Sunday, May 28, 2023
Pentecost Sunday
A special service of scriptural word and songs of praise as we celebrate the Day of Pentecost with music from Kathleen Sieck, Nate Latta, Rob Hodges, Sara Coleman and Linda Tarman.
“What the Fire Gives: A Blessing for Pentecost Day”
What surprised you most
were not the syllables
that spilled from
your scalded,
astonished mouth—
though that was miracle enough,
to have words
burn through
what had been numb,
to find your tongue
aflame with a language
you did not know
you knew—
no, what came
as greatest gift
was to be so heard
in the place
of your deepest silence,
to be so seen
within the blazing,
to be met
with such completeness
by what the fire gives.
You had thought that fire
only consumed,
only devoured,
only took for itself,
leaving merely ash
and memory
of something
you had believed,
if not permanent,
would be long enough,
enduring enough,
to be nearly eternal.
So, when you felt
the scorch on your lips,
the searing in your heart,
you could not
at first believe
that flame could be
so generous,
that when it came to you—
you, in your sackcloth
and sorrow—
it did not come
to consume,
to take still more
than everything.
Jan Richardson, The Painted Prayerbook© 2015
“A Pentecost Blessing”
May the Divine rain down
in strange syllables
yet with
an ancient familiarity,
a knowing borne
in the blood, the ear,
the tongue,
bringing the clarity
that comes
not in stone or in steel
but in fire, in flame.
May there come
one searing word:
enough to bare you
to the bone,
enough to set
your heart ablaze,
enough to make you
whole again.
On the day
when you are wearing
your certainty
like a cloak
and your sureness
goes before you
like a shield
or like a sword,
May the sound
of God’s name
spill from your lips
as you have never
heard it before.
May your knowing
be undone.
May mystery
confound your
understanding.
Jan Richardson, The Painted Prayerbook© 2015