a moment to read it, or reread it, and give me any feedback that comes to mind. Your ideas are important to me.) So, I'm back from my hiatus from blog writing, and now I want to share bits and segments from my dear friend Nikki's senior sermon and my reflections upon it. Her sermon deeply moved me today for several reasons. The first reason was it's premise is near and dear to my heart. Namely, my focus of the importance of becoming united in our faith all the while keeping our diversity in tact; and seeing past the hurts and disappointments people, through the vehicle of religion, can exert on us . Impossible you might say...maybe not so much. I'm going to take this step by step. I'm going to include scripture, creeds, my understanding of what I learned in my New Testament class, and in my Old Testament class...what I learned in theology and from some of my favorite writers and poets. I might even end the series with a my own creed, and perhaps some of you can join in the writing of it. The title of this blog series, Park your donkey for a minute and look around.. This was a quote directly from Nikki's sermon and it stood out to me as a great play on words in light of the 1st century Christian juxtaposed with the 21st century person, Christian or otherwise.
The first thing to ponder: The pericope from Acts 2: 1-13, which Nikki's sermon was based upon. What does this passage mean to you? What words jump out? How does it apply to your life today?

Acts of the Apostles 2.1-13
The Coming of the Holy Spirit

2When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. 2And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. 3Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. 4All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability.

5 Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven living in Jerusalem. 6And at this sound the crowd gathered and was bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in the native language of each. 7Amazed and astonished, they asked, ‘Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? 8And how is it that we hear, each of us, in our own native language? 9Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, 10Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, 11Cretans and Arabs—in our own languages we hear them speaking about God’s deeds of power.’ 12All were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, ‘What does this mean?’, 13But others sneered and said, ‘They are filled with new wine.’