Pentecost

From Lizzie :

When pondering on this next service I couldn’t help realising that it was around the time of Pentecost. This got me thinking. For me, this year has been an incredibly significant year during Holy week. Walking with the cross and death of Jesus has resonated deeply because last year I walked with my mother very closely as she faced death and died from cancer. I share this because the last service we did allowed us to taste the experience of death in our lives. The experience of holding onto our crosses in the face of much uncertainty, stripping experiences, doubt and confusion. At the end of this journey of grief we came to the resurrection, our Easter celebration. A time of joy as hope is returned, Jesus is alive and all is well.

However, as we reflect upon the journey of the disciples and other followers at that time it was still a time of great uncertainty, fear, doubt and vulnerable experiences. The disciples were still journeying towards Pentecost and the upper room. This posses a juxtaposition. On the one hand we have experienced the resurrection power in whatever context that has shown itself within our lives, and in the other we are still in the upper room waiting in some what uncertainty for Jesus to incarnate himself in our life, in the lives of those around us and in creation itself. To follow on from this when incarnation happens a set of other uncertainties exist within the new certainties of God’s actions through and in Jesus. Those who followed the way were to leave the upper room and to head out into a world and a life not neatly mapped out, but with great unknowing and vulnerability.