On Pentecost
A Pastoral Letter by Executive Presbyter Rev. Dr. Neal Presa
Dear Friends, Colleagues, and Partners of the Presbytery of San José,
Beginning this Sunday, June 8th, take out your church’s red paraments and let us join the worldwide Church in ringing in the season of Pentecost. The Spirit is on the move!
Jim Manley’s famous hymn, “Spirit, Spirit of Gentleness” (Glory to God hymnal # 291) has these familiar lines in the chorus:
Spirit, Spirit of gentleness, blow through the wilderness calling and free,
Spirit, Spirit of restlessness, stir me from placidness, wind, wind on the sea.
This is the time for pastors, worship planners, and musicians to play the hymn range of pages 280-294, what the Glory to God hymnal designates as “Gift of the Holy Spirit.” This section of songs is sandwiched between the section called “Jesus Christ: Ascension and Reign” and the section of songs called “The Church.” It’s sort of like the great scene of Pentecost recounted for us in Acts 2 – the countless crowd from many nations praising God in different languages and the apostle Peter preaching about God’s movement and mission in the witness of the prophets, revealed in Jesus Christ, and sending forth the Spirit, who deploys the people of the Way to proclaim in word and in deed the living Lord Christ.
In our Reformed theological tradition, the Heidelberg Catechism asks this in Q. 53: “What do you believe concerning the Holy Spirit?” in commenting upon the Apostles’ Creed. The Catechism answers that this way:
First, that the Spirit, with the Father and the Son, is eternal God. Second, that the Spirit
is given also to me, so that, through true faith, he makes me share in Christ and all his
benefits, comforts me, and will remain with me forever.
Several years ago, in reflecting upon this Q/A 53, I wrote that some of our great Calvinist/Reformed theologians would likely describe “the person and work of the Holy Spirit as the hinge, pivot, and fulcrum on which all else balances.” (Presa, Our Only Comfort: 52 Reflections on the Heidelberg Catechism [Westminster John Knox, 2015], p.71) Why? Because the Holy Spirit connects us to the risen-ascended Jesus Christ, connects us to one another and to all of God’s people in every time and place, illuminates our understanding about the Scriptures, gives us words to pray and enables us to pray, comforts us, weeps with us, strengthens us, teaches us the teachings of Christ. And yes, as Manley’s hymn prays, “Spirit, Spirit of restless, stir me from placidness.”
Far from Pentecost being one season in the calendar or even one occurrence in Scripture, the festival of Pentecost celebrates who was, and is, and always will be: the person and work of the Spirit of God, who hovered over creation’s waters (Genesis 1:2) is the same Spirit who was present at Jesus’ baptism (John 1:32), who issues an invitation to all who are thirsty saying “Come” (Revelations 22:17). What we celebrate is the universal presence and the all-encompassing movement of the Holy Spirit in our lives, in the world, and in all of history. That is why we live in and with faith, hope, and love – these triad gifts from the Spirit – to work and pray for justice, to keep on keeping on, to trust that “God will make a way, where there seems to be no way” (Don Moen).
Come, Holy Spirit. Stir us from placidness. Blow through the wilderness, calling and free.
In Joy and Justice,
Neal D. Presa, Executive Presbyter
(408) 763-5004 | Neal@sanjosepby.org
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