Categories: This Sunday at Northside
      Date: May 10, 2008
     Title: This Sunday at Northside (5/11)

We celebrate this, one of the three holiest days of the Church year -- and the only one without a secular icon (interesting …) – with a combined worship service. Several from Northside and St. Aidan’s have volunteered to “speak in other tongues” – i.e., other languages – simultaneously in a brief section of the Acts 2:1-21 reading around which this special day is centered. Other scriptures include:

• Exodus 1:15-22 (non-lectionary) – the story of Shiphrah and Puah, two Hebrew midwives who resist Pharoah’s edict.
• John 20:19-23 – Jesus makes a post-resurrection appearance to his disciples, imploring them to “receive the Holy Spirit”.

The Acts & John readings can be found at http://www.ucc.org/worship/samuel/may-11-2008-pentecost-sunday.html. The Witness is a title I used for a sermon prior to Pentecost in 2004 – though rest assured the message will be quite different: “Mothers of Liberation”. Leading questions:

• On this birthday of the Church, how do the midwives help give birth to the people of Israel? How may this story shape our understanding of Mothers’ Day?
• What does the midwives’ example teach us about the world, about God, and about our response in Christ?
• Among the three members of the Trinity (next Sunday is Trinity Sunday, btw) … Why does the Holy Spirit get shafted among most mainline Protestants today?

Hope to see you in Worship tomorrow! If away for Mothers’ Day, etc: traveling mercies!