Being Sent & Given Strength

Jesus said to [his disciples] again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit.”(JN 20:21-22) 

What does it mean to “be sent” and be offered, not commanded to, “Receive the Holy Spirit”? Pentecost, the 50th and final day of Easter, is Sunday. We get to revisit how we are sent and how we receive the Holy Spirit, that agent of connection that builds strength, creates trust, and brings peace within and between us all.

Maybe being sent and receiving the Holy Spirit is a practice, a practice of dynamic living, like moving to and from each side of learning to swim.

The Summer You Learned to Swim

The summer you learned to swim
was the summer I learned to be at peace with myself.
In May you were afraid to put your face in the water
but by August, I was standing in the pool once more
when you dove in, then retreated to the wall saying
You forgot to say Sugar! So I said Come on Sugar, you can do it
and you pushed off and swam to me and held on
laughing, your hair stuck to your cheeks—
you hiccupped with joy and swam off again.
And I dove in too, trying new things.
I tried not giving advice. I tried waking early to pray. I tried
not rising in anger. Watching you I grew stronger—
your courage washed away my fear.
All day I worked hard thinking of you.
In the evening I walked the long hill home.
You were at the top, waving your small arms,
pittering down the slope to me and I lifted you high
so high to the moon. That summer all the world
was soul and water, light glancing off peaks.
You learned the turtle, the cannonball, the froggy, and the flutter
and I learned to stand and wait for you to swim to me.  

– Michael Simms, from The Happiness of Animals

Wear red and bring red-colored treats for sharing at Fellowship
After all – it is PENTECOST!

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