Hymns for Pentecost

Hymns for Pentecost

Jessica Hooten Wilson

Tongues of ribbon plunge from the balcony,
ascend above the altar and pulpit,
Tied tight to pillars to signal the time—
Today is Pentecost Sunday.

Our curated reality in this
sanctuary satisfies our spirit.
We have speculated all week we were
made for this—heaven’s unseen fire. 

As we lift our voices with the incense,
I wish I knew another language.
I want to speak in the tongues of masses,
Like Peter, appearing drunk to a crowd.

I witness a blonde about five rows up,
who is signing her song with her hands,
circling and sweeping, “Come, Holy Spirit,”
in the place of notes from her lips.

In an effort to learn, I imitate
Her gestures. Then I stop—caught by a sound—
A young man bellows from the very back.
Loud and guttural, he bleats and moans.

Rather than twist my head to look, I close
My eyes and listen. Is this another way,
I wonder, to sing the song? The language
I wish I knew and haven’t heard. 

“Come, Holy Spirit, Come,” my heart sings
In words I know too well, in gestures
Unfamiliar but freeing like a dance.
And to God on my behalf, the Spirit groans.

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Jessica Hooten Wilson
Professor & Author

Jessica is the Louise Cowan Scholar in Residence at the University of Dallas. She is the author of the upcoming The Scandal of Holiness: Renewing Your Imagination in the Company of Literary Saints, as well as Giving the Devil his Due: Flannery O’Connor and The Brothers Karamazov, which received a 2018 Christianity Today Book of the Year Award in the Culture & the Arts. In 2018 she received the Emerging Public Intellectual Award given by a coalition of North American think tanks in collaboration with the Centre for Christian Scholarship at Redeemer University College, and in 2019 she received the Hiett Prize in Humanities from The Dallas Institute of Humanities and Culture.

Photography by Cottonbro