By Jeff Brummel
Happy birthday, church! You’re looking good for being just over 2,000 years old.
As we walk with Jesus through the liturgical year, we experience Jesus’ life through Advent, birth, baptism, Lent, death, resurrection, ascension into heaven and now as God’s Holy Spirit breathes life into the body of Christ, the church at Pentecost. This is exciting because though Jesus does not walk this earth with two feet, he now walks this earth with millions and billions of feet.
I love the timeless 16th-century prayer attributed to Saint Teresa of Avila:
Christ has no body now but yours,
No hands, no feet on earth but yours,
Yours are the eyes with which he looks
Compassion on this world.
At Pentecost, the Holy Spirit breathed life into the church. But, it works under one condition, doesn’t it? Jesus said, “Where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them.” Whether we are the tall-steeple downtown church, the bustling neighborhood church, the large multicampus church, the little church in the wildwood or the Sunday morning coffee klatch solving the world’s problems, we work best for God when we do so with others.
We are created in God’s image, and one side of this image of God is continual communion. God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit are eternally in a dance, each partner with its own steps yet elegantly flowing in one beautiful artistic expression of love.
Through Jesus’ presence with us, we become part of the dance. I imagine it’s like a little child stepping on a parent’s shoes while learning the steps. But it’s more than that. It’s more as if we really step into Jesus’ shoes as we carry out the mission of the church. The true miracle is that Jesus’ feet are always with us through others who work alongside us.
In worship today we celebrate this gift of the Holy Spirit, inviting us into communion with God and community with others. We commemorate the day of the fiery descent of the Holy Spirit through brilliant red colors and shimmering bells. As we worship together, remember these words by Sydney Carter from his poem “Lord of the Dance”:
Dance, then, wherever you may be,
I am the Lord of the dance, said he,
And I’ll lead you all, wherever you may be,
and I’ll lead you all in the dance, said he.