1. “The Church – a Power House ” – Diocese of Atlanta
“What is the church? The answer is right there in the story of Pentecost! God intends for the church- the people and where we gather- to be a Power-House! In the Power-House people are released to worship in spirit and truth: to heal, create, forgive, fend off selfishness and conquer fears. God’s intervening power turned a traditional religious observance into a spirit-filled gathering by recentering the community on “God’s deeds of power.” The power was in the promise God gave to Joel long ago, that God’s spirit would birth dreams and visions for the young and old and rewrite all the limiting ways we relate to one another. Is where you go to church a Power-House?”
2. “We Become the Church – Trinity Church, Wall Street
Then and now, the language of the Holy Spirit — the divine within us — transcends the boundaries and limits of culture, country, heart, and mind. Inside each of us exists an inner knowing that goes *beyond* belief. The breath of God animates within us a uniquely human and holy imagination that dreams and envisions a reality *beyond* the present: a world where all our needs are met; a world where hierarchies are flipped upside down and tossed aside altogether; a world created anew through patient, joyful, and loving collaboration with God and one another.
Each of us holds a piece of that vision pulsing at the heart of Jesus’s message, and when, in community, we discern, nurture, and act on our part, we prophesy with our lives. Together we become the future we first see inside: the imperfect and healing and whole body of Christ. We become the Church.
3. The Feast of Pentecost is “a great leveller,”, Pádraig Ó Tuama
The Feast of Pentecost is “a great leveller,” writes poet and theologian Pádraig Ó Tuama. “It is a way of saying the face of God is the face of your neighbour; the voice of God is the voice of your neighbour; the language of God is the language of your neighbour, yes, even the neighbour you despise.”
“So, before we even think of Jesus’ promises at the Last Supper, and the events of the Book of Acts, it is important to recollect the extraordinary nature of this feast. It is a great leveller. It is a way of saying the face of God is the face of your neighbour; the voice of God is the voice of your neighbour; the language of God is the language of your neighbour, yes, even the neighbour you despise.
“This extraordinary festival — in both the Jewish and Christian calendars — is one that invites large concepts like Law and Truth to be viewed through the lens of What brings us together? In the Jewish liturgy we hear that the occasion of a person coming to claim their right of belonging among a community that might not welcome her is an interpretive lens for Law; and in the Christian liturgy we hear of people who are enclosed in a room of fear suddenly having the language to speak to and understand their neighbour.
4. “When We Breathe Together”: A Blessing for Pentecost Day – Jan Richardson
Together is a key word in the story of Pentecost and in the Rev. Jan Richardson’s poem “When We Breathe Together”
WHEN WE BREATHE TOGETHER
A Blessing for Pentecost Day
This is the blessing
we cannot speak
by ourselves.
This is the blessing
we cannot summon
by our own devices,
cannot shape
to our own purposes,
cannot bend
to our own will.
This is the blessing
that comes
when we leave behind
our aloneness,
when we gather
together,
when we turn
toward one another.
This is the blessing
that blazes among us
when we speak
the words
strange to our ears,
when we finally listen
into the chaos,
when we breathe together
at last.