Worship & Congregation

Pentecost is also known as the birthday of the church. It’s not about just Trinity Church, or any church building. It is about all of us — the people who follow in Jesus’s way of peace!

The Gospel reminds us that the Church’s calling, as the body of Christ animated by the Holy Spirit, is to be a reconciling presence of Christ’s peace in the world. It reminds us, too, in an age replete with conflict and the political manipulation of truth, that the way of life for Christians is clear: to be agents of peace, to be the reconciling presence of Christ in the world. 

But through prayer and song while in jail, [Paul and Silas] realized God’s justice is bigger than merely knowing what’s right — and that the freedom to offer compassion and mercy is more powerful than any punishment.

I’ve been enjoying a television series called Midnight Diner. Each episode offers a little vignette about universal human longings. It takes place in a simple after-hours diner in Tokyo where up to a dozen guests sit down at the square counter and call out their order — usually a food of some kind that brings back tender memories of home. Most of the quiet action of each episode happens on this small set. The chef, whom they call “Master,” is a man of few words.

Perhaps this story is not simply about God rewarding believers but another of Paul’s (and humanity’s) “conversions” — from hubris to humility, again and again, continuously. Could the cyclical nature of our reunions with the Holy Spirit be the divine oneness we all share? Is this what Jesus pleads for us in the Gospel just before he ascends to be one with God; incarnation to reincarnation, the Alpha and the Omega?