Holy Days

 Thanksgiving! Thanksgiving is my favorite secular (non-church) holiday. Why? Duh, the food you don't usually get the other days of the year, I love Fall, I love football and in our family that is Thanksgiving; enjoying the beautiful, cool crisp day, eating ourselves into a coma then passing out infant fo the television watching the latest hyped up college football game...and Family!! I think we all have favorites for different reasons, but this is mine. 

As far as church holidays, "holy days" go, mine is probably not within the norm. Lent, Holy Week and Easter is so beautiful in the sacrifice and resurrection of Christ. Advent and Christmas, reimagining the birth and incarnation of Christ is filled with majesty. I love all these, but my favorite is Pentecost. For years I grew up in a faith tradition that didn't observe Pentecost, or even mention it for that matter. I don't really remember even reading Acts 2 as a church until I became a United Methodist as the age of 23. I was immediately captured by the the thought that a large group of people could be dramatically transformed by a part of the Trinity that flowed like a hat wind, lapping them with fire like energy. How can you ignore that??

Pentecost occurred 50 days after the resurrection when the followers were gathered in Jerusalem, awaiting the gift Jesus promised to send them. Gathered is a kind term. They were hiding out because their leader, rabbi, Messiah, Jesus, had just been arrested an a sham trial, murdered before them in the most gruesome way and they were now targets as well. By the end of the day, the gift showed up and showed out. The Holy Spirit, "another advocate" to help them. I imagine they were expecting someone from Ponzi Law as an advocate to argue on their behalf in the event they were arrested. But. of course, God doesn't work that way. A transformative breath was breathed into the hearts of all the believers on that day and they were free from conviction by the blood of Christ and the indwelling of the Spirit.

The minute I heard my first Pentecost sermon, I knew that was what I wanted. I loved the idea of eternal life but the thought that through Christ I could also have a power directly from God to do hard things in the world in His name! Sign me up.

This is the first year I won't be preaching a Pentecost Sermon in a church building to a congregation in a long time. I am not super sad, I mean we have more followers online than any given Pentecost Sunday, but the energy of the gathered followers re-remembering they have the power of God not only among them always, but within them. People are born again by the water AND the spirit. COVID 19 can't squash the power of Pentecost. I won't tip my hand, but I can't wait for this Sunday! You won't want to miss it. 

10:30am Sunday, May 31st

Pentecost is about the power of the Holy Spirit, but not also about people. The church is about people. That is what makes Pentecost powerful. It is seeing and believing in the power of the Holy Spirit on the lives of people. We see that daily in the life of the church I serve and other churches serving in this time. The church is people empowered by the Spirit of God to bring health, wholeness and life to the people of our community. All of this made possible by that moment in at Pentecost. Stay tuned.

Today:
Read Acts 2
Be the church
I love you