Pentecost Year A

June 4th, 2017

The Wild Goose is a favored image for the Holy Spirit in Celtic Christianity: somewhat different from the image of the dove that we so often see. How might this image add to how we understand the Holy Spirit?  

Wild geese are louder and more brash than we imagine doves to be. Geese I have met tend to be persistent and can be frightening when they see something they want. They are not to be tamed and go where the seasons call them. Have there been times when the Spirit has operated in your life more like a wild goose than a dove. Both are useful images and help us get to how God might be present to us. We'll talk about this, and other things, this Pentecost as we gather for aftertalk after worship.

African Proverb, Ghana
"If you want to speak to God, tell it to the wind." 

Howard Thurman, 20th century
"Don't ask yourself what the world needs. Ask yourself what makes you come alive, and go do that, because what the world needs is people who have come alive." 

Friedrich Nietzsche, 19th century
"A sedentary life is the real sin against the Holy Spirit. Only those thoughts that come by walking have any value."

Oliver Wendell Holmes, 19th century
"It's faith in something and enthusiasm for something that makes a life worth living."