Dear Friends,

As I write this letter, we are about to celebrate Pentecost in our churches. It is not easy to connect with the story of Pentecost. It is too exclusively supernatural. It is hard to build any bridge between it and our own more down-to-earth experience. One way of building such a bridge, however, may be to liken it to the three stages that mark the start of a Grand Prix motor race.

The first stage takes place in the pits. This is the final preparation of the cars. They need fuel, oil, appropriate tyres, and final tuning. This corresponds to the period between Easter and the Ascension when Jesus worked to prepare his disciples, overcoming their incredulity, enlarging their vision, instilling them with a sense of mission.

The second stage is the roll out. The cars are pushed from the pits onto the starting grid. The mechanics step back. The engines are fired. This corresponds with what happened in the upper room. The disciples are literally fired up, ready to go. Tongues of flame play over them. They speak in other tongues.

The third stage is the start itself. The lights change. The engines rev. They're off. This corresponds to what happened immediately after the events in the upper room. Led by Peter, the disciples step out to face and address the assembled crowd. The Christian mission has begun.

The comparison is not exact. It isn't exact about the race start procedure. What happened to the warm-up lap? It isn't exact about the race itself, which is not so much a Grand Prix as an endurance race, a race that is still going on with new cars taking over when a driver is tiring or a car is failing. Nevertheless, it may perhaps help to form a bridge between the unworldly story of Pentecost and our own more worldly experience.

Every blessing this Pentecost,

John Lewis