Pentecost

In my Pentecost sermon, I mentioned the point Jesus makes at the end of the reading from John’s Gospel. Jesus tells the disciples that the world will not see or accept the coming Spirit. Jesus is preparing them for the difficult ministry ahead, but reminds them that the Spirit is with them. They will labor, but never alone.

There are profound implications for the Church. Jesus challenges his followers telling them that the world will not see, but communicates that the Church is not an escape from the world. The Church, in this light, becomes a training ground for the development of the awareness of the Spirit. The Church is the community of people charged with the task of discerning the presence and will of the Spirit.

There is a purpose to the development of spiritual awareness. We develop and hone our eyes, ears, hearts and minds to communicate the Spirit to those that neither see nor know. In the Church, we don’t hide from the world. We seek our own development for the transformation of the world, so that the world might become the Kingdom of God.

The heart of Jesus’ message is that the Kingdom of God has come near. We struggle and work to see the Kingdom and enter it, together.