Sunday brings us to the day of Pentecost in the life of the Church.  Fifty days will have passed since our celebration of the resurrection of Christ at Easter.  We who like to think of ourselves as swimming in the religious mainstream tend to be a little bashful about Pentecost.  After all, this is the day that we remember the Holy Spirit invading the morning worship of a small band of quiet believers minding their own business and going about the rituals of their morning prayers.  Once the Spirit came upon them, though, they could not keep themselves from going public with the peculiar and powerful message of the Gospel.

Chances are good that there are very few of us who really relish the thought of having everyone look at us like what happened to those believers back in Jerusalem.  Causing folks to stop and wonder what in the world has gotten hold of us and made us to act in ways that seem so out of sorts with the normal ways of doing things is usually pretty low on the list of things we want to do.  And yet, when the Spirit takes hold there is really no holding back, is there?

Maybe that is why so many of us do our best to keep the Spirit at bay.  We might wear red on Sunday, show up to hear a sermon about what went on in Jerusalem a couple of thousand years ago among those folks for whom things were just so different back then, but that is about as far as most of us are willing to go most of the time.  The absurdity of what Luke reports in Acts 2:1-21 is almost too much to comprehend.

Pentecost Sunday paints for us a portrait of some of the challenges that we are up against as the Church in the world.  We hear the story and remember that we are often wide of the mark when it comes to carrying forward the work and the witness of those who were gathered there on that first day.  We might be humbled by the enormity of the moment.  But at the same time we are scared by the fact that so little that resembles the explosiveness of the Church then seems to exist now.

The unexpected can – and does – happen!  That is one of the many bits of good news that goes with the message of Pentecost.  God is not finished.  God continues to pour out the Spirit and God continues to empower God’s people in every generation in every place to be about the work of the Kingdom in the world.

But – and this is big – we would do well to prepare ourselves for surprises.  One never knows where the wind might blow.  Scripture says that it was something like the wind whipping through their worship that day when the Church was enlivened.  So who knows, maybe it is happening again.  And the great good news of the Gospel is that we get to be a part of it!

Maybe you have seen the YouTube video that was written by David Lose.  Check it out by clicking here.  See what you think.  Get ready.  Sunday is coming.  And don’t forget…it’s Pentecost.