May
Revd Alastair writes…..
Pentecost thoughts
Our culture doesn’t do Pentecost. It has not created an alternative mythology with which to secularize and commercialize it. It has not created a figure like a fat, jolly man in a red suit or a large bunny. Shops don’t stock special items for the Feast of Pentecost. In fact, the Feast of Pentecost comes and goes in the Church year without the world even noticing.
Yet this observation raises a question about the Church today: Our culture doesn’t do Pentecost. Do we? In the case of Christmas and Easter, there are factors outside of the Church that help to raise our awareness about these festivals – even if it is for the wrong reason.
Maybe the main reason for our failure to emphasize Pentecost is that we no longer really understand its importance. For the early Church, Pentecost was first a season before it became a day. The word “Pentecost” described the entire fifty day season that followed Easter. Before too long, the word was applied specifically to the Feast of Pentecost – the event in which Christ poured out His Spirit upon the Church. The life of the Church placed great emphasis on the Feast of Pentecost. From the fourth century on in the early Church, Easter and Pentecost were the two primary days when baptisms were done. Just like Christmas and Easter, Pentecost was proceeded by a service on the evening before the day – Pentecost Eve. The Church did this because she understood the importance of Pentecost.
Before His ascension occurred forty days after Easter, Jesus commanded His apostles to remain in Jerusalem until they received the Holy Spirit. Our Lord promised, “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth” (Acts 1:8). The outpouring of the Holy Spirit began a new era as Jesus Christ extended His saving work into the world through the work of the Spirit.
Our Lord told us that the Spirit will guide us into all truth. We know this. We have been living it now for two thousand years as Church and continue to do so even today. The love which enables all this to happen does not originate from us. It is poured out upon us. It is the love of the Father and the Son, the very Holy Spirit of God.
Holy Spirit, continue to come upon us, continue to guide us into all truth, into who we are meant to be as your Church!
Alastair