Pentecost 2010
Hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, tsunami waves – all these things seem to fascinate us. Their destructive force seems to come out of nowhere to wreak havoc. Television gives us the chance to watch their devastation from a safe distance, so that they can often mean only fantastic images rather than real things which affect real people. A different experience obviously comes to those subjected to any of these natural forces first hand.
For them there is a new respect for the immense power of nature, real and dangerous – a power that before had no meaning or existence, is suddenly real and in many cases completely life changing… In an instant the world is turned upside down by the tremendous release of energy through water, air, fire, and earth. An unrecognizable landscape and devastated communities are left in its wake.
Science helps us to understand the systems behind this release of energy. But the world continues to be caught by surprise, and such surprises continually remind us of our fragile existence within creation… Another power, a creative power of an altogether different dimension and magnitude can shape our lives though, and it is this power that changes lives at Pentecost.
It is the power that was received by a small, insignificant, and unsophisticated group of men and women gathered in Jerusalem waiting for a promise to be fulfilled. The horizons of their world were limited to the countryside of Galilee and Palestine until the spirit opened their hearts and minds to a greater world beyond.
Nothing could have prepared them for the magnitude of their enlightenment, as they responded to this world-shattering experience of the supernatural creative spirit of God. To stand in its path was to catch fire with divine love. In an instant their world was turned inside out by a tremendous rush of creative power released into their hearts and minds, souls and bodies, manifesting as flames about their heads.
This group saw a new world, through new eyes. The differences of culture and language that separated one from another crumbled before this unifying power. Suddenly each could speak and hear, with the same understanding, the stories of God’s deeds of power.
As the power of nature opens us up to the enormity of its scale and its ability to destroy, so too the power of the Spirit opens our hearts to a new relationship amongst people and a new intimacy with God… It is this power, the power of the Spirit of God, that changes lives at Pentecost. This supernatural power that sustains creation, reunites what has been torn apart, and can reconcile the alienated.
The spirit of Pentecost rushes into the world as if out of nowhere, and breathes life into the midst of death… This is Pentecost, the outpouring of God’s spirit upon the disciples, then and now.
Lives are changed forever: Hearts are broken open to a dimension of relationship newly reconciled through the death, resurrection, and ascension of the Son to the Father in eternity… There is no end to the horizon of God’s embrace… Disciples see things differently, know things differently, hear things differently, and are sent forth as apostles to share what they see, and know, and hear.
God opened the way and taught their hearts, and now other languages, other voices, other experiences are no longer foreign to our own. All are one in God’s love through the power of his reconciling spirit.
For God’s power has been received and has revealed the unity of creation, which exceeds beyond our capacity to understand and beyond the power of nature and man to destroy.
Suddenly the systems of oppression that bind and imprison seem insignificant compared to the marvellous freedom the spirit of God breathes into us… Now filled with the power of God, we are made capable of extending God’s mercy, God’s compassion, God’s forgiveness to the blind world… Chosen people are chosen to deliver the good news: that God calls all into this freedom of his spirit.
Year after year on this day on this Day of Pentecost, we remember how the first disciples, newly baptized by the spirit, became apostles and were sent forth, sent out, sent beyond the comfortable yet confining horizons of Galilee. They were sent into the noisy urban world outside – to many different lands and peoples…. And yet they were sent to people who were, like them, beloved children of God.
And the same applies for us all - The spirit leads us into a new frame of reference, in the divine dimension of love, where slaves are made children, visions and dreams speak of a reality that does not conform to a world dark and bloodied by the violence of our blindness. The spirit sent forth creates the world anew, if we can but see it.
Skeptics and cynics may sneer, disbelieving, but St. Peter tells the skeptics, the cynics, the amazed and perplexed, that this Jesus, through his spirit, is now to be sought right in the midst of destructive forces. When the world may seem as if the sun has turned dark and the moon to blood, look there for men and women going quietly about God’s work, creating order out of chaos, offering compassion to the suffering and hope to the desperate.
In ordinary and extraordinary ways, at the scene of natural disasters and the most unnatural ones, the spirit of God rushes in to heal and mend, to recreate anew. And in our lives, when we allow God to change us, his Spirit will do so, into people more like him, and into people who can truly enjoy the fullness of life that he offers…
Pentecost is whenever, in the depths of the most destructive forces of our own hearts, we discover a more creative force compelling us towards reconciliation, towards kindness, towards forgiveness.
