The image of the ‘cup’ in Scripture is uniquely tied to emotions of both grief and gratitude.  When we recite the words ‘my cup runs over’ in Psalm 23, it is when we are turning from the losses we find in the valley of death, to the shepherd who walks with us there and in all that we do.  In the garden of Gethsemane, Jesus begs God to let the the cup pass from him, but there is also the ‘cup of salvation’ in Psalm 116, the symbolic lifting up of what we hold in gratitude, in the knowledge of God’s love for us.  Pentecost is a time when the Holy Spirit calls us all to go forward in our discipleship.

In the summer of 2021, we are doing so with both lament for all we have lost, and gratitude for the abundant new ways we have found in the pandemic for being disciples of Christ in the world.  We are weary and challenged, and the Holy Spirit comes to meet us there.  How can we find a deeper trust of the Spirit to stir us into mission?  How can we hold the cup of grief and of gratitude, as we celebrate the (re)birth of the church at Pentecost?