Trinity Lutheran Church

Mother’s Day, Sunday, May 11, is also Pentecost Sunday. Pentecost, the gift of God’s Sprit 50 days after Easter, is considered the birthday of the church. The followers of Jesus were not sure what, if anything, they were supposed to be doing. It was seven weeks after Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection.

You can read in the second chapter of Acts of the inexplicable, mysterious, unexplainable things that happened that first Pentecost - it was the occasion when followers of Jesus were compelled to live a new life of love and compassion and service which Jesus himself taught and modeled. They were sent to live it openly in the world, and to die for it if need be. Pentecost is the day the church was born.

"I am a spiritual person," you may say, "but I don’t go to church". My sense is that we may get away with this one-on-one personal relationship with God (with no messy institution to complicate things) as long as life is going well. But when trouble and sadness come, I don’t think many of us are strong enough. When it feels as if God doesn’t care about our pain - when it feels as if God is absent - when our faith is weak or non-existent- in moments like these we need the church. All those others who love God will help us keep the faith and find the way through difficult times.

Anne Lamott tells the story of a little girl who was lost and a policeman found her and drove her around looking for her home. The little girl saw something she recognized. "There’s my church," she said. "You can leave me out now. I can always find my way home from my church."

Who needs a church? I do. The world does. Most amazing of all, God does.

Pastor Kent