Monday, June 1, 2009

The Spirit moved the disciples out of the locked upper room, where they were hiding, and into the streets where they encountered the needs of the people. So too, the Spirit gives us the ability to minister to the needs of those around us, the hungry, the poor, those left out of the American dream as well as those caught up in the relentless pursuit of that dream. The Spirit opens our eyes and hearts as well as our ears, and calls us to see one another as brothers and sisters in Christ. Without that we are only preaching, and of that the world already has too much. from Christ Our Savior Lutheran Grace Notes

The Day of Pentecost, marking the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the followers of Jesus fifty days after Easter, was celebrated yesterday. We continue that celebration in today's prayer time.

A Word from Scripture
When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability.

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. 7Amazed and astonished, they asked, “Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? 8 And how is it that we hear, each of us, in our own native language? Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabs—in our own languages we hear them speaking about God’s deeds of power.” All were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, “What does this mean?” But others sneered and said, “They are filled with new wine.”

A Prayer
Spirit of the living God,
visit us again as on the day of Pentecost.
With rushing wind that sweeps away all barriers,
With tongues of fire that set our hearts aflame,
With speech that unites the Babel of our tongues,
With love that overleaps the boundaries of race and nation,
With power from above to make our weakness strong,
Come, Holy Spirit,
in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Blessing
May the Spirit of God be our bridge over troubled waters
and the step that moves our feet;
And be ahead of us, among us and behind us
until our journey's end.

sources: Spirit of the Living God - From Ashes to Fire, Supplemental Resource 8, Abingdon Press, `1979
May the Spirit of God - Litanies and Other Prayers, Year B, Phyllis Cole and Everett Tilson
Abingdon Press, 1990