Pastor's Message for June, 2006
Pentecost...and Beyond
Some (almost) summer musings
Pentecost is like the popping of the champagne cork - the wine of the Spirit proves to be lively, bubbly, and uncontainable. And once the Holy Spirit is loosed into the life of Christ's Church, one of the cardinal sins the church can commit would have to be "dullness"!
Pentecost is about empowerment. One of the words in our congregation's vision statement of what we seek to be by God's grace is "dynamic." "Dynamic" is from the Greek word dunamis, which in the New Testament does not refer to power as the world understands it, but to the power of the Holy Spirit (as, e.g., in Romans 15:13). We have power to do the work of the Lord only as the Spirit empowers us, not out of our own supply of energy.
But while the Spirit energizes the church and makes it a lively and "spirited" place, this does not necessarily mean that the church is always a "three-ring-circus" of the Spirit. High voltage activity may or may not be evidence of the Spirit's presence - it may be the spirit of busyness and turbulence that characterizes so much of life in our society. We know the Spirit when we "come and find the quiet center" (as we sing) no less than when we're "giving our all" out on the circumference of life.
The Sundays after Pentecost constitute a long season called "Ordinary Time" (There are also 7 or 8 Sundays of Ordinary Time after Epiphany and before Lent). The "ordinary" in Ordinary Time does not indicate that these days are expected to be drab and lackluster; the word refers to the fact that the Sundays between Pentecost and the beginning of Advent are identified by ordinal numbers rather than by the church season, such as "17th Sunday in Ordinary Time." But - on the other hand - there are many days lived in faith that are "ordinary": in the usual sense of the word...days when we know the quiet presence of God, when nothing dramatic happens...except the miracle of life itself. Faith knows mountaintop times - but only on occasion. Indeed, if all of faith were lived "on the mountaintop," we'd never know it was a mountaintop; we need the valleys to appreciate the high moments.
One of the apparent "ordinary" apostles was Matthias. Have you heard of him? He was chosen by lot to fill the position of Judas, following the betrayer's shame and death (story in Acts 1:15-26). But that brief passage that reports his inclusion as an apostle is the only place we ever hear of Matthias again. Was he a person of little consequence? Or was Matthias, like most of Christ's followers through the centuries, a faithful witness to the gospel in a steady, unspectacular way? The bold activism and high visibility of a Peter or Paul - the quiet day-to-day witness and work of a...maybe Matthias? There is room for both in the church - and more to the point, the church needs both expression of faith.
I wish all of you a pleasant summer season of "ordinary time" blessed by touches of joy and refreshment. Remember that neither the Holy Spirit nor church goes on vacation - we continue to be open on Sundays and hope to see you in worship whenever you're in town.
May blessings abound,
Rev. Dr. Floyd W. Churn
Pastor
Dutch Neck Presbyterian Church
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