Dear Friends,
The great feast of Pentecost is upon us! On this day we celebrate the coming of the Holy Spirit, whom Jesus promises will comfort us, advocate for us, come alongside us, making us into a community, a church, Christ’s body on earth.
On this day we hear of the Holy Spirit descending upon the crowds as they are going about the normal business of arriving in Jerusalem for Shavuot, a Jewish holiday celebrating 50 days after Passover and the giving of the law to Moses and also an agricultural festival celebrating the spring harvest. As the crowds are just trying to get to temple to do their duty, the Holy Spirit arrives.
As modern people, it can be hard to imagine the Holy interrupting our day-to-day activities, even ones that are religious in nature. As folks who attend a “Mainline” church, most of us highly rational, we can be suspicious of the ecstatic, the charismatic, and so find it hard to know what to do with such a wild thing!
But you also may have heard the news that the Church (not this particular church but, well, the whole darned thing, from Presbyterians to Pentecostals, from Episcopalians to Evangelicals) is in trouble, whether due to declining numbers in some churches or other churches embracing toxic ideologies that are anathema to the Gospel.
We need the Holy Spirit, and one of you reminded me that the Celtic image for the Holy Spirit is no quiet dove but a loud, honking goose urging us into action: “the Spirit who startles us into new life and calls the church to fly together—rather than just waddle along” (from Preach podcast).
Beloved, this is no time for waddling! The Spirit is calling us to deep, thick fellowship and faith with one another and with God and out into the world to be a countersign to the madness of the world. So, come, celebrate the Holy Spirit and prepare to be “goosed” into where God is calling you, us, next!
See you in church!
Faithfully, Suzanne+
P. S. Our first Witness Wednesday was quite powerful, with nine of us gathered at noon in the Federal Plaza to pray for the sins of our federal government and to ask God’s mercy upon those who have been disappeared and others who are being harmed by recent government actions. Read more in this week’s newsletter
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