May 2008
Dear Friends in Christ,
Happy Birthday! The Church was born on
Pentecost, and this year we celebrate
our birthday on the weekend of May
10/11.
Pentecost comes 50 days after Easter,
but it was a festival day even in Old
Testament days where it was referred to
as the
Feast of Weeks. In
Exodus 34:22, the Feast of Weeks is
further defined as
the first fruits of wheat
harvest. Harper's
Bible Dictionary says,
the Feast of
Weeks was originally an agricultural
festival, an occasion on which the
community was expected to show gratitude
to God for the first fruits, i.e., the
early harvest.
This harvest theme helps us to
understand more deeply the meaning of
the first Christian Pentecost, fifty
days after Jesus resurrection. For it
was on that day that many Jewish people
from all around the Mediterranean world
having gathered in Jerusalem for the
festival, God provided the first fruits
of the great harvest to come!
Just prior to his ascension to heaven,
the risen Jesus had said, You shall
receive power when the Holy Spirit has
come upon you; and you shall be my
witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea
and Samaria and to the end of the earth.
This promise was fulfilled on that first
Pentecost Day after Jesus; resurrection
when the Holy Spirit came upon the
apostles and empowered them to witness
to Jesus the Christ.
The Holy Spirit continues to empower
witness to Jesus to the end of the
earth. This is what God is up to in the
world, taking the Good News of Jesus to
people who have never heard. This is how
God wants to use us! The first Pentecost
was the first fruits of the harvest, and
the harvest now continues! Are you
experiencing the joy that God intends as
you plug in with others to witness to
Jesus?
Let us all keep this foremost in our
prayers, that the people and staff of
Holy Spirit
Lutheran Church be moved
and empowered by the Holy Spirit to be
witnesses for Jesus!
Your friend in faith,
Pastor Paul
