Food for Thought

Guest Meditations: 

Peter’s world has just been turned upside down. He had just had all his doors blown off their hinges and when the Israelites asked him, “What shall we do?” I do not believe he gave them a three-step prescription to fill. I believe he told them how to prepare for a holy hurricane. 

“Reorient your lives.” That is the truth of what he told them, knowing full well that was what would happen the moment Jesus came to live in them. Forget everything you ever thought you knew about who is in charge in this world. Get ready to revise all your notions about what makes someone great, or right, or worthy of your attention. If you think you know which way is up, think again. If you think you know how things should turn out in the end, get ready to be wrong. 

This Jesus I have been telling you about is one surprise feast after another. You cannot second-guess him. All you can do is love him and let him love you back, any way he sees fit. Sometimes it is so strong it can scare you to death. You want to know what you should do? Repent, return, revise, reinvent yourself. 

Then go get born again, by water and the Spirit. Walk into the river of death with him, and while you are down there let the current carry away everything that stands between you and him. Then, when all your own breath is gone, let him give you some of his. Take his breath inside of you. Let it save your life, and when he rises, rise with him, understanding that your life is no longer your own. 

You died down there. You are borrowing his life now. Let someone make the sign of the cross on your forehead to remind you of that, and join the community of those who call themselves his body, because they believe his heart beats in every one of them. 

Then receive the Holy Spirit. That is, breathe. Deeply. Receive your life as a gift invisible as air, and prepare to be astonished by all the forms that breath can take. Under the power of the Holy Spirit, shy people have been known to step onto platforms and say audacious things. Cautious people have become daredevils, frugal people have become philanthropists and people who used to be as sour as dill pickles have become rich with friends. 

There is no limit to what the Holy Spirit can do. You just cannot hold your breath, that’s all. You have to keep breathing, keep paying attention, keep responding to whatever crazy idea you come up with next. Some people call it intuition. Others call it inspiration. Forever and ever, the church has called it Holy Spirit. 

Barbara Brown Taylor

Introduction: 

On Pentecost, we celebrate the giving of the Holy Spirit. This life-giving aspect of God is perhaps the hardest to grasp, and the easiest to misinterpret. The life-giving spirit of God moves over the chaos of creation, and brings order. The spirit still moves over creation to hold together the community of God, sustaining our life together. Beaming from each one of us, the Spirit lives in every human interaction, so that the light of Christ shines through us to every lowly place the Spirit dwells. 

Erik, King of Sweden, martyr, died 1160 

Erik is considered the patron saint of Sweden. As king of that nation, he tried to bring peace in the region, and to spread Christianity in Scandinavia. He was also known for his attempts to make fair laws and to protect those who were poor or sick. 

Acts 2:1-21 

Originally Pentecost was a Jewish thanksgiving-type festival celebrated seven weeks after Passover. On this particular Pentecost, however, the Holy Spirit is poured out upon the entire community of believers just as Jesus had promised and the scriptures had prophesied. Empowered by the Spirit, the entire community bears witness to God’s activity in multiple languages. 

Romans 8:22-27 

By pouring the Holy Spirit into our hearts, God gives us the promised first fruit of eternal life so that we await God’s future in hope. In the meantime, the Spirit also intercedes for us by carrying the prayers of our weak human hearts to God. 

John 15:26–27; 16:4b–15 

When speaking to his disciples before his death, Jesus referred to the Holy Spirit as “the Helper” and described the difference the Spirit would make in their lives and in the world.