A sermon for Pentecost - May 20th 2018
May I speak in the name of God, Father, Son and Holy
Spirit. Amen.
I love a good story and I am a softy at heart, so
while trying to avoid all the hype, we still sat down and watched the Royal
Wedding yesterday. It seemed like a fairy-tale, the handsome prince, the girl
who never expected to be a princess and her shell-shocked mother. I loved the
inclusiveness and the fact they used exactly the same words you’d hear at a
wedding at St George/St Cyr.
I also have to say, that I also loved the sermon by Bishop Michael Curry, which I felt was amazing, which may not be the best thing to say when you’re about to preach yourself. But what struck me most was the urgency with which he described the power of God’s love, that ‘God is love and those who live in love live in God and God lives in them.’ 1 John 4.16
Now, today, I’m talking about the Holy Spirit, it’s Pentecost, but let’s remember that God is love, Jesus is love and the Holy Spirit is love.
As I said, I love a good story, they help to define us, they help us understand ideas, each other and the world around us, they can also help us understand faith.
Last week, we heard the story of Jesus ascending ten days before Pentecost and the church was being left in the hands of in-experienced babysitters, the disciples.
Today we remember the gift of the Holy Spirit, which brought to my mind at least, the image of the Holy Spirit being sent down to these babysitters, not as a flame or wind, but as a spiritual nanny, a Mary Poppins if you will, descending slowly from the sky with her umbrella, I’m not quite sure about the theology of this, but I couldn’t get the idea of the holy spirit descending with a carpet bag out of my head after last week’s service….
At other times, it can be tempting to think of the Holy Spirit as being this benign, gentle ‘something’ which just wafts around, in and through us, just a nice afterthought, a parting gift from Jesus.
However, when we pray in the power of the Holy Spirit, the word power is very significant because the spirit does have real power, it is of one substance with God the Father and Jesus Christ in the Trinity, the spirit is no mild-mannered cousin.
It doesn’t help that the spirit is usually unseen, but I have three stories to help remind us that the Spirit has real force. They are from my past, from biblical times and the future.
In the past, at college, our mountaineering club was on its annual Easter trip to Scotland. We were camping and the wind had blown all night, gusting up to force 9 or 10, but still, we left our campsite that morning for a walk. Some tents had collapsed in the night, but our club had a mixture of sturdy orange canvas tents, so we were okay, although, to be honest, it had felt like sleeping in the wake of a jet engine.
Anyway, we headed up to a col approaching Glamaig, on the Isle of Skye with the wind whipping hoods into faces, lifting us gently, making us lighter than air. Then, as we gained height, the wind picked up more and more. Until, suddenly, the wind picked us all up bodily and dropped us about 10 yards back down the footpath we’d just walked up.
In disbelief, we stood up, and bizarrely, we carried on. Only, it happened again, we were picked up and dropped. We carried on again, linking arms this time but we were buffeted so much we could hardly move. About twenty minutes later, we decided it might be better to retreat to the pub, retracing our steps, still linking our arms to increase our mass. Well we were students after all.
The Holy Spirit is often depicted as great wind, and while I’m not sure it was specifically the Holy Spirit that day, the experience means I can imagine a force, a power which cannot be ignored. That was certainly part of Elijah’s experience in 1 Kings 19, but for him, the Lord wasn’t in the wind, but the absolute silence which followed. We shouldn’t always assume where the Lord will be and how he will act…
From Biblical times, our story, takes us to an upper room, fifty days since a Passover meal, where a group of friends had shared a last supper. Back then, Pentecost was a remembrance of Moses receiving the Ten Commandments, fifty days after the exodus of the Israelites from Egypt. Today, Pentecost marks the end of Easter.
These friends had united again for Pentecost, when 2suddenly from heaven, from above, there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. 3Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. 4All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability.
