The Scripture Readings this week are:
- Genesis 11:1-9
- Acts 2:1-21
Early Thoughts: Near the beginning of our faith story people are separated, driven apart by their different languages. Near the end of the Scripture story those self same divisions are broken down as people lose themselves in the power of the Holy Spirit.
Pentecost is often called the "birthday of the church". As the writer of Luke-Acts tells the story it is only at Pentecost that the early followers of Jesus gained the confidence/courage/certainty that they needed to move out from amongst themselves and build a broader community. Without Easter there would be no faith community. Without Pentecost it may never have become more than a small local movement. Such is the power of the Spirit to move within and through people.
AS people of faith we are called to allow the Spirit to feel our bodies, we are called to let the Spirit blow us where it will (which may or may not be the direction we intended to go). This can be a threatening challenge. But Pentecost reminds us that what seems impossible is in fact possible.
The tower of Babel story is about people being divided. Life in the Spirit is about people being united (remembering of course that unity is not uniformity -- the people in Jerusalem that day each heard their own language, they did not all hear the same language). How is the Spirit at work in our communities? What walls of division are being broken down?
--Gord
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