Pentecost apart
Pentecost Sunday marks the end of the great season of Easter. Bosco Peters reminds 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] This week of weeks had been celebrated from our homes. A most memorable Easter indeed.
Pentecost is a turning point in our church year. It is where we leave Easter and enter Ordinary Time. We are invited to stop and pay attention to the work of the Spirit of God in our lives. And this year we need that more than ever.
Normally at Pentecost we focus on the account in Acts. Which is not surprising given the timing and the name of the festival comes from that account. But this year I want to focus on John. We often mix John’s account with Acts. But they are very different. John’s account happens on the evening of Easter Sunday after Jesus has ascended. Jesus enters the room offering peace to his frightened followers. He continues to meet us in our fear offering peace. He breathes his life, his Spirit into each one of them that they might continue to live out his life beyond Galilee and Judea that all might know the God of compassion, generosity, and justice.
This is a quiet and gentle story. I think this year we need this kind of story. In all that is happening, when has this Spirit, this divine life, been breathed in you? The disciples rejoiced when they saw Jesus. When have you rejoiced over these weeks?
As we stop and pay attention to the work of the Spirit this year, how might we bring that peace and joy into what lies ahead?
[1] Bosco Peters, on Easter is 50 Days. < http://www.facebook.com/events/259012627567219/>
Pentecost is a turning point in our church year. It is where we leave Easter and enter Ordinary Time. We are invited to stop and pay attention to the work of the Spirit of God in our lives. And this year we need that more than ever.
Normally at Pentecost we focus on the account in Acts. Which is not surprising given the timing and the name of the festival comes from that account. But this year I want to focus on John. We often mix John’s account with Acts. But they are very different. John’s account happens on the evening of Easter Sunday after Jesus has ascended. Jesus enters the room offering peace to his frightened followers. He continues to meet us in our fear offering peace. He breathes his life, his Spirit into each one of them that they might continue to live out his life beyond Galilee and Judea that all might know the God of compassion, generosity, and justice.
This is a quiet and gentle story. I think this year we need this kind of story. In all that is happening, when has this Spirit, this divine life, been breathed in you? The disciples rejoiced when they saw Jesus. When have you rejoiced over these weeks?
As we stop and pay attention to the work of the Spirit this year, how might we bring that peace and joy into what lies ahead?
[1] Bosco Peters, on Easter is 50 Days. < http://www.facebook.com/events/259012627567219/>
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