#227. Rev. David Hockett - June 5

This week, we gather to celebrate God’s breathing the Church into existence by the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. (Acts 2) Pentecost is about our being filled with the presence and power of the resurrected Christ that we might continue the mission of Christ to heal and save the world. It’s about having Christ’s Spirit flow in and through us. It is not so much about our feelings. And it’s not about being overcome with emotion, having a nice religious high, raising our hands in praise and then returning home, back to life as usual as if nothing significant had happened at all. No, being filled with the Spirit of the living Christ means having our lives consumed by Christ. It means having our hearts set on fire with love for God and love for the world for which Christ came. It means that we come to look and sound like Jesus, until as Paul says, “…it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me….” (Galatians 2:20a) Pentecost is a celebration, pointing us to the potential implanted within and imparted to Christ’s followers to be the change and transformation for which we pray.