On this Pentecost Sunday, we will join our voices to those in congregations around the world saying, “Come, Holy Spirit, Come!” Sometimes when we utter those words the Spirit’s power is unleashed like “the rush of a violent wind” or “divided tongues, as of fire” as Acts 2 describes. Other times the Spirit’s power seems to arrive like a gentle “wind sweeping over” us or as a breathy whisper. In a year when we have struggled to breathe through layers of masks and heard protest chants of “I can’t breathe,” it might be hard to remember where you felt the Spirit’s movement in you, this congregation, our community, and the world, but rest assured it is there… as prevalent as the air we breathe.
As Episcopal priest and elder of the Choctaw Nation, Steven Charleston, writes, “Quietly the Spirit comes… slipping between the cracks of broken life… but always there, moving, changing, growing… loving her way into your heart, opening doors, healing even the deepest cuts with a single Word.” Take a moment this week to breathe in the breath of the Holy Spirit – both gentle and restless – and note where you have felt the Spirit at work in you or around you. Wear your red and join us – whether at our online Worship Where You Are (WWYA) services or at our in-person outdoor “In & Out” services – this Sunday as the breath of God takes shape in our singing and blows through the church, moving, changing, growing us once again!
The scriptures for this Pentecost Sunday are Acts 2:1-21, Psalm 104:24-34, 35b, and John 15:26-27; 16:4b-15.