June 1st

The day after? When a significant event happens, or a special occasion, or an unexpected moment changes life, there is always a day after.

What happened the day after the Holy Spirit came? The impression in the bible story is that the followers of Jesus then spent every day out on the streets telling people in the streets of Jerusalem about the events of Jesus life and inviting them to become followers too. Did they still seem drunk? Did they all still understand them in their own language no matter where their home was? Was this strange event one that they recalled from time to time when they were home again and wondered at its meaning? Of course, it was life-changing for those followers of Jesus in that upstairs room, but did others who were there remember it at all?

Which just goes to show that the things that are important to us aren’t always the same things that others remember at all.

Except clearly what was born that Pentecost day started something new that has never gone away. Pentecost gave birth to an empowered group of people. And the day after? That group continued to nurture the new life within them and others who had listened and been baptised. And the day after that, and… so on. There is a continuity that leads to here and now, to us! And still we nurture faith, each day, in order to follow with the followers!

Rachel Haig