clcouch123

(x = space)

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Happy Birthday, Church

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The birthday of

The Christian church

Not the first day of Advent

In November of December,

Which is the birth

Of the Christian year

Itself

And from there the

Days of seasons

Counted,

Advertised through colors

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Pentecost

That has a five in it

(to look at it)

For fity

And is a celebration

Out the Jewish culture

And tradition

(for Christians,

the parent culture and tradition)

But Christianized

Like Easter

Keeping the name

As well

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I suppose the Christians

Own it mostly, now

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Liturgically,

It is a day of fire

A day of wind, the kind

That carries fire

Destructive forces

Reined in by the Spirit

Even as the Spirit

Gives it, first

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The church is born

From hiding

And from sorrow

That Christ has left

Two times

With promises,

That living in the keeping

Could be hopeful

But wears on followers

As well

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Red helium balloons

Are not unusual

Or dances to resemble fire

(people

and balloons

can do that),

Movements

The like

We have not beheld

Since Palm Sunday

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People could wave palms

Now;

They would match

The setting of

Pentecost events

In western Asia

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There is the matter of

Languages:

The Spirit spoke to each

And more importantly

Those crowded

outside

(Why a crowd?

had a fire been reported? were

they for

the five-and-fifty festival?)

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To each one (anyway)

The language of one’s own

Is what one heard,

A long list given

Of the nations, nationalities

Assembled

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A confusion of clarity—what

Was said to each?

We could wonder—but

Peter rises

And in words clear enough

First excuses

The excuse of wine

(we herein are not drunk

it’s the morning,

after all)

And proceeds to talk of God

And of the child of God

And of the promised Spirit

For each one

(what we now call trinity)

Now for each one

Who asks

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From this day,

The church grows

As any life might

After being born;

There will be a first debate

Too soon

Within itself

And first divisions

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But there will be miracles

And the word does go around

Into many persons

By hearing

By conviction

By will for each

And water for baptism

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Air for exhortation,

Land to carry missionaries

All around,

Ships that move as well

Upon the Middle Sea,

Which sometimes wreck

So that the persons there

Might hear of it

As well,

A word of God

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A saving word

As any choose

To hear it often first

With ears

And always in

Another way

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C L Couch

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notes

5 June 2022

Acts of the Apostles, second chapter (though as with most things maybe read around)

“Easter” is not Jewish—though Easter often happens near Passover—but is Babylonian in origin.

“Pentecost” is for a Jewish celebration (Feast of Weeks, Shavuot).

Photo by Susan Wilkinson on Unsplash

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