Countdown to Pentecost

​     Come Holy Spirit! Every Sunday during the Easter season we say these words in worship and we ask God to send the Spirit into our hearts and into our community. The Easter season concludes with Pentecost Sunday, (May 28th this year) and it is the day we celebrate the gift of the Spirit. It is interesting to note that the celebration of Pentecost always occurs 50 days after Easter. Another way to look at this is that Pentecost always occurs on the Eighth Sunday of Easter. “Just as Sunday is the eighth day, the new day for the Christian life, so Pentecost is the eighth Easter, Christ’s giving over of his Spirit to the church;”[1] the new day for the Christian community. 
The story of Pentecost from the book of Acts is chock full of symbolism from the Old Testament: wind from heaven, flames of fire. Yet God is doing something new with these familiar images, and that new thing was and is creating a new community led, empowered and inspired by the Spirit to proclaim the love of God shown in Jesus and to live as God’s people.
     In Luke’s telling of the story of Pentecost, the Spirit of God showed up as a violent wind which drove the apostles into the streets and then literally lit them on fire to spread the Gospel message of love.  I wonder if that is what they were expecting as they waited for the Spirit that Christ had promised would arrive.
What are we hoping for when we pray, “Come Holy Spirit!”? What are we expecting happens when the Spirit shows up? God is still at work creating and recreating, turning the world upside down and challenging the status quo. God does this by working through the Spirit and the community; setting our hearts on fire with compassion and love and a desire for justice.     
     In the weeks leading up to Pentecost, we pray, “Come Holy Spirit!” and as people of God, we expect the Spirit to show up. Can you feel her presence on your back pushing you into new spaces? Can you feel her presence burning in your heart to share God’s love with someone new or setting you on fire to rectify some injustice? As people of God, we are called to listen to the prompting of the Spirit


[1] Keeping Time: The Church’s Years, ELW, Augsburg Fortress, 2009, 126.