Acts 2 and John 14:15-17,20-22

A colleagues’ reflection on God’s Self-giving as Holy Spirit

The wind blows where it will
so also the Spirit,
and whether the presence
of that same spirit
is acknowledged in the breath
of the risen crucified one
or in the sound
of a great rushing wind
and tongues of flame,
it is the same gracious, divine mystery
present from time beyond our dreaming:
 the sound of sheer silence
caressing, comforting,
encouraging, enlivening, challenging;
sometimes tearing down
then building up.

The church’s habit
is to celebrate at Pentecost
the mystery that is this Spirit,
in a manner
reflective of Luke’s telling
loud, bright, colourful,
even triumphal.

However we understand the event,
what might the church become
if we celebrated and lived
the presence 
of that divine mystery of grace
in a manner
reflective of the gentle breath
of Easter?

© Jeff Shrowder, 2016                     .Rev Louis