Pentecost and Epiphany are my favorite times of the church year and I always look forward to attending worship.  Pentecost was on May 31 which was right in the midst of my bought with depression.  As a result, I didn’t watch either of my congregations – Grace Covenant Presbyterian Church, in the morning, or Circle of Mercy congregation at 5 PM.  Due to the Coronavirus, churches are recording services so when my depression finally lifted, I watched them both.

At Circle of Mercy, Doug Berky told the Pentecost story with a twist.  He is a performer and he wove in his interpretations which gave me new insights into the passage.  I particularly was drawn to his description of waiting.  The disciples learned a lot about waiting for Jesus. They waited when Jesus went into the wilderness. They waited when Jesus met someone sick or hungry.  They waited when Jesus wanted to talk to children. Doug emphasized that waiting was part of the disciples’ lives and they learned much from it.

What can you do when you’re waiting for something but think, watch, and pray?  Don emphasized there would be “troubled times” ahead but we must lean into the love God has for us.  We need to stop being distracted by things that take our eyes off God and start living our lives as She leads, even if that means we must wait.

I am in a period of waiting just now.  It seems these periods happen to me often.  Sometimes waiting morphs into depression as it did this time but when the depression is over, I still must wait and then I will see the tongues of fire just as the disciples did.

The next part of the sermon was reflections prepared by members of the circle.  Betty Jane is 80 years old and I met her at the Open Door community in the 90’s when she came as a resident volunteer.  Her minister husband had just died and she was searching for meaning in her life.  The Open Door gave her that.

In her sermon she outlined all the losses she has experienced; Loss of youth, loss of  loved ones, loss of good health and countless other things.  However, in spite of our losses, she said we are never dead and we always have new life.  “If we try to live new life with our former spirit, we will find ourselves deeply out of sorts.  We need Pentecost daily in our lives.”  

I’m so thankful for her words for they reminded me that new life will come.  Like the disciple, I must wait.  Reading Psalm 25: 4-5 helps me as I wait.

“Lead me in your truth, and teach me, for you are the God of my salvation; for you I wait all day long.” 

Even though the translation of the Common English Bible is not as well known, I’ve come to prefer it especially in the CEB Women’s Bible.  It translates these verses like this:

“Make your ways known to me, Lord; teach me your paths.  Lead me in your truth – teach it to me –because you are the God who saves me.  I put my hope in you all day long.”