In between…again!

Next Sunday celebrates Pentecost. The Christian faith story left the season of Easter last Thursday by marking the Ascension of the risen Christ – launched out of the midst of the disciples who were still getting used to seeing him around in resurrected form. They are bereft all over again. He’s no longer there? Could they have just imagined these past days of being with him? Had their collective grief been playing tricks on them? But the teaching and promise of these last days has lingered. It’s one thing to have his physical presence with them. It’s another to have a pouring out of an abiding presence of Christ that empowers, emboldens and transforms. This presence, this Holy Spirit, is now immanent. All they have to do is wait. And it will come as Jerusalem celebrates the Festival of Booths (Shavuot) – otherwise known to Christians as Pentecost. They wait…