Pentecost Sunday is coming. It falls on May 31, actually the fifth Sunday in this month. I want to remind everyone that we participate in the Pentecost offering each year as an outreach. The offering is shared with our region and it is designated for new church starts. We have participated every year in our eighteen together, but this year we will need to be even more intentional. Since we are still experiencing distancing and should expect to for awhile even as orders and guidelines relax, we must to continue to be creative and good communicators.
Pentecost Sunday marks the end of the Easter season and celebrates the outpouring of God’s Holy Spirit on all nations. We have certainly spent this Easter season caught in the tension between living and dying. Every community joins with nations on a shared stage, waiting for fresh wind, fresh fire. We are watching for an upward change in our collective spirit offering us hope and renewed faith. It may not happen on May 31, but we will celebrate it! And then we will get up on Monday and dig in and get ready for the long season of Pentecost ahead of us. We will learn to be faithful and we will learn to see and bear witness to God’s faithfulness. Fresh wind. Fresh fire.
I saw a photo that expressed the longing for community in our congregations very accurately. The photo was of a sign a man was holding outside a car window that read, “Open our churches. We need communion.” I teared up thinking about the Kinzelers moving a communion table into our parking lot every Sunday morning. Masked up. And others who arrive to partake or help serve and maybe see a friendly face. A fellow pilgrim. There is a powerful testimony to God’s faithfulness!
I’ve had a good time doing live casts. We all miss the congregation in the room with us. Still, there has been an excitement about being together on line each Sunday. It has kept the band busy! It has been a time of creativity. Our on line presence is growing. We are catching a new vision. Fresh wind moving us in new directions. Fresh fire exciting us into new possibilities.
We have not lost the art of gathering and breaking bread. We are still called to one table. One people. We are called forward not backward. Untethered from the way we always do things and building on the strength of our faith. Looking again as the first time on the bread and the common cup and the spirit that unites us in those elements. Thinking again about what it means to be a community of believers gathered together for worship and encouraging one another in Christian service. Fresh wind. Fresh fire.
Pentecost Sunday marks the end of the Easter season and celebrates the outpouring of God’s Holy Spirit on all nations. We have certainly spent this Easter season caught in the tension between living and dying. Every community joins with nations on a shared stage, waiting for fresh wind, fresh fire. We are watching for an upward change in our collective spirit offering us hope and renewed faith. It may not happen on May 31, but we will celebrate it! And then we will get up on Monday and dig in and get ready for the long season of Pentecost ahead of us. We will learn to be faithful and we will learn to see and bear witness to God’s faithfulness. Fresh wind. Fresh fire.
I saw a photo that expressed the longing for community in our congregations very accurately. The photo was of a sign a man was holding outside a car window that read, “Open our churches. We need communion.” I teared up thinking about the Kinzelers moving a communion table into our parking lot every Sunday morning. Masked up. And others who arrive to partake or help serve and maybe see a friendly face. A fellow pilgrim. There is a powerful testimony to God’s faithfulness!
I’ve had a good time doing live casts. We all miss the congregation in the room with us. Still, there has been an excitement about being together on line each Sunday. It has kept the band busy! It has been a time of creativity. Our on line presence is growing. We are catching a new vision. Fresh wind moving us in new directions. Fresh fire exciting us into new possibilities.
We have not lost the art of gathering and breaking bread. We are still called to one table. One people. We are called forward not backward. Untethered from the way we always do things and building on the strength of our faith. Looking again as the first time on the bread and the common cup and the spirit that unites us in those elements. Thinking again about what it means to be a community of believers gathered together for worship and encouraging one another in Christian service. Fresh wind. Fresh fire.