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"Koinonia and the Holy Spirit"
I have been a member of the Koinonia (Greek word meaning “community”) Sunday School class for a long time. I joined this class after teaching there occasionally as a staff member. This is a wonderful group who gathers at 8 AM on Sunday mornings in Linder Lounge. They sing and hear a lesson. Each week various teachers with different perspectives teach the lessons and help them grow and explore. It is a tight little group, always welcoming and open to anyone who wishes to join them at that early hour.The church has a liturgical year with seasons much like a natural year. It begins with Advent and the birth of Christ, then Lent and Easter, bringing us into Eastertide -- the 50 days between Easter, and the Feast of Pentecost. The season of Pentecost marks the birth of the church when the disciples who remained, along with a few female disciples, huddled in a room in fear, waiting for the Holy Spirit. They did not know what that meant, but they waited in community. The Holy Spirit then gave them the power and courage to begin a new way of being in relationship with God.
Recently, after reading Acts 2:1-12 in preparation for Pentecost, I realized that my Koinonia class, while a bit larger in number than the group in this passage, was like the group that gathered in that small room waiting for the Spirit. As Koinonia gathers and studies, occasionally the Spirit descends upon them -- and they understand in new ways. Sometimes they wonder “what does it mean to have this Spirit descend upon us?” I am not totally sure, but in this community of seekers, it feels good.
Pentecostal churches focus on the “Pentecostal” experience described in Acts 2. But in most denominational churches, the Holy Spirit is sort of the lost 1/3 of the Holy Trinity. We do not teach a great deal about it.
At the end of each Koinonia class we gather in a circle, hold hands and we sing this song:
Spirit of the living God fall afresh on me (2x)
Melt me, mold me, fill me, use me
Spirit of the living God fall afresh on me.
We are a “community” and this song is a prayer to melt -- reduce to base elements, to mold -- reform in the image of Christ, to fill -- with that Spirit, and then to be used by God. And then we ask again for the Spirit to fall on us in a fresh way.Pentecost is God’s very Spirit coming into the world -- which to me still remains a mystery. But I know I have experienced the power of that Spirit falling on me at various times… and it is powerful and euphoric. I know that when it happens to me, I am equipped to do things I otherwise would feel inadequate to attempt.
I invite you to Koinonia any Sunday at 8 AM; or the Vespers community on Wednesdays at 5:15 PM -- be a part of the community filled with the Holy Spirit. I invite you to pray for a fresh filling of God’s Spirit.
Blessings,
Pastor Greg LaDue
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