the day of pentecost
the PRAYER …
O God, form the minds of your faithful people into your one will. Make us love what you command and desire what you promise, that, amid all the changes of this world, our hearts may be fixed where true joy is found, your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.
the READING …
[Jesus prayed:] “I made your name known to them, and I will make it known, so that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.” john 17:20-26
the DEVOTION …
“I’m small. My heart’s pure. May no one live there but Jesus alone.” That’s the first prayer I ever prayed. Taught to me – in German – by my mom. As it, no doubt, had been taught to her by my grandma. One of those German-American things that, unfortunately, ends at me. More than just words to say before bedtime, they taught me where to look for Jesus! Not in word! Or sacrament! But way down deep in my heart! And this week, Jesus seems to be saying the same thing about the Spirit … “because he – the Spirit – abides with you, and he – the Spirit – will be in you.” But things aren’t always how we’ve been taught …
First, Jesus isn’t saying you (singular). He’s saying you (plural)! Y’alll! Or as they say in westernPA, yinz! And second, the promise isn’t that the Spirit will be inside Bob Barndt. But that the Spirit will be within, among, between all of us! The Spirit’s a gift Jesus gives the entire community. All at once! All together! Not individual, but shared! The only way we can know the Spirit … the only way we can see ‘him’ … is by looking at each other! And when we do, there ‘he’ is! Smack-dab in the middle! In the pulpit! On the altar! In the font!