We hope you enjoy this reprise of Scott’s Forward Today reflection on the Day of Pentecost from 2018.

Dear friends in Christ,

This Sunday, we will celebrate the awe-full (as in full of awe) Day of Pentecost. Consider what it might have been like for those disciples. They saw tongues of fire. They heard people from other nations speaking in their own languages. It’s no wonder some bystanders wondered if people had been drinking too much.

I worry that in our zeal to make Pentecost the capstone of the Easter season – to turn it into a big party – we have missed the awe of the day. Don’t get me wrong. I’ve got nothing against parties, and I’m grateful for our realization that Easter is a season of 50 days. But I wonder, on this feast of the Holy Spirit’s descent, if we pay enough attention to the Holy Spirit.

Too often, I hear people saying, “The Holy Spirit was here” when things have gone their way or when an experience was delightful. And perhaps the Spirit was there. But a cursory glance at the scriptures suggests the Holy Spirit’s arrival is not always about warm, fuzzy feelings.

Sometimes the Holy Spirit pushes people to act boldly for the cause of the Gospel. I mean, to do things that risk life and limb. Sometimes the Holy Spirit convicts people of their sins, and the fruit of an encounter with the Spirit is repentance. The whole book of Acts is filled with stories of the Spirit’s power leading the church to open itself to the world around.

What do you think would happen if the Holy Spirit descended afresh on our church? Would we hear new things from those who are different from us? Would we be pushed in new, astonishing directions?

Yours faithfully,

Scott Gunn
Executive Director

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Dear friends in Christ,

Last Friday was Earth Day. An annual reminder of the need to protect this beautiful world in which we live is a good thing. We do even better to keep a constant focus on our environment and our attitudes toward God’s creation.

Surely there can be little debate that human activity has sometimes harmed our world. Forests are shrinking. Pollution increases. Garbage litters our oceans. The climate is changing.

What are we to do?

• We can always begin and end in prayer. Prayer helps our relationship with God, and that may in turn teach us to be more grateful for all the gifts God has given, including our amazing planet.
• Advocate for public policies that protect the environment and discourage polluters.
• Support businesses and organizations that are friendly to the environment.
• Reduce our own consumption of goods and energy.

As a church, there are several steps we can take:

• Choose green energy providers and reduce energy consumption in our churches.
• Build carbon offsets into budgets.
• Provide electric vehicle chargers and bike racks.
• Pray for and teach about our relationship with creation regularly.
• Study the scriptures. Forward Movement has just published the Creation Care Bible Challenge, which is ideal for individual devotion or group study.

At Forward Movement, we have switched to recycled paper where possible. We are looking for ways to reduce our carbon footprint. My personal hope is that we can become carbon neutral in a short time.

Let us give thanks for this amazing world and for all the plants and creatures who live with us. And let us seek to leave the world in better shape than when we inherited it.

What can you do to protect God’s creation? What is your church doing?

Yours faithfully,

Scott Gunn
Executive Director

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More from our ministry:

From Grow Christians: The Challenge of Earth Day

From the archives: Easter in the Compost Bin

Pray with the Earth for “daily bread” in Bold to Say

Dear friends in Christ,

Thanks be to God we have a whole season to celebrate with joy the resurrection of Jesus Christ. It’s just too much to fit into one day. So for fifty days we can bask in the glow of resurrection light as we seek to understand how this gift changes our lives and our hopes.

Every day of this first week of Easter is a major feast day according to our prayer book. That means each day has its own assigned lessons and its own collect. I love several of them, but tomorrow’s collect really struck me as I was writing this message.

Almighty and everlasting God, who in the Paschal mystery established the new covenant of reconciliation: Grant that all who have been reborn into the fellowship of Christ’s Body may show forth in their lives what they profess by their faith; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Isn’t that lovely? In Christ’s suffering, death, resurrection, and ascension, God has established a new covenant. And we who follow Jesus should show in our lives what we believe!

How are our lives changed by the reality of the resurrection of Jesus? What does it matter that God has decisively acted in our world to defeat sin, evil, and death? In this sometimes chaotic world of ours, can Easter joy help us to be bearers of mercy and grace? These are questions we might grapple with in this Easter season.

