Welcome on this Pentecost Day
To a quiet moment
A space into which the Spirit
May flow like water
or burst like flame
or breathe.
Welcome to these shared moments,
in the name of Jesus Christ
Let us as we always do remember . . . (Lighting of the Christ Candle in the Godly Play way)
And let us on this Pentecost Sunday call on the varied and sparkling images of Spirit as we move deeper into worship. Let us say these words under our breath as though we were expecting something mysterious and amazing.
O dove, O fire, O breath
O tide, O wave, O water like laughter
O spark, O flame, O curve of love
O whisper, O shout, O dance unbidden
O challenge, O comfort, O courage
O dove, O fire, O breath,
Come.
Into this world of illness and isolation
Beauty and brutality
Racism and responsiveness
Contentment and carelessness
Come.
Acts 2:1 – 4
Pentecost is traditionally full of exuberance of this passage. I wouldn’t ever want to lose that.
Still, with all that’s gone on and all that continues,
with the combination of numbness and emotion of the last months and the continuing uncertainty of the months to come I’m recalling another text as well, we’ll hear it later, the one in which Jesus breathes on his disciples and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit”.
The Spirit comes in many ways with her unimagined challenge,
her heart-holding consolation and her invitation to joy.
As we received Easter this year, from an unfamiliar vantage point,
so this year we receive the day of Pentecost and the Spirit it heralds.
We are created and re-created as a faith community this year by breath that feels softer, deeper,
a barely perceptible breeze and the beautiful haunting cry of the morning dove.
Our lives may still be made new.
We are still gathered by this Holy Breath. The church is again born on this day.
This is how I feel. This is what I hear from others, what I long for myself. I wrote it in a song.
Pentecost Hymn
John 20:19-23
Let’s listen now to the words from John 20:19 – 22
And he breathed on them and said, “receive the Holy Spirit”
This is not a Spirit movement like those represented by the gales and flames of Acts.
But this is no less powerful
I can feel this breath, so daily does it find its space, unknotting frustration, sitting down with loneliness, igniting courage,
Inviting joy
This breath is breathed into the shared room of our lives together
It animates the memory of Christ, which is not just for ‘back then’ but living now through the Spirit
We breath this breath together at the table of living memory, to which we come
We come this morning to the table of Jesus Christ
In these days we gather at table made not of wood, or stone
But of the space between us
Carved of our desire to be together
With one another and with Christ
It is a table of longing and of celebration
Open as Christ is open
To you, to me, to all creation
So come, all who long to live in love and compassion,
held in the life of Jesus Christ
Come as you are, come as you long to be
The Spirit of God be with you
And also, with you
Open your hearts
We open them to the Living Presence
Let us give thanks to God our Creator
It is a joyful thing to praise the living God
Holy One
Around tables there are stories
and this table is no exception.
Here too we share the stories of our life with you
some silently held in our hearts
and some we share in common.
Stories of your Son
Who walked the shores and cities,
Who healed and taught and touched;
Who even when abandoned walked the way of Love.
Today we know the absence of incarnate presence
The fertile absence into which the Spirit pours
breathing, living memory of Christ who is both host and guest
We remember how he took up his life as bread
Blessed and broke and gave it
As gift and pattern for our lives
Living in his love
And waiting in hope for the completion of God’s community
Grant that in praise and thanksgiving
We may so offer ourselves to you
that our lives may proclaim the mystery of faith
And be living witness to your kingdom
As we come to the table
We bring in love and memory
All those who claim our hearts today
(We name our Concerns and Joys)
We pray always that we may participate in
Something that will bring healing
Something that will mend a piece of the world
(We say together The Lord's Prayer)
As we gather at this table
We remember that on the night before he died,
Jesus had supper with his friends
He took bread
After blessing it
He broke it
And gave it to his friends saying
Take
Eat
This is my body given for you
Each time you do this remember me
Then Jesus took a cup
Gave thanks and passed it to his frinds saying
Drink
This cup is my life poured out for you
The promise of God.
The new covenant
Each time you do this remember me.
We come now remembering
And with hope
We pray for the Spirit’s movement through this meal and we say
Christ has died
Christ is risen
Christ is with us now.
All is ready, our hearts and the space between them in which the Spirit moves and is received. So as we receive the Spirit let us receive this shared meal. Let us wait to take up our bread until the moment we would in usual circumstances be served. Then let us hold the bread until we hear the words let us eat and drink together. As we eat the bread let us listen for those words, Jesus Christ, the bread of life,
And with the cup, Jesus Christ, the cup of salvation
(we share the meal)
Prayer after Communion
Holy One,
On this day of summer’s threshold
We have tasted again the story.
Through this shared meal we have taken it into our lives
And now we offer those lives again to You.
That we may be through You
Vessels of the Spirit’s breath.
Hearts kindled for the world.
In Jesus’ name, Amen
Let us sing together the last verse of our Pentecost Hymn.
When Pentecost comes softly
its strength is not subdued.
t draws us all together;
it opens up our view.
Our love will be rekindled,
our witness made more bold.
Apart we still are gathered
Your heart the room that holds.
Sending and Benediction
Drawn together here
Reminded of the room of God’s heart
In which we are all gathered,
We remind ourselves
Of the light,
Go now tethered by this undying light and this Holy Pentecost breath, to one another
May you know
The love of God
The grace of Jesus Christ
And the enlivening of the Holy spirit
Present to you in this and all moments
Amen.
What is stirring in you through these moments and these days. Where are you clearing space for the Spirit in the midst of questions about family, about the economy, in unerasable images Gaza and Sudan, of wildfire and earthquake all of which need our prayers and our voices.
Where are you opening windows in the midst of all that can dishearten and deplete?
In what spaces are you pausing to feel the breath of Spirit?
