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Tag Archives: Pentecost
Another Pentecost
How quickly the crowd turned from Hosanna to Crucify; from hearing the miracle of the Holy Spirit poured out upon God’s chosen ones to proclaim salvation to writing them off as a dangerous and drunken mob.
But those who remained to listen learned something that day about the nature of God’s mercy, and the love of God that would go even to the Cross for us; love that would suffer in solidarity with the oppressed, the undermined, the unjustly executed, the betrayed. Continue reading
Posted in current events, Holy Days, lectionary reflection, sermon
Tagged Black Lives Matter, COVID-19, George Floyd, Holy Spirit, Pentecost
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Preaching Pentecost
More than 100,000 people have died in the US of COVID-19.
Nearly 360,000 people have died from the disease worldwide. Close to 6 million cases have been confirmed overall.
George Floyd died after saying, “I can’t breathe,” as a police officer knelt on his neck in Minneapolis on Memorial Day. Continue reading
Posted in current events, Holy Days, lectionary reflection, poetry, prayer, sermon preparation
Tagged COVID-19, George Floyd, Holy Spirit, Jesus, Minneapolis, Pentecost
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Pentecost 2019: Come, Holy Spirit
The Spirit has been present since before the birth of creation, brooding over the waters of the uncreated deep. She breathed life into the nostrils of the first human animals, according to the old stories. She has never been far from us. The trick is to catch sight of the movement of her wings, to hear the vibrations that she creates, the rush of air, the breath of heaven. Continue reading
Posted in Holy Days, lectionary reflection, prayer, sermon
Tagged Holy Spirit, Pentecost
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On Pentecost, #WearOrange
Few languages are universal. That we have made the gun one of them is blasphemy against the Spirit who brooded over creation; ever the image of life. Would that we would bury the language of death under love, even if the mockery … Continue reading
Posted in Gun control, gun safety, Holy Days, poetry
Tagged #WearOrange, Acts 2:13, Pentecost
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Pentecost: love and fire
If fire represents the Holy Spirit, then we have blasphemed the Spirit of God by making fire the creature of our destruction instead of the essence of our life.
The Holy Spirit, on the other hand, cannot be tamed, and does not destroy when given free reign, because she is not our creature to control, but she is the very essence of God, who is love. Continue reading
Holy Comforter
Do not be alarmed by her unpredictability. She knows what she is doing. She speaks your language. She knows your name. Continue reading
Posted in current events, prayer, sermon
Tagged climate, creation, Holy Spirit, Pentecost, terror, Trinity
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Trinity 2016: Delight
Wisdom calls out – the wisdom of God; we may know her as the Holy Spirit. When she is spoken aloud, she becomes the Word. The Word was in the beginning, the yet unspoken, ever articulate Wisdom of God. Only … Continue reading
Posted in Holy Days, sermon
Tagged delight, Holy Spirit, John 16:12-15, Pentecost, Proverbs 8, Romans 5:1-5, Trinity Sunday
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Unbabel
Slab-flat vowels like a block of dough slapped down on the kneading board; sibilant aromas of spice and fruit from afar off mingle with crisp consonants. Syllables roll like oranges through the early morning marketplace; polyphonic strangers drawn by the … Continue reading
Posted in Holy Days, lectionary reflection, meditation, poetry, prayer
Tagged accents, Acts 2:1-21, Babel, comfort food, expatriate, Genesis 11:1-9, homesickness, language, Pentecost, unity
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Year C Easter 5: “Make no distinction between them and us”
Acts 11: 12 “The Spirit told me to go with them and not to make a distinction between them and us.” – Peter has a vision of eating foreign food, and is called thereby to recognise the grace of God … Continue reading
Posted in sermon
Tagged Acts 11:1-18, foreign food, grace, Pentecost, race, table fellowship, Year C Easter 5
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Pentecost dreaming
What happens [asks the poet] to a dream deferred? Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun? Or fester like a sore – And then run? Does it stink like rotten meat? Or crust and sugar over – … Continue reading
Posted in sermon
Tagged #blacklivesmatter, Cleveland, dream, dream deferred, Langston Hughes, Michael Brelo, Pentecost, Rachel G. Hackenburg
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