The Kitchen Sink
An occasional piece of paper
May 23, 2010
Vol. 13 no. 21
Pentagon, pentathlon, Pentecost. The Greek word for the number 5 is pente, and then adding all the variations we eventually have the 50th day after Easter. This was the traditional time period between Passover and the feast of Pentecost, a harvest festival. Pentecost for us Christians just happens to be the occasion when something more important happens. In other words, the “50th day after...” means little to us, it’s what took place on the 50th day that matters.
Pentecost poses two problems for mainline Christians like us. First, we are always cautious of too much Pentecost - all the hyperemotional speaking in tongues and ecstatic fits and groaning that Pentecostal churches are known for. Understanding this behaviour as irrelevant and often distracting from authentic Christian faith, we end up consigning the Spirit to the eccentric file.
Second, as a consequence, we end up with too little Pentecost. An odd Biblical story, worthy of all the spectacular miracles, but nothing a rational Christian needs pay attention to. Once we are satisfied with the fact that we are totally rational, thinking Christians, we have ignored a critical part of our being. Without a sense of the Spirit, we no longer think completely nor well.
We insist upon the Trinitarian faith - Father, Son and Holy Spirit - or Creator, Redeemer, Sustainer - but frequently as an intellectual icon for many Christians who really don’t comprehend what it implies. God is easy, Jesus Christ is obvious, but the Spirit is ignored or forgotten about. Yet, without the Spirit moving still among us and in our rational minds, we would not know that the Father and Son exist or matter.
Preached by Robert Kitchen
Knox-Metropolitan United Church
Regina, Saskatchewan