There was a Sunday School class where they were learning a creed, and the day came for them to perform it in church with each child taking one line each. The first child began confidently, ‘I believe in God the Father’, the next continued, ‘I believe in God the Son’, and then there was a silence until one child said, ‘The boy who believes in the Holy Spirit isn’t here today !’
Today we celebrate Pentecost, the day when the gift of the Holy Spirit was given to the early followers of Jesus, the day often known as the birthday of the church – this year of course this church knows all about birthday celebrations as you celebrate your centenary. It is a special celebration – a time of thanksgiving, a time of great joy, a time of reminiscing and also a time to think of where we are now and where the future will take us.
The day of Pentecost was a day when the full force of God was given to his people to share the gospel message. In the reading from the Acts of the Apostles (2:1-21) we hear an amazing account of lives transformed –we hear of the disciples gathered together waiting. They had been promised the gift of the Holy Spirit but probably didn’t really know what this meant.
This group of people, so terrified not long before as they witnessed the arrest and crucifixion of Jesus had seen the risen Lord, and they waited to know what their futures would hold. And I wonder if they realised the transformation they would feel as they received the gift of the Holy Spirit.
Out they went given gifts to speak in different tongues, not as some sortof magical trick to show off with, but simply the power to speak to the people gathered there in their own languages. And they did it boldly –remember some of the people there would have been the people who had wanted Jesus killed, some would want this new movement completely wiped out, but it didn’t matter. There was something more important.
Some of the crowd thought they were drunk as they spoke different languages and said things which were a little bit too brave in that place perhaps, some would have called them foolish, but there was no fear…the peace that Jesus had promised them had come upon them and they knew that there was nothing that could ever separate them from this peace.
And I think the church today can learn a lot from that incredible day of Pentecost 2000 years ago. Firstly I think the church must be joyful. Very often when we think of a joyful church we might think of one that’s lively in its worship, where people are dancing around and singing to loud music. There’s a definite place for that in the church today, but it isn’t everybody’s cup of tea !
Real joy is expressed in our relationships with one another and with God. It is expressed as we celebrate and show love. It is revealed as we welcome the stranger, as we extend out our arms to all, and we show in our words and our actions the mighty unconditional love of God.
Pentecost is a birthday for the church, but the life of the church is something we celebrate and give thanks for daily. Amidst talk of church attendances falling and finances being difficult it’s easy to lose sight of the fact that this isn’t our church, but God’s church, and he holds us now and he holds our future. As the disciples went out and proclaimed a message of salvation for all, they did it with confidence and they did it with joy and thanksgiving – and we can do the same.
The gift of the Holy Spirit enables us to be witnesses of the gospel – good news for all people.
But there are times we don’t really feel equipped to speak someone about the gospel. There are times when we worry that if we try we will get something wrong, but again we can learn from the early disciples. Trusting in the power of the Holy Spirit they spoke in languages they couldn’t even understand, but they trusted.
God gave them the gifts they needed to go out and speak to people, and they trusted Him, and they had the courage to do it. Today we struggle to trust things we don’t understand. We live in a society where we like explanations and we like things to be neat and ordered.
But the Holy Spirit isn’t neat and ordered. When the Celtic Christians were coming up with a symbol for the Holy Spirit it was a wild goose that they chose as their symbol – uncontrollable and unpredictable.
That is the Holy Spirit – and if we allow ourselves to be filled with the Spirit we will be transformed, and so will our churches and so will our communities. And so we’ve thought of joy and we’ve thought of our witness but there was another message which Jesus gave to his disciples as he stood amongst them after his resurrection.
He said, ‘Peace be with you’. And as he did so he showed them his hands and his side bearing the wounds of the crucifixion, and what he was saying to them was to trust him, to know that the God who conquers even death was the God who loved them and who could be trusted always….
There’s a story told of a husband and wife both of whom were doctors - one was a Vicar and a doctor of theology and the other a doctor of medicine. One day their daughter answered the front door, and the person at the door asked for ‘the Doctor’. The daughter replied, "Do you want the one who preaches or the one who practices?"
The gift of the Holy Spirit was certainly given to enable us to preach, but it was also given to practice – to go out and be Jesus to others… As we celebrate the birthday of the Church, we celebrate that we are part of the institution that is empowered to do that – we are part of those privileged to be given a chance to serve God and serve others, whilst enjoying the worship and fellowship and support with others.
On Friday there was a huge amount of coverage of the commemorations of the 70th anniversary of D Day – that day 70 years ago was momentous as the liberation of Europe became closer thanks to the heroic efforts of so many. It is right that we continue to remember and celebrate that day, and in our celebration we also hopefully remember the lessons of the past for the good of the future.
The D Day veterans did an amazing job in helping to bring peace to the world, but there is an even greater peace and that is what Jesus spoke about. It wasn’t just peace between nations, it wasn’t just an end to arguments, it wasn’t just a comfortable existence, instead it was the deepest knowledge inside that whatever life brings, good or bad, God journeys with us… and there is nothing that can ever separate us from him.
The peace that Jesus gave was the peace that gave those early disciples the courage to go out and proclaim the gospel message whatever it would cost them; the peace that Jesus gave was the peace that has caused the church to grow and grow for 2000 years; the peace that Jesus gave was the peace that allowed people the vision to build this church and the peace that Jesus gives is the peace that calls us to be disciples today.
In changing times, and in a church which is very different from that of even 100 years ago, may we trust the Holy Spirit to guide us, direct us and enable us to proclaim the gospel message into our communities today and into the future.
And may we also pray that filled with the Holy Spirit we will share with the early disciples the excitement, the joy and the determination to share the love of God everywhere and that, as we recapture that vision, the church will once again dramatically add to its number those who know Jesus and his peace, and we will once again see lives and communities transformed by love and hope. AMEN
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