Celebration, expectancy and hope - Pentecost 2018

On a course this week I was told that the amount of information that each of us process daily on average has doubled in the past 20 years. We were also told that the brain often filters out things that we don’t need to know. For example driving here this morning I must have passed many cars but I don’t really remember them, but I would have if one of those cars had done something strange or something that directly affected me – the ones that didn’t were just filtered out by my brain… 

You’ll probably be grateful to know that I’m not going to give you a full summary of the course but it did make me think about what we regard as useful information whether consciously or sub-consciously, and with that question, where does our faith stand ? 

Today we celebrate the Feast of Pentecost, one of the great Feasts of the Church calendar as we remember the gift of the Holy Spirit being given to the early followers and to all who have followed since… 

In our reading from Acts (2:1-21) we’re told of the disciples gathered together and three things stick out – firstly, they were expectant. Jesus had promised a helper and we heard in the gospel reading (John 15:26,27;16:4b-15) a little bit about that. This helper wouldn’t be a replacement for Jesus with them, but would empower each follower to try and live as Jesus, seeking strength and power from the Spirit…. And so these disciples who had watched Jesus die, but who had seen Jesus risen, now waited expectantly… 

And secondly they waited hopefully – they had seen what God could do as they witnessed the risen Jesus, they knew his love, they knew his power and they knew his desire to see others live secure in the knowledge of that love and power, and they were desperate to be a part of the growth of the church, so they waited expectantly and they waited hopefully. 

And thirdly they waited obediently – Jesus had promised the Holy Spirit, but he’d told them to wait and so they did. They might easily have thought they could make a start. After all, they were pretty excited about all they’d heard and seen, but they waited as they were told to do… 

And then the Holy Spirit came and it rushed in, we’re told, like the rush of a violent wind and divided tongues of fire appeared and rested on them as all were filled with the Holy Spirit…. 

And their immediate response was to go out and tell people – excited and confident and filled with a new power they went out to share good news and Peter, who we remember, had denied even knowing Jesus prior to the crucifixion, was transformed as he went out and made a speech in the full hearing of some who would no doubt have expected this movement to be dead with Jesus…

Peter paid no regard at all to his personal safety because there was something more important to do and that was to share this piece of good news which was and is for everyone…. 

And in our gospel reading there is that sense as Jesus talks about the Holy Spirit being given, of a whole new beginning – Jesus wouldn’t be there in person with them, but he would be everywhere and they, filled with the Holy Spirit, were being empowered to begin the church and go everywhere and tell everyone…. 

And so the church was born, the living body of Jesus on earth, filled with and fired up with the Holy Spirit, and here we are 2000 years later, and the church continues to grow, in spite of all the bad news we hear about numbers and money, but we can’t ignore some of those problems either, because they are often the reality where we are in Wales… 

Today can and should be a new start for the church though – reminded by this incredible power and gift of the Spirit, we’re called to think of our own response…. 

Those disciples waited for the gift to come expectantly, hopefully and obediently and when they received the gift of the Spirit and went out they were excited and confident and I wonder whether some of these qualities need to be recaptured a little bit today… 

We can be expectant because God has made promises to us and God keeps his promises. We can be hopeful because we worship God who has defeated death and who loves each one of us and we should be obedient. In other words ready to listen to God and we do that as we read and study his word in the Bible, as we pray and as we engage in fellowship with one another and learn from each other… 

We need that passion for engagement and that comes from being excited about what God has done for each one of us, so what is our story ? What has he done for us ? What has changed in our lives because we have decided to follow Jesus ? It’s worth reflecting on those questions because it’s easy to enjoy a very real faith which has just gone a little bit stale and when we’re stale we lose that excitement… 

And of course we need to be confident. Sure of what God has done for us we can be sure that he wants others to know about it too. He wants others to know that whoever they are, whatever they’ve done, wherever they’re from, he loves them and when Jesus empowered his early church, he empowered each one of us as well…. We are to be his hands, and his eyes and his ears and his body as the famous verse from Theresa of Avila tells us… 

Christ has no body but yours,
No hands, no feet on earth but yours,
Yours are the eyes with which he looks
Compassion on this world,
Yours are the feet with which he walks to do good,
Yours are the hands, with which he blesses all the world.
Yours are the hands, yours are the feet,
Yours are the eyes, you are his body.

Christ has no body but yours......

As we celebrate Pentecost I truly believe that God looks at each one of us expectantly and hopefully, believing that we can help to do his work, believing that we will be excited enough to do that work because I also believe that as he looks at each one of us he is excited about what we can do and be if we really trust him… 

It’s possible that I’ve used this story before but I really enjoy the story written by the theologian Soren Kierkegaard about a community of ducks waddling off to duck church to hear the duck preacher.

At the service, the duck preacher spoke eloquently of how God had given the ducks wings with which to fly. With these wings there was nowhere the ducks could not go. With those wings they could soar high into the sky. Shouts of "Amen!" were quacked throughout the duck congregation and there was real excitement at the wonderful gifts that God had given them. At the conclusion of the service, the ducks left commenting on the wonderful and amazing message… and then they waddled back home – but they never flew.

Using the gifts of God to the full is not easy – it takes trust and faith and it takes courage. The ducks never saw the full possibilities of flying because they never tried it. Sometimes theologians, like Kierkegaard can offer a confusing message but this is pretty simple – we have been given gifts by God to use for our enjoyment and fulfilment but also for his glory, and too often we don’t do it… 

2000 years on from that first Pentecost, let’s remember that God’s love for each one of is unchanged and so is the power of the Holy Spirit, the power that we so often try to tame so that we can control that power – God never meant things to be tame. His creation was borne out of love and love is powerful and it is emotional and it is life changing…. May we pray for more expectancy and hope, may we be willing to be obedient to God as we engage with the Bible and in prayer and fellowship and may we be excited and confident as we seek to share his good news and his love everywhere. AMEN