I also have to say, that I also loved the sermon by Bishop Michael Curry, which I felt was amazing, which may not be the best thing to say when you’re about to preach yourself. But what struck me most was the urgency with which he described the power of God’s love, that ‘God is love and those who live in love live in God and God lives in them.’ 1 John 4.16
Now, today, I’m talking about the Holy Spirit, it’s Pentecost, but let’s remember that God is love, Jesus is love and the Holy Spirit is love.
As I said, I love a good story, they help to define us, they help us understand ideas, each other and the world around us, they can also help us understand faith.
Last week, we heard the story of Jesus ascending ten days before Pentecost and the church was being left in the hands of in-experienced babysitters, the disciples.
Today we remember the gift of the Holy Spirit, which brought to my mind at least, the image of the Holy Spirit being sent down to these babysitters, not as a flame or wind, but as a spiritual nanny, a Mary Poppins if you will, descending slowly from the sky with her umbrella, I’m not quite sure about the theology of this, but I couldn’t get the idea of the holy spirit descending with a carpet bag out of my head after last week’s service….
At other times, it can be tempting to think of the Holy Spirit as being this benign, gentle ‘something’ which just wafts around, in and through us, just a nice afterthought, a parting gift from Jesus.
However, when we pray in the power of the Holy Spirit, the word power is very significant because the spirit does have real power, it is of one substance with God the Father and Jesus Christ in the Trinity, the spirit is no mild-mannered cousin.
It doesn’t help that the spirit is usually unseen, but I have three stories to help remind us that the Spirit has real force. They are from my past, from biblical times and the future.
In the past, at college, our mountaineering club was on its annual Easter trip to Scotland. We were camping and the wind had blown all night, gusting up to force 9 or 10, but still, we left our campsite that morning for a walk. Some tents had collapsed in the night, but our club had a mixture of sturdy orange canvas tents, so we were okay, although, to be honest, it had felt like sleeping in the wake of a jet engine.
Anyway, we headed up to a col approaching Glamaig, on the Isle of Skye with the wind whipping hoods into faces, lifting us gently, making us lighter than air. Then, as we gained height, the wind picked up more and more. Until, suddenly, the wind picked us all up bodily and dropped us about 10 yards back down the footpath we’d just walked up.
In disbelief, we stood up, and bizarrely, we carried on. Only, it happened again, we were picked up and dropped. We carried on again, linking arms this time but we were buffeted so much we could hardly move. About twenty minutes later, we decided it might be better to retreat to the pub, retracing our steps, still linking our arms to increase our mass. Well we were students after all.
The Holy Spirit is often depicted as great wind, and while I’m not sure it was specifically the Holy Spirit that day, the experience means I can imagine a force, a power which cannot be ignored. That was certainly part of Elijah’s experience in 1 Kings 19, but for him, the Lord wasn’t in the wind, but the absolute silence which followed. We shouldn’t always assume where the Lord will be and how he will act…
From Biblical times, our story, takes us to an upper room, fifty days since a Passover meal, where a group of friends had shared a last supper. Back then, Pentecost was a remembrance of Moses receiving the Ten Commandments, fifty days after the exodus of the Israelites from Egypt. Today, Pentecost marks the end of Easter.
These friends had united again for Pentecost, when 2suddenly from heaven, from above, there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. 3Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. 4All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability.
Read afresh, this is a story of immense power, something you would never forget. This event is the beginning of the church, without which, we wouldn’t be here today and the holy spirit was in the middle of it.
The third future story is an imagining, of a semi-rural parish church in a lovely Cotswold town/village, much like this one. One Sunday morning, as a group of friends, much like us, gather to celebrate Pentecost, they get much more than they bargained for.
Against all expectations, based on 600 years of worshipping in that place, as the preacher stood up, the doors were flung open with a crash, and although it was sunny and warm, a great wind surged into the building, hats flew into the air, the noise was deafening as clothes flapped wildly and the preachers robes ballooned as he began to be lifted into the air.
