Pentcost
Today,
Pentecost Sunday, marks the end of the great season of Easter. Last year Bosco
Peters reminded us that…“Easter, Ascension, and Pentecost do not form three
seasons. The Easter Season celebrates the three dimensions of the resurrection,
ascension, and the sending of the Spirit. These fifty days, a seventh of the
year, form our great "Sunday" of the year. Just as Sunday is the
first and the eighth day, so the "great Sunday" of the fifty days of
Easter begins with the day of the resurrection and continues through eight
Sundays, an octave of Sundays, a "week of weeks."[1]
So
Pentecost is a turning point in our church year. It is where we leave Easter
and enter into Ordinary Time. As such we are invited to stop and pay particular
attention to the work of the Spirit of God in all creation, working and in
through creation, and in and through ordinary people of all cultures and ethnicities,
forming God’s just communities.
Today
also marks the birth of the church, that diverse group of people which includes
us. We remember that our story originates with a group of terrified men and
women who were swept up by the Spirit of God and were given the strength,
courage and wisdom to continue Jesus’ ministry of living God’s love for all. This
group who hid behind locked doors took the gospel through Persia to India,
North Africa and down to Ethiopia, north to Armenia and beyond, and west to
Rome. Many were martyred. Today we pause and wonder where the Spirit of God
might be sweeping us up ?
As we
listen to Luke’s account in the Book of Acts we are invited to wonder that the people
heard the gospel being proclaimed in their own language. Generally religions
worship in the language of the founder. For Muslims it is Arabic, for Jews
Hebrew. But from the beginning God’s Spirit led the disciples to preach and
pray in all languages. God met people in their own language and culture. Today
we understand this to mean that the risen Christ in present in all cultures,
waiting for his followers (us) to join in God’s mission.
Today
is our AGM. These can be boring affairs, seen as something we need to do rather than something we want to
do. Having our AGM on Pentecost Sunday is a great coincidence. On this day we
are reminded of all that church might be, God’s particular community (Paul uses
the image of the body of Christ) that includes and involves everyone with all
their gifts, abilities, cultures and languages, no matter what their age,
gender, etc… Paul reminds us in his discussion of the gifts of the Spirit that
these gifts are for the common good, and are rooted in love. We as God’s
community are enabled to be living breathing signs of Gods inclusive,
passionate love for all, working for the common good. In what ways do we live
up to this description and where might we need to grow?
Our
AGM isn’t just something we need to do. It is an opportunity to give thanks for
the ways that we have been marked by love and have worked for the common good.
And it provides an opportunity to look ahead and embrace God’s invitation to
grow in being that living, breathing sign of love.
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