Disciples, Apostles, and Saints!
This week we celebrate the second biggest feast of the church year. A feast so important it gets two names! The church calls it Day of Pentecost: Whitsunday. We know it simply as Pentecost.
Obviously, number one is Easter. But from very early on, Pentecost took on a sort of companion relationship to Easter. They even patterned the liturgy for the day to match the vigil, offering it as a secondary baptism day, and making the whole thing feel like a second Easter.
While the biblical stories we read for Easter and Pentecost are very different, what connects the two thematically is God’s in-breaking. Certainly there are other stories of God doing remarkable things. And arguably, more spectacular things. But in these two events, we have God changing the order of creation itself to widen the circle.
In Jesus we have the vehicle of connection with God. And in his resurrection, we have the opportunity to continue that connection, even in death. But in Pentecost, we get the keys to the vehicle. We’ve had our driver’s ed. The license is issued. Now it’s up to us to turn the ignition and make it go.
And just like driving around town, there are people who think they aren’t ready. There are people who are way too confident in their ability. And there are people who really ought to let someone else drive them. But the point isn’t our skill at driving. The work is connecting with God and one another. Just doing it.
With love,
Drew