The power of Pentecost
Last week we celebrated the 60th anniversary of the re-consecration of this church and this week we celebrate the Feast of Pentecost, sometimes known as the birthday of the church. It was the day that the disciples were given the gift of the Holy Spirit and with that, the inspiration, the courage and the wisdom to go out and help God build his church…
And our reading this morning from the Acts of the Apostles (2:1-21) helps to remind us of the power of that event 2000 years ago, but also of the power and relevance of it today. There, in that room, the disciples had gathered waiting for the Holy Spirit to come as Jesus had told them to do – and when the Spirit came it was with the power of a violent wind and with what are described as divided tongues, as of fire…
The disciples immediately found themselves able to speak in different languages and this was, and is, I think a hugely symbolic moment. It emphasised that these people, from one small part of the world, were to be ambassadors for Christ everywhere – the gospel wasn’t to be limited to a small place in one part of the world but was to be shared far and wide….
This is a clear sign I think that the gospel is for all people and that followers of Jesus are called to be ambassadors for the gospel... Gospel means ‘good news’ and we have ‘good news’ to share with all people. Jesus, who had lived and died rose again from the dead and later ascended to heaven, but in the meantime he had prepared his followers to be his body in the world – in our reading from Romans (8:14-17) we are reminded that we are called to be children of God who can cry out, ‘Abba Father’…
We are given the privilege of being part of God’s family, intimately connected with him, powerfully loved by him and called to go out and share that love everywhere…
So this reading shows us that the gospel is for all people.
The second thing the reading shows us is the power of the Holy Spirit to transform. The fact that the followers of Jesus were suddenly able to speak in different languages was powerful enough but then we also have the power of Peter going out into the crowd and starting to talk about Jesus and proclaim good news….
Good news is something that we like to hear of being shared, but of course this wasn’t good news for all and Peter was speaking to some of those responsible for killing Jesus – this was a speech that took courage and it came from someone who not long before had denied even knowing Jesus – that is the power of God to transform…
What a lesson for the church that is today – last week the Archbishop spoke of a need for us to take risks as we seek to proclaim a gospel that is relevant for Swansea today. Risks are painful, risks sometimes involve change that we don’t like, risks sometimes go wrong, but here we’re reminded that with God’s power and strength we can have the courage to proclaim the gospel confidently and passionately.
This scene from 2000 years ago is one that is full of excitement – these followers of Jesus couldn’t stay in a moment longer, they felt compelled to go out and share good news… As a church today, do we feel that same compulsion ? Because, it wasn’t something that was supposed to be restricted to a ‘one off’ moment as millions through the centuries have testified through their lives…
This week I read an email which talked about evangelism (from Leading your church into growth 05/06/19). It’s a word that often scares people and this email called for a re-evaluation of the word, it said, ‘I think we should re-appraise the word ‘evangelism’ and see it not as a sharp edged, angular, uncomfortable and divisive word but rather as a term of beauty and grace, love and peace. We should see it as a thing of healing and blessing as an opening of doors, a revealing of roads so that people might simply ‘come home’.
Us telling others about our faith is often portrayed as violating their privacy in some way when we should be minding our own business, but sharing our faith is not about forcing something terrible on someone who’s not interested, but rather being and speaking good news for all and that will be attractive…
We’ve thought then about the gospel being for all people and we’ve thought of our need to be courageous in proclaiming that gospel and confident of God’s power and support as we do it and the third thing is that this is an extraordinary gospel, a gospel where the creator of the universe invites us all to share all he has and all he is, united as his family across nations, united with no barriers other than those we put up ourselves…
In the reading some people thought the disciples were drunk as they were so excited and speaking in their different tongues, but this wasn’t drink at all but it was the extraordinary power of God which resulted in Peter standing up amongst these people who’d just killed Jesus and Peter said that all who called on the name of the Lord would be saved…
These people, if they still had any doubts over whether the execution of Jesus was a success, now had it confirmed – it had been a disaster. Now his followers were ready to go out and travel far and wide talking about Jesus who had lived, died and rose again…
We have an extraordinary gospel which we are privileged to share in words and in actions…
And so the gospel is a gospel for all people, regardless of colour or background or anything else we can think of that might sometimes divide people…
And it’s a gospel that we must be courageous in sharing… And it’s an extraordinary gospel – extraordinary good news for all…
Today we celebrate the gift of the Holy Spirit and we pray for the courage and wisdom to use God’s Spirit each day to strengthen us, to empower us, to help us be the people that God calls us to be, to help continue to build his church, here and everywhere…
Someone once talked about the Holy Spirit as being powerful and saying that power can be used in at least two ways: it can be unleashed, or it can be harnessed. The energy in 50 litres of petrol, for instance, can be released explosively by dropping a lighted match into a can. Or it can be channelled through the engine of a car and used to transport a person for many miles. Explosions are spectacular, but controlled burns have lasting effect, staying power.
The Holy Spirit works both ways. At Pentecost, he exploded on the scene; His presence was like "tongues of fire" (Acts 2:3). Thousands were affected by one burst of God's power. But He also works through the church - the institution God built. And in the church the Holy Spirit works through worship, fellowship, and service of others…
I saw one of these joke pictures on facebook this week which had one person saying ‘you don’t have to go to church to be a Christian’ and another replying, ‘that’s absolutely right, but you also don’t need a parachute to jump out of a plane, but it certainly helps !’
When St Mary’s was rebuilt there was an article done which suggested reasons why it was rebuilt – many thought it was mad, but Canon Harry Williams wrote that other things could have been done with the money, but there were reasons why they weren’t (and remember he was writing back in 1959). He wrote, ‘… people will go (to St Mary’s). They will flock there by the thousand, not because they are doing the fashionable thing, not because they are curious to see what it is like, but because going there will answer their questions…
These many thousands of folk are those who look at the world we live in, at the wonder of a cabbage in their back garden, at the beauty of Swansea Bay, at the steel works and plastic bowls and jet air planes : at foods – tinned, frozen, fresh – and say Who ? Where ? Why ? and What ? Who created it all ? Why is there so much cruelty and pain and suffering ? Why was I made and why will I die ?...’
And he went on ‘They will hear how God created it all, you and me and everybody, black, white and brown and all the colours in between, the earth, the sun, the moon, the stars, the cars, the refrigerators, the washing machines and television sets, and how God became an ordinary human being called Jesus….’
Today we celebrate Pentecost by giving thanks to God for transforming us, or by asking God to begin transforming us and trusting him to do it, and we celebrate by asking for the Holy Spirit to strengthen, inspire and empower us to be the people God wants us to be – knowing we are loved, loving others and being and speaking good news so that this church of his, which was born at Pentecost, will continue to grow…
Standing still isn’t an option, just keeping going won’t work - the Holy Spirit is about life, about power, about moving forward… It’s about unleashing power and harnessing power… In us, for us and through us… AMEN
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