More about Pentecost

With the celebration of Pentecost on Sunday, we enter into the Season of Pentecost, too. Pentecost lasts all the way from the feast day itself to the first Sunday of Advent. It lasts half the year! In the Church year, Pentecost is "ordinary" time-"ordinary" in the sense of counted (as in ordinal numbers-the 20th Sunday after Pentecost, and so on), but also ordinary in that it's not a particular feast that we are observing. During Easter season, we focus on the event of the Resurrection for a whole 50 days. During Christmas, we celebrate Christmas for the week or two until the feast of the Epiphany. Unlike those holidays, though, we don't spend the whole 25 weeks of Pentecost celebrating one thing.
Well, maybe we do. Let me explain a little.

In a sense, we are continually observing the coming of the Holy Spirit which Pentecost represents--maybe in the second sense of the word "observe. " We are commemorating it, but we are also seeing it--seeing how the Spirit has acted in the past, and connecting that action to the present. During Pentecost, we read the Bible sequentially, and so get a feel for the narrative--the story of our faith--in a different way. This summer in June and July, we'll hear from the Books of Samuel in the Old Testament, Ephesians in the New Testament, and for the whole season, we'll be reading the Gospel of Mark. From Sunday to Sunday, we'll hear how the plot twists and turns--how Samuel anointed David to be king, how David slew the Philistine Goliath and danced in front of the ark...

I was reflecting with you last week about how the coming of the Spirit is the sign that the work of the church and the revelation of God continue into the future. The Christian life is not about wishing we could go back to those 33 years or so that Jesus actually walked the earth. The Christian life is about finding and celebrating the Spirit here, now--the Spirit who is still speaking, and speaks to us today, revealing God's desires for us and for our life together.

This Sunday, we're meeting to talk about how the last year has been with St Peter's worshipping here. It was a one year trial relationship, and our conversation will form the basis for the vestry's decision of whether to continue for another year. I hope you'll bring your concerns and ideas for the next year for new ways we might be able to minister together. A group of vestry members and others have been meeting with leaders from St Peter's periodically through the year-if you are interested in being part of that conversation for 2009/2010, please let me know--we need many ears to hear how the Spirit speaks to us and leads us in ministry. I think there is a lot of untapped potential for collaboration between our congregations, but it's hard work; we are united in our Anglicanism, but we don't see each other as often as we might wish. The apostle Thomas told Jesus, "Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?' We might not feel like we know the way, either. We have been looking for the way this past year, and we've had some good experiences together like Christingle and the parish clean up day, but we are still listening for how we can be in community with each other in meaningful ways. I hope you'll join me Sunday as the conversation continues and we listen for the Holy Spirit--listening all the way to Advent in this season of Pentecost.

Blessings,
Sara+