8 June 2014
The Feast of Pentecost
Pentecost A(RCL)
Numbers 11:24-30
Psalm 104:25-35, 37
Acts 2:1-21
John 20:19-23
The gift of the Holy Spirit is never quite predictable. All four of the readings from scripture appointed for today seem to have that in common. The passage from Numbers is often read at ordinations, but I think it runs counter the neat expectations that the spirit operates through clearly ordained channels. Moses has complained to God that he can’t manage this people by himself. In the verses just before, he challenges God, “Did I conceive this people? Did I give birth to them, that they should be my concern?” God agrees that the problem is too big for Moses alone, and arranged to give some of the spirit which rests on Moses to seventy elders of the people recognized to be elders among them. Continue reading “A little bit of chaos”