A Letter from Lindy May 19

Happy Pentecost Pilgrims…
 
Sunday is our Pentecost celebration and one of the life lessons I learned with my previous ministry setting was the dance between theological meaning and church praxis. In this case, my challenge was encouraging my beloved community to let go of their tradition of celebrating this day as the Church’s (big C) birthday. Unless, of course, we are ready for a wild, chaotic, holy, loud, confusing, euphoric, multi-sensory experience. The writer describes this miraculous event as a “rush of a violent wind” that filled the “entire house.” Were we up for that?!
 
They would go all out in proper domesticated church ways–with balloons, streamers, members dressing in red and a birthday cake in fellowship. Even if this was far from the Pentecostal spirit, I cherished their desire to celebrate in particular. It's hard for us to wrap our minds around all that is going on–spectacle, language, Holy Spirit–we do not lack for points of engagement. And the birthday image is enticing, particularly because we treat birthdays as important. But even still, I would gently push, this isn’t the church’s birthday. 
 
Even though I have found Pilgrim to be a bit more sanguine about this particular celebration, I still want us to unpack why I believe this concept is a kind of distraction that brings in conflicting priorities. I would start by advocating that it seems strange that we would need to say anything more than Pentecost is a principal feast of the church–one of the three oldest and central of the church. 
 
I want us to wonder how we ought to celebrate it. The day is so full of imagery and theological opportunity to invest ourselves in and we don’t need any shorthand to join in. Mostly, I don’t want us thinking about the birthday of an institution when we should be thinking about co-participating with God in a love revolution.
 
What I will leave you with is that the church isn’t what should be on our minds. Rather, the trust God has in us to usher in kindom. That is Pentecost’s invitation and gift! One that demands something of us–because Pentecost, with its gift of the Holy Spirit, is personal, incarnational, and real. For us, with us, through us. God with us in the reality of the world. In the muck and mire and joy.


come, Holy Spirit, come.

 Pastor Lindy

(she/her) why pronouns matter