In this Issue:

Who will bear my light to them? Whom shall I send?

Archbishop Tutu and Bishop Sauls call Berea graduates to action

From the Bishop

News and ideas form across the diocese

People, Parishes and Passions across the Diocese

Part of the Heart of our Mission

Faith Matters: St. George's Day

Love First, Knowledge Second: Baccalaureate Address to Berea College Class of 2005

Commentaries

Reflection: As others see us

X-ercizing: What causes revelry?

Editoral: The 'use and abuse of the Bible'

Who's in charge here? One bishop's perspective

Diocesan Calendar

Past Issues

Powerful in the Holy Spirit

I met Rosa on Pentecost afternoon this year. She was part of a congregation at a nursing home. Rosa is brain damaged. Her weakness requires a wheelchair. She looks as if she has aged prematurely. She has great difficulty speaking, and I found it almost impossible to understand her words. I confessed to her that as hard as I tried, I could not understand what she was saying. She was frustrated but compassionate despite my inability to understand. “I’m not crazy,” she said. I assured her that I knew that. It is like Pentecost. Rosa spoke in another language as the Spirit gave her ability. Those in attendance found it hard to understand and considered craziness.

Rosa was joined at that service by several other people. Some were residents of the nursing home, some not. One slept through most of the service. One person brought a dog, which I thought was a real gift to the residents. I’m not sure life would be worth living without dogs. A little boy of about 10 sat on the floor beside Rosa. I thought he must be a relative, dutifully visiting some resident of the nursing home. Still, he was a visible sign of life, like a flame of fire in the middle of that small congregation on Pentecost Sunday. I don’t think he was an Episcopalian, but he listened attentively throughout the service, and he followed the congregation in making the sign of the cross.
The reader read the lesson for the day, the story of how the Holy Spirit descended upon the disciples with tongues of fire over their heads and the rush of a violent wind. The preacher preached a sermon about the face of the Holy Spirit. Both were frequently interrupted by residents commenting on the text, the conversations from the next room, the sound of the alarm announcing an unauthorized exit, not at all unlike the effect of the rush of a violent wind. The distractions represented a weakness undertaken for the sake of love, a love that showed through the reader’s eyes and the preacher’s smile.

Rosa’s weakness, it turns out, results from injuries received when a drunk driver hit her. She was hit when she ran in front of the oncoming car to push her toddler daughter out of the way. Her daughter was not hurt and is now a normal teenager. Rosa has lived at the nursing home ever since. It is a weakness willingly taken on for the sake of love.

The little boy, it turns out, is not a relative at all. He and his mother come to visit the residents of the nursing home as a gift. It is a weakness willingly taken on for the sake of love.
I will never think of Pentecost again without thinking of this one. The struggle to understand the Gospel in a difficult-to-decipher language. The flame of the fire of love over the head of a young boy who visits the nursing home as if there were nothing else he’d rather be doing in his spare time. The rush of wind stirring people in wheelchairs to engage the story of the coming of the Holy Spirit.
I have seen the coming of the Holy Spirit — the true power of God. The power of God in Pentecost has never been so apparent as in weakness willingly taken on for the sake of love.

Paul recounts the Lord’s answer to his prayer to be relieved of his weakness: “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness” (2 Cor. 12:9). That, indeed, is what the Gospel lesson for Pentecost is about — the story of the risen Lord showing the marks of his crucifixion to the fearful disciples behind a locked door on the first Easter before breathing the Holy Spirit upon them (Jn. 20:19-23). Paul’s power was made perfect in weakness. Christ’s power is made perfect in weakness. It must be so with the story of the power of the Holy Spirit, too. The power of the Holy Spirit, like all godly power, is made perfect in weakness.

Rosa, the little boy, the priest, the reader, and the congregation. These are people of God powerful in the Holy Spirit.

Agape,

Advocate Online Staff

© 2005 The Episcopal Diocese of Lexington

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