Thursday, June 9, 2011

Come Holy Spirit Acts 2:1-21

Come Holy Spirit--
After Jesus rose some of his friends, Peter among them, went back to what they knew best--fishing. Part of the reason may have been that they needed something to do while they were waiting for God to act next. Fishing was what they knew. It was their livelyhood before Jesus called them to follow. After watching Jesus rise they were back on the lake in the boats with the nets in their hands. Jesus promised to be with them, but I don't know, looking at John 21 and acts 1 if they knew exactly how God would come and be with them.
We pray "Come Holy Spirit" for lots of good reasons. The mystery of that prayer is that we aren't always sure what God will do as he comes into our lives when we invite the Holy Spirit in to be our counselor and guide.
Peter left his nets again and Pentecost was a key turning point for him and Jesus other followers. Reading Acts 2 we see Peter as a bold witness to Christ in Jerusalem and reading on we see his ministry include Judea and beyond. Others thought the disciples were drunken as the Spirit entered into them. But it wasn't wine: it was God at work in a surprising way. It was God breaking in and all people hearing the Good News in their own language even though there were people of many nations there in Jerusalem. When we pray come Holy Spirit we invite God in to work not as we expect: but as God needs. This Pentecost pray Come Holy Spirit and be ready to be surprised by what God does.
Pax
John

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

In the congregation where I am currently serving I took out the Pentecost banner. The gifts of the Spirit were listed on it. Two of the gifts were amazingly different from those I had learned. I know that you were raised in the RC faith so you might know the origin of these: Holy Fear and Ghostly Strength. oh, yes i know that they are referencing gifts of the HS but who or where do they come from?

to me they were "unlikely"

John, an unlikely pastor said...

I've not heard of these two translations either. But they sure seem very bold. I did a quick google search and found those listed in a few Anglican Sites including this one http://bookofhours.org/treasury/sevens.htm My best guess is that these originated in older English translations of the catechism.
In many ways I can see these as very close to the meanings of the words as I can understand them.
Pax, John