"When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. And suddenly from heaven there came a  sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them the ability."

~Acts 2:1-4

Microburst

Friends,

Checking in. It has been almost a week since the storm (which we now know was a “microburst”) took us by surprise. Many of you were at home, some of you were at graduations, some of you were driving. I was at my son’s middle school advancement ceremony. Most of the neighborhood around the church lost power. Many of us checked in on one another.

I hope everyone now has power and has had time to replace everything that did not make it through your time without electricity. Please reach out to us at the church if you are still struggling with post-storm clean up or other issues related to the storm.

I was surprised by how quickly the rain fell and how fast the wind blew. “Microburst” was new to my vocabulary. The storm certainly felt like a burst, but it did not feel very micro. I am grateful to the emergency personnel who kept people safe on the roadways and helped folks get back home, as well as for the utility workers who spent long hours bringing the power back up.

Sunday, we will celebrate Pentecost. Pentecost is the day the Holy Spirit descended upon the early church's gathered community — and did so suddenly. The Spirit filled the room of those gathered. Then, those gathered started to speak to one another with vocabulary from other languages. Everyone was speaking a different language, yet everyone suddenly understood. It was a lot all at once. It was a big, quick occurrence. The Holy Spirit descended like a rushing wind, and church has never been the same.

Pentecost was a quick and powerful event, but lately I have been thinking that the most important thing about Pentecost was not the quick thing, but what resulted from it. Ever since Pentecost, the church has been connected by the Holy Spirit — praising God, discerning together, serving others, and checking in with one another. The microburst came and went quickly, yet us checking in on one another remains. In an instant at Pentecost, the Holy Spirit connected the church, and the power of the Spirit-breathed connection remains. 

I am grateful that the Holy Spirit is so powerful that we are still going strong. I'll see you Sunday to celebrate.