1 “Let Us Breathe” Rev. David Gregory May 31, 2020 Pentecost First reading Acts 2:1-4 adapted from The Amplified Bible When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place, and suddenly a sound came from heaven like a rushing violent wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. There appeared to them tongues resembling fire, which were being distributed among them, and they rested on each one of them. And they were all diffused throughout their being with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in different languages, as the Spirit was giving them the ability to speak. Second reading Anna Blaedel from Liturgy That Matters published and copyrighted by the online community enfleshed.com Whatever myriad forces are working to confine, constrict, or control, the Spirit still manifests. She moves outside of the lines. She surprises us. She enables our capacity to do and be a part of holy things that we may otherwise count ourselves unworthy or incapable of. The Spirit pays no regard to social hierarchies of value. Wherever hearts are open, wherever there is crying out, wherever courage is brewing, She is there. Impatient with evil, she comes with urgency and breaks open new pathways and possibilities, wild with life. In the last three months, we’ve been adjusting to a new way of life, taking the rhythms of the things we know, and interpreting them through an entirely new lens, and today’s celebration of Pentecost is no exception. Pentecost was a yearly Jewish harvest festival, and the occasion that brought so many of Jesus’s followers back to Jerusalem. At the time, there was no such thing as Christianity or the church, and as always, it is important to remember that every Christian root grows in Jewish soil. So, what Christians celebrate as Pentecost is perhaps the first flowering fruit tree coming from that soil, or the sensate fulfillment of the promise that was made, “Lo, I am with you always.”
