Pentecost and preaching

Today, we celebrated Pentecost. I know that Christmas and Easter get a lot for play time, but Pentecost is one of my favorite days in the entire church year. At Christmas, our attention is on "and the Word became flesh," and we think of that flesh as a tiny baby. We have a visual. At Easter, of course, our attentionis on the Resurrection, and we think of the empty cross or the stone rolled away. Again, we have a visual.

But, Pentecost??? Well, we have the tongues of fire in Acts. We have the Spirit brooding over the waters in Genesis. We have Jesus breathing the Spirit in John. We have fruits of the Spirit in many of Paul's letters. What we do NOT have is one visual. And, that's one reason I like Pentecost. It allows our minds to wonder! It gives new life to spiritual creativity. The Spirit comes in any number of ways to any number of people.

I suppose that makes me feel hopeful and challenged...both at the same time. It makes me want to pay attention to where the Spirit shows up in my own life, and it makes me want to hear the stories about where the Spirits shows up in your life.

I experimented with recording my sermon today. If you'd like to listen, here it is in MP3 format.


Pentecost Sermon 2013

And, since I'm posting audio, here is a sermon from May 5 - same format.


May 5, 2013