We are a people of possibility and promise, empowered to stand up and speak out even in the midst of uncertainty. Spirit blows through us, opening doors and propelling us out to bring good news to the world.
Pentecost is upon us yet again and for the second we are unable to gather as community in the traditional way. Some of us are weary , perhaps even losing sight of possibilities, and celebration is difficult. We find ourselves, like the disciples, but for different reasons, hiding behind closed doors, confined to our own spaces. We need Pentecost more than ever, that spirit to lift us up, empower us and set us free.
Divided tongues of fire,
appeared among them,
and a tongue rested on each of them
Acts 2 :3
Bring Your Sorrow. Bring your Grief
This Pentecostal blessing comes, even now, to each of us for spirit is not confined to spaces or places. Jan Richardson in her book “Circle of Grace” writes these words
“Bring your sorrow. Bring your grief. Bring your fear. Bring your weariness, your pain, your disgust at how broken the world is,
how fractured. how fragmented, by its fighting, its wars, its hungers, its penchant for power,
its ceaseless repetition of the history it refused to rise above.I will not tell you this blessing will fix all that.
But in this place where you have gathered, wait, watch listen.
Lay aside your inability to be surprised, your resistance to what you do not understand.
See then whether this blessing turns to flames on your tongue, sets you speaking what you cannot fathom.
or opens tour ear to a language beyond your imagining
that comes as knowing in your bone, a clarity in your heart that tells you
this is the reason we were made:
for this ache that finally opens us, for this struggle,
this grace that scorches us toward one another
and into the blazing day.
We are a people of possibility and promise, empowered to stand up and speak out even in the midst of uncertainty. Spirit blows through us, opening doors and propelling us out to bring good news to the world.
May it be so.
Blessings
Valerie