Pentecost!

Today is Pentecost which is one of my favorite holidays. On Pentecost we celebrate the coming down of the Holy Spirit upon the disciples (Acts 2). At Plainsboro Presbyterian they have been folding origami cranes for prayer doves for weeks, and they were installed yesterday in the front of the church. They asked people to write prayers in any language they speak or read on the white side of the origami paper. The theme was that the church is a house of prayer for all peoples (Isaiah 56:7). They were beautiful and colorful, and they had several members of the church read prayers and scripture in their first languages.

At Pentecost the Spirit empowered the disciples to overcome the barriers of geography and language to preach the Gospel. And not everyone received the Gospel the way we would normally think. People openly sneered at the disciples and said they were drunk. Some completely dismissed the good news they were hearing, and some heard and believed and were transformed. Their lives were transformed by the power of the Spirit, and the patterns of their behavior changed. That is the beauty of Pentecost. The Spirit working in our lives and in other people's to overcome barriers and to change us inside and outside.
May we be fired up and empowered to preach the Gospel in all we say and do. May we be changed that every thought and action be made into the will of Jesus Christ.

First Sunday of Advent

Today is the first Sunday in Advent. We light the first candle on the wreath for hope.

"The people who walked in darkness
have seen a great light;
those who lived in a land of deep darkness—
on them light has shined....
For a child has been born for us,
a son given to us;
authority rests upon his shoulders;
and he is named
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace"
Isaiah 9: 2, 6


Advent is the beginning of the Christian liturgical year, and it entails the four Sundays before Christmas and Christmas Eve. We wait hopefully to welcome the Christ-child into our hearts on Christmas Day. It is important to note that Christmas does not begin on Black Friday or on the first Sunday of Advent. Just because ABC Family is running their "25 Days of Christmas" campaign during December does not mean that Christmas is now. We are in the season of hope, the season of anticipation, the season of preparation. And just like in Lent we should be holding ourselves accountable to make room in our hearts for Christ. For the past few weeks I have been assisting a local church in preparations for their advent children's pageant. The children are wonderful, and it's going to be a great pageant. The children are teaching me about Christ's love and about the hope we should all have all year long.