Pentecost!

                                  Come Holy Spirit and kindle in us the fire of your love.

Day of Pentecost Sunday 23^rd May 2021

Acts 2:1-21, Rom 8:22-27, John 15:26-27, 16:4b-15

 

Our reading from Acts this morning tell us the story of Pentecost. Pentecost was a Jewish festival, also known as the Festival of Weeks and it celebrated the giving of the ten commandments, as well as the spring harvest. The people of Israel would present offerings to God from their spring crops.

Jewish law at that time required all adult Jewish men to attend the festival in Jerusalem and so people would travel from wherever they were living to attend the celebration and Jerusalem would have been busy with many pilgrims. The disciples, Mary the mother of Jesus and other followers, had formed a community of prayer and they were waiting as Jesus had told them to, for the Holy Spirit.

 

And then suddenly the Holy Spirit arrives with wind, fire, and language, bringing understanding to people who didn’t know Jesus and drawing these people into the kingdom of God. The Holy Spirit continues the work of Jesus both in our lives, personally and in the Church and in the world around us.

The readings today are exciting because we get to see the Holy Spirit in action. The Holy Spirit is the third person of the Trinity and when we speak about the Trinity we are speaking about the nature of God. God the Father, Jesus who is God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. Three persons in one God. So today is a day for remembering the coming of the Holy Spirit and the beginning of the Church.

 

In the bible the Holy Spirit is present in different ways, but sometimes the Spirit is not always apparent. In the Amplified version of the bible the beginning of the book of Genesis (Gen 1:2) tells us that ‘The earth was formless and void ……and …the Spirit of God was moving (hovering, brooding) over the face of the waters.’ So, the Holy Spirit was there at the very beginning of creation.

 

If you continue reading through the bible you will see the Holy Spirit coming upon different people in different ways, giving them extraordinary power, which enabled them to act in God’s name.   You will see the Holy Spirit inspiring David (2 Sam. 23:2), Ezekiel (Ezek. 2:2) and others, to prophesy or to do miracles. In the Gospels we can see that when Jesus was baptised, the Holy Spirit was present in the form of a dove.

 

In the book of Acts right through to the end of the bible, the Holy Spirit can be seen quite clearly, empowering the early Christians and directing the growth of the Church. We can also see the work of the Holy Spirit in the history of the church right through to the present day.

We need the Holy Spirit. We need that fire in our lives to shape us, to empower us, to give us vision and to embolden us. We need to listen to the Spirit and allow the Holy Spirit to guide us.

 

The bible tells us we are in the world, but we are not of the world and it is the Holy Spirit who enables us to see how we should live and what we should believe. This is vital to our Christian witness because we are human, and we live in different societies and cultures and we can be sucked into the world around us, sometimes without being fully aware of how this affects our faith.

 

In 2007, I had the opportunity to work on the Bicentenary of the Abolition of the slave trade. The Mayor of London decided to hold a programme of events focusing on Britain’s role in the Transatlantic Slave Trade, and its eventual abolition. 

I was absolutely shocked at the time, to find out that the Church of England had been involved in the slave trade. The Church of England owned sugar plantations in Barbados and some bishops and clergy actually owned slaves. They were deeply involved in this horrific activity and I found it difficult to imagine why they thought this was compatible with the Christian faith.

I think they were able to do this because they refused to recognise the slaves as being human. I also they refused to listen to the Holy Spirt because if we look back at the campaigns against the slave trade, it is clear to see the Holy Spirit at work in the lives of the abolitionists. The Holy Spirit will always bring light into darkness and raise up prophets, or people who will witness to the truth.

It is so easy to be sucked in and blinded by prevailing culture and trends. There are other well-known examples where Christians have failed to follow the Gospel because of what was going on around them at the time. During the second world war some churches in Germany embraced Hitler and Nazi ideology. In South Africa, some churches actually used the bible to justify apartheid.

These are all such painful examples of Christians losing their way.

 

It is easy to look back and recognise where Christians have gone wrong, but sometimes it can be difficult to recognise evil and injustice, especially if you are embracing it in the present. As human beings we are very good at seeing what we want to see and this is why we need the Holy Spirit, because as Jesus says the Spirit will guide us into all truth.

 

In the examples I have used of church failures there are always stories of the Holy Spirit raising up people to speak the truth and to act as prophets, bringing light and understanding into dark situations, and the Spirit empowers them to work for justice. Christians struggled against apartheid and many Christians lost their lives resisting Nazi ideology.

These were courageous people of faith who listened to the Holy Spirit and who were inspired and empowered to act.

We must not underestimate how easy it is to ignore the Holy Spirit and to become accustomed to social injustice, or the oppression and exploitation of others. Sometimes we may be blinded by privilege, or by custom, or culture, or even by sheer ignorance, but we are the household of God and we have the Holy Spirit, and we must learn to live by example.

The wisdom of the Holy Spirit is there for all of us if we choose to see and listen. The coming of the Holy Spirit does not make things easy, but the Holy Spirt makes all things possible. Pentecost for us as Christians is about the coming of the Holy Spirt to the early church, but it is also about our own encounter with the Holy Spirit from day to day.

We will encounter the Holy Spirit as we pray, as we study the bible, and as we worship together. When we do these things, we will become more aware of the presence of the Holy Spirit in our own day to day lives, and in the world around us. It is not always about signs and wonders and big things, sometimes it is just about recognising that the Holy Spirit is with us always.

Today the Holy Spirit continues on earth the work that Jesus began, and that work continues in our personal lives, in our church communities and also in the world around us.

 

To finish up, let me tell you a personal story. Back in 2011, I saw the Holy Spirit at work. I was at a meeting for organisations across the world who work on HIV and Aids. The different organisations were planning how they were going to present their key issues at the United Nations the following day.

There were people from so many different countries, and we were in a room together. I could hear the soft murmur of different languages and the interpreters who were translating. I saw people who were caught up in the mission of God even though they wouldn’t have described it as such. Despite the fact that people had come from all over the world there was real unity and shared ideas, and love and care.

 

It wasn’t a religious gathering. Some churches wouldn’t have accepted the people in that room because they were lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and so many other expressions of sexuality and gender. Some of them were drug users, and sex workers, many of them were poor. They were from every race and culture you could think of, but they were there working together in unity to seek justice.

I sat in the middle of that room and I could see the Holy Spirit at work because God so loves the world, and the Holy Spirit is at work in our world today. There were people at that meeting who don’t even believe in God, but I saw the Holy Spirit moving in the midst of them. And God will move in our lives and our churches if we allow it.

 

Let Pentecost inspire and empower us. Let us allow the Holy Spirit to shape our lives from day to day.

 

Holy Spirit, fill us with life anew that we may live to praise and serve you always.

 Amen