Excerpt from Acts 2:1-21

"When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting."

Reflection by Donna Schaper

What happened on Pentecost is the early church got unstuck.  They found a power larger than the power they had known.  It came from outside them but invaded their space.  A lot of us get stuck and know the desperate need to have somebody open the door and let the wind rush in.  We ourselves can’t even move out of our chairs.  Our elbows rest on the table, holding up our sunken chins.  Pentecost guarantees that the whole climate can change in a room, that the "weather" can shift, that people who thought they were stuck can be unstuck.

We know more about being stuck than we know about being free.  We falsely imagine that getting free is as cumbersome as being stuck.  Once I was stuck in a parking garage.  The sign said I must pay on the way out. The machine on floor one is "out of service." The machines on two and three are also "out of service." I still must pay on the way out. But I can’t get out because I can’t pay.  I drove  around, wondering who has the maintenance contract on the parking machines, who got to write the signs that tell me there is no exit available to me and that I am stuck in a parking garage.

I like to imagine that someone will simply open a door and let the spirit’s wind in.  Yes, someone came in and got me out of that cramped and contradictory space.  That is Pentecost and its power.

Prayer

Fill our whole house, Holy Spirit, with an effortless wind, one that changes the weather from being stuck and trapped inside to being unstuck and safe enough to go out and about.  Amen.

About the Author Donna Schaper is Senior Minister of Judson Memorial Church, New York, New York.

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