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Pentecost Sunday

By Vicar Lisa

This upcoming Sunday, we will celebrate Pentecost. Traditionally, on Pentecost Sunday we wear red to commemorate the “tongues of fire” that descended on the early church.

Originally Pentecost was a Jewish thanksgiving-type festival celebrated seven weeks after Passover. On this particular Pentecost, however, the Holy Spirit is poured out upon the entire community of believers just as Jesus had promised and the scriptures had prophesied. Empowered by the Spirit, the entire community bears witness to God’s activity in multiple languages.

Much of the Book of Acts details the ways in which the Spirit guides and empowers the leaders of the Christ movement. The Spirit enables Peter and Paul to proclaim the gospel of Christ with boldness, raise persons from the dead, heal the sick in Jesus’ name, and overcome the powers of other so-called deities and spirits.

The Spirit equips Stephen to bear witness to Christ with wisdom and power. The Spirit whisks Philip the evangelist from one place or another. The Spirit falls upon Cornelius and his household even before Peter finishes speaking to them. Many activities of believers in Acts are directed immediately by the Spirit or through dreams and visions.

The giving of the Spirit parallels the giving of the law, God’s gift to a renewed people who experience a foretaste of full salvation in the community of repentant believers. Because many Jewish pilgrims came from outside the Jewish homeland to Jerusalem for Pentecost, the good news of this salvation is immediately extended across social and cultural boundaries in Acts 2.

 

Pentecost Sunday May 19,

10 a.m. Worship with Communion

 

Announcements

  • Fellowship Time: Join us after worship for coffee and fellowship. We will be leading an introduction to Becoming an Inclusive Church and will include handouts and videos.
  • Bible Study: Our weekday study is held every Wednesday at 9:30 a.m. Currently, Pastor Becky McNeil is leading a Kerygma study on Spirituality and the Lord’s Prayer.
  • Flowers: There are plenty of days available to sponsor flowers. Select the date in the flower book at the back of the sanctuary, write your name and any commemoration you want included in the bulletin. A minimum donation of $35 is encouraged and donation envelopes are in the flower book, too.
  • Save the Date: Women of the ELCA retreat, Bee Blessed (a fresh look at the Beatitudes), has been rescheduled to July 20, 2024. It will be held from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on July 20 at Grace Lutheran Church in Colorado Springs.

E-formation – Pentecost Sunday, May 19

This coming Sunday is Pentecost, the fiftieth day of Easter, and we keep the resurrection of Christ by celebrating the Spirit of the risen Christ in our midst. Jesus Christ has not gone away but is here with us, and we stand to greet him and hear his words in the gospel reading.

John 15:26-27; 16:4b-15

“Advocate,” “counselor,” and “comforter” are terms offered as translations of parakletos, found five times in John, once in 1 John, and nowhere else in the Bible. The historical sources of this figure are much debated by scholars. The Advocate, the spirit of truth, will come to complete Christ’s mission, witness to Christ’s resurrection, give glory to Christ, and judge the sinful world. For the Johannine communities, the presence of the divine Advocate assures them of the truth of their beliefs. The fourth evangelist, or a later editor, is insistent about the truth of the Johannine community, despite alternate theological positions that were present in the growing Christian movement.

Acts 2:1-21

Once again Luke presents a narrative to convey meaning. The fire and wind, associated with God’s presence on Mount Sinai, are now experienced in the assembly of believers, and miraculous events, seen in the ministry of Jesus, occur now in the church. Acts is moving the church into all the ends of the earth and Acts 2 begins this multilingual proclamation. Luke cites the apocalyptic vision of the prophet Joel to authenticate the power of God among the leaders of the church. By “tongues” Luke refers to actual languages that were spoken in the Greco-Roman world.

Romans 8:22-27

One of the seminal letters written by Paul, addressed to the church in Rome in about 57 ce, Romans contains one of the earliest theological expositions of the Christian faith and lays out the relationship between Jews and those who are baptized into Christ. In the Old Testament, “spirit of God” is one translation of God’s continuing activity. For Paul, the Spirit is described as separate from Christ, the on-going power of the risen Christ made known in the community of believers. Verses 26-27 include an early personification of the spirit of the risen Christ. Paul anticipates the coming of God’s eschatological age.

Zion's Lutheran Church

zionsluth@gmail.com

719-846-7785