“O God, who on this day taught the hearts of your faithful people by sending to them the light of your Holy Spirit: Grant us by the same Spirit to have a right judgment in all things, and evermore to rejoice in his holy comfort; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.”
This Sunday we celebrate the Feast of Pentecost; the time on the liturgical calendar when we celebrate the gift of the Holy Spirit. After spending the great fifty days celebrating the gift of new life, we now have the additional promise of the Spirit’s availability to us. We are accustomed to thinking about the many different characteristics of the Holy Spirit. I’ve frequently asked the question of who I need the Holy Spirit to be during different seasons of my own spiritual journey. Do I need a comforter? An advocate? A mediator? Or a wisdom bearer?
What I really wonder is whether there is another attribute of the Holy Spirit that manifests in times when I’m not desirous of receiving. At times, I think the Holy Spirit comes as the Holy Challenger. Early Christians had no assumptions about what the gift of the Spirit might mean. I don’t think they could have possibly imagined the institutional church as we know it. They were probably asked to give up all they knew based on a promise of something grander than they could conceive.
Most of us struggle with change, even when we are simultaneously excited about it. Worshiping in new places at new times may cause us to balk at the lack of what we are comfortable experiencing, but based on my own recollections, I remember that new life, new insights, and new appreciations also come during times of change.
I trust and know our community’s resilience. We made it through the major disruptions of our scaffolding event and a global pandemic. We were changed by those things in ways that we are still unpacking. I have the privilege of watching us navigate those changes with grace and humor. My hope for this new worship schedule is that we lean into our greatest strength—a longing to gather as a beloved community worshiping and growing with one another.
We are promised that the Holy Spirit is present, and we need to call upon it to fully embody our community life. We do it with one another and with the guidance God’s promises. Join us this Sunday at either 8:30 am or 10:30 am. Wear red! Come to intergenerational formation at 9:15 am, share breakfast with one another, and hear the story of Pentecost. Come Holy Spirit!
Peace, Beth +
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