Tuesday
Much of our art for the Day of Pentecost is too goofy for my taste, but I do like, love, almost anything red, fire, chairs, votive candles, cars, lipstick, walls, hair, chasubles, stoles and other church hangings and vestments, clothes, upholstery, rubies; and I do like the two images of Christian art posted here.
For us, the Day of Pentecost is the fiftieth day after Easter Day, and our origin for celebrating it is recorded at Acts chapter two, which is our TGBC reading for this morning.
Pentecost itself, fifty days after Passover, the reason Jesus' disciples were gathered in Jerusalem, is the Jewish festival Shavuot, or Feast of Weeks, which doubly commemorates, gives thanks to God both for the wheat harvest that was so essential to life, and for God's giving the Law to Moses and the people of Israel. To us, law may seem a constraining, confining burden; but for Israel, the Law of Moses as a gift received from God was what made Israel special to God and different from all other people.
Not as thick pea soupy as Monday morning was, though it may yet become so, outside around and beyond 7H is nevertheless foggy as we go into Tuesday. What's the buzz, tell me what's happening ... nothing on my calendar, which in any event is out of hand because my phone, which contains my calendar, isn't here, must have been left it in my car in the garage seven levels down.
From here, the fog seems to be lifting, as the lights in the Gulf-front high-rise buildings on Thomas Drive have clarified, and it's light enough to see Shell Island directly across the Bay from my window here.
Below, scroll down, today's TGBC reading.
Acts 2:1-13
For us, the Day of Pentecost is the fiftieth day after Easter Day, and our origin for celebrating it is recorded at Acts chapter two, which is our TGBC reading for this morning.
Pentecost itself, fifty days after Passover, the reason Jesus' disciples were gathered in Jerusalem, is the Jewish festival Shavuot, or Feast of Weeks, which doubly commemorates, gives thanks to God both for the wheat harvest that was so essential to life, and for God's giving the Law to Moses and the people of Israel. To us, law may seem a constraining, confining burden; but for Israel, the Law of Moses as a gift received from God was what made Israel special to God and different from all other people.
Not as thick pea soupy as Monday morning was, though it may yet become so, outside around and beyond 7H is nevertheless foggy as we go into Tuesday. What's the buzz, tell me what's happening ... nothing on my calendar, which in any event is out of hand because my phone, which contains my calendar, isn't here, must have been left it in my car in the garage seven levels down.
From here, the fog seems to be lifting, as the lights in the Gulf-front high-rise buildings on Thomas Drive have clarified, and it's light enough to see Shell Island directly across the Bay from my window here.
Below, scroll down, today's TGBC reading.
Acts 2:1-13
When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them.
All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability.
All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability.
Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven living in Jerusalem. And at this sound the crowd gathered and was bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in the native language of each. Amazed and astonished, they asked, ‘Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? And how is it that we hear, each of us, in our own native language? Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabs—in our own languages we hear them speaking about God’s deeds of power.’All were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, ‘What does this mean?’ But others sneered and said, ‘They are filled with new wine.’