Then, flames appeared in an instant, hovering over every person there, the heat was just bearable, but they added to the noise, like giant gas jets roaring and reaching into the ceiling of the church. Then, ignoring the preacher, well you would, wouldn’t you, the people began talking, the spirit was so intense they couldn’t stop, every language was spoken, even welsh, as they proclaimed and rejoiced at what was happening.
Now I don’t want to overplay this, but let’s just imagine how it would be if that did happen here, like it did for the disciples, the fear-inducing, adrenalin-pumping, wind-tossed, fire-singed, smoke-filled turmoil of that experience. We would have had no doubts about the Holy Spirit being all present and all powerful, here today.
For the disciples, this would have been yet another event in a series of life-changing experiences. In this, we remember the abundant, life-giving, all powerful gift of the Holy Spirit.
This was no ordinary gift, it had power, as the stories tell us, but it had other effects as well.
In Johns Gospel today, chapter 16 verse 8 we are told the Spirit will be an advocate for truth, but that is just the beginning, in Paul’s letter to the Galatians chapter 5, verse 22, we are told the fruits of the spirit are love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.
The spirit also gives us a voice, especially when we aren’t sure how to respond. Unless we’re struggling ourselves, we can usually respond with compassion and empathy to those in need.
But how do we respond when we feel called to defend our faith, often, it can be tempting to stay quiet, but we really do have to trust in the spirit, as Jesus says in Luke chapter 12, verse 12, “the Holy Spirit will give you the words to say at the moment when you need them.”
As disciples, the Spirit helps us to build each other up, learning about Jesus and the Gospels and what it means to be a Christian, so that together, we can be transformed from vulnerability to being resilient in our faith, able to show through our lives and our words, what being a follower of Christ really means.
Much as the Pentecost flames were not just for Peter but for everyone present, this applies just as much today, the flame of the holy spirit isn’t just for the Bishop or the Vicar or the Preacher, but for everyone, the spirit is a gift to us all, to every person there with Peter, and to every person who has been baptised in the name of the father, son and holy spirit ever since, we are already filled with the Holy Spirit, we simply need to be open to it building us up in faith and in so many other ways.
That "abundant life" is the promise of the unfolding, extravagant love of God, shown in the glory that is for us, in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ and in the abiding presence of the Spirit, who confirms that promise in our hearts and sends our communities into the world to bear witness to that good news.
The power of the Holy Spirit comes from its status as part of the Trinity, it is within and around us, binding us to the Father and the Son. So that, when we pray, the spirit connects us, strengthens, transforms and brings us closer to the abundant life we have been promised to the full by Jesus.
The first fruit of the Holy Spirit is love, the Holy
Spirit is love as God is love, and as Martin Luther King said as quoted
yesterday by Bishop Curry,
“We must discover the power of love, the power, the redemptive power of love. And when we discover that, we will be able to make of this old world, a new world."
Shall we walk that road together, of transformation, of creating a new world through the power of love and the power of the Holy Spirit?
In a moment, I’ll offer a prayer, then there’ll be a short time of quiet: in that time, what image of the Holy Spirit will help you? Is it the flames of Pentecost, the roaring wind, the silence after the storm, the unity of many voices or a single white dove descending with love and grace?
Let us pray
Holy Abundant Spirit, come, fill the hearts of your people
“We must discover the power of love, the power, the redemptive power of love. And when we discover that, we will be able to make of this old world, a new world."
Shall we walk that road together, of transformation, of creating a new world through the power of love and the power of the Holy Spirit?
In a moment, I’ll offer a prayer, then there’ll be a short time of quiet: in that time, what image of the Holy Spirit will help you? Is it the flames of Pentecost, the roaring wind, the silence after the storm, the unity of many voices or a single white dove descending with love and grace?
Let us pray
Holy Abundant Spirit, come, fill the hearts of your people
And kindle in us the fire of your love
Strengthen us, that we may become the disciples you
have called us to be
[pause]
In the name of the father, and of the son and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen
[pause]
In the name of the father, and of the son and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen
Preached at St George, Cam and St Cyr, Stinchcombe
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