We spend a lot of energy on our Lenten disciplines, rightly so! But Easter disciplines might also help us live as people who follow a risen Lord. Easter disciplines might include prayer, thanksgiving, sharing, proclamation, worship, or whatever helps you grow into the full stature of Christ.

Forward Movement is here to walk with you through the fifty days of Easter. You can read daily reflections at 50days.org. These are short reflections written by a group of folks, many of whom write for Grow Christians. The blog features Easter music on Monday, throwbacks to ancient writings on Thursdays, and lovely reflections on Easter joy the other days of the week.

You can get an ebook or paper copy (Forward Movement or Amazon) of my latest book, Easter Triumph, Easter Joy: Meditations for the Fifth Days of Eastertide. You can cultivate a habit of daily prayer with extra alleluias on our free prayer site. You can read the Book of Acts or meditate daily on one of the great Easter icons.

Whatever you do, I hope you and I will not go back to “business as usual” now that we’ve celebrated Easter Day. The world can never go back to business as usual now that death is defeated! Let us spend the next 47 days exploring the joy and transformation of Easter.

Blessings to you all. Alleluia, Christ is risen!

Yours faithfully,

Scott Gunn
Executive Director

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More from our ministry:

Easter at Grow Christians: Every Last Thing Is a Season

Spend 50 days exploring scripture: The Way of Love Bible Challenge

Easter at ChurchNext: Finding the Resurrected Jesus

While we tend to love others when it feels convenient and good to us, we recall how Jesus taught us to love others as he loved us: completely and sacrificial. Instead of turning away from the cross, we spend time gazing at it. And we then we revel in the utter and shocking victory of God’s victory over fear, sin, and death.

I hope you will join me in spending lots of time in church this week. Though we are dispersed throughout the world, we will be together in hearing God’s promises to us. We will share in the drama and awe of the ancient liturgies of the church. We will meet Jesus in the scriptures and sacraments. And we will find our hearts gladdened with the good news that no person and no place is beyond God’s redemptive love.

Blessings to you.

Yours faithfully,

Scott Gunn
Executive Director

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Dear friends in Christ,

This coming Sunday, we begin our journey through Holy Week. It is the heart of our liturgical life, and in these few days, we see and experience so much of God’s vast love for us.

Our week begins on a high note with Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem. It was an occasion of much hope. Hosanna! Save us! People might have hoped that Jesus would persuade his Father in heaven to vanquish their oppressors. Jesus indeed came to bring freedom, but not in terms defined by the powers and principalities of the world.

Later in our Palm Sunday service, we will hear the passion gospel from St. Luke. Near the end, Jesus has a series of poignant and revelatory conversations. In one exchange, the authorities say to Jesus, “If you are the Messiah, tell us.”

But Jesus is not there for a debate or a rhetorical demonstration. Rather, he is about how show forth his love as he offers himself for us and for our world on the cross. Where people wanted words, Jesus offered himself. As the letter to the Hebrews says, “He is the reflection of God’s glory and the exact imprint of God’s very being.” He didn’t need to engage in pointless words because he himself is the Word.

This tragic disconnect is one of many we will hear and see in Holy Week. We sinful humans simply weren’t – and aren’t – able to grasp the immensity of God’s love for us.

I love Holy Week because it all moves beyond words. In the scriptures and liturgies of the week, we meet the God who loves us more than we can imagine. We meet the God who shows us perfect love in Christ Jesus enfleshed. We meet the God who did finally vanquish evil, but on a cross and in an empty tomb. We meet God.

The height and depth and breadth of God’s love is manifest on the cross. Let us enter with joy into this week in which we contemplate and see God’s saving love.

Yours faithfully,

Scott Gunn
Executive Director

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Dear friends in Christ,

At the risk of sounding like a broken record, there’s a lot going on in the world these days. The news brings us word of distressing events each day. As I’ve said many times here before, prayer is never the wrong answer.

I think it bears repeating that prayer is action. Don’t accept the premise that we must “pray and also take action.”

For some people, it’s easy to find the right words to pray. For me, I often prefer to savor the words that others have crafted. I especially love ancient prayers. I guess that’s why I’m a happy Episcopalian!