There the spirit is rushing in, Giving us new eyes to see, new ears to hear and new voices to speak God’s love… There is Pentecost - all around us and within us… AMEN
For them there is a new respect for the immense power of nature, real and dangerous – a power that before had no meaning or existence, is suddenly real and in many cases completely life changing… In an instant the world is turned upside down by the tremendous release of energy through water, air, fire, and earth. An unrecognizable landscape and devastated communities are left in its wake.
Science helps us to understand the systems behind this release of energy. But the world continues to be caught by surprise, and such surprises continually remind us of our fragile existence within creation… Another power, a creative power of an altogether different dimension and magnitude can shape our lives though, and it is this power that changes lives at Pentecost.
It is the power that was received by a small, insignificant, and unsophisticated group of men and women gathered in Jerusalem waiting for a promise to be fulfilled. The horizons of their world were limited to the countryside of Galilee and Palestine until the spirit opened their hearts and minds to a greater world beyond.
Nothing could have prepared them for the magnitude of their enlightenment, as they responded to this world-shattering experience of the supernatural creative spirit of God. To stand in its path was to catch fire with divine love. In an instant their world was turned inside out by a tremendous rush of creative power released into their hearts and minds, souls and bodies, manifesting as flames about their heads.
This group saw a new world, through new eyes. The differences of culture and language that separated one from another crumbled before this unifying power. Suddenly each could speak and hear, with the same understanding, the stories of God’s deeds of power.
As the power of nature opens us up to the enormity of its scale and its ability to destroy, so too the power of the Spirit opens our hearts to a new relationship amongst people and a new intimacy with God… It is this power, the power of the Spirit of God, that changes lives at Pentecost. This supernatural power that sustains creation, reunites what has been torn apart, and can reconcile the alienated.
The spirit of Pentecost rushes into the world as if out of nowhere, and breathes life into the midst of death… This is Pentecost, the outpouring of God’s spirit upon the disciples, then and now.
Lives are changed forever: Hearts are broken open to a dimension of relationship newly reconciled through the death, resurrection, and ascension of the Son to the Father in eternity… There is no end to the horizon of God’s embrace… Disciples see things differently, know things differently, hear things differently, and are sent forth as apostles to share what they see, and know, and hear.
God opened the way and taught their hearts, and now other languages, other voices, other experiences are no longer foreign to our own. All are one in God’s love through the power of his reconciling spirit.
For God’s power has been received and has revealed the unity of creation, which exceeds beyond our capacity to understand and beyond the power of nature and man to destroy.
Suddenly the systems of oppression that bind and imprison seem insignificant compared to the marvellous freedom the spirit of God breathes into us… Now filled with the power of God, we are made capable of extending God’s mercy, God’s compassion, God’s forgiveness to the blind world… Chosen people are chosen to deliver the good news: that God calls all into this freedom of his spirit.
Year after year on this day on this Day of Pentecost, we remember how the first disciples, newly baptized by the spirit, became apostles and were sent forth, sent out, sent beyond the comfortable yet confining horizons of Galilee. They were sent into the noisy urban world outside – to many different lands and peoples…. And yet they were sent to people who were, like them, beloved children of God.
And the same applies for us all - The spirit leads us into a new frame of reference, in the divine dimension of love, where slaves are made children, visions and dreams speak of a reality that does not conform to a world dark and bloodied by the violence of our blindness. The spirit sent forth creates the world anew, if we can but see it.
Skeptics and cynics may sneer, disbelieving, but St. Peter tells the skeptics, the cynics, the amazed and perplexed, that this Jesus, through his spirit, is now to be sought right in the midst of destructive forces. When the world may seem as if the sun has turned dark and the moon to blood, look there for men and women going quietly about God’s work, creating order out of chaos, offering compassion to the suffering and hope to the desperate.
In ordinary and extraordinary ways, at the scene of natural disasters and the most unnatural ones, the spirit of God rushes in to heal and mend, to recreate anew. And in our lives, when we allow God to change us, his Spirit will do so, into people more like him, and into people who can truly enjoy the fullness of life that he offers…
Pentecost is whenever, in the depths of the most destructive forces of our own hearts, we discover a more creative force compelling us towards reconciliation, towards kindness, towards forgiveness.
There the spirit is rushing in, Giving us new eyes to see, new ears to hear and new voices to speak God’s love… There is Pentecost - all around us and within us… AMEN
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