Trinity Sunday: Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory

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look

Book of Kells -
Gospel of John,In the beginning was the Word, and in the Word [was with God]
source

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read

Isaiah 6:3: And one called to another and said: "Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory."

{all readings for the day: Isaiah 6:1-8 and Psalm 29  • Romans 8:12-17  • John 3:1-17 }

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pray  

Almighty and everlasting God, you have given to us your servants grace, by the confession of a true faith, to acknowledge the glory of the eternal Trinity, and in the power of your divine Majesty to worship the Unity: Keep us steadfast in this faith and worship, and bring us at last to see you in your one and eternal glory, O Father; who with the Son and the Holy Spirit live and reign, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. source

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listen

O Splendor of God's Glory Bright
Zac Hicks

buy here

Listen to my Pentecost playlist here

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do

Learn to tie a Celtic knot

Learn how to draw a Celtic knot

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From the archive:

• Do you know why the Trinity matters in our worship?

• Meditating the Trinity with Rublev & Sufjan Stevens

• Praying with Saint Patrick

Pentecost Sunday: I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh

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look

Paper Sculptures in the Church of Saint Riquier in France - Peter Gentenaar
source 

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read

Acts 2:1-17: In the last days it will be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams. 

{all readings for the day: Ezekiel 37:1-14  • Psalm 104: 24-34, 35b • Acts 2:1-21  • John 15:26-27; 16:4b-15}

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pray  

Almighty God, who on this day didst open the way of eternal life to every race and nation by the promised gift of thy Holy Spirit: Shed abroad this gift throughout the world by the preaching of the Gospel, that it may reach to the ends of the earth; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee, in the unity of the same Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. source

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listen

Breath of God
Caroline Cobb
buy here

Two songs this week because I just couldn't decide!  
Listen to my Pentecost playlist here

I Am Because We Are

Aaron Hale

buy here

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do

It's the final week of readings in the 

 Christ Church Eastertide Devotional 2015

download a copy by using this link: 

http://www.christchurchofaustin.org/sites/default/files/cc-eastertide-devotional-2015.pdf

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I do not know the trick to conjure Pentecost flames

Three years ago during the season of Pentecost, Brian and I waited to hear God's direction on a life-changing move for our family.  My imagination had been watered with the Gospel accounts of Jesus-followers waiting for the promise of Pentecost power and direction. I wrote this poem after waiting in our hallway by the closed door of our bedroom. Behind the closed door, Brian answered questions during a phone interview with a group of dedicated and kind Vestry members from a growing Anglican church in Austin, Texas.  

Passion to Pentecost

Linda McCray via CIVA Network

circling the Presence
by Tamara Hill Murphy


I wonder what marked the moment as the acceptable time for tongues of fire to fall down? 

A certain magic word?

What ancient riddle opened the door?  Moved the mountain into the sea?

What familiar Spirit fluttered the dead eyelid?  Called deep up from deep?  

I do not have the word, have not discovered the incantation.

                                                           But I've met the Spirit

and I think I know the answer.

I do not know the answer in the way one memorizes a flashcard formula, babbles
incessant technical jargon, wishful thinking, vain repetitions of one-hit wonders.

Not in short-term memory exercises.  Not in altar-call professions

sudden inspiration,  prickly goose-bumpy revelation.

I do not know the trick to conjure down the flames.

                                      

                                      But I studied the dusty photographs
read unfeeling the prayers, practiced the old language on inert tongue,
                                slept under the canopy of intercession, 
squatted in the hallway with the Son,
rocked sweaty in the lap of the Father,
eavesdropped under the door crack the Spirit-guide

and we knew it when we saw it

....................

May I recommend?

• A Pentecost sermon from Anne Kennedy, Church of the Good Shepherd, Binghamton, NY:  a good summary of how the history of the Jewish Feast of Weeks and how it forms our New Testament celebration of Pentecost

• A collect for Pentecost: 

Almighty God, on this day you opened the way of eternal lifeto every race and nation by the promised gift of your HolySpirit: Shed abroad this gift throughout the world by thepreaching of the Gospel, that it may reach to the ends of theearth; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reignswith you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for everand ever. Amen.

• Pentecost art at The Text This Week

• A collection of songs I've put together for Pentecost:

Meditating the Trinity with Rublev + Sufjan Stevens

"On the first Sunday after Pentecost, the church considers and celebrates the trinitarian nature of God. ... Pentecost highlights the coming of the Spirit, but we must remember that the Spirit has always been at work: creating and sustaining the cosmos, forming and preserving Israel, choosing kings and speaking through prophets, overshadowing Mary and anointing Jesus, and, yes, baptizing and empowering the church."  (Bobby Gross, Living the Christian Year)

God in Three Persons, blessed Trinity.

