Spirit of Pentecost

This Sunday, May 31, Christians celebrate the holy day of Pentecost. On this day, 50 days after Easter, the Church remembers its origins when the book of Acts tells of the Holy Spirit descending upon the faithful.

This year, First Baptist celebrates Pentecost with a special guest speaker, the Rev. Dr. A. Roy Medley, general secretary of our denomination, the American Baptist Churches/USA. The service will be grand affair with music and preaching, and, oh yes, we shall eat afterwards. (It's a Baptist thing. Don't ask...But bring a fork!)

It is a time for celebrating what is good about "church," which might seem a bit quaint or out of step, in an era with declining church attendance. Are we celebrating a fading memory or kindling the faith anew?

For a helpful roadmap in living faithfully in changing times, the twenty-first Christian should recall the witness of her first century forbears. In the New Testament book of Acts, one reads of an obscure group of women and men who endure persecution and uncertainty with belief, fellowship, sharing possessions and breaking bread together.

Even though Christ has ascended to heaven, even though the Church struggles with the challenges before them, the Spirit beckons them, enlivens them to go forward, carrying out the commission to be Christ's witnesses to the ends of the earth. Despite a fearful beginning, the Acts winds up with its last words coming from one of its number (a remarkable convert named Paul) preaching "with all boldness and without hindrance." In contemporary times, the audacious faith of Acts echoes in a quip from William Sloane Coffin Jr., who once said, "I love the recklessness of faith. First you leap, then you grow wings."

When we think that we have everything we know about the Church and its capacities (and limitations) mapped out, the Spirit blows through our midst, sometimes a gale force wind, other times, like a breeze on a summer day. We think the Church can be one thing, when we can be so many other things. The mistake we make is losing sight of the Pentecost story, the day when a group gathers and becomes something diverse yet unified, and sent forth to share the gospel with the world. The Spirit summons the many people to many ways of sharing the Gospel. Whether it is through teaching, dancing, serving meals, construction, advocacy, care giving, singing, and the list goes on and on, the gathered people called Church share the story of Christ and embody the gospel.

I suppose it would be fair game to put it this way: If you think of Pentecost as time long ago, you might have missed the point. The Spirit is still moving in our midst, calling us forth, and empowering us for the many ways of ministry. We are still learning what it means to be a church moving in the power of the Spirit.

The Rev. Jerrod H. Hugenot serves as coordinating minister of the First Baptist Church of Bennington. Correspond via: fbpastor@sover.net