The Same Old Song of Sudden Newness

I don’t think I am going out on a limb when I point out that time is a little strange right now.  Thank God for church that reminds us that it is Sunday and demarcates one week from the next!  Summer slipped up on us in a similarly indistinct manner this past week as school wound down and blow up pools were filled in back yards.

With mostly limited fanfare, my kids finished the school year and started a not dissimilar summer routine.  We have all made intentional efforts to congratulate our children and teenagers who experienced significant life transitions in this unusual time.  That said, while I would liken most years’ shift into summer like a swift moving river emptying into a vast still body of water, this year seems to be more like a river becoming slowly wider and slower in an almost imperceptible transition.  Not even the weather seems to have noticed that it is now supposed to be summer (seriously, go for a walk, it is beautiful outside!). 

This is why this Sunday may feel a bit abrupt.  Sunday is the feast of Pentecost and we will hear the account of the Holy Spirit coming into the midst of the gathered body of the faithful like a mighty wind alighting on all those present as a flame.  In this moment, all of a sudden, everyone was able to understand each other.  There was a fundamental shift from separation and dissonance to congruity.  The Church was filled with God’s Spirit and something completely new was happening…and still is. 

It is God’s holy desire to make all things new.  God has been creating since the first moment creation was sung into being.  As Korey and Lisa pointed out in their Bible study last week, our God creates new things by cracking open what is routine and filling it in with new abundant life.  The church is meant to be a stalwart of connection over difference and care of other over division.  The cases where we forget that or get it wrong do not change the desire and intent of God to bring us together with the standard of empathy, selflessness, and love.  We have seen many things that seek to divide us.  I would run out of fingers and toes if used to count them all.  I am not writing to you with judgmental should, but pray and beg God to open our hearts to see the “other” as God’s beloved.  It is the very thing that those who crucified Jesus could not see, and yet, he died for them too. 

See you in virtual church,