Trinity
Andrei Rublev, 1410

A Prayer (via The Trinity Mission audio daily office)

God of all creation, full of love and abounding in mercy;

May the whole earth be filled with your glory.

That our words and deeds would befit your people;

God the Father, we call upon you.

That we would offer to you the reward of your suffering;

God the Son, we call upon you.

That our work today we would receive as your gift;

God the Holy Spirit, we call upon you.

Lord, send us out to proclaim your goodness;

God the Father, we call upon you.

Lord, teach us to love as you have loved us;

God the Son, we call upon you.

Lord, renew your Church for the work of your Kingdom;

God the Holy Spirit, we call upon you.

Bless us and keep us and be gracious to us;

God the Father, we call upon you.

Work through us among the poor, the opressed, those in bondage and those who are alone;

God the Son, we call upon you.

Be before us and behind us; to our left and to our right;

God the Holy Spirit, we call upon you.

God of all creation, full of love and abounding in mercy;

May the whole earth be filled with your glory.

Collect for Trinity Sunday:

Almighty and everlasting God, you have given to us your servants grace, by the confession of a true faith, to acknowledge the glory of the eternal Trinity, and in the power of your divine Majesty to worship the Unity: Keep us steadfast in this faith and worship, and bring us at last to see you in your one and eternal glory, O Father; who with the Son and the Holy Spirit live and reign, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Hymn of Response: Holy, Holy, Holy (arranged by Sufjan Stevens)

We are the Pentecost-ed

flowers for our friend who ministered with us
at the foot of the cross so many -- and not quite enough -- days  

"The men that cut their graves in the grey rocks   

Spoke to the sons of God upon the four cross roads:

“Men of Genesareth, who climb our hill as slow as spring or summer,

Christ is your Master, and we see His eyes are Jordans,   

His hands and feet are wounded, and His words are wine.   

He has let death baptize the one who stirs and wakens   

In the bier we carry,

That we may read the Cross and Easter in this rising,   

And learn the endless heaven

Promised to all the widow-Church’s risen children.” (from The Widow of Naim, Thomas Merton)

A few years in, and the liturgical year learning curve keeps chipping away at my worship wish dreams; we celebrate month in and month out what will be, but is not yet.  Easter glimmers brighter than all other seasons because we have one story of what will be for all of us is already for One -- the firstfruits of resurrection, Jesus.  In that sense, maybe Easter is the best time for death -- when the truth of resurrection is uppermost in our memory.

The exact thought occurred to me when I woke up the morning of our friend's funeral with the lyric "Alleluia to the risen King. Alleluia, death has lost its sting.  Christ is risen." repeating a continuous loop in my pre-conscious brain.  Before this epiphany I mostly felt a low-grade anger that God letting people die during Eastertide was wrecking my liturgical mojo.  

We rehearse in order to remember when we most need to remember.  Saturday morning for our dear friend Dick Chote.  On other mornings during the seven weeks of Eastertide for 3 killed in Boston and the 26-year-old Russian immigrant accused of killing them, 14 dead in West, 1,127 in Bangladesh, dozens in Iran, 34 in Pakistan, a number too horrifying to imagine in Syria.  One morning in Easter the liturgy of Resurrection was for our friend's mother gone in less than two months from a ravaging cancer, one morning for Matthew Warren removing himself from the particular ravages of his own illness, one morning for the esteemed photographer and father of four David Sacks.  One morning for Brennan Manning, one for Dallas Willard.  This morning for 51 in Moore, Oklahoma.

 And last Saturday for the gentle man who showed us how to be a father to the fatherless. A father trying again to love where love had disappointed him and those he loved.

I entered the sanctuary angry, one friend among hundreds there to mourn.  I was angry that God took away someone who'd meant so much to us during a season we'd tired of caring deeply for anyone.  I was angry right up to the first words out of Father Cliff's mouth, the first words printed in the liturgy:

The liturgy for the dead is an Easter liturgy. It finds all its meaning in the resurrection. Because Jesus was raised from the dead, we, too, shall be raised.

