When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability… So those who welcomed Peter’s message were baptized, and that day about three thousand persons were added. Acts 2:1-3, 41

OUTSIDE THE BOX

At the beginning of the Pentecost story the disciples are gathered in the upper room. At the end of the Pentecost story they have moved out of the safe little box of that upper room into the streets of Jerusalem.

We often romanticize the Pentecost story. We imagine the first disciples as super Christians with super powers who never struggled, doubted, or wavered. We say wistfully, “Weren’t those were the good old days?–with a single sermon Peter could convert 3000 people!”

Truthfully, the arrival of Holy Spirit didn’t make life easier for the disciples–it created new challenges. If the Holy Spirit had left them alone, they could have gone back to Galilee, gone back to their lives, their jobs, their families. Instead Holy Spirit’s arrival pushed them outside the box of a conventional life.

The disciples had to manage the growing pains of the young church. They had to deal with money issues, conflict, and the burdens of managing life in community. The Holy Spirit’s coming didn’t eliminate these challenges but it did give the disciples an outside the box purpose that enriched their lives and powered their sense of mission.

The Pentecost story is the story of Holy Trinity as well as the story of the early church. Like those first disciples, we struggle with money issues, conflict and the challenges of managing our common life together. And, like the disciples we have an outside the box purpose, bringing the life-giving love of Jesus Christ, to the community around us.

Can we think outside the box? Can we move outside the box and into the streets? The Holy Spirit says yes. After all, it is the Spirit who brings us to faith in Jesus Christ, the Holy One who proclaims God’s outside the box love for the world. And it is the Spirit who gives us knowledge of the God who thinks outside the box, who raised Jesus from the dead. Lastly, it is the Spirit who gives us the courage and power to break out of the box of our fears and hesitations.

Pentecost is coming and the Spirit says yes! Let’s get out there.

Pastor Margrethe

In Holy Baptism  

our gracious heavenly Father frees us from sin and death by joining us

to the death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ.   

We are born children of a fallen humanity;  

by water and the Holy Spirit we are reborn children of God  

and made members of the church, the body of Christ.   

Living with Christ and in the communion of saints,  

we grow in faith, love, and obedience to the will of God. 

Evangelical Lutheran Worship p. 27. 

“Christ is risen!” proclaims the pastor on Easter morning.

“He is risen indeed!  Alleluia!” responds the congregation.

But…what does this mean?  What does Jesus’ resurrection mean for us?  Equally important, what does resurrection mean for this congregation?

The church’s teaching on baptism points to an answer.  When Jesus was born in Bethlehem as the truly human and truly divine One, God identified with humanity.  In Jesus, God joined God’s very self to our brokenness, our sinfulness, and our death.  Christ’s identification with suffering humanity led to Good Friday and the cross.  When Jesus died—he died our death.

When Jesus rose on Easter morning, he lived our resurrection.  Baptism is the sign of this resurrection.  Through baptism God joins us to the death and resurrection of Jesus.  God frees us from sin and death.

We don’t have to wait until our physical deaths, however, to know resurrection.  With the future assured, this means our resurrected life begins now.

A resurrected life can acknowledge the pain of its past—including its sins, its failure to love God and the neighbor—yet not get stuck in guilt and shame, but move forward in hope.

A resurrected life is confidently rooted in the love of God, trusting that “nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus.”

A resurrected life is free.  Free to love.  Free to take risks.  Free to fail.  Free to experiment.  Free to learn.  Free to grow.  Free to ask for help.  Free to ask for forgiveness.  Free to claim a fresh start every day.

As human beings we will never get things right 100 percent of the time.  Resurrection assures us that life is not about perfection but growth.

I trust that this is reassuring for us as individuals.  I also trust that this is reassuring to us as a community of faith.  For baptism also applies to the church.  Baptism creates the church.  Baptism makes us Christ’s body in the world, living his resurrected life in the communion of saints.

The church’s resurrected life is one that can acknowledge its past, including its brokenness and its conflicts, its failures to love God and its neighbors, yet not get stuck in this past, but move forward in hope.

The church’s resurrected life is confidently rooted in God’s love, giving it the ability to share this love with the world.

The church’s resurrected life is one of freedom for the sake of the gospel.  It is a community that knows the freedom of taking risks, of failing, of asking for help, and of asking for forgiveness.  The church is free to reinvent itself for the sake of proclaiming the good news of Jesus Christ for each new generation.

The church is a human community.  It will never get things right 100 percent of the time.  But as it lives Christ’s life in the world, it will discover that resurrection is not about perfection but growth in faith, love, and obedience to the will of God.

My prayer for Holy Trinity, as it calls a new pastor, is that it will live more deeply into the promise of its resurrected life.

“Christ is risen!” proclaims the pastor on Easter morning.

And the congregation responds, “He is risen indeed!  And so are we!  Alleluia!”

Blessings, 

Pastor Margrethe