As We Journey Through Pentecost
On Sunday mornings as they began class, the fifth graders would line up and each would recite one phrase of the Apostle's Creed. This went on for about four months, until one Sunday. The class began the usual way. The first girl recited her line flawlessly, "I believe in God the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth." The second, a boy, stood up and added his sentence, "I believe in Jesus Christ, his only son, our Lord." But then silence descended over the class. Finally, one girl, who felt she knew what was wrong stood up and announced, "I'm sorry, sir, but the boy who believes in the Holy Spirit is absent today!"
And that's the way it is in Christian churches: the Holy Spirit is strangely absent. Yet were it not for the giving of the Spirit, there would be no Christian church. We celebrate Pentecost not only as the birthday of the church, but because there is something about the strange, ecstatic events of that day long ago that is available Sunday after Sunday in this church and in every church.
They were there "all together in one place." When the wind and the flame of God's presence came. They spoke a language that all humanity could comprehend. They spoke a language that reversed the confusion of Babel. They spoke a language that lifted women from their second-class status as men's property—for when the Spirit fell upon them, it made no distinction between male and female. They were there when the Spirit descended. And today we are here, waiting as they waited for the gift of God's Spirit.
We wait for God's Spirit to recreate us as the church, just as the Holy Spirit melded and empowered the ragtag band of which we read in Luke's account of Pentecost. And if God's Spirit fills and indwells and excites and validates and commissions us, what will be the result? What can we expect as we together approach another year of ministry?
As I conclude, I present a new "Mission Statement" of Bethel Hill to you:
The mission of the Bethel Hill United Methodist Church is to provide a sanctuary where the congregation can worship God according to the teachings and Spirit of Jesus Christ; to nurture the spiritual, moral and intellectual growth of each person in our congregation: to serve God with our talents, our time, our energy, and our money, accepting full stewardship for our community—the world; to encourage others. Our Mission Statement is a vision of Bethel Hill as it moves forward in its ministry. It is a vision of the emergence of a Spirit filled church. I hope and pray that Bethel Hill strives together for a fruitful ministry. Let us open our lives so that the Spirit of God may begin to work in and among us.
Pastor John Bhajjan