PENTECOST MUSINGS...

Well, it's just a few days away from Pentecost Sunday. Pentecost. I love it.

It's a day of joy and celebration; a time of unleashed power that is beyond our ability to control. This day celebrates the coming of God's Spirit upon the Christian community and it's truly marvelous.

But mark this. It's not a one time thing. We don't read Scripture and get down in the dust with the scholars to imagine what it must have been like way back when. No. Pentecost is current. It's contemporary. It's now.

The Holy Spirit is fire up and getting ready to roar into our Church this Sunday. This Spirit won't just come politely in the door. It's a mighty, rushing wind that will knock over the flowers, blow down all the carefully placed altar decorations, and disturb our neatly ordered status quo.

Get ready friends. God's Spirit is coming, and it does not heed our sense of order or propriety. The Holy Spirit is roiling around us, and it's not concerned with our religiosity.

I love Pentecost because it shakes us up....or at least it should. I also love Pentecost because
it's the one Christian celebration that Hallmark and the consumer gift industry hasn't gotten hold of yet. No last minute Pentecost gift shopping here. No carefully lettered Pentecost cards, and no media created images of the Spirit draped over displays at Macy's or Target.

We still own this holiday, sisters and brothers!

So let's get ready.
Get your praise on come to worship.
Get your Spirit prepared to be tossed and tumbled.

God's Spirit is coming....can you feel it?

Are we ready for where the Spirit might lead?
Can we release our perceptions and our tightly held agendas?
Can we step out of the tyranny of our own desires?

I think we can.
I know we can.

And I look forward to the fire coming; I look forward to that rushing wind.
I look forward to the joy of being with you all in worship on Pentecost Sunday!

See you there! And don't forget to bring thirty-two of your closest friends.


In Christ,
Pastor Schuyler