Episcopalians, and Anglicans in general, seem comfortable with God the Father - for generations, the Fatherhood of God and the Brotherhood of Man, said just about all there was about church leadership. For similar reasons God the Son made perfect sense, like a family business that adds each new generation to the corporate letterhead. The third person of the Trinity, however, has remained largely a celestial poltergeist, the Holy Ghost, the highly uncomfortable family member! One familiar example of this awkward discomfort was portrayed as the Anglican divine, Father Gerald, in the movie Four Weddings and a Funeral, when he blesses his flock "In the name of the father, the son, and the holy spigot."

So despite the fact that Pentecost, the festival commemorating the coming of the Holy Spirit to the first Christians, is a major feast day in our liturgical calendar, it is also a day that makes some Episcopalians squirm. We're not sure what to do with readings about tongues of fire over the heads of those at the first Pentecost Sunday, described as speaking other languages in ways that left onlookers amazed and perplexed. Of course, the culturally proper Episcopal response is, "That's interesting!"

This is the same response I sometimes receive when I talk about my faith with those who are the closest to me in life, both family, dear friends and members of parishes where I have served, including St. Thomas'. The veil of disbelief seems to drop simultaneously with the arrival of an unmistakable distancing in their eyes, the unspoken, "there's just a little too much Jesus in that girl"! I find myself aware that this conversation partner may be one of those people who continues to love ‘church' in spite of - not because of - its being a religious institution. For a fleeting moment I question my motives, acutely aware of the relational cost of sharing with another person the convictions of my vocational identity, as well as the equally debilitating option of closing up and choosing not to share my spiritual journey with others. The truth is I do love Jesus more than most of our current culture appreciates!

The nonchalant opening line of today's selection from Acts, "when the day of Pentecost had come," masks one of Luke's awkward moments in describing a miracle. In the Nativity story Luke leaves shepherds gawking in the fields outside Bethlehem, and now leaves the Pentecost onlookers amazed, astonished, and perplexed. The Holy Spigot has been opened, and out comes not water but fire. Luke himself in writing Acts was trying to describe yet another miracle-gift of our faith, yet appears tongue-tied in trying to do so. So he turned back to the prophets, searching for an image, and found it in Joel's words: ‘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."