At the end of this month of May, we will celebrate the great festival of Pentecost. This day, along with Christmas and Easter, recalls significant events upon which our Christian faith is founded.
At Christmas, we behold the birth of Emmanuel – “God with us”. At Easter, we celebrate his wondrous resurrection as the God who overpowers even death. And at Pentecost, we witness God’s promise fulfilled – God’s on-going, empowering presence in the world.
The Feast of Pentecost marks the beginning of and the birth of the Christian Church. Our worship spaces may be decorated with red balloons and perhaps there will even be cake following the service. It’s a day of celebration, for even after the astonishing resurrection and ascension of Jesus, God finds yet another way to amaze and astound us.
On the night before his crucifixion, when Jesus sat at table with his disciples, he did not promise them a life of ease, without fear or pain. He promised them the presence of God. They would feel it whenever they gathered – there he’d be, among them.
The other gift Jesus offered them that night was peace, the kind of peace that evokes reassurance, comfort. He made it quite clear that the peace he offers is connected to forgiveness, citing not only the need for repentance but also a change in lifestyle, which dependent upon forgiveness.
Sin diminishes not only the person who sins but it ripples out, affecting all around. Unless there’s even an attempt at reconciliation, the cycle of hurt, and possibly violence continues. We’ve all witnessed what happens if someone can’t or won’t forgive – the wound remains, and can even fester. Courage and strength are required, but this is how healing begins. Prayer makes healing possible. It restores broken relationships, binds up the wounds of the heart. Our most basic prayers are often for someone who is ill or for a situation to be resolved. We pray for healing or peace or to “renew a right spirit within us.” At other times, even when we’d desire for things change, we know instinctively they aren’t going to: the task that seems impossible must still be done; someone we care for is gravely ill or someone we love has died. Yet the Comforter, sometimes translated as “the Advocate,” but even better translated, “the one called alongside for help,” is there, present in the One who comes.
And then there is Wisdom – the prayer in which we ask for knowledge and understanding, for discernment so “Thy will be done.” This, too, is where we see the Spirit at work. God has long been trying to get our attention: through the marvels of creation, the burning bush, the flood, the parting the Red Sea, the manna in the desert. And even after all these, at the end of the Pentecost story we read, “All were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, ‘What does this mean?’ But others sneered and said, ‘They are filled with new wine.” Even when God acts, there are those who are prepared to dismiss it as some kind of hysteria.
On that first Day of Pentecost, despite detractors, the disciples were not only sent out to serve others, they were sent out empowered, equipped to serve – to preach the good news, to heal, to forgive. They were sent out to be the Church – to meet God and neighbour in the world.
So, what does all this mean for us today? Well, partly it declares that the potential for God’s gracious Spirit to be born anew in each one of us, can happen daily. It’s a reminder of how God is and always has been, at work in creation and in our lives. It’s also reassurance that Jesus is present and still longs to offer us peace. But mostly, I think it’s an invitation to take notice, to pay attention, to look for signs of the Spirit already working in us, for when we take to heart that the Spirit’s gifts are available to us, to our church, and to our world, we are not only given clarity and courage; we’re also given the grace to recognize God’s Spirit in ourselves, in each other, in the world God so loves.
God the sender, send us.
God the sent, come with us.
God the strengthener of those who go,
empower us, that we may go
forever and wherever, with you,
Creating God, Redeeming Son, Sanctifying Spirit.
Amen
(from Pocket Prayers for Pilgrims, compiled by John Pritchard)
Rev. Frances Drolet-Smith
Diocesan Representative, the Anglican Fellowship of Prayer
Photo by Vicki Fioratos
