Dear Saints in Santa Fe, and other far-off places—

Greetings in the name of Jesus Christ!

Jet lag, church lag, and Pentecost.

Before I go there, I want you to know that Jenny and I are home for a few days to regroup before we head off to Spain and the Camino, then on to Germany as the final stop on our vacation and study leave time. I am spending these days preparing for the last of my four classes in my Trauma and Spiritual Care course and will be up in the middle of the night attending class on zoom while we are in Germany. Two all-nighters, in fact. Thank you, time zones! Many books to read before we head off again this Thursday.

Jet lag. Yes, it greeted me before I even got off the plane from Melbourne, having tried unsuccessfully to fall asleep during the 15-hour flight. Thanks to multiple time zones and the International Dateline we enjoyed breakfast with a friend Wednesday morning in Melbourne and arrived back in Santa Fe late that night. A bit of a long journey. A bit of a long day.

Jet lag, as you know, can be a bit disorienting and tiring. Days and nights get mixed up. Things don’t seem in order, yet. It’s like trying to write a letter to you, and the words don’t flow but I try anyway.

As I sleepily stagger around the house, I am reminded that this Sunday is Pentecost. We celebrate the beginning of the church and remember the tongues of fire and the mighty wind. We sing Pentecost songs and are called to remember God’s spirit among us. We will hear from those who went on the recent trip to the border.

It’s a time when we might look back upon the previous year to see what we did with last year’s Pentecost and the promise of God’s Spirit alive within us and in the world. Surely, with such a storyline we would have moved a few mountains, healed some people, challenged an entrenched system or two, changed a few lives. Right?

Or did we suffer once again from church lag? I just made up the phrase now, but perhaps you know what I mean. With such great promises given to us, we stagger a bit too much, telling anyone who will listen how tired we are. We have lagged behind the culture instead of being in front of it. The time zone God gives us is Kairos time, a time of fulfillment and possibility, but we are more comfortable in our own time zones. We fall back and keep doing the same things over and over, while hesitating to spring forward in the ways of Jesus, whatever the cost might be.

Pentecost is a time to remember God does amazing things. Like bringing people together no matter where they come from. Like growing a beloved community in a fractured world. Like welcoming and accepting new people. Like addressing the needs of people with compassion. Like enjoying this community and being embraced by it. Like thinking maybe Jesus did have some incredible things to say, and then he lived them.

Like going on a vacation and study leave halfway around the world and discovering that home is where your community is, your people, your friends, and family, those who treat you as such, those who miss you and those who are happy to see you again.

Grace and peace, and Pentecost joy,

Harry