Anger thrust back to its rightful, righteous place a few paragraphs later:

As we commend our dead to God, they are no doubt commending us. Together with them, we rise up to look death in the face and say, 'Terrible as you are, we know One who is mightier; and that One has taken us as his own for ever. We will not live by fear of you, but, fearless in this world, will live by the gracious love of the only true God, who has made us and claimed us and is blessed forever.' Amen and Amen.

I enter Pentecost; we enter Pentecost. Yesterday the young woman cutting my hair asked my forgiveness for seeming out of sorts. Her friend died. "I'm 20 years old and this is my fifth friend to die, all Vietnamese." Before these words I read a book and avoided eye contact. I wanted space to be alone with my thoughts. Her spoken lament changed my mind. While she massaged my hands -- kneading, twisting, encircling my fingers with hers I prayed the Spirit of God to leap from my skin to hers. I asked the Spirit of the apostles who healed by their fingertips to heal her broken heart, rescue her from darkness into light. Spirit of death to Spirit of the already-resurrected Christ.

Pentecost is for my 20-year-old, Vietnamese hairdresser. The what will be, but is not yet for her.

In this season we rehearse what has already taken place for us, we the not-yet resurrected but fully Pentecost-ed here and now, the Spirit already poured out on my flesh, on all the sons and daughters of God. I am the daughter who prophesies. You are the young man who shall see visions. Dick Chote dreamed dreams. We are the carriers of the Spirit of Christ, given power to do greater works. We are the enlivened ones bearing witness to the peoples not yet alive to God.

*Linking with Heather's community at Extraordinary Ordinary today.

First week of Pentecost with Songs for the Book of Luke & Mireille Vautier

If Christmas celebrates the Word Made Flesh, 

might Pentecost celebrate the Word Made Spirit?

Mireille Vautier

Acts 2:1-21

English Standard Version (ESV)

The Coming of the Holy Spirit

When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place. ² And suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. ³ And divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them. ⁴ And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.

⁵ Now there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men from every nation under heaven.⁶ And at this sound the multitude came together, and they were bewildered, because each one was hearing them speak in his own language. ⁷ And they were amazed and astonished, saying, “Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? ⁸ And how is it that we hear, each of us in his own native language? ⁹ Parthians and Medes and Elamites and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, ¹⁰ Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, ¹¹ both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabians—we hear them telling in our own tongues the mighty works of God.” ¹² And all were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, “What does this mean?” ¹³ But others mocking said, “They are filled with new wine.”

Peter's Sermon at Pentecost

¹⁴ But Peter, standing with the eleven, lifted up his voice and addressed them: “Men of Judea and all who dwell in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and give ear to my words. ¹⁵ For these people are not drunk, as you suppose, since it is only the third hour of the day. ¹⁶ But this is what was uttered through the prophet Joel:

¹⁷ “‘And in the last days it shall be, God declares,
that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh,
and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,
    and your young men shall see visions,
    and your old men shall dream dreams;
¹⁸ even on my male servants and female servants
    in those days I will pour out my Spirit, and they shall prophesy.
¹⁹ And I will show wonders in the heavens above
    and signs on the earth below,
    blood, and fire, and vapor of smoke;
²⁰ the sun shall be turned to darkness
    and the moon to blood,
    before the day of the Lord comes, the great and magnificent day.
²¹ And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.’

Song of Response: The Spirit of the Lord by Bruce Benedict & Naaman Wood for Songs for the Book of Luke

I wonder what marked the moment as the acceptable time for tongues of fire to fall down?

Pentecost
Joseph Ignaz Mildorfer
Hungarian National Gallery, Budapest

circling the Presence
by Tamara Hill Murphy


I wonder what marked the moment as the acceptable time for tongues of fire to fall down? 

A certain magic word?

What ancient riddle opened the door?  Moved the mountain into the sea?

What familiar Spirit fluttered the dead eyelid?  Called deep up from deep?  

I do not have the word, have not discovered the incantation.

                                                                                       But I've met the Spirit

and I think I know the answer.

I do not know the answer in the way one memorizes a flashcard formula, babbles 
incessant technical jargon, wishful thinking, vain repetitions of one-hit wonders.

Not in short-term memory exercises.  Not in altar-call professions

sudden inspiration,  prickly goose-bumpy revelation.

I do not know the trick to conjure down the flames.

                                                                                        But I studied the dusty photographs
read unfeeling the prayers, practiced the old language on inert tongue.
                                                                                        I slept under the canopy of intercession,                squatted in the hallway with the Son,
rocked sweaty in the lap of the Father,
eavesdropped under the door crack the Spirit-guide

and we knew it when we saw it.