Post date: Jun 4, 2014 1:24:00 PM
From the Pastor…
The Day Of Pentecost - June 8
This is the Sunday that we celebrate the day in Acts 2 when the Holy Spirit showed up at worship in Jerusalem in a particular and profound way.
You are invited to bring a red geranium and to wear something red on that Sunday.
So, who or what is the Holy Spirit? Let’s talk about it. I am using this excerpt from the book Crazy Talk (underlining added)
Holy Spirit: The third person of the Trinity...
The Holy Spirit is the active presence of God in creation… Since it's also called the Holy Ghost, the Spirit often gets sidelined as being too strange, elusive, or creepy for regular conversation and use. Therefore, the Spirit often is forgotten by Christians or is left for those believers who tend to put their hands in the air during worship [maybe we could try it]. But really, the Spirit is simply the active presence of God here and now and for all eternity.
Some theological-type people argue for the Spirit's presence in Genesis 1:2, where we hear reference to a spirit or the breath of God moving over the water. This is often seen as an expression of the Holy Spirit moving in creation. It is active today, as it was then, as God's life-giving force on earth. It was there at the beginning and is present in the world still. The Spirit is not just a pretty face - the Spirit has created and sustains creation.
Later on we read that the Holy Spirit made it so Jesus could be born of Mary. In John 20:22, Jesus breathes this same Holy Spirit right back out onto the disciples, granting them the authority to forgive sins. The Spirit's biggest moment comes in Acts 2 at the first Pentecost, when it came like fire and gave the disciples the power to speak in tongues (foreign languages) and preach the good news about Jesus. So the Holy Spirit is also very much tied up in the presence of Jesus himself. In fact, Jesus refers to the Spirit as the power by which God keeps the Church faithful and true. Finally, the Spirit is active in creating gifts and fruits among God's people - such as love, joy, peace, patience, preaching, teaching and faith. The Spirit sustains the witness and work of the Church, just like it did at the first Pentecost.
Maybe the Holy Spirit isn't as well-known as the other two Persons, but there is no power more alive and vital in creation. You're going to want a piece of that.
From Crazy Talk, copyright 2008, Augsburg Books, Rolf A. Jacobsen, Editor