A Change of Plans
Pastor Karl and I spent a little time recently planning for the rest of the year and a little into 2026. We put all the important dates on a big calendar. Onto the calendar went many of the things we know will do at church (like Christmas Eve, which is on Wednesday this year).
We added some regular, but not guaranteed, things to the calendar (like his sermon series on Finding God at the Movies). We also added some extra things to the calendar (a new class this fall). All in all, it was a very productive planning session.
I like to plan and I like to have a plan. Maybe I like planning because it moves my brain into the future and what could be which is exciting to me. Maybe it’s because I’m decent at it. Or maybe it’s just because I love knowing what is generally going to happen, or what we think might come to pass. Whatever the reason, I do like a plan!
I also know that some of these plans we make will change. We will get closer to time and something might shift, forcing us to chart a different course. Sometimes that new plan is better and we are grateful for that nudge off the path. Other times, we lament what might have been. Life will present obstacles and opportunities and we will respond as we can.
This Sunday is Pentecost, and the reading is from Acts 2. Scripture tells us that the apostles were all gathered for the Feast of Weeks (which commemorates the time that God gave the Ten Commandments to Moses on Mt. Sinai) in one room. I wonder what the apostles were doing that morning. Maybe they were gathering to make plans and prepare for this Jewish holiday. Maybe they were planning for what they would do after the Feast of Weeks. Maybe they were just eating breakfast together.
But then the Holy Spirit arrived and messed up whatever plans they had for the day by sending a mighty wind and tongues of fire which landed on each of them. As if that kind of disruption wasn’t enough, they all started speaking in different languages - I suspect they were both amazed and a little terrified. And likely, all their future plans got radically changed or even discarded.
I wonder if they were thrilled by their new linguistic abilities or if they found it irritating. Were they excited about the possibilities of heading new places to meet new people? Or were they a little irritated that what they thought would happen next was literally gone in the wind? I suspect it might have been a little of all of that.
When my plans change, I have some options: resist or embrace. I can flat out resist the new situation (cue the denial or lament or both!). Or I can embrace the new directions offered (because like it or not, things have changed). And if you’re like me, perhaps you do both: first I resist because I really did like that original plan/direction/happening; but then, I embrace the new thing that is unfolding.
The people around the apostles thought they were drunk, and they initially resisted this new thing that God was doing through the Holy Spirit. But if we keep reading all the way to the end of chapter 2, we find that the people came around and devoted themselves to the new teachings and fellowship. The people followed the apostles into this new thing that was happening – which, through the passage of time, ultimately becomes our church today.
So, I will do my best to keep planning for what might come. And I will also try to hold the plans loosely so that when the Holy Spirit shows up among us, I am ready to embrace what God is doing among us.
Blessings,
Emily
