SUNDAY Summer Eucharist 9:00 a.m. Music & Live Stream
SUNDAY Summer Eucharist 9:00 a.m. Music & Live Stream
Christ the King-Epiphany, Wilbraham
The Rev. Martha S. Sipe
May 19, 2024 / The Day of Pentecost
Introduction to the lessons
When I was being interviewed for my first call at a church in Easton, PA, one of the Council members asked me what I believed about God. I was exceedingly nervous, and have no recollection of what I answered; but being fresh out of seminary, I’m sure that I used a lot of unnecessarily academic theological language to answer the question. When I stopped talking, this same gentleman had a follow-up question: What do you think about Jesus? Again, I don’t really remember what I said, but I remember relaxing into my answer. And when I had finished my brief discourse on the Son of God, I thought I would be clever. I smiled and looked my questioner in the eye, and said, “I bet I can guess your next question: I bet you want me to talk about the Holy Spirit!” “No thank you,” he responded.
Wait, what?
Though I’ve never experienced another dismissal of the Spirit in quite as emphatic a way as I did all those years ago in the Fellowship Hall of St. Peter’s Lutheran Church, I have noted that many mainline Christians seem uncomfortable talking about the Spirit. I suspect, in the case of my “inquisitor” in Easton, it is because the Holy Spirit seems too emotional, and he, like many of us who are of Northern European descent, tended to like to stick to the rational. But I think it’s probably more than that. I suspect that a lot of the challenges around talking about the Holy Spirit are because it’s hard to talk about something you cannot see. That’s why the wind is such a great metaphor for the Spirit. You can’t see the wind – but you can see what it does. Just as you can’t see the Holy Spirit – but you can definitely see what it does.
Today we will hear five lessons from scripture, all of which describe what the Spirit does.
We miss so much when we downplay the Holy Spirit because the Spirit is inspiration and energy and prayer power and giftedness and peace. As a community which called together by the Spirit, I pray that we will never give a low profile to the third person of the Trinity. Instead, I pray that we will continue to be led by the Spirit in everything we do.
Come, Holy Spirit.
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