Introduction
Life is a continual pattern of arrival and departure. From the very mundane comings and goings of daily life (in and out of your house or place of work, walking to and from the school gate) to matters of real significance (the arrival of a new born baby, or the sad departure of a loved one). We can also find ourselves arriving in places that are unexpected, it only takes one wrong turn on a journey or an unforeseen event and we depart from what we thought was our fixed route and arrive in a new place or set of circumstances.
Context
On Monday, the press reported on a very unexpected arrival. The little know football team Forest Green Rovers beat Tranmere 3-1 at Wembley and consequently have departed the minor leagues they have played in for 128 years and are catapulted into the English Football League. And this was quite an arrival. Aside from their meteoric rise of a village team near Stroud to the national league, they are a proud ‘eco club’. There are no meat pies on sale at this football ground, vegan options only. Cow manure is their fertiliser of choice, and the lawn mower used on the pitch is solar powered. So, complete with their Quorn and leek pies and a new wooden stadium about to be built, Forest Green Rovers have are now looking forward to playing their eco football in the big time!
Departing and arriving can bring joy and fresh challenges, but among the excitement of a sporting success there are many, many other arrivals and departures that are disorientating and some that herald in pain. Another news item this week informed us about the death of Ian Brady. His departure, once again, raises the spectre of his crimes and the pain of the untimely departure of the children that he and Myra Hindley murdered so many years ago. For the families who live with this burden, his departure must be stirring all sorts of difficult emotions and memories.
Arriving and departing, so much part of the fabric of daily human experience; joy, challenge, disorientation and pain. On one day, a fun football arrival on another the darkness of Brady’s departure.
Reflection
In the Gospel reading Jesus addresses his disciples, knowing that they are about to experience both a departure and an arrival that will prompt the full gamut of emotions. Pain as Jesus departs the world, disorientation as the disciples try to reconcile what is happening to them and the challenge of life without Jesus physically present ever again. But Jesus’ message is about an arrival that will ultimately bring them joy. He tells the disciples about the Spirit, who will be ever present with them and in them. It is an arrival which will never become a departure. Jesus promises the disciples that the Holy Spirit will be with them forever, no coming and going just the ever-present reality of the Spirit of truth. The Holy Spirit will be a constant presence walking with the disciples through all of life’s arrivals and departures.
Prayer
For this prayer activity, you will need: oblong post-it notes – enough for one each – and pens. Give everyone a pen and post-it note. Invite people to hold the note in ‘portrait view’, and to make it look like their front door by drawing a door handle/letter box/house number, or similar. Ask them to turn over the ‘door’ and to write on the back one significant arrival they will make in the coming week and one significant departure. Once people have completed this task, allow a further minute or two of silence for people to think about what they have written and to pray quietly. Finish with these words:
Lord,
your arrival on this earth gave us hope;
your departure from this world gave us life everlasting.
With all the arrivals and departures we will experience this week,
the comings and goings of our daily lives,
the times we go in and out of our own front door,
we ask you to be with us:
may we truly know the power and presence of your Holy Spirit.
Amen.
Questions
- What have been the significant arrivals and departures in your life?
- What are the important arrivals and departures in your spiritual life at the moment?
Action
Every time you go through your front door this week thank God for the gift of the Holy Spirit.
Young people
Invite the young people to play the ‘Coming and going’ game. Ask them to write the numbers 1 to 5 on a piece of paper. Explain that they are to go round the room asking people a series of questions (see below – these can be displayed at the front on a large sheet of paper). When they find someone who answers ‘yes’ to a question, they write down that person’s name next to the number of the questions. They cannot have the same person twice, and they cannot put their own name beside any of the numbers. The winner is the first to find five different people who answer ‘yes’ to the five questions.
The questions:
- Have you ever arrived at an airport between 3 and 4 in the morning?
- Have you ever departed from a cinema before the film ended?
- Have you ever arrived at a party an hour late?
- Have you ever departed for an event which you never actually got to?
- Have you ever arrived somewhere on an animal?
Discuss together the idea of arriving and departing, and especially at the arrival of the Holy Spirit. How does the fact that the Holy Spirit is with us forever – there will be no departure – make you feel?
Fiona Dorman trained as a secondary English teacher. She is a freelance writer, is currently doing a MA in theology at Trinity College, Bristol and attends an Anglican church in North Bristol.
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