Weekly Reflection, Friday, May 27
By: David May, Rector
In the Church’s annual cycle of sacred time with Jesus, we are just a few days past Ascension Day. That day is the Church’s memory of the last time we saw Jesus before he was taken up into the life of God. Jesus said before he ascended to the Father that we are to stay put and wait together for the Spirit to come; stay together and wait for God to act. This Sunday, as we wait, we will pray together: “Do not leave us comfortless, but send your Holy Spirit to strengthen us….”
I feel this prayer profoundly today. We are just a few days past the shooting in Uvalde, Texas where 19 children and two of their teachers were gunned down and killed by a young man. And today is less than two weeks after another young man – an avowed white supremacist – shot and killed ten dear souls at their local grocery story because they were black.
Do not leave us comfortless, Lord, but send us your Holy Spirit to strengthen us.
In the world we are in right now, what do you hope the Spirit will strengthen in us when it comes? What do you want the Spirit to strengthen in you so you will not be left comfortless? Asking ourselves questions like these is important in this time of waiting for God to act. What do we need for God’s Holy Spirit to strengthen in us?
In the words of the Nicene Creed, the people of God proclaim that the Spirit is the source and giver of all life. The Spirit is the power of the prophets’ words to be God’s Word to speak truth that casts down and raises up. And the Spirit creates a holy communion of people to bear witness that the power of forgiveness is greater than the brokenness we know so well. And that the resurrection of the dead is what God does with our death.
Strengthen life. Strengthen truth. Strengthen the faith of the Church in its witness to the world.
When the Spirit comes, we will not be left comfortless. Until then, I hope – to put it simply – that you will come to church this Sunday where we can all be together in one place, to wait together, and to pray. Come Holy Spirit, come. Strengthen us.