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The Season of Pentecost

              .... of a four-way stop just north of the town center.  There were the United Methodists, the Congregationalists, the Episcopalians, and the Baptists.    

            As each congregation concluded its morning worship service we converged for a common Pentecost celebration in the courtyard of the Methodist Church.   The services were meaningful and symbolized not only the day of the Spirit’s coming, but the unity of Christian communities.  But it was the way in which we gathered for the service that serves as a metaphor for Pentecost in my own mind.

              The Methodists were already there – they simply exited their facility into their own courtyard and waited for the rest of us to show up.  They were waiting, as if in their own upper room, to see what would happen.  The Episcopalians emerged from the front doors of their building and marched in two lines behind the cross, and the priest, with reverence and respect.  They were the picture of dignity and order. The Congregationalists, in like manner, would make a less organized but nonetheless orderly procession from their corner of the crossroads.  And then there were the Baptists.  Usually the last to appear (perhaps due to a longer sermon?) when the doors flung open at the Baptist Church it was a free for all across the lawn, into the street, up the steps and into the courtyard of the host church.

              I like to think that the Holy Spirit was in each of those approaches to the common service, just as the same Spirit is present in us in different ways and at different times today.  There are times when we wait – wait for others to arrive, wait for the Lord’s timing to become plain.   There are times when we move forward in ordered, organized ways; giving respect to those who lead us, honoring especially the Lord’s leadership.  Then there are times when the Spirit of God so empowers and motivates us that we cannot be contained and we are unleashed, in the passion of God’s mission, to spill forth, to go forth.

              The Day and Season of Pentecost reminds us that we are a Spirit-empowered people.  How do you contain the wind?  How do you harness the chaos of many voices witnessing in different languages?   How do you temper the free burning fire of God’s passion? . . . . . . . you don’t . . . that’s Pentecost!

Pastor Dan