Spirit of Adoption

Is it possible to go overboard on Pentecost? To do too much? Probably, but push the limits where you can. Pull out the stops. Let there be color and light and flame and wind. It could be real; or use images or suggestions—something that points to the world beyond the walls, beyond the horizon we can see. Pentecost is about catching people off guard. It’s about surprise. “Suddenly,” Luke writes, suddenly there was wind and there was fire. Maybe surprise is too much to go for with a group that has been worshiping for years. But how about wonder or joy? There is something to celebrate on this opening of doors kind of day. There are opportunities being offered when the Spirit shows up.

Maybe those opportunities should guide planning this week. How do we carry the experience of the Holy Spirit out into the world or beyond the worship experience? What doors can be opened that allow the outpouring of grace to be shared with the wider community? What invitations can be issued that remind the gathered community of ongoing ways to connect, learn, share, and enjoy one another’s company throughout the week?

As we worship, however, we understand access to mean access to God. How might we approach the chancel on this non-Communion Sunday (unless it is!)? Might there be an opportunity for prayer stations or anointing on this Pentecost Sunday? As God moves toward us in this outpouring of Spirit, so we move toward God in response and acceptance.

This day is a celebration; it’s inclusion and invitation and permission and commission. It is a time to bless the workers in your midst, the missionaries who share their faith. It is a time for testimony, for telling the story, the personal witness of faith in each life. Often, we don’t know how, or where, or even why. This day is a day for talking about the how and whereand why. Find examples of those who share their faith as a matter of course. Let those whose faith is an example to the whole community tell their stories and give their why. In Acts 2, the story leaks out, and those passing by hear it. How can we keep letting the story leak out into the world around us in ways that bring hope and change lives? The Spirit still moves.