There is a blessing I sometimes use on Sunday mornings at the end of the Eucharist that has a line in it that I want to highlight as we look toward Pentecost this coming Sunday. Before the Trinitarian Blessing--"and now the Blessing God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit...," I say, "Rejoice in the power of the Holy Spirit at work in your life, and in the life of this congregation."
The Spirit is always at work in the world: cajoling, empowering, comforting us, and sometimes upsetting our plans. The work of the Spirit is about the unexpected and we are called to be on watch for those movements and to do what we can to join up. The difficult part is that we sometimes misread what the Spirit is up to and we fail to do our part or we actively work to subvert what is trying to break in. It's also difficult business because it can't be up to one person or one faction of the whole to discern how this movement-of-the-Spirit work is happening. And, it's not science, but art. There is no formula that allows us to be certain. It takes an openness to one another and a willingness to make mistakes, and to know that even in mistakes, all things are redeemed for those who believe.
As we celebrate Pentecost and then move into the Season after Pentecost or Ordinary Time, the growing season of church year, my hope and prayer is that we'll all be on watch and open. I want us to be willing to water and fertilize what is growing and life-giving and to ask questions about what is not. But we must always make those decisions after prayer, conversation, and with fear and trembling.
In Christ, Hunt+