Part 1 of 2
Daily Office Readings for Pentecost: Year 1
Morning, Psalm 118; Evening, Psalm 145;
Isaiah 11:1 to 9; 1 Corinthians 2:1 to 13; John 14:21 to 29;
“Jesus answered him, ‘Those who love me will keep my word, and my Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them.” (John 14:23)
Jesus is telling Judas (not Iscariot), that those of us who love God, and God in Christ Jesus, that they will come to us and make their home in us. Wow!, that makes us part of the Trinity.
Part 2 of 2
Eucharistic Readings for Day of Pentecost: Year B
Ezekiel 37:1 to 14 Psalm 104:25 to 35, 37; Acts 2:1 to 21; John 15:26 to 27; 16:4b to 15
“Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven living in Jerusalem. And at this sound the crowd gathered and was bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in the native language of each:” (Acts 2:5 and 6).
This sounds like the reverse of the separation of the languages, (Babel), that took place in Genesis 11:1 to 9. This Bible story also shows the language-effect to be a communal act. If we are not to communicate with one another, we don’t need a language.
Our Book of Common Prayer recognizes the communal nature of the Holy Spirit in the words it has us to say in our apostle’s Creed on pages 96 and 120. We say: “I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy Catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. Amen.” The Holy Spirit of God moves in community regardless of language, ethnicity, nationality, so-called race, orientation, or any other human construct. The Holy Spirit is about God among us, leading us until the day we are taken to God.
The observance of Pentecost or Whitsunday is an important day within the Church. It is God coming to humanity in God’s own Holy Spirit. Let me close with an optional collect from page 227 of our Book of Common Prayer.
O God, who on this day taught the hearts of your faithful people by sending to them the light of your Holy Spirit: Grant us by the same Spirit to have a right judgment in all things, and evermore to rejoice in his holy comfort; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Let us live to love, more than just love to live, listening to what the Spirit is saying to, and through, the saints of God, while pondering anew what the Almighty can do. John
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