Pentecost Sunday: A New Reality

God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts;

    so walk in the Spirit (Galatians 4:6 & 5:16).

On Pentecost Sunday, 50 days after Easter, the church celebrates how God poured out the Holy Spirit “on everyone: …sons and daughters …young and old …men and women” (Ac 2:17-18).  On this side of Calvary, things are different: “You are led by the Spirit now, not by the Law’s rules and regulations” (Ga 5:18).

It’s scary to walk without religious railings—like the first time you ride your bicycle without training wheels. It was too scary for the Galatian believers. They put the training wheels back on. “Shouldn’t we,” reasoned the Galatian believers, “follow dietary laws, and special days, and for goodness sakes, get circumcised?” No, says the Apostle, for if all that religious rigmarole worked, then “Christ died for nothing” (Ga 2:21). Pentecost encourages us to take off our training wheels and enjoy our new Spirit filled life in Christ.

What would it look like “to walk in the Spirit”? Well, “the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace…” Or, as Eugen Peterson puts it in The Message: The Spirit “brings gifts into our lives, much the same way that fruit appears in an orchard—things like affection for others, exuberance about life, serenity. We develop a willingness to stick with things, a sense of compassion in the heart, and a conviction that a basic holiness permeates things and people. We find ourselves involved in loyal commitments, not needing to force our way through life” (Ga 5:22-26). It’s like that. 

The days and weeks and months after Pentecost Sunday are called Ordinary Days. Pentecost launches us into ordinary life which turns out to be quite extraordinary. Abby joined me around the fire pit this morning. She brought with her, from Texas, two delightful girl/women friends for a jaunt through Napa Valley, Lake Tahoe, Yosemite and grammy’s and papa’s house. We talked about how things went, what’s up, and read Psalm 85 about how “The Lord will give what is good.” It’s “good to walk in the Spirit.”