With #Pentecost trending on Twitter, it seems appropriate to ask Christian writers to define this momentous event in the life of the church.
They aren’t exactly 140 characters, but Deborah Arca Mooney did manage to compile these helpful definitions – in 100 words or less. Still quite a feat when you think about it. (This, from the people who brought you God in 100 Words or Less.)
Some favorites:
It is easy to get swept away by the vision of God’s dream for the world. Unlike the brokenness of the present, it is whole. Unlike the violence of the present, there is peace. Unlike, well, what is actual, something more is possible. The Holy Spirit is God’s continuous gift to the present that protests what is with what could be. She is the always-active agent of God’s coming. Life in the Spirit then, is one that dreams God’s dream during the day. [Tripp Fuller]
when we put the gospel
to hip hop
and host u2charists,
when we share the church building
with the Korean congregation,
when we preach against homophobia
when we break bread
with jews and muslims,
when the teenagers lead worship
on a regular Sunday (not just youth day)
when we invoke the ancestors
and learn from their lives,
when we live at the borders
offering water to those in the desert
harbor to those in danger
and community when we don’t fit in. . .
it is then that we speak in tongues
… and this one, found in the comments, weighing in at 137 words:
The Holy Spirit is a wild and wonderful woman, and when she flaps her wings, things happen! She is quiet peace in the face of turmoil. She brings fresh air to chase out stagnation. She holds us secure when we cannot see the light at the end of the tunnel because the tunnel has taken an unexpected turn. She is the breath of life, whether it comes as coughs or sneezes, or sighs too deep for words. She is the gracious energy that swirls around us and shakes within us, and when life gets unbearably noisy, she is our sighs, our sighs too deep for words. She is heard and she speaks, and when it is our turn to be heard, she speaks truth to power as well as love to the repentant. She makes us holy. [Marnie Rourke]