This day of Pentecost is a special day like none other. It’s the third biggest celebration of the Christian year, but in fact it’s quite different from Christmas and Easter. In the case of both those holy days, secular culture has embraced the religious feast, manufacturing its own cheap knock-off. There’s secular Christmas, with its blatant consumerism and vague ethic of “Do something nice for someone you already love.” Then there’s secular Easter, the rite of spring.

            In the case of secular Christmas and Easter, you’ll have no problem finding decorations and greeting cards. Many of them feature the mascots of the holidays, Santa and the Easter bunny. Those symbolic figures have high name-recognition, even among people who’ve never darkened a church door.

            Regarding Pentecost, however, there are certain things you never encounter. Have you ever seen a rack of Pentecost cards in a drugstore? Have you ever tasted a special candy that commemorates the holiday? What sort of mascot would you suggest for Pentecost, to go toe-to-toe with Santa and the Easter bunny? The Holy-Spirit dove? The bird just doesn’t seem to be in the same league.

            Is it likely that we in the church will ever feel the need to remind one another to “keep the Holy Spirit in Pentecost”? Nobody, but nobody is trying to hijack this holiday. Pentecost is ours alone.

            Nonetheless, several themes arise from the Pentecost story, including:

• the significance of the Holy Spirit as wind — that essential breath that seems to be the very life-force itself.

• the Holy Spirit as fire, the source of warmth and light — but more than that, a vital force whose very nature is to consume and transform all that goes before it.

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