One of the opening declarations of Scripture about us as human beings is that we were not made to be alone. We were made for fellowship with God—walking with him in the garden in the cool of the day is the image we are given before sin broke that fellowship and led to God's children hiding from him. This break in fellowship with God also led to the breakdown of relationship between God's children. So much of the rest of the biblical story is a story of fragile fellowship ending up in fractured relationships as sin further and further isolates people from one another. We see so much of that these days…
On that first Pentecost after Jesus' resurrection, we shouldn't be surprised that renewed and restored fellowship was one of the great results of the Church being born. As thousands believed and were baptized, the Lord brought them into a new community of genuine fellowship, and life in the Spirit.
St. Luke described this fellowship with these words: “All the believers were together and had all things in common.” This definition still remains the ideal for Christian fellowship today. The early days of the Church's life provide us with a powerful reminder of what we not only need in our church life, but also what we must pursue as a Church. More than people meeting in their isolated silences on Sunday, church must be a place of warmth, inclusion, shared lives, and genuine fellowship and relationship.
We were made for this: real, genuine, shared lives with others. While this fellowship may involve our participation in a big worship experience, it definitely must involve our participation in smaller gatherings where people know us, love us, and we share our lives as well as our meals together. God made us with a need for this, and he has called us into his forever family to have that need met. In the gift of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, we have the means for wisdom and understanding in our relationships in order to have community, compassion and forgiveness. We have what we need to fulfill our mission on earth.
It is so very appropriate that we celebrate today this gift of the Holy Spirit given us (in order that we may live together in ways that make sense!). We share the Word, and a meal. We sing and praise God for all good gifts and blessings.
In this season of weddings, the Feast of Pentecost is a celebration of the wedding of the Holy Spirit to humanity—and the birth of our Church. We celebrate our mission, our commission, our joy, our bliss, our life, our faith, our hope and our love! God’s blessings are on us all!
Keep singing!
Elizabeth Dyc
On that first Pentecost after Jesus' resurrection, we shouldn't be surprised that renewed and restored fellowship was one of the great results of the Church being born. As thousands believed and were baptized, the Lord brought them into a new community of genuine fellowship, and life in the Spirit.
St. Luke described this fellowship with these words: “All the believers were together and had all things in common.” This definition still remains the ideal for Christian fellowship today. The early days of the Church's life provide us with a powerful reminder of what we not only need in our church life, but also what we must pursue as a Church. More than people meeting in their isolated silences on Sunday, church must be a place of warmth, inclusion, shared lives, and genuine fellowship and relationship.
We were made for this: real, genuine, shared lives with others. While this fellowship may involve our participation in a big worship experience, it definitely must involve our participation in smaller gatherings where people know us, love us, and we share our lives as well as our meals together. God made us with a need for this, and he has called us into his forever family to have that need met. In the gift of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, we have the means for wisdom and understanding in our relationships in order to have community, compassion and forgiveness. We have what we need to fulfill our mission on earth.
It is so very appropriate that we celebrate today this gift of the Holy Spirit given us (in order that we may live together in ways that make sense!). We share the Word, and a meal. We sing and praise God for all good gifts and blessings.
In this season of weddings, the Feast of Pentecost is a celebration of the wedding of the Holy Spirit to humanity—and the birth of our Church. We celebrate our mission, our commission, our joy, our bliss, our life, our faith, our hope and our love! God’s blessings are on us all!
Keep singing!
Elizabeth Dyc
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