Pentecost 2008 (Sermon by Helen)

I want to begin this morning by breaking a bombshell to you all. This news is that God is good for you. Now hopefully you will already know this but I actually read the results of a survey a few years ago that looked at people who went to Church and believed in God and people who did not, and guess what ? Those who go to Church and believe are more likely to be happy and often, healthier.

I wonder if the disciples always felt that they were happy and healthy and to be honest if they always felt completely sane. I have to admit that I am still a bit of a big child and so I love imagination and Winnie the Pooh. I thought that today it would be good if you could all use your imaginations with me.

So, trying not to sound too much like Jackanory I want to get you thinking. Imagine if all of your life you had been waiting for one special man sent from God to make the world a better place. And no ladies I am not talking about Pierce Brosnan or your husbands, although obviously in my case that is true – I have to say that, Ian is here ! No seriously, you were waiting for one who you had been promised by God was on His way to change the world, and your life.

This man comes along and you know that there is something special about Him so you give up everything to follow Him. It seems good, life seems hopeful. God seems to be good for you. Then the man is arrested and put to death. Your hopes have been dashed and then He rises from the dead. This, of course is rather confusing in itself. Then He goes to heaven and promises that there is something more to come but you have to sit in one room and wait.

I don’t think it takes too much imagination to understand how confused the disciples must have been and also how frightened. They were sat in this room when suddenly the room and all around seemed to change. Not only that but they moved from being scared to being excited and they started to talk in different languages and got accused of being drunk.

Today we celebrate the birthday of the Church. We celebrate the day when the disciples were given the strength and the power of God in their lives to make a difference. The day when, yes, God seemed so good for people that thousands wanted to know Him. What a day that must have been, a day when everything was different, when everything changed.

God is like that, this is why He is good for us because in His sight we all change, as we meet with the power of God around us - maybe in an unusual occurrence, in prayer, in the lives of those around, when we see amazing scenery then we are in awe and we can’t help but praise.

This is true but it makes life seem a little bit too good to be true. God does change lives but when you are feeling down does it feel like God can change you, and when you are confronted by questions about God by other people does it feel as if God is good for you.

I think that life can be equated in nearly every situation to a good bar of chocolate. I have recently read a novel where the hero describes everyone as a bar of chocolate. I believe that chocolate can tell us so much - it helps us feel better and good and it is a bit like God.

Now, I promise I have not lost the plot. Chocolate is like God because it is a good way of seeing the ways in which God works and can work in our lives. If you have a hollow Chocolate, say a hollow Easter bunny and someone stood on it, the chocolate would crack and you probably would not be very happy. If you had some solid chocolate footballs and someone stood on them they would not crack.

God is a bit like that; for the disciples until the day of Pentecost they were a bit like hollow chocolate. They believed, but they needed the strength and power. After Pentecost they had the Holy Spirit with them. Strengthening them and being there for them.

The Holy Spirit changed the disciples and He changes us. Sometimes we can all feel a bit inadequate in our faith but that is when we need the power of God most. I often used to think that other people seemed to pray more, and think about God more than I did, then I realised that with God there is not a chart of who is performing best in the spiritual life. With God all He is interested in is how you are getting on with Him. Are you open and expecting change in your life as you let God in?

Letting God in can bring us surprises and this was certainly something that the disciples must have felt. That is probably an understatement compared to how they really felt, but with God showing up in an unexpected way and giving them His power they were able to build the Church and go from being a group of confused men to men who spread their good news about Jesus to the heart of the Roman Empire in a short space of time.

I am not suggesting that we should all go out and do this, but I am suggesting that we need to be prepared for God to surprise us in our lives. God doesn’t always move with flames of fire and lots of noise. Elijah in the Old Testament was waiting for God to talk to Him and found that God was not in the thunder or earthquakes but in a still small voice. Maybe God has turned up in your life in a quiet way that you didn’t expect but somehow you felt stronger afterwards to deal with all that you were facing.

Maybe you are in need right now of God showing up in a powerful way, and that way may be in a situation which seems to make no sense suddenly making sense. It may be in a way where God helps you know through those around you that you are loved and valued. God is always there, but sometimes we need to feel Him in a powerful way and in a way that it is out of the norm because we are in a situation that is out of the norm.

Asda advertises one range of its foods as good for you, I would like to change this and emblazon everywhere God for you. How great that would be, God is for each one of us and that’s why He is good for us. When we open ourselves to Him and admit our need for Him, then we have to be prepared for a pleasant surprise. It may be a quiet surprise but nonetheless it will make a difference.

Sometimes we can be scared of letting God come into our lives and change us anew. Sometimes we don’t think we really need God, well the point is we do. One man turned to another and said, “why do you keep asking to be filled with the Holy Spirit all the time ? Surely once is enough. “The man turned and said, “well the problem is I am like a sponge.” The other man as you can imagine was rather bemused, until the explanation came. “I can soak up a lot of experience of the Holy Spirit and knowing God, but then I leak.”

I think we can all be guilty of assuming we are doing ok, and we probably are. However, God made us, He knows what is best for us and He knows that we need Him more. As we encounter different situations and challenges in life we can all leak.

That is why we need God and we need to ask Him to change us, and to help us more and more. Imagine trying to boil a kettle, waiting for ages and then finding that the water is cold. You may think, well I need a new kettle, or you may notice that you forgot to plug the kettle in !! Imagine how much stronger we could be if we allowed God into our lives to surprise us and change us.

The woman who anointed Jesus’ feet was in need of a change, she knew that Jesus was special and she knew that she needed to admit her need for forgiveness by bowing down to Jesus and showing that she knew God was good for her. She surprised those around us, who thought that they knew best yet Jesus made sure that this woman knew that by admitting that she needed God more in her life she had hit the nail on the head.

We all need more of God in our lives, we all need to be able to be changed and powered up, we need to pray and ask God to bless us and strengthen us more and more each day.

God is good for you, He is good for all of us. Let’s be open to Him, knowing that only He can really change and strengthen us. Amen.