Pastor Marvin Arnpriester

In a conversation with a woman who always arrived early for church, she shared with me that it was important for her to sit in the first or second pew on the right facing the altar. From there she could see the beauty of the stained-glass windows as the sun shone brightly through, bathing her in its warmth. Everything seemed to look right for her in “her” pew. As attendance began to grow, she had to arrive earlier to sit there. When she was late, she had to sit elsewhere, and it didn’t feel right to her. I invited her to consider that sitting in a different pew might give her a different perspective in her life and in her faith. About once a month after that conversation, she would arrive at about the same time but sit in a different pew, which she later told me gave her a different perspective.

I wonder if Pentecost is about inviting you and me to try out a new pew in our lives. In the story of Pentecost in the Book of Acts, Simon Peter invites the folks gathered to look at things from a different perspective. He encourages them to think outside the box of their experiences and beliefs to that point. He invited them to see Jesus in a different way than they had seen him before. Peter reframed the events of Palm Sunday, Holy Week, and Easter so their eyes and ears were opened to see and hear what they had never thought of before. As a result, their lives were changed, and they began to live their lives differently. They repented of their past and embraced a new way of living as they were filled with the Holy Spirit. And some 3,000 people became followers of Jesus Christ.

Pentecost reminds us it is difficult to grow if we never look at anything from another point of view. As people of faith, we are invited to grow in our faith. This means worship, Bible study, Sunday School classes, and small groups are important in helping us see things from a different perspective.

Let’s step out of the familiar, comfortable pews of our life to see and experience things from a different perspective so we might be God’s faithful and growing people.