A JOURNEY TO PENTECOST 

I was wide awake at at 3 o’clock this morning. A mogadon sleeping tablet could not entice any more sleep…

Yesterday afternoon I’d brought Jan home from a 10-day sojourn in the special care unit of the local hospital. Some bright imaging on a PET scan told us she had uterine cancer. 

How serious? Hopefully we’ll know in the next few days as her two doctors and two specialists examine her and confer… 

In the darkness I asked my confused brain why the love of my life – for 55 years! – my closest and dearest companion, had to be the first in our immediate families – parents, siblings, their/our children, grandchildren – to suffer from any form of this dreaded disease? 

I’d read the books – A Grief Observed, Where is God When it Hurts?, Good Grief, The Road Less Traveled, Disappointment with God  – but I know there’s no universal script for this dark drama… 

At 4 am I got up, made coffee, and went to my oratory to pray and read the Scriptures. Next Sunday, Pentecost, I’m supposed to preach about the Holy Spirit and life and hope and miracles.

I read again, slowly, the amazing story in Acts 2. 

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There are 30-40 sermons in my files on this broad theme, so it should easy, right? Wrong. Google says that of the 170 articles on our website ‘The Holy Spirit’s Gift of Energy’ is the most popular Pentecost sermon. 

Not appropriate. 

Not at all, for someone who’s battling such confused thoughts and very sad feelings… 

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The Holy Spirit is the vaguest of God’s ‘persons’. The notion of ‘spirit’ – and especially ‘Holy Ghost’ – doesn’t seem to relate to the hard realities of our lives. But when we really ‘get it’ the Holy Spirit is to us what Jesus was to his Palestinian followers – friend/ companion, comforter/advocate, teacher, empowerer, insight-giver, Saviour, healer… there are dozens of metaphors in the New Testament.

Seven dot-points got listed on myscratch-pad.

(Watch this space for more this week…)

Update: Full text of sermon here