Happy Birthday!
As I write this article for the newsletter, it is a gray and rainy day, in the middle of what is turning out to be a gray and rainy week. It looks kind of gloomy to be celebrating a birthday!
But we are celebrating a birthday nonetheless, our birthday! And the clouds and the rain and the wind can’t do anything to dampen the joy of our celebration!
It is Pentecost, the season in the church when we celebrate our birthday as the body of Christ, as the Christian church. It is the season when we celebrate God’s gift of the Holy Spirit.
In A Brief Statement of Faith, which we have been using as our confession of faith in worship for the past several weeks, we proclaim our trust in God, the Holy Spirit — the giver and renewer of life who justifies us, sets us free to love God and neighbor, and binds us together into the one body of Christ, the church.
What a gift God has given us! What a gift God has given the church! And what a gift we are called to be to the world, proclaiming the good news of the gospel as we are empowered and led by the Holy Spirit!
I have a song stuck in my mind, a song that just wants me to sing it! A song of joy and celebration for the gift of God’s Holy Spirit. “Every time I feel the Spirit moving in my heart I will pray; yes, every time I feel the Spirit moving in my heart I will pray!” Sing it with me if you can. Even if you don’t know it, look it up on YouTube and join us!
Happy Birthday!
Pastor Carolyn