Today we mark the promised coming of the Holy Spirit to the followers of Jesus - and, in a sense, we celebrate the beginning, the ‘birth’ day of the church.
It’s one of the Sundays in the church calendar when we’re reminded of the power and mystery of God, of God who is both Creator of the universe and all things, as well as the God who knows each of our names.
We’re also reminded that we are all a part of something that is so much bigger than us: while we’re the church visible in this small
corner of the earth, we’re also a part of the church that reaches all around the world; we are both a gathered, and a scattered people. As well as this, we belong to the church ‘invisible’ –
all those who have walked in the footsteps of Jesus, down through the centuries who learnt about Jesus and passed the stories about him along to others.
In all of that, so there’s the sense that to celebrate the day of Pentecost comes with more than a little bit of awesomeness – in the true meaning of the word: God mysterious and yet known, God unseen and yet seen in each one of us who are created in God’s image.
A prayer for Pentecost
Holy Spirit,
Holy Spirit,
we pause in your presence,
aware that you do not arrive quietly or on our terms.
You move like wind:
unseen, uncontained, disturbing what has settled too easily.
You burn like fire:
not to destroy, but to refine,
to bring light where we have grown used to shadows.
Meet us here, in all our difference and expectation;
in our longing for clarity, and in our fear of what change might demand.
Slow us down enough to notice where you are already at work,
often ahead of our plans and beyond our control.
Loosen what has grown rigid.
Open what we have closed for safety’s sake.
Give us ears to hear your voice in unfamiliar accents and unsettling truths.
As we listen in this moment,
kindle in us a fire that does not rush to certainty but stays awake to compassion.
Let it shape our words, and our lives.
... ... ...
Renew us, remake and reshape us;
may we be braver in love,
wider in welcome,
and ready to follow wherever your Spirit leads.
Come, Holy Spirit.
Stay with us.
Move among us.
Make us alive.
Amen.
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Thanks, Tabitha!
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