Pentecost
John 14: 23-31
Jesus replied, “He who truly
loves me reveals my Spirit, and my Father will love him and we will come to him
and prepare with him a dwelling in the everlasting [an eternal dwelling]. He
who does not love me cannot reveal my Spirit. And the spirit power of the word
that you hear is not from me; it is the speaking of the Father who sent me.
I have said this to you while I am still with you.
But he who is called down, the health-bringing Spirit, whom the Father will
send in my name, he will teach you everything and will awaken within you all
that I have said to you.
Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do
not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do
not be afraid [have no fear].
You have heard how I said to you, ‘I am going away,
and yet I am coming to you’. If you loved me you would rejoice because I am
going to the Father[ly Ground of the World], for the Father is mightier than I
am.
I have told you now, before it happens, so that
when it happens you may find trust. I no longer have much to say to you, for
soon the prince of this world is coming. Yet over me he has no power.
But the world shall see in this how I love the
Father [Ground of the World] and how I act in accordance with the Father’s
purpose, as it was entrusted to me. Arise, let us go on from here. [let us be
on our way.]
Whitsun I
May 27, 2012
John 14: 23-31
Continuously the sun streams its warmth and light onto the
earth. It stimulates and supports the life of the plants. It warms and sustains
both bodies and souls. For the warmth of the sunlight is the vehicle for the
light of God’s life-giving love.
On the first Pentecost, or Whitsun, the disciples are
sitting together, mourning the loss of their Beloved at his Ascension ten days
earlier. In his expansion into the universe, He was lost to their view. On
Whitsunday, at first they experience a movement of air, the sound of a mighty
wind. And then a fire descends, which divides itself into single flames. A
flame comes to rest on each one of them. And they are filled with God’s Spirit
of connecting love.
There are times in our lives, too, when we have our Whitsun
moments. A flame of warmth descends; we sense it, we open to it—the fire of a
creative love. We become vessels for God’s love, His light, His purpose for the
earth. We become suns on earth.
There are words to a hymn that express this wish of ours, to
be a vessel:
Come Down o Love Divine
Seek thou this soul of mine
And visit it with thine own ardor
glowing
O Comforter draw near
Within my heart appear
And kindle it, thy holy flame
bestowing.
…For none can guess its grace
Till he become the place
Wherein the Holy Spirit makes his
dwelling.[1]
[1]
“Come Down, O Love Divine”, words by Bianco da Siena, translated by R. F.
Littledale, set to music by Ralph Vaughan Williams.
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