Where the Spirit of the Lord Is

Are you familiar with the Unvirtuous Abbey on facebook? If not, you should be. In my estimation some of their best posts are photos of birds with captions such as: Actual photo of the Holy Spirit (giving you some low key support today/looking past you to all the blessings that lay ahead in your life/reminding you how much you are loved). Whenever one of these shows up on my feed, it warms my heart. The Spirit showed up as a dove at Jesus’ baptism and since then the church has a long history of picturing her in bird form (usually a dove, but a chicken can do the trick too!).

The Spirit primarily gets Pentecost in our liturgical calendar, which we focus on one week of the year. If you look in our hymnal index, her section is pretty short compared to “God” or “Jesus.” In fact, there are more hymns under the “Church” section than the “Spirit” section! But, the Spirit is everywhere at all times, guiding and enlivening creation and the church.

Each week as we gather for worship I pray that we would be open to the Spirit’s guidance as we steward our resources well. And daily I pray that the Spirit would guide us as we head into our future here at PMBC.

In Jesus’ farewell discourse in the Gospel of John, he prayed that his disciples would be united with one another, loving each other as they have been loved by him (John 15:12). He also prays that they would bear fruit in continuing his ministry in the world (John 15:16). This is a tall order that still guides the church’s aspirations and ministries today: to love one another and to bring the Good News to the world through word and deed.

Thank goodness we don’t have to do this on our own power - because some days I have just enough power to curl up with my book on the back patio (I know y’all can relate)! Part of the Good News is that Jesus promised the Spirit would come as a helper, advocate, and comforter.

“If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever. This is the Spirit of truth” (John 14:15-17a). 

So, today and every day I will continue to pray the same thing: that as your minister and fellow sojourner in the faith I would be open to the guidance of the Holy Spirit and that I would hear the truth she speaks. And I will continue to pray that together as a congregation of fellow believers we would individually and collectively be open to the Spirit’s guidance as truth-seeking, Gospel-speaking followers of Christ!

Blessings,

Pastor Amy