Easter

Jan 07 2025

The Quiet, Tender Spirit

Happy Pentecost! This is the day on which we celebrate the life-changing power of God. The apostles preach to the ends of the earth through the strength of the Spirit and the church is born. Big, powerful, great stuff!

As I reflect on the grand event of Pentecost, I am holding my four-day-old granddaughter in the rocking chair. Her soft hair brushes my cheek. Her breath is irregular and a little squeaky. Her tiny body sinks onto my chest, asleep. Softness toward this new life swells into my throat. That tenderness brings to mind who the Holy Spirit is in my life.

I have had a few grand sweeping moments when the Spirit has filled me with fire to go out and change the world. But more often, the Comforter has come in the quiet of the night, bringing peace in a moment of grief, courage in a time of desolation, strength when I felt that I had no strength left. Like the touch of baby hair on my cheek, I have felt nudges so gentle. Like her soft breathing, I have felt a breath so tender. Like her body nestled into my chest, I have felt a Presence so warm. So . . . what? So held. As I am holding this tiny child.

I could be mistaken. I could be the most deluded of women. This might be all in my mind. I only tell you what I have seen and heard. My life has been touched by the Spirit, the Holy One who is with us. Jesus tells us in today’s Gospel that he must go. But we are never left alone. We are not abandoned; we are held. The most powerful of Advocates enfolds us as the most tender, the gentlest, and the warmest of Comforters. This Pentecost day. And all ordinary and everyday days.

Consider/Discuss

Describe a tender moment in your life. How has that experience of tenderness led you to God and love?
At Pentecost, the Holy Spirit spoke through the apostles in many tongues and in many different ways. The Holy Spirit continues to speak through us: many spiritual gifts but the same Spirit, many forms of service but the same Lord. You may not be rocking a newborn baby at the moment. But what unique experiences do you have through which the Spirit would like to speak to this world?

Living and Praying with the Word

Holy Spirit, we offer you this Pentecost day. Help us not to be too proud to surrender to you. You want to be at work through us. But we are as powerless as a newborn child. We cannot hold our heads up by ourselves. We struggle to breathe the air of this world. We get cold. We get startled. We need you. Divine Comforter, surround us and enfold us this day. Be our warmth. Be our breath. Be our strength. In this surrender, you are our happiness. Come, Holy Spirit, and renew the face of the earth!

Dec 16 2024

Holy Spirit, Mega-Gift

I heard a noted theologian quip that we might possibly think of the Holy Spirit as the Cinderella of the Trinity because the Holy Spirit does the work while the Father and the Son get the attention. Everyone laughed—but our readings today highlight the many ways the Holy Spirit enters our lives and gets to work.

Begin with the images of the Spirit found in today’s scripture: a strong, driving wind; hovering tongues of fire; the lavisher of languages; the giver of spiritual gifts; the breath of the risen Lord; the power of forgiveness—and these are only a few of the names given to the Holy Spirit. Turn to the Gospel of John, in which Jesus refers to the Spirit as the Paraclete or Advocate, the Teacher, the Witness.

Find the Sequence for the feast of Pentecost in a worship aid and you will discover even more insights into the role of the Spirit cast in a poetic form: father of the poor, the comforter, sweet refreshment, grateful coolness, healer of wounds, renewer of our strength. And my two favorite lines: “Bend the stubborn heart and will;/Melt the frozen, warm the chill.”

The work of the Holy Spirit is to bring us to life and then to make us life-givers for others. Paul reminds us that all the gifts of the Spirit are given for the common good.

The church was born after this mega-gift was given to a small group of disciples who were disciples of a crucified Galilean. The Spirit is truly the Gift That Keeps On Giving.

Consider/Discuss

Which name for the Holy Spirit best describes the role the Spirit has played in your life?
What gift of the Spirit would you ask for, not only for yourself, but for the good of those you love?

Responding to the Word

Come, Holy Spirit; bring peace, mercy, forgiveness, justice, and wisdom to our world and its leaders. Come, Holy Spirit; fill the hearts of your faithful and enkindle in them the fire of your love. Come, Holy Spirit; make your home in me that I might bring your light into the world.

