Pentecost is a time to recognize the presence of the Spirit of God and an excellent opportunity to re-dedicate our call as Followers, Disciples, and Apostles! This Sunday, June 5, we will acknowledge the coming of the Holy Spirit and God's beautiful gifts and fruits. This weekend we will give thanks as we affirm that God has been with us and the sure confidence that God will continue to be with us guiding and inspiring our Church; we will also be receiving new members, celebrating the Sacrament of Communion in all of our worship services and at the end of each worship service Pastor Mario will invite those available to participate in a ceremony of Anointing.
This Biblical ceremony is used for specific purposes: for the rededication of life or consecration (e.g. Exodus 28:41), for the preparation of the body and soul for an upcoming challenging task (e.g. Matthew 6:17), or for the healing of the body and mind (e.g. Luke 10:34) Burial tradition (e.g. Mark 16:1).
However, the power of the anointing doesn't come from the oil that is used or by the one doing the anointing, but rather in whose name you are anointing. It is going to be an awesome Worship Service for the Glory of God, I pray that you decide to join us!
Let us come together and remember that on the Day of Pentecost, we celebrate the gift of the Holy Spirit descending in a mighty rush of wind and flame to inspire the church’s proclamation of Christ’s rising and to empower its mission and ministry to the world.
The notion of Easter as a season of 50 days ending at Pentecost is patterned after the ancient Jewish festival of seven weeks that extended from the beginning of the barley harvest (on the second day after the beginning of Passover) to the end of the wheat harvest at the Festival of Weeks or Shavuot (see Deuteronomy 16:9-12). The Festival of Weeks later came to be called Pentecost (“50th day”) by Greek-speaking Jews. In Jewish tradition, Shavuot also marks the giving of the law to Moses at Sinai; this liturgical link may inform Paul’s discussions of the law and the Spirit (see Romans 8, 2 Corinthians 3 and Galatians 3).
According to the Day of Pentecost story in Acts 2:1-13, God gave the gift of the Holy Spirit to empower witnesses to the resurrection. Sounds from heaven, cosmic language, the rush of a mighty ruach (wind, spirit, breath) invaded the house in which the apostles gathered, and appeared to them as a burning fire. Tongues of fire touched their nerve centers. A power — the unseen power of God — moved among them and gripped them. The Holy Spirit is unseen, like the wind, which is why the Old Testament calls it ruachYHWH, “the wind, or breath, of God” (cf. John 3:8). The Spirit is the “unseenness of God” working among us.
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