Imminent & Transcendent
Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off—for all whom the Lord our God will call. Acts 2:38-39
This Sunday is Pentecost Sunday, the celebration of God’s giving of the Holy Spirit to the Church as told in Acts chapter 2. An incredible gift from God which is for all, both far and near. Pentecost was an event that showcased God’s imminence (God’s incredible proximity and nearness to each of us) and also God’s transcendence (God’s universality and ability to connect us all to one another across time, place, culture, and language).
Over the past few years, I’ve been struck by the imminent and transcendent work of the Holy Spirit, particularly in the time of the pandemic. I have grown to love liturgical prayers and readings. I’m moved by the way God is able to speak profoundly to me through words like the Lord’s Prayer, the Apostle’s Creed, and the Doxology, which have been prayed, proclaimed, and sung by followers of Christ for many centuries all over the world and in multiple languages. And the Holy Spirit has added another layer for many of us as we have declared these words in a in a virtual space where God is somehow still powerfully present.
In that vein, I want to share with us a Pentecost confession from the Covenant Book of Worship, our denomination’s common book of liturgy and prayer. I pray that as you proclaim these words whenever and wherever you read them, you experience the imminence and transcendence of the Holy Spirit as these words touch you individually, across our community of believers here at Communitas, and throughout our collection of churches, and beyond.
We believe in the Holy Spirit,
the Lord, the giver of life,
who proceeds from the Father and the Son.
We believe in the Spirit,
who hovered over a new world being born at creation;
who filled Bezalel of Judah with ability, intelligence, and skill in every kind of craft to make beautiful things for God;
who came mightily upon David from his youth, and never deserted him;
who revealed to old, righteous Simeon that he would live to see Messiah;
who came to Mary, a young girl in a Galilean village, and created life in her;
who descended on Jesus like a dove at his Jordan baptism, and led him into a wilderness of testing and temptation, and led him out of it;
who anointed this Messiah for a special work with poor people and prisoners, to the blind and the downtrodden;
who spoke through his teaching, and healed through his touch;
who led him to a cross, and by whose power raised him from death and a tomb;
who was sent to make lost people able to hear good news;
who gifted ordinary people to do God’s work;
who made enemies into friends, and many peoples into one body.
Yes, we believe in the Holy Spirit.
—Bill Strunk