In The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe by C.S Lewis, there is a wonderful scene as the book moves to its climax. Aslan, the great lion, the Lord of Narnia, was earlier slain by the White Witch in place of one of the human children, Edmund, who had betrayed the other children and for a time had sided with the White Witch. Now, as he sought redemption by rejoining Aslan's camp, she wanted his blood. But instead, Aslan trades himself for Edmund, out of love for the boy and he is killed. The White Witch, sensing her triumph is near with the death of her great enemy, goes to make war upon the last of her enemies. The day seems lost. But Aslan is not defeated. Instead, he rises from the dead, breaking the power of death over him and defeating the White Witch's plan. When he first returns, he greets Lucy and Susan with such love and affection, bounding through the grass, leaping with them, dancing in the joy of restored life. His very presence to the two girls is life and the world, which was grey with defeat, is now alive with hope restored and fulfilled, as it dances in their presence in lion Aslan.

When the initial euphoria begins to recede, he instructs the girls to climb on to his back and he races to the White Witch's palace. There, many Narnians have been imprisoned, turned to stone because of their defiance of the witch. But Aslan goes to each of them in turn and breaths upon them and through the power of that breath, life reutrns. The stone falls away and the imprisoned Narnians live and breath again. More than that, they immediately follow Aslan as leaves the palace for one final confrontation with the White Witch.

What a beautiful image. In their state of stony death, the newly risen Aslan imparts on them the breath of life, Aslan's very Spirit, the Spirit of Narnia's Lord and Creator and the stony death melts away. Life comes anew.

It is a powerful allegory for this day, the day of Pentecost. For on this day, the disciples and a whole crowd of people received that Spirit of life that comes from he who rose from the dead, Jesus Christ. Their hearts of stones, which could never seem to grasp the truth that Christ was trying to communicate to them, melt and become hearts attuned to their Lord and Savior, hearts that are suddenly ablaze with the fire of that Spirit. They are more than just made alive again, they are truly made into disciples, messengers who will brng the message of Christ to all, the Gospel that lives and breaths because of the Spirit.

And boundaries are laid low. Language is no longer a barrier to the people as they suddenly, each group according to their own language, hear their language being spoken by outsiders. The fracture at the time of the Tower of Babel is repaired. To be a child of God, to receive the adoption as God's children, means to be one in the Spirit, to know that apparent differences are not what define them as a community. Rather it was being adopted by God and it was life in the Spirit, as well as the Gospel message, which defined them and bound them together.

It is this day, beyond any other, that the church takes its first breath, where disciples are made, where Christ's mission becomes our mission, where we can look back and say that just as hearts of stone were melted that day so long ago, just as the call of God was imprinted upon the hearts of all that day, just as the church began to live that day, so such things continue now. The Spirit still comes to us and breaths new life into our hearts of stone, into our dead lives imprisoned by our own broken sinfulness. The spirit still inspires our hearts, nay, sets our hearts on fire for the sake of the Gospel and for all the world. We are still called to be church. But to be church in the Spirit is quite different from what we think of as church. It is not moribund by tradition and what we once were and once did. To be church is to be engaged in the very life of the Spirit, in all of its radical love, its hunger for justice and compassion, its striving for the good of all people. That is what it is to be church. It is to come together in the midst of that life, as people made new by the Spirit, to give wild and reckless thanks to God for all that God has done for us, to raise up prayers of concern and heartache in all their rawness and with the supreme trust that our Lord will indeed hear those prayers. To be church is to be a living, breathing entity, our life blood the Grace of God, our heart beat the Spirit of God, our soul God's risen Son, our Lord and Savior. Pentecost is the beginning of the church, when Christ and the Holy Spirit came into the lives of so many, whose hearts were imprisoned in stone and set them free. But it is also the renewal of the church, a reminder of what we are and what we must continue striving to become. The church is a lving, breathing thing, and it needs to be reminded of that constantly.

On facebook I saw one of my friends who serves as pastor in Edson ask the question “Do Pentecostals celebrate pentecost?” I had to wonder, does the church as a whole truly celebrate the day? Do we take up this day as our birth day, as our renewal day, as an immensely important day in the life of the church, once put nearly on par with Christmas and Easter? This is the day the Spirit came in a profound and life changing way, and made the church. We need to celebrate it. For light has come to our darkness, the Spirit has come to guide us and set our hearts on fire. We take this for grantd far too much. We focus on days of Christmas and Easter. And we are an Easter people. We beleive that we will come to new life in Jesus Christ. But that is in the “not now” that is in a future time. For right now, we are also a Pentecost people, a people who operate in and through the Spirit, and this should be celebrated for this is who we are and we are called to live in as church in such a fashion.

Let us raise our voices in joyous praise of the Spirit for this day, for with out it, we are lost. Like one of my favorite comedians said in a sketch of his “with out purpose, we would be like a blind man, in a dark room, looking for a black cat, who isn't even there.” The Spirit gives us life and purpose and so we can go forward from this place, living the Spirit's call and shouting “ALLELUIA. THANKS BE TO GOD.” Amen.