After our beautiful Memorial Day weekend, we've entered the gray--gray sky, gray rain, only gray in sight. It makes my vacation to California (coming up June 12-20) just that much more compelling and daydream-able. Still, there's a good bit going on--looking forward to Saturday's confirmation service at Redeemer Lexington, with our 8 members who will be confirmed or received (if they've been confirmed as Roman Catholics). I'm also looking forward to our summer book group, which though it doesn't start until June 21, looks to be interesting. I wrote last week about 4 possible books for us to look at--please vote your choice above (so far we've only gotten 3 votes, and they are split between 3 books!). Even if you plan to read on your own instead of with the group, it would be good to hear what folks are interested in.
This Sunday, we celebrate the feast of Pentecost--the coming of the Holy Spirit. As I mentioned in my sermon last Sunday, the time between the feast of the Ascension and Pentecost is a liminal, in-between time. Jesus has said he will send the Holy Spirit, but the Spirit has not yet arrived. Our collect for that last Sunday in Easter prays that God "not leave us comfortless"--though sometimes we have to look pretty hard around us to find that comfort. I remember hearing a sermon many years ago from a new monk about this prayer. He talked about how he'd feared having to give up his TV habit of watching the sit-com "Friends" when he entered the monastery, and how delighted-and comforted-he'd felt when he found he could watch it there, too, with his new monastic brothers! Sometimes peace comes to us in odd ways. Reaching out an arm when I couldn't sleep last night, I was comforted by noticing my husband's arm curled around our son's body. The nearness they shared was comforting to me, too, and I fell back asleep.
The word used for Holy Spirit in Greek, paraclete, means comforter, but also advocate, intercessor. As the third "person" of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit has always been sort of my favorite of the three. There is something about the mystery and movement of that image of God that speaks to me. In the Creed we say the Spirit "Spoke through the prophets." The way Jesus tells the story, he has to leave for the Spirit to come; God is incarnate in a particular place and time in the person of Jesus, but God as Spirit is entirely unconfined, going like the wind, speaking and swirling through all of us. Pentecost tells us that the promise of God's work in the church isn't in the past, as if it were all downhill after Jesus. Instead, authority and power is located IN the church, IN the people-amongst all of us. Not one person has "it"--we all have a piece (for more on this idea and a great quote about what the spaces between us create from Luce Irigaray, see http://sacraconversazione.blogspot.com).
This Sunday as we celebrate the Spirit at Pentecost, (sometimes also called the birthday of the church) we'll commission those who have been confirmed and received. We are baptized with the Spirit, all of us, all of us commissioned to take our place with the disciples in telling the wonderful story of God. Alleluia!
Blessings,
Sara+
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