Come Holy Spirit?

Pentecost is this Sunday, the day we celebrate the birth of the church. This story has always been a bit terrifying to me - loud rushing winds, tongues of fire on people’s heads, naysayers yelling that the people are drunk. It’s a bit like the midway this past Victoria Day weekend here in my hometown, full of sights, smells and rides that maybe push your comfort zone and limits.

I wonder how many of us actually want the Holy Spirit to come. We sing about it in our hymns, and we like its gentle and guiding presence, but do we want it’s vivid, inclusive and literally earth-shaking nature to come? We can tend to focus on the difference for us personally of the Spirit giving us gifts and bringing us close to God in Jesus’ bodily absence. But are we truly ready to accept that the Spirit allowed all peoples of all races from around the world to understand each other and to be brought into equality before God?

My WASP city is becoming more and more diverse with a variety of ethnic restaurants and many new people who look different among us. This can feel like a threat of sorts to some and, if I’m totally honest, even to me who likes things the way they were when I was growing up and the town was smaller and you knew everyone. Now, there are all sorts of streets I don’t even know let alone people who are strangers. Of course, there are many places where concerns like these would be laughable to people living there who enjoy and are enriched by a variety of cultures and backgrounds.

If we embrace Pentecost then we need to embrace the whole story. The Spirit was sent that day because all the nations were gathered for a Jewish festival. The known world had come together and even those who didn’t understand the language used in the temple came to Jerusalem out of devotion to God. This event went far beyond the upper room where the disciples were holed up. This opened up the possibility of taking God and the fledgling church around the world. This event told people from all over that they mattered too and had a pivotal role to play.

Is the present-day church representative of this story, both in our welcoming of the Spirit to move among us and in the faces we find in the pews? Are our congregations reflective of the demographics and races and cultures of those in our neighbourhoods and cities, or are we monochromatic and all the same? If we’re not representative of the place where we live, what changes are necessary to let those not a part of us feel genuinely welcome and included?

In Genesis 11 people trying to be God were scattered and separated by language. Pentecost does the opposite, bringing people of all languages back together and able to understand each other because of God’s power coming to them. Rather than a large structure being built into the sky, there was a level playing field for all with the Spirit drawing them together as one.

Do we want the Holy Spirit to come? I think if we’re honest, some of us don’t. This radical inclusivity and equality and loss of control may be too much and too threatening. My prayer is that we will recognize what the Spirit wants to do to shape us and we will realize, as Jesus told the disciples, that we don’t have to be afraid. May we be people who embrace Pentecost and each other across God’s family.