Adopted
“Those who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God.” — Romans 8:14.
What’s in a name? (Slight pause.) Here’s why I ask this question, ‘what’s in a name’: it happened again last week. And it happens over and over and over again. I’m getting tired of it.
What is this “it” I’m taking about? For some public function or in a personal correspondence, someone will misspell my last name.
It happens at least once a month, if truth be told. Last week, I offered the invocation at the Boy Scout Dinner which honored Darrel Forsythe. Nothing against Darrel or the Boy Scouts, but the program for the evening had my name wrong, misspelled.
Now, I suppose that’s my fault. After all, it is my name. And, after all, there are about two dozen ways to spell Connolly. CONNOLLY is how I do it. Or as I like to say [at this point the pastor sings the tune by George Cohan Harrigan, which fits the name “Connolly” perfectly] C-O DOUBLE NN O L-L-Y SPELLS CONNOLLY— for those of you who remember George Cohan.
As you probably realize, here are all kinds of variations on that spelling. You can spell it with an ‘E’ or with one ‘N’ or one ‘L’— sky’s the limit— all kinds of ways to do it.
So, since it’s my name, why don’t I just have the common sense to change that name to something else, something easy. Jones? Smith? Or, perhaps, Scott.
Scott, you see, is Bonnie’s maiden name. How often do you see Scott misspelled? There are only two ways to spell it: one ‘T’ or two. So, it probably would have saved a lot of trouble if, instead of Bonnie changing her name to ‘Connolly,’ I had just changed my name to ‘Scott.’
Indeed, when I go into a restaurant and they ask for a name to call out when a table is ready, I never say “Connolly.” I always use Bonnie’s name. I say “Scott.” I tell them my name is ‘Scott’ even when Bonnie isn’t there.
And no maitre d' ever asks how to spell ‘Scott.’ They know. And no one mispronounces it when a table is ready. The name ‘Scott,’ is easy to pronounce, easy to understand, easy to hear over the din in a crowded restaurant. Life would be so much easier. (Slight pause.)
Just as an aside about names, I’ve also never really wanted to do too much ancestral research about my name. Why? Well, this much I know for sure: the presence of the Connolly clan— that is, the specific brand of Irish immigrants who are my ancestors, whose DNA I carry and spell the name CONNOLLY— can be traced in the environs of New York City back around the time just before the Civil War, the 1850s.
And, as I am sure you know, the most notorious set of scandals ever in New York City, a place well known for scandals, was when the so called “Boss Tweed” administration was in control. They had the power when it came to the politics of the city in the 1860s and the 1870s.
Well, the Comptroller of the City of New York at that time, during the Boss Tweed Administration, was one Richard “Slippery Dick” Connolly— CONNOLLY. Am I related? I don’t know and I don’t want to know. But considering the number of ways there are to spell “Connolly” the odds are pretty good some kind of relationship is present. (Slight pause.)
Well, that having been said... what is in a name? Certainly not scandals or spellings or mispronunciations. (Slight pause.)
And these words are found in the work known as the Letter to the Church in Rome: “Those who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God.” (Slight pause.)
What’s in a name? What do names tell us? Notice, I did not ask ‘what do names say about us?’ but ‘what do names tell us?’ I want to suggest names, quite specifically, tell us about the people to whom we are related, related by DNA or related by marriage. (Slight pause.)
Bonnie’s brother, Jack, married a woman who already had a daughter, Heather. Heather was only three when Jack and Susan got married. Jack raised Heather. But that did not make Jack a blood relationship. There was no DNA involved— in fact, even no adoptions. Jack simply raised Heather.
Still, Heather, now at age 39, knows what the real relationship is and what the real relationship is about. She regularly calls her birth father, the one to whom she is connected only by DNA, by his first name. On the other hand, she calls Jack ‘Dad.’ Jack is the one to whom she is really related, not by DNA but by choice and by the closeness of how she relates to him.
So, I think this is clear: names say something about blood relationships. Names say something about to whom we are related by DNA or by marriage. But names say absolutely nothing about to whom we relate. (Slight pause.)
When this work known as Romans says (quote:) “...God has adopted you as children...” this is not about blood relationship. It is about how God relates to us. God relates to us by choice. This addresses the claim God has made about the closeness of the relationship. (Slight pause.)
So, shifting gears just a hair, what is Pentecost about? Pentecost is about a choice God makes. The choice God makes is that we are all children of God. The question that brings up for me, however, is this: do we believe it? Given the promise of Pentecost, do we believe we are all children of God? (Slight pause.)
As pastor friend of mine recently pointed me to a video on the internet about Pentecost. And I’d like to share that video with you.
And, no, I don’t have a screen on which to show it. But don’t worry. The video contained words— only words, and I can share those. The video tells not just the story of Pentecost but also tells the story of our legacy because of Pentecost. And this is what the video said. (Slight pause.)
Go ahead. Admit it. You are all wondering about the future. Everyone is. And you are maybe even wondering: do we have a future? Will the church survive? Will our children have faith? Will our faith have children?
There are so many challenges. Money. Divisions. Arguments. We are getting older. How are we going to pay the bills?
We don’t know the people next door anymore. Why would they want to come to this church? People pass by. We don’t know them. No one comes in. They are outside. We are inside.
And so we wait, inside. And we watch, the outside. And we worry. We don’t know what to do. Won’t someone come and help us? (Slight pause.)
These are big questions. But we are not the first to ask them. Did you know there’s a story in the Bible that is exactly like this? Do you remember?
There were only a few left. People passed by... outside. They were waiting, watching... inside. They did not know what to do. And then it happened— wind, fire, noise... then silence. (Pause.) But what happened... really? What did they do... really?
After all, no one came and took away their problems. Divisions, arguments, all their problems still existed. Instead, the Spirit came and created a new problem. That’s right— the Holy Spirit showed up and created a problem.
They could not stay inside. They had to go outside and tell and share and preach and serve and care and hold and listen and feed and teach and witness and pray... and love.
They just could not help it. And that was Pentecost. So, I’ve got some bad news and I’ve got some good news. The bad news is: there is no one coming to fix the problems. The good news is: the solutions you seek are all around you. The Spirit is present. You have the strength and courage and compassion to do that. And you have a story to tell.
Indeed, the good news can get even better. Here’s how: let’s just imagine one person reaching out to another and then another and then another to tell and to share and to preach and to serve and to care and to hold and to listen and to feed and to teach and to witness and to pray... and to love.
Why? Because we can’t help it. It’s Pentecost. (Slight pause.) End of video (Slight pause.)
So, what does it mean to be children of God? It means God chooses us. It means the Spirit of God is with us.
And it also means reaching out to another and then another and then another to tell and share and preach and serve and care and hold and listen and feed and teach and witness and pray... and love. (Pause.)
Why? How? (Quote:) “Those who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God.” Amen.
05/23/2010
United Church of Christ, First Congregational, Norwich, New York
ENDPIECE: It is the practice of the Pastor to speak after the Closing Hymn, but before the Benediction. This, then, is an précis of what the pastor said before the blessing: “The Pentecost event also, of course, asks a difficult question: ‘do we care about the presence of the Spirit.’ If we do, then we will reach out to one another and tell and share and preach and serve and care and hold and listen and feed and teach and witness and pray and love.” [1]
[1] I did alter the text in the video slightly, but not drastically. There is a soundtrack on the video, but the words are not spoken. The following is the URL and it is a product of the folks behind the web site known as
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