Christ Episcopal Church
	Riverton, New Jersey
	Unpacking Pentecost May 2007 I was unpacking some boxes (yes, after almost two years I still have boxes to unpack!) and came across a book of German folk songs that was most likely published before World War I. As I flipped through the pages and hummed some of them, I encountered one whose title translates as “The three great Christian feasts” set to a Sicilian folk tune (I’ll leave you to contemplate the incongruity of German words sung to an Italian melody!). There is a verse for each feast: Christmas, Easter and Pentecost. I guess that if the average Christian on the street were asked to name the three greatest festivals of the church, Easter and Christmas would come easily. But Pentecost? Episcopalians might be able to name it as the Sunday after which we have an interminable number of Sundays (26 this year) – the long season where the liturgical color remains green even after the autumn leaves have fallen. At the same time, for those of us who have been around a while, Pentecost seems a strange name that we didn’t hear in Sunday School (although we did hear about Pentecostals and their enthusiastic worship style). That is because in the 1928 Book of Common Prayer, the feast was called Whitsunday (no one actually knows why, but it was perhaps due to the white clothing worn by those baptized on that day). In any event, Pentecost is so vitally important because it is on this day we celebrate the coming of the Holy Spirit to Jesus’ disciples fifty days after the first Easter. (Pentecost derives its name from the same Greek word as pentagon – a figure with five sides). They were gathered together to celebrate a Jewish harvest festival, and suddenly with the rush of a mighty wind the formerly frightened followers of our Lord burst forth from their locked hiding place and proclaimed to all in listening distance the Good News of God. On that day the church was born as, according to the Acts of the Apostles, 5,000 followers were added to the tiny band who had known Jesus in the flesh. The universal gift of God’s Spirit upon God’s people had been a hope at least as far back as the time of Moses. That great leader had expressed the desire that “all God’s people were prophets and that the LORD would put his spirit on them!” (Numbers 11:29). This Spirit was experienced by many of the heroes of the Hebrew Scriptures: Joshua, Samuel, David, Solomon, Elijah and Elisha, but was not part of the lives of most believers. But with Jesus’ coming, this was no longer to be the case. In preparing his friends for his departure from them, Jesus promised that the Holy Spirit would be sent to them in his stead, to comfort, teach and empower. And this would be his gift to all who believed in him. This Spirit which came on the first Pentecost is with us today. The church teaches that by God’s grace we are given the Spirit in baptism, thus establishing a dynamic relationship with the divine from the very beginning of our Christian lives. The Spirit’s effect upon us is incalculable. There are gifts (I Corinthians 12:7-11, Isaiah 11:1-2) and fruit (Galatians 5:22). One of the most beautiful descriptions of the Spirit’s influence upon us comes from another German hymn, penned by Rabanus Maurus 1300 years ago and translated as hymn 501. The first three verses offer the wondrous breadth of the Spirit’s embrace: 1 O Holy Spirit, by whose breath  life rises vibrant out of death;  come to create, renew, inspire; come, kindle in our hearts your fire. 2 You are the seeker’s sure resource,  of burning love the living source,  protector in the midst of strife, the giver and the Lord of life. 3 In you God’s energy is shown, to us your varied gifts make known. Teach us to speak, teach us to hear; yours is the tongue and yours the ear. Sadly, this great feast of Pentecost is poorly celebrated by we who are so richly blessed. It usually occurs in May, when the weather is warmer and thoughts start turning towards the summer. Many years it falls during the Memorial Day weekend (which has only been a weekend since 1971), and thus becomes the victim (along with Memorial Day itself) of folks taking advantage of three days off to do other things. So if you’re in town, I encourage you not to take Pentecost off because Monday is a legal holiday. If you’re away, take a moment to consider God’s grace in giving to us the Holy Spirit, through whom our relationship with the divine is defined. As the verse in that old songbook translates: O you joyful, O you blessed, brought by grace: the time of Pentecost. Heavenly hosts praise and honor you. Rejoice, rejoice, O Christian lands. See you in church?! Richard+ PS: Remember to wear red —- the color of the Spirit!