(photo from The United Church of Canada Flickr: The Inaugural Service, June 10th 1925)The Church is Pentecost …
(The Church is ... Ann Weems)
It’s an interesting convergence of dates this weekend … Today is Pentecost – the Birthday of the Church when the Holy Spirit came to the disciples and they went out into the world for the first time as the Church – living, sharing and proclaiming the Gospel in word and deed. But this weekend also marks the 86th Anniversary of the United Church of Canada, that came into being on June 10th 1925 in a service held at the Mutual Street Arena in Toronto … this Sunday becomes a good day to celebrate the gifts of the Spirit – the presence of the Holy Spirit in our midst – that define us as Church and that motivate us as the People of God.
Step one though, is to get a handle on what we mean when we talk about the Spirit. We use the term ‘spirit’ in society a great deal.
We talk about team spirit when it comes to sports teams. Schools speak of school spirit. We might even endulge in enjoying a few spirits after a tough day at the office. There are a myriad of uses of the word Spirit, ranging from describing the essence within each of us that gives us life through to our devotion to a particular sports team. All of them are right, but none of them capture the full meaning and impact of the word Spirit in the context of the Church.
The Spirit is one of the aspects of God. One of the three figures of the Trinity … The Spirit is the unseen part of God that moves among us and gives us life … The Spirit is the creative energy of God – that which gives the energy that in turn undergirds ALL of creation and gives life to all … The Spirit is playful and shares that enthusiasm with all of creation.
If we read through the Scriptures we encounter descriptive terms like Ruach, and in Proverbs Lady Wisdom to describe the Spirit. In the New Testament Jesus invoked and spoke of the Spirit frequently. And in the easly Church there was a very clear understanding that the Spirit was what motivated and encouraged them in the work they engaged in as they moved from the events of Easter and wrestled with the Resurrection and the subsequent call to go out into the world and make disciples of all the nations …
In the modern Church we struggle with talking about, much less engaging The Spirit. We tend to leave things “Spirit” to the more evangelical branches of our Church. We’ve grown uncomfortable with the nation of the Spirit alive and active in our midst, and have left it for our sisters and brothers who are more evangelical and exuberant in their faith expressions.
One commentary I read this past week outlined the story we find in Acts and the ecstatic happenings that day by noting:
“How do WE respond to this kind of ecstacy? Probably, many of us would rather explain it away by attributing it to too much sun, or stress. It’s hard for many of us to imagine the God we keep so neat and tidy provoking this kind of ecstatic expression. Yet for us, even as for the Israelites, perhaps it is important to remember the power of God is not limited by our expectations, our language, our inhibitions, or even our imaginings.”
The commentary then concludes with the following observation:
“The Spirit of God is joyful, unpredictable, exciting, transforming. It is the power by which the world was made, the power that delights in the strength of sea monsters, and treasures the delicacy of the tiniest creature. The Spirit has been loosed upon every disciple of every culture and generation to bring courage, hope, passion and truth to a world starving for something strong enough to believe in …”
Pentecost takes us into uncomfortable and unfamiliar territory. Even the language we use is different – it doesn’t roll of our tongue as easily … talking about The Spirit is disconcerting for us – those of us who have our faith kept so neat and tidy. Yet in the face of our seeming complacency, the Spirit comes – first as a quiet whisper … then as a wind that rocks and shakes and dares to ask – “can these bones live?” … as Linnea Good celebrates – “dry bones hear the word of God …”
We are the dry bones, and today – 86 years after the United Church of Canada came into being, and almost 20 Centuries since the Church itself came into being we are being called not only to live, but to engage in sharing our faith:
(The Church is ... Ann Weems)
The Church IS Pentecost … let us go into the world a Spirit Filled people called to make a difference … called to share our faith !
May it be so – thanks be to God … Let us pray …
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