Dear friends,
It’s almost Pentecost! This year, we will celebrate a week late, so we can focus our worship on remembrance on Memorial Day weekend. That Sunday, May 28, we will join with our siblings at Plymouth Church for a service led by our Open Spirit Intern, Deanne Joy. Deanne has created a series of six quilts, each honoring the sacrifice of service people during one of six conflicts. The quilts were hung at our Veterans Appreciation Dinner last fall, and they will be featured at the City of Framingham’s Memorial Day Ceremony on May 29. In the service, Deanne will reflect on the first quilt, which honors veterans of World War I. Please note, this service will be held at Plymouth Church.
The following Sunday, June 4, we will celebrate Pentecost with a joyous, festive and hopefully chaotic worship service. Danielle Rousseau and Jim Tanner have graciously offered their yard. We will have great music, a parade with a giant dove, and very unusual communion bread. You won’t want to miss it!
This year, the Pentecost story feels especially meaningful and important. The Holy Spirit came upon the disciples at a time of great change and uncertainty. They had born witness as their beloved friend and teacher was brutally executed. They were struggling to make sense of his resurrection. They had reveled in his presence in their midst for a little while, and then grieved when he left them once again. They responded to loss and uncertainty with a very natural human reaction: they turned inward, hiding behind locked doors.
Then the Holy Spirit came upon them, breaking through walls, calling them from their fear, challenging them to look outward, inspiring them to proclaim good news in many languages. The Holy Spirit turned a time of uncertainty into a time of opportunity.
In our world, in our church, in our lives, it feels as though we are in a season of change and uncertainty.
It is tempting to respond to change and uncertainty by turning inward, by making ourselves smaller. The story of Pentecost challenges us instead to trust that the Holy Spirit will be with us. If we dare to open ourselves, the Spirit will bless us with courage, inspiration and creativity. The Spirit will lead us to new possibilities we could never have imagined.
May the Spirit blow through our Pentecost celebrations. May the Spirit blow through this beloved community, comforting, awakening, opening us to new ideas.
Peace, Debbie