My favorite movie is Forrest Gump. In the opening scene, a feather gently floats through the sky…destiny drifting…the Spirit moving. The feather lands at the feet of Forrest and he picks it up, embraces it, and sweetly savors the moment he is about to encounter. This Sunday is Pentecost Sunday and we are going to look at the movement of the Holy Spirit in our lives today.I once heard a professor say that one of the biggest problems with The United Methodist Church is that it has numophobia or a fear of the Holy Spirit. We don’t talk much about the Holy Spirit these days in the UMC. Maybe we don’t want to be too evangelical but in the early days of Methodism, that was not the case. John Wesley was always open to manifestations of the Spirit. He believed in the continuing presence and activity of the Spirit and recognized the reality of special gifts of the Holy Spirit.
The focus of his belief was that every Christian was called to holiness of life through the sovereign presence and power of the Holy Spirit. All were to strive for this state with the confident expectation that what they could never accomplish in their own power alone would be given to them by the grace of God. For Wesley, one could not have an experience of grace without having an experience of the Holy Spirit.
Pentecost Sunday is the conclusion of the 50 days of Easter and the commemoration of the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the followers of Jesus Christ as depicted in the Book of Acts. The Apostle Peter preached his first sermon on that very day and over 3000 people were baptized and became the people of God. The church was born!So how do we “catch the wind” of the Holy Spirit in the church today? Is God really active in our lives, sometimes in ways that we don’t even recognize? Absolutely!
Remember to wear red this Sunday for Pentecost, participate in the Save-A-Life Blood Drive from 8 a.m. – 12 noon in Gibson Hall, and bring our change for the “noisy offering” for the Central Conference Pension Initiative.
I don’t know about you, but I could use a fresh breeze! See you Sunday!
-- Rev. Cindy Henry Russell
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