For Sunday
Pentecost

Collect

O God, who on this day taught the hearts of your faithful people by sending to them the light of your Holy Spirit: Grant us by the same Spirit to have a right judgment in all things, and evermore to rejoice in his holy comfort; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Reading

From Acts 2:1-21

“When the day of Pentecost had come, the disciples were all together in one place.”

Reflection

This Easter season, we have gathered at Deming Park in a pavilion right off the drive. It has generally been sunny, warm enough, and a surprisingly temperate gathering place for a season of resurrection and hope. It has felt good to be together.

Of course, it is notable that, unlike the description in Acts, we weren’t all together in one place. Not technically.

And even as the pavilion is actually more accessible than our church building, this pandemic time has consistently forced us to see that our being together physically is not necessary for us to be together. Though it certainly helps.

Pentecost comes with a whole host of new learnings from the past year. Especially that part in which we take being in the same room with people, or even being on a Zoom call, as something so simple, regular, normal. A given.

As we move from the Easter season to Pentecost, and then into the always astutely named “Ordinary Time,” we may be doing so with new anticipation. That maybe this season will be more ordinary. Like a balance has been restored. This season is ending and the next is beginning. I’m certainly tempted to lean into that.

Perhaps, though, we lean into the learnings that accompanied this unordinary time. And something about being in the park helps us see it. What with the geese honking all throughout the sermon, sitting without our regular pews, or dealing with a mighty wind, we find the less ordered gathering never descends into chaos—much the opposite. It opens our hearts to things we hadn’t considered.

I am excited that we are beginning to gather in our church building. Not because it is familiar. But because we are being opened by the Spirit. And there is much more to learn.