Last Sunday we celebrated Jesus’ ascension into heaven. It’s a typically Lukan scene of strangeness, a man being carried up into the sky until he disappears into the clouds. Things get weirder this week. It’s Pentecost. You’re probably familiar with the story. Jesus’ followers are hanging out, trying to figure out their next move when, suddenly, a wind starts blowing …
The Spirit is Moving
This Sunday is Pentecost, the birth of the Church. It is characterized as a magical, mysterious event where the Spirit of God comes upon the people with wind and fire. We often consider it unique, something that happened (or maybe didn’t) long ago. We commemorate it each year as a memory that is not our own. But my experience is …
Beginnings
I will be brief. This Sunday, Pentecost, Church in the Cliff will gather to ordain me as a Baptist minister. It is thrilling. I have worked toward this for the past four years and it is a delight and an honor to be affirmed by a group of people that I love so much. It is also terrifying. You must …
Pentecost (Program and Sermon)
For those who couldn’t be there.
Pentecost
At Pentecost, it is easy to focus on the drama and weirdness, the wind and fire, speaking in tongues. It’s exciting! Unfortunately, it sets up the kinds of questions that dominate conversations about faith in this day and age: Is it really true? Did it really happen? Did it happen this way, with miracles and strange supernatural events? Those questions …