King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table / newly re-told out of the old romances by Roger Lancelyn Green ; and illustrated by Lotte Reiniger (Penguin Books, 1953), the first 'real' book I ever owned, contains many stories of the wonderful adventures of the mythical days of Camelot.
On the first day of the Round Table, King Arthur bestowed the Order of Chivalry, and adjured all his knights to return to Camelot every year upon the feast of Pentecost to swear their oath anew. Then all would take their places together at the Round Table.
Arthur swore, however, he would not eat that day until some quest or some adventure had come to them - and many did. It became as well the custom of the knights, as they came to the Table each year, to tell of their deeds and their adventures since the last gathering.
And so it was that great adventures began on Pentecost - the Quest of the White Hart, the first Quest of Sir Launcelot, the adventure of Sir Gareth, or The Knight of the Kitchen, and, ultimately, the Quest of the Holy Grail. And so it was that each year as they took their places the members of that great fellowship would recount to one another deeds of knightly daring, acts of courteous chivalry, and journeys of amazed remembrance.
The knights, it seems, like the disciples in the upper room, gathered together expectantly, awaiting something beyond ordinary mortal anticipation, and their wait was rewarded.
There is a hymn in our hymnal, #463/464, based on a poem of W. H. Auden, which I have quoted before in this space. It begins:
He is the Way.
Follow Him through the Land of Unlikeness;
You will see rare beasts, and have unique adventures. ...
The adventures that begin on Pentecost are not just in fairy tales. Through all the ages of the Christian story God’s people have been embarked on an amazing adventure together.
Like the people of Israel, called out of Egypt, crossing Sinai into the Promised Land, or called home again from exile in Babylon to return to that land of promise, God’s people of the new covenant with God in Christ find themselves on a journey.
The beginning and end of that journey, like any true pilgrimage, like in the one who is both Alpha and Omega, beginning and end, of our lives: Christ the living son of God.
Each of us has a part in that great journey of faith, of God’s people, and each of us is on a journey of our own. From the beginning of our life of faith through to its completion, we are following Christ, and finding along the way that we see more than we can tell – but we gladly return to the Table, the Lord’s Table, every Pentecost, every Christmas, every Sunday, bringing with us tales of experiences that are rare indeed, uniquely ours, but sharing in common the calling and the faith and the fellowship that we find together.
Pentecost brings with it the bestowing of rare gifts – each unique, but each a part of the one great gift of Pentecost, the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, the holy Breath (Hebrew: ruach) of God upon his disciples. Every gift and each equips us for the great adventure. And so, blessed by God, we go forth into the world, rejoicing in the power of the Spirit.
From the Rector's Study
For the Gospel Grapevine, May 2009
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