by Reverend Gerry Bennet, Assisting Priest,
(from June 2001 Tidings)
Gerry’s Geriatric Glimmerings
The Spirit will blow and burn with a wondrous power of God
“Put off your old nature . . . and
be renewed in the Spirit . . . and put on a new nature.”
Ephesians 4:22-24
Christianity is rooted in the past and
looks toward the future, but memory and hope exist only in the present. What a
message this is as we approach the Day of Pentecost, a celebration of what has already
been given by God, and a time of rededication and new beginning.
The disciples were a crestfallen group, as
their leader was taken from their midst, but over and over our Lord admonished them to do
the work they were called to do. How easy it was for them to turn into themselves,
form a nucleus of like-minded people and bemoan their fate. But three events
occurred which changed their direction, changed their lives, changed the world.
Those three: Easter, Ascension, and Pentecost. All of these combined to force the
disciples to refocus their lives. No longer could they live in the past, nor in the
future. God required of them that they live today, with tendrils reaching in both
directions . . . back and forward.
The Holy Spirit brings the past into
present memory, and at the same time, fills us with new hope, forging us into a
community. However, we must always act in the present, for the present is beginning
to act right now.
The Pentecost experience must and does
speak to us. We are those frightened disciples, feeling despair and loss, living and
reliving cherished memories, turning inward. It is high time, however, for a
Pentecost experience, with its time of new creation, to give us the purpose and power to
do God’s will.
The Holy Spirit often seems so elusive,
for our days are not always spirit-filled. Scripture speaks of Spirit in at least
two ways — as a presence that is always there, or as a dynamic visitation by a divine
power. Both are true in our lives. The Holy Spirit can under-gird all our
human awareness and consciousness, and since that relationship is so fundamental, we may
fail to appreciate the work of the Spirit. But on some rare and wonderful occasions
the Spirit will blow and burn with a wondrous power of God, creating a new people with
strong roots to the past, with great hope for the future, but living for God in the
present and doing His holy work. Let us pray for the coming of the Holy Spirit in
this church.
In the Spirit of God,
Gerry+
See Father Gerry's previous columns:
  
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