(Published May 27, 2020)

Thanks for joining us again this Wednesday with Wesley!

Pentecost is upon us this Sunday. This is the day that we celebrate the birth of the church and welcome new members into the congregation. Typically, on Pentecost, a friend and I memorize the Acts 2 scripture and prepare our Biblical storytelling for worship decked out in red head to toe. In a previous congregation, the children and I would opt for a tactile retelling of the story and we would start up fans as the winds blow and drop fake red flower petals into the congregation from the balcony above to demonstrate the flaming tongues.

However you celebrate Pentecost, you do so with a firm grasp on the Biblical text. You can do a lot with the story— there’s a rush of violent wind, divided tongues of fire, and speaking in different languages— it’s a great story to tell with a group of people. It wasn’t until my first year of seminary that I learned to think anything else about the text other than which stories were cool to read in worship, and which were harder to draw people in. That all changed in my first year with my professors of Hebrew Bible and New Testament, who added so much context to the first century world that I no longer felt two thousand years removed from scripture. Instead, I felt (and still do feel) that I can read the Bible with as much awe and care with which its first readers did.

I would love to share this love of scripture with you in an evening webinar with two Wesley professors: Dr. Denise Hopkins and Dr. Carla Works. These professors have inspired so many students here to follow scripture faithfully and prophetically. Please register for our event, “Engaging the Text,” next Thursday, June 4th from 6:00-6:45pm (EST) and you will get a glimpse of what makes Wesley classes so special. Hope to see you there! 

Have a blessed day!

Peace,

Elizabeth