These Are The Moments (AI90D)

ACTS IN 90 DAYS!

A reading for Friday, May 8, 2020: Acts 2:1-13.

"All were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, 'What does this mean?”

When the Spirit of God shows up, things get crazy. In today's lesson, the very familiar story of Pentecost, the disciples are all together in one place. Suddenly they are filled with the Holy Spirit, as it fills the entire house where they were sitting.

The image is one of overwhelming abundance and entirety. The Spirit doesn't come with a wimper or privately so that nobody else knows. When the Spirit of God comes, it's a moment of disruption. The apostles begin to speak in languages that are not their own, but that are familiar to those from other nations that are listening. Think about it as if the whole world were witnessing the coming of the Spirit of God all at once. It's a big moment.

Luke tells us that all are amazed and even perplexed at such a moment. Perhaps that's the way we discover the Spirit of God too? When we are wondering if it's God, and we think it might be, often we too are both amazed and perplexed. The Spirit of God comes upon us sometimes in small moments too, like the touch of a child or a friend, the tears that well up in our eyes when we hear that old familiar hymn, or the power of a sunrise after the storm has passed. 

No matter how the Spirit of God comes upon us and into the world around us, we are grateful. These are the moments! Thanks be to God.