Pentecost by Solomon Raj, India.It was a very windy day here in Dunedin. Boy was it blowing - perfect for Pentecost Sunday!
The scene was set well before anyone turned up. Papers flew around and people arrived windswept.
We had large kites from each corner and a calling of one another to worship as we gathered and brought them to the front. We had a bunch of colourful balloons in each was a slip of paper which would tell us what we would do next in the service - a sense of unknown, of anticipation. The wind rattled the roof.
I got people who wished to come pop a balloon. It was great fun and soon people got into it and I didn't have to even ask. We had a dramatic reading of Acts story, prayers, songs... everyone had a kite in their seat .
In immersing ourselves in the text of Acts 2 we really thought aorund Peter's sermon and his picking up of Joel 2. All sounds so strange,
Then afterward I will pour out my spirit on all flesh; your sons and your
daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men
shall see visions. 29 Even on the male and female slaves, in those days, I
will pour out my spirit. 30 I will show portents in the heavens and on the
earth, blood and fire and columns of smoke. 31 The sun shall be turned to
darkness, and the moon to blood, before the great and terrible day of the Lord
comes. 32 Then everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved;
for in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there shall be those who escape, as the Lord
has said, and among the survivors shall be those whom the Lord calls.JOEL 2
We considered the strangeness and how on that day people attempted to explain away the event of the Spirit. How do we explain so much away?
In the face of this and a world of fears, anxieties and greeds what are we called to be as God's people? We are to fly some kites - prophesy, dreams and visions - testify to the strrange workings of God in the world and life. A people of freedoms, liberated by the Spirit, Loving practices which drive out fears, hopefilled in pointing people to a new reality at work in the midst of everything they see as so settled and explainable, how does or life as individuals and communally give witness to all this?
We are going to fly some kites in our day and our place!
Come Holy Spirit, Come!
