PENTECOST – THE DANCING AND THE PAINTING
” I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away רוח הקודש (ruach haqodesh – spirit of truth or Spirit of JHWH) will not come to you; but if I go, I will send her to you …When the Spirit of truth comes, she will guide you into all the truth…”
THERE ARE SO MANY WORDS in our readings this morning, so many I had to keep reducing the font to let them all in. Some of the words are packed with theology. The Greek word, παράκλητος Paraclete, translated in our version today Advocate, for example, has had many books of theology written about it, theologians over the ages striving to unpack it’s meaning. Who knows really why the writer of the gospel chose that word and would he or she be amazed, amused or bemused by all the fuss and mental gymnastics it has inspired? So many words! Dry bones animated, right judgement prayed for, fishermen and desert travelers speaking simultaneously in the diverse tongues of ancient Afro-Eurasia, promises of “portents in the heaven above and signs on the earth below, blood, and fire, and smoky mist”, dark suns and moons of blood…where do I start, what words can I write and hope to make sense? Words, words, words…
What if Pentecost isn’t just something that happened a long time ago, that we remember each year 49 days after Easter, forgetting again its Judaic root of 50 days after Passover, fondly call it the birthday of the church, then sing some hearty songs and go home? What if Pentecost is still going on? What if God is still saying something to the world, to the people, to creation? What if God hasn’t just given us a history book of fairy stories and a set of religious rituals and rules to make us “behave” and left us to get on with it? What if our very lives and being are infused with the ruach hagodesh, the spirit of Truth, spirit of JHWH, spirit of What Is, of I AM? What if our lives and being are the very canvass on which God paints? What if we just shut up and let God paint?
Tonnau Duw ('God's waves') Fr Tim Ardouin 
what if….indeed. exciting thought!