CHURCH NEWS
Dear friends and neighbors,
Imagine you're a first-century Jew. You've come from Egypt or Turkey to Jerusalem for the festival of first fruits, Pentecost. Suddenly you hear a noise like a loud wind, so loud that you join a curious crowd following the noise through the streets to a house where a group of Galileans are gathered. They look like Galileans, maybe they have a Galilean accent, but they're all speaking at once. And one of them is speaking your language. He looks as surprised as you feel. He is declaring "the wonders of God."
The Christian holiday of Pentecost commemorates this event, when the Holy Spirit came upon Jesus' disciples, enabling them to communicate across the lines of language that have divided races and nations since Babel. God creates a new language, a new community formed by the Spirit. The color for the season of Pentecost is green, representing the growth of that which was born in Christ's resurrection.
Pentecost is the final season of the church year, the conclusion of a story that starts in Advent and follows Christ's life through his birth, ministry, death and resurrection. Every year the church reenacts this progression as a reminder of the stories central to our faith, the story that gives meaning to the stories of our own lives. I think it is fitting that rather than ending in darkness and death like the regular calendar, the church year culminates in a season of promise and potential. This is a statement of hope, a statement that though we go through winters of various kinds, what is real and final is a boundless summer of God's abundant life.
Join us for Bible study at the parsonage, Sundays at 4:00 (835-6699). Out to Lunch is Wednesday, May 16 at 11:30 at the Hill church. After school Church School concludes with a recital on Sunday, May 13. Come hear the children sing on Mother's Day.
Peace,
Rachelle Eaton