By, Rev. Ronald Jansen
Pentecost tends to get lost in the shuffle of the busyness of May. What with graduations, confirmations, Mother’s Day, opening of fishing season, if you are in the upper Midwest, Memorial Day, school letting out and summer vacations in the plans, how do we squeeze in the great day and events of Pentecost?
I’ve always lamented the tone of the Pentecost hymns. While the theology is great, they tend not to reflect the “wild and wooly” events of the day. Contemporary hymns don’t help much either. I ran into a song for Pentecost that expected us to sing, “I’m falling in love with Jesus.” No wonder someone was able to write a book called, “Why Men hate to go to Church.”
At the suggestion of my son Aaron, a music director at Peace in Christ, Walkersville, MD, I recruited people to read a portion of the Acts 2:1-21 in several languages. In unison we read verses. 4-13 in Latin, Greek, German, French, Spanish and sign language, while the lector continued to read in English.
I had thought of using several small boxes containing stones or dice and shaking them at verses 7 & 8 during the lesson from Ezekiel 37, but decided not to over do it.
My most memorable Pentecost was last year when I was serving the vacancy at St. Clair, Mo. When I arrived in the parking lot Sam came running out and asked if I had a flashlight. Then he left without explaining. When I entered the church I was told the power was out. Members had been busy setting out every candle available. Someone had brought in a small generator to power the organ. Others came equipped with flashlights and opened cell phones. I moved the chancel candles close to the center of the altar which provided enough light to read, barely.
We pretty much discarded the service in the bulletin and went to an impromptu hymn sing service. During Holy Communion it was difficult to know when we were done because it was still so dark that I couldn’t see the back of the church. Out of darkness the people of God kept filing forward to receive Jesus Body and Blood.
It was a memorable service. The lighted candles reminded us not only of the tongues like fire on Pentecost, but also the words from Psalm 139, “Even the darkness is not dark to you; the night is bright as the day, for darkness is as light with you.”
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