Penticost Sunday

I learned early on that ministers are always being asked questions. Many times during each week, I have people coming to me time and time again with a question or two. Sunday was no different. This time I want to share with all of you what I was asked this past Sunday and the answers I found for myself.
Someone came up to me and asked when is Pentecost Sunday. Like you, I know the main church holidays. I know definitely when Christmas is. I know when Easter is, and Good Friday is even though these two change every year. I even knew when Father’s Day is and of course my own birthday, but Pentecost? I took a guess and went home to discover I was right. Most people don’t even know what it is let alone when it is. You see, some churches don’t celebrate a liturgical church calendar anymore. If you are Catholic or Lutheran, you may know the answers to all of this. Just as an aside, our church calendar numbers off from Pentecost and ends with the Twenty Third Sunday after Pentecost, which is followed by the First Sunday of Advent. Now that’s scary.
So, I did my research and this is what I discovered. For those who have no idea or only a vague idea, Pentecost is the last Sunday of the Easter Season. I know what your saying; “yah, so?” Well-let me fill in a few more details. Pentecost is celebrated seven weeks or fifty days after Easter. In the UK it is called Whitsunday. Whitsunday means seven weeks. It is the day the church celebrates the coming of the Holy Spirit. Which came ten days after Christ’s ascension. Are you still with me? Most of you remember when it was called the Holy Ghost. It is the third person of the Trinity; Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Jesus predicted it’s coming before He ascended to heaven. He said, “I will send you a comforter.” He could have been like the guest that comes to your home and brings a small token gift. When you are invited to someone’s home, you sometimes take something for the host or hostess. You know, something like flowers, or chocolates or the like. Jesus took it one step further. He said he was going to send something that will be with them forever.
Can you imagine what those disciples were thinking? They might think, what would it be, how would it come (especially during a postal strike), and the two all-important questions, when will it arrive and how will it comfort? Now, almost two thousand years later, we all know what the Holy Spirit is. And most of us know what it does within our hearts and minds.
What you may not know is it is symbolically related to the Jewish festival of Shavuot, which celebrates the coming of the Ten Commandments. Are you ready for this, - they came fifty days after the Exodus.
To answer his question, yes indeed, Pentecost is this coming Sunday, June 12. Celebrate the coming of the Holy Spirit. Over the centuries, Pentecost has been described as the “Birthday of The Church.” But even more so, celebrate it coming not just to the disciples, and the church. Celebrate it coming into your heart. Does the Holy Spirit live within your heart? I pray so.
Something to think about.
Rob