From Our Co-Pastors

Pentecost Sunday is May 23rd - the birthday of the church.  We trace the history of our own faith community to this story of the transmission of the Holy Spirit to those followers of Jesus in the Mediterranean basin in the first century.  A long way from Cinco de Mayo, Memorial Day and school graduations it would seem.  Clearly when we were children, seasons of the year were marked by simple and powerful events - our birthday, a major snowfall, losing a tooth or moving to a new class in school.  As we mature, we have choices about how we will experience each season of the year - and on whose terms!  As people of faith, we are called to weave together our lives with the markers of our faith.  What does it mean then to be a Pentecost people?
The Rev. Eric Law, Episcopal priest, author and diversity consultant has written about how the Pentecost story is both a miracle of the tongue and a miracle of the ear.  The Jews gathered in Jerusalem in the story, presumably the religious establishment of their day and a powerful group, are given the gift of hearing and discerning the speech that is in many different languages.  The disciples, the outsiders and religious rebels of the time, are given the gift of speech, able to speak and insert their voices into a marketplace that had been unreceptive to their ideas to that point.  Law explains that these gifts and corresponding actions offer a blueprint for how we are to respond as Pentecost people.  If we are perceived as powerful in any situation, we should seek to listen first, inviting others to speak.  If we are perceived as less powerful in any situation, we should look for ways to speak and have our voice and our experience "heard".
Think for a moment about who we see on television and in film, who reads us our evening news, who our lawmakers are.  Who are the powerful in our society; what about in our work environment; what about in our family and in our friendships?  As you notice who is more powerful and who is less powerful in terms of their ability to manipulate their environment and make decisions, we can decide whether we should speak or listen in their presence.  Such sensitivity to the least in our society and the lost voices in our communities makes us a Pentecost people!  Perhaps our task this season is to listen others into speech, to take in the wonderful diversity of languages and viewpoints that comprise God's presence in our midst.
                                                             - Rev. John H. Pomeroy