Going down the rabbit hole into God’s reign of love
A Liturgical Guide for a six-week Pentecost Season
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A Liturgical Guide for a six-week Pentecost Season
After all we’ve been through in the last two and half years, most of us are ready for a change. We all know now that what was normal in our global society wasn’t working for anyone but a tiny, privileged few. We need to find another way of being. But for most of us, ‘immersed in the way things are,’ it’s very difficult to imagine what a different life and a different world could look like. It might seem like the dream of a better, more compassionate and connected world, is nothing more than a wonderland of fantasy.
But what if that wonderland is real? What if we really could dive down a metaphorical rabbit hole and discover a whole new wonderland world for all of us? Well, I believe that this is, essentially, what Jesus’ message of God’s reign of Love was all about. And I believe that the experience of the Spirit that happened on the Day of Pentecost two thousand years ago was the rabbit hole that we need to enter God’s new world.
Pentecost Sunday is a pivot point in the Church Calendar. It’s mostly celebrated as a stand-alone event in the year, but it marks a significant shift. This is the day we move from the first half of the year, where the focus is on Jesus’ birth, life, death and resurrection, to the second half of the year, where we focus on how to live as Jesus did. The gift of Spirit at Pentecost is the gift of sight to see the wonderland of God’s reign. It’s the gift of longing to see that world become a reality among us. It’s the gift of courage and strength to begin to live the way of Christ here and now. And for me there is great value in celebrating Pentecost as a season rather than just an event.
And that is why I am so excited to share this new Liturgical Guide for a six-week Pentecost Season: ALL OF US IN WONDERLAND—Going down the rabbit hole into God’s reign of love. Based on the Lectionary readings for Year C from Pentecost Sunday to Proper 10, ALL OF US IN WONDERLAND offers everything you need to make Pentecost a season of opening to the Spirit and diving more deeply into the Wonderland of God’s reign of Love.
ALL OF US IN WONDERLAND includes:
There is also a Personal Spiritual Practice Guide available separately that provides daily, in-depth guides for personal reflection for every day of this Pentecost season. You can also purchase both this Liturgical Guide and the Personal Spiritual Practice Guide together as a bundle which includes a license to share the daily practices with your community in print, via email and messaging, and/or on your website and social media channels.
The Pentecost moment, the moment of receiving the gift of God’s Spirit, is a bit like going down a rabbit hole into the wonderland of love and justice that Jesus called the reign of God. It’s an experience of breaking out of the world of ‘this is just how it is’ and of letting God open our eyes to a whole new reality.
The doctrine of the Trinity is not a diagram of the anatomy of God. The God who is a Trinity is a God who is, in God’s nature, a divine community of love. Every one of us, and everyone out there, is invited to be part of the Wonderland community of Love that is God’s reign.
Fear leads us to hide in our faith and try to keep frightening things at bay, through violence if necessary. It is sadly all too common for us to echo the cry of the Queen of Hearts in Alice in Wonderland: “Off with their heads!” But I believe that Jesus offers a different way. He confronts evil and brokenness not with law but with grace.
Like Alice we may come to faith without really knowing where we want to go or how to get there. That’s why we need to immerse ourselves in Jesus’ vision of God’s reign. That’s why we need Jesus’ teaching and example to show us how to live in God’s Wonderland. And that’s why we must daily make the decision to follow the values, priorities, and purposes of Christ wholeheartedly.
One of Jesus’ favourite metaphors—spoken and enacted—for God’s reign was a meal. Most of his teaching happened at meal tables and he often compared God’s reign to various kinds of feasts. I sometimes get the feeling that when people shared food with Jesus and heard him speak, they may have felt a bit like Alice at the Hatter’s Tea Party.
This is what I call ‘White Rabbit Syndrome,’ with reference to the White Rabbit in Alice in Wonderland, who complains that he is so very late. When we feel rushed, pressured, and stressed, our capacity for connection and compassion is significantly reduced.
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