If you are like me and like to speak time-tested prayers, there are lots of resources. Of course, the Book of Common Prayer is a treasury of lovely prayers. Look especially in the back at page 814 onward for prayers relating to many occasions and subjects.

Forward Movement has a free prayer website at prayer.forwardmovement.org. On that site, you can find all the prayers I mentioned starting at page 814 along with others. You can find daily devotions for individuals and families. You can even keep your own prayer list to pray the intentions that are important to you. Everything on our prayer website is also available in free prayer apps for Apple or Android.

If you want some inspiring collections of prayers, Forward Movement offers several. I encourage you to check out the Saint Augustine’s Prayer Book, Hour by Hour, Prayers New and Old, or Prayers for All Occasions. Each of these volumes offers a carefully chosen collection of prayers. Samples are available on our website.

Finally, if you’re a person whose prayer time often happens on your commute, we have some free podcasts to support your practice of prayer. You can enjoy Forward Day by Day, A Morning at the Office, or An Evening at Prayer.

Prayer is an essential practice for those of us who follow Jesus. Prayer helps us to love God and love our neighbors. Prayer allows us to give voice to our hopes, praises, sorrows, and regrets. And when we can’t find the right way to pray, the Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words.

But, for God’s sake, let us pray.

Yours faithfully,

Scott Gunn
Executive Director

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Dear friends in Christ,

It seems like the world is spinning out of control. Lies fill the airwaves. Nations invade nations. Greed seems endemic. Division abounds. Fear spreads.

Honestly, sometimes it’s hard to know what to make of all this. It would be easy to lay all the blame at the feet of others. If only THEY would change. To be sure, all of those people do truly need to repent.

There’s one thing I’ve noticed that all Christians have in common: we love to talk about other people’s sins.

Lent invites us to see things differently. I can’t control others, but I can open my own heart to God’s transforming grace. I can turn away from my own sins and turn toward the merciful God who loves me more than I can imagine. I can seek to be a bearer of God’s mercy and grace in this upside-down world.

I very much hope you’ll make it to church today if you can. Receiving that gritty, ashen cross on our foreheads reminds us that we are mortal. That cross also reminds us that we are not defined by what we do, but by the God who offers redemption.

By God’s amazing grace, the world can change one heart at a time. We defeat evil with love. We crush fear with hope. We hollow out greed with blessing. This Lent, let us all focus on the things that truly matter.

Blessings to you all. I wish you a holy Lent, for Christ’s sake.

Yours faithfully,

Scott Gunn
Executive Director

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Dear friends in Christ,

Today the church celebrates one of the great feasts, the Presentation of Our Lord Jesus Christ in the Temple. We recall the time, told in the second chapter of Luke, that Mary and Joseph took young Jesus to the Temple to present him to God. This was to fulfill the law set forth in Exodus 13 commanding the firstborn to be offered to God.

When Mary and Joseph got to the Temple, they encountered Simeon, a man who had been waiting to behold his Savior. Seeing the Savior would be the culmination of his life. When he held Jesus, Simeon offered the beautiful praise we now know as the Nunc dimittis (from the Latin of the opening words).

Lord, you now have set your servant free *
to go in peace as you have promised;
For these eyes of mine have seen the Savior, *
whom you have prepared for all the world to see:
A Light to enlighten the nations, *
and the glory of your people Israel.
Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit: *
as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be for ever. Amen.

Nearly every time I pray evening prayer, I repeat this canticle. I think of that man, essentially waiting to meet Jesus, a moment that will mark his readiness to leave his earthly pilgrimage and move on to his heavenly home. What was it like, waiting day in and day out to see his Savior? I ponder how his heart must have nearly burst with joy, holding the young child who was destined to change the world. I wonder if Simeon expected to greet his Savior as a child, or if he had been waiting for a powerful grownup? What a moment this must have been!

Simeon’s lovely song of praise reminds us that Jesus, the Light of the world, shines on every nation, on every person. Jesus’ saving love is for everyone.

I wonder if we are open to meeting our Savior in ways we might not expect? And I wonder if we are prepared to share the light of Christ’s grace, mercy, righteousness, peace, and love with the whole world?

Yours faithfully,

Scott Gunn
Executive Director

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