Dec 16 2024

Scripture Study for

The Jewish feast of Pentecost was one of the three major pilgrim festivals of Israel, hence the presence in Jerusalem of devout Jews from every nation. Since the people who experienced the unusual occurrence understood the bold proclamations of the Spirit-filled disciples, the miracle seems to have been speech in foreign tongues, not ecstatic speech (glossolalia). In other words, there was a miracle in hearing as well as in speaking. This outpouring of the Spirit and the preaching of the gospel to all nations point to the gathering of all peoples into the reign of God.

To claim that Jesus was Lord was to set up a rivalry between his followers and the political authorities who were called “Lord.” This claim placed Christians at great risk for their lives. The word was also used in Greek as a substitute for God’s personal name. Therefore, its use implied that Jesus was divine. Paul insists that the spiritual gifts were not given for the self-aggrandizement but for the benefit of the entire community. He then compares the diversity found within the community to the human body. Each part has its own unique function, but all parts work for the good of the whole.

In John’s account, the Resurrection and bestowal of the Spirit occurred on the same day. Previously, religious meaning was given to the Sabbath. The Resurrection ushered in a new age, and so importance is now given to the first day of the week. The wish for peace, a common Jewish greeting, was also a prayer for the blessings of the end-times. Jesus uses it here as a declaration of the arrival of that time of fulfillment. The closed doors underscore the mysterious character of Jesus’ risen body. The wounds in his hands and side show that he is not a figment of their imaginations, or a ghost, but the person they knew. With the bestowal of the Spirit, the disciples are authorized to continue the mission of Jesus.

Dec 16 2024

Let Us Pray

We witness three intense moments of prayer in today’s scriptures. The first is Stephen’s prayer as he is about to be stoned. Filled with the Holy Spirit, he sees a vision of Jesus at the Father’s throne. As a crowd is beginning to stone him, he prays, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” As Jesus entrusted himself to the Father, Stephen entrusts himself to Jesus. Then Stephen also makes a prayer asking forgiveness for his killers.

In the Gospel, we witness the final words of Jesus’ great prayer at the Last Supper, a prayer for those future generations who will come to believe because of those who preach the gospel. This profound prayer asks that all believers participate in the communion Jesus has with the Father, entering into the mystical indwelling of the Father in the Son and the Son in the Father. The communion in the very life of the Father and the Son will come about as the work of the Spirit.

In the final vision in the book of Revelation, John the Seer invites us to join him in the simplest prayer of all, initiated by the Spirit and the bride, the church of the future, calling out to the One who is the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end, the bright morning star: “Come, Lord Jesus, come!”

The Easter season’s final gifts before the feast of Pentecost are prayers naming the Spirit’s work: our surrender to the Lord, forgiveness of others, communion in the Trinity, the final coming of the Lord.

Consider/Discuss

Do these prayers reflect your needs?
What would you want your final prayer to be?

Responding to the Word

Come, Lord Jesus, come this day into my life. Send your Spirit to draw me more fully into the intimate communion you share with your Father and with all believers. Help me to pray with attentiveness and commitment the prayer you gave us: Our Father . . .

Dec 16 2024

Scripture Study for

If the members of the Sanhedrin had believed what Stephen was alleging, they would have had to conclude that Jesus’ claims about himself had been true, and that they had wrongfully put him to death. Instead, they closed their hearts, covered their ears, and sentenced Stephen to stoning. No reason is given for the presence of the young Saul (Paul). Was he a member of a local synagogue? Was he merely a spectator? Whatever the reason, here Stephen, not Paul, is the hero, the one who successfully patterns his life and death after that of his Master.

In the reading from Revelation, the risen Jesus announces that he is the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end. These are all polar pairs, which indicate that he encompasses everything. He also identifies himself with two messianic titles: the root or branch of David, and the bright morning star, which announces the new day. Though he announces that he will judge everyone not merely according to their faith but according to their deeds, his attention is focused on those who have been faithful. This reading suggests that the Lord’s coming is something to look forward to with joy.

Jesus prays for the unity of all believers, a unity that does not merely resemble the unity that exists between Jesus and his Father, but actually participates in it. Furthermore, joined to Jesus, believers share in the glory of Jesus that was manifested through his death, resurrection, and exaltation. Believers are to manifest this divine union to the world so that the world will see not only that God sent Jesus, but also that God loves believers with the same love with which Jesus is loved. Having made God’s name known to believers, Jesus asks that these believers might be with him. If the love with which God loves Jesus resides in those who believe in him, Jesus himself will abide in them.