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The texts for the Day of Pentecost are rich with imagery, metaphor, and narrative. There is a persistent theme of “now and not yet” - the work is complete but has yet to be fully revealed. The Spirit is available but we have yet to harness it’s full power. The earth dwells in perfection but yearns for the day when all creatures are truly free in body.

The story of Pentecost in Acts is powerful and curious, a story of equality and inclusion, of accessibility, simplicity, and choice. In Acts 2 the Apostle Peter quotes the Prophet Joel’s inclusive and egalitarian vision of God’s Kin-dom, saying “'In the last days it will be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams.Even upon my slaves, both men and women, in those days I will pour out my Spirit; and they shall prophesy.”

Everyone who wants in is in, status notwithstanding.

From Resurrection to Pentecost we leap from awakening to consciousness, from believing to seeing. I’ve tried to do the practically-impossible here: to capture our collective wordless longing in words.This litany accompanies the text, drawing from the Ezekiel, Acts, and Romans passages.

God, we are waiting, waiting,
For the redemption of these physical bodies (1);
Even as we know they are already redeemed,
Still we wait for the fullness of time.

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Hi! In 2019 I moved much of my work over to Patreon
as part of my effort to make this work sustainable.
So thanks for reading and subscribing.
You can find archived litanies here, and purchase my book here.

The Lectionary this week is juicy juicy. Lazarus, the valley of Dry Bones, Romans 8, Psalm 130. If you are searching for a litany tailored to the Ezekiel passage, please see Litany for Dry Bones.

I take some issue with the greek SARKI in Romans 8 being translated as “in the flesh” or “on the flesh.” Not because I think it’s wrong; more that I think it’s just not enough. Not a big enough word. Not robust enough language. Strong’s says SARKI means “flesh, body, human nature, materiality.” I think human nature and materiality are getting closer. But as it is, oversimplified, I think it props up a harmful dualistic narrative: body is bad, spirit is good. This hasn’t done us any favors as embodied beings.

What if, by “human nature” we mean humanity’s drive for self-preservation, self-satisfaction, and survival at any cost? What if we mean the ego-self, the one that propels us toward safety, separation, and self-sufficiency? What if we mean our tendency to be preoccupied with our bank accounts? Where we thought the contrast was between “flesh and spirit”, what if we are actually being pointed to disconnection vs connection?

Thinking about Romans 8 from this vantage point propels me into a different understanding, one of invitation into a life of Wholeness, Community, and Oneness. An invitation to drop our ego-needs (rightness, judgement, never-enough scarcity), and take up Spirit priorities: sacredness, service, generosity, abundance, love.

God, your Spirit dwells in us.
The Spirit of Christ is within us (1).
We turn away from self-preservation and survival
As our primary motivations;And toward unity, connectedness and service
As our foundation.

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