The Feast of Pentecost is traditionally a time when new believers are baptized, because it is the feast that marks the birth of the church and the gift of the Holy Spirit. By celebrating a baptism, we remember anew our own beginnings as disciples as Christ, and also the whole church’s reliance upon the Holy Spirit to animate and guide us in the work of God.
The Holy Spirit gets a lot less ‘press’ than Jesus in our tradition, and I think that is partly because we cannot put a face to her; she moves like the wind, burns like fire, and is generally unpredictable and – to our minds – unknowable. Our Anglican penchant for reason makes this feel uncomfortable, so we gravitate to those aspects of God which we can more easily define, as if somehow by defining God we could make God more accessible, even more controllable.
But the wildness of the Holy Spirit is critical, especially for us, because (much as we might like it to be), life is not predictable, nor often within our control. There is no clear road map for our lives, nor for our discipleship. We must learn to trust the God who is the author of our creation and salvation, and of the church itself. That can be very hard, when we perceive things going wrong all around us, leaving us to wonder if God has abandoned us, or even if God was never here to begin with.
The Feast of Pentecost gives us an an object lesson for just such times. The disciples are gathered wondering what to do next, feeling abandoned because Jesus has left them a second time. And then the Holy Spirit comes, unpredictable, with the rush of wind and flames of fire, to animate them into a new being; a new life. The prayer that Jesus prays, “Father, let them be one as you and I are one” has been answered.
Just so, we are one in this same Spirit today, and every baptism we celebrate adds depth and breadth to the body we share. May we continue to grow together, in faith and in love, rejoicing in the power of the Holy Spirit, who comes in wind and fire and empowers us all for the work of the Gospel.
Mother Amanda