Pentecost is a time for celebration within the life of the church. The birthday of the church, the day when the God of the universe fulfills God’s promise of Holy Spirit power for his people. Monday is usually a day where I think about church and what happened during worship on Sunday and my sermon. One of my thoughts yesterday I tried to convey was that when God’s Spirit comes upon God’s people that its usually a noisy event.

What if there’s no noise though? What if we don’t feel the noise of pentecost? As Monday is now here and the celebration of mother’s day is behind me, I think about some of these questions. And I wonder that if I have these questions, maybe others in my church have the same kinds of questions about their own lives when it comes to the power that God has promised us through the gift of his Holy Spirit. 

I think to often that people are judged on whether of not a person has God’s Spirit within them by how much they are doing within the life of the church or by whether or not they act a certain way. I think this can really hurt a community of faith. Another thought that I had coming away from yesterday is that I wonder if we in the church forget that when God promised the gift of God’s Spirit, that it wasn’t meant to be a private gift. It was a gift meant for the whole people of God to be shared. It’s a gift that empowers us to do the work of proclamation, sharing with the world, the love and grace of Jesus Christ.

It’s also what keeps us above water and Its what keeps us smiling at the noise within the life of the church, even if there isn’t a whole lot of noise going on.  What I enjoy about Pentecost is that God’s Spirit is always at work. Always moving and always creating some noise. It means though that we need to stop, watch, and listen to the noisy parts of the church that people often forget to pay attention to in the day to day things of church and community.