I woke up this morning thinking I could really use a good Pentecost experience, one where the doors of my mind are blown off and the wind of the Spirit rushes in – where I feel drunk on joy and possibility. It’s been a desperate slog lately, a real uphill grind. The mass shootings, COVID deaths, the melting of ice at the Poles, the denuding of forests and extinction of species, the war in Ukraine – all these things and all the ones I’ve mercifully forgotten for the moment – drag at my psyche, that place where all living things on our little planet are connected and are kin. I could use a ripping good Pentecost.
Yesterday we brought to an end the work of our local multi-faith awareness group, the World Wisdoms Project. Like so many other organizations, it did not survive the Pandemic. We had an aging Board of Directors and a shrinking number of participants. We were constantly needing to pivot – to change venues, to show programs only via Zoom, to eliminate programs where too much close contact between participants was an issue. I mourn its ending. One more place where doors were opened between people of divergent perspectives has now gone away.
I don’t know what is next. Whatever it is will have to come from the Holy Spirit, because I am fresh out of ideas.
I suppose it wouldn’t hurt to follow the example of Jesus’ disciples. At the beginning of the stories about them in today’s readings, one from Acts and one from John, we find them hanging out together, clueless about what to do next. They are waiting for something – they don’t know what. But they are doing it together. They’re eating together, telling stories, and going about their day-to-day tasks. Despite the monumental changes that have happened to their little band, they are with one another, offering support and love. Jesus and the Holy Spirit come into the middle of the place where they are hanging out together, and breathe the wind of new understanding and direction upon them there. They are met where they are together.
My church is a good place to hang out. We offer each other comfort and support as we share worship and coffee hour. We don’t have any good ideas, but we do have our mutual care for one another. We have the reminder to stay in the moment as much as possible and to pray. We tell the stories of our faith to one another, and we continue to serve the larger community in little ways. And there with my church community – perhaps that is where the Holy Spirit will make an entrance.
Have we left room for the Holy Spirit to appear in our midst? The less we presume to know, the more it is possible. We are clueless about what to do next. It is beyond our limited comprehension. Whether in tiny ways or in a door-blasting big one, we need the gift of freshening wind and inspiration that can come only from God.
Let’s gather together in support and love. Come, Holy Spirit, come.
