Pentecost - the gift of the Holy Spirit

Acts 2: 1-12; John 20: 19-23

 

The passage we heard from Acts causes some people problems. As well as being one of the passages of the Bible most filled with difficult names to pronounce, I think it is a passage which unsettles a lot of people. The church is born in loud noise, tongues of fire and strange languages – and we might wonder whether we can live up to that level of pyrotechnics.

 

How are we, gathered here quietly today, related to that strange and wonderful experience? We might wonder if we should be noisier, more showy, more “Pentecostal”.. or we might stare at the floor and hope that no-one suggests those kinds of changes here!

 

If Acts troubles you, there is a different story of the coming of the Holy Spirit in John’s gospel. 

 

Instead of having to wait the 50 days from Easter to Pentecost, the disciples meet the risen Lord on Easter Sunday evening – and he breathes the Holy Spirit into them. This seems a much gentler gift of the Holy Spirit than the account in Acts, written by Luke.

 

But the two accounts have some similarities:

1.   Everyone present receives the Spirit – it is corporate and it is inclusive. 

“the disciples were all together in one place” says Acts

“the disciples had met” says John

2.   It brings peace and purpose to disciples who were previously fearful and apprehensive.

“all of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages” says Acts

“Peace be with you” Jesus says, twice, to the disciples in John’s account.

3.   The Spirit sends the recipients out to share Good News and to serve others.

In Acts the crowd gathers to hear what the disciples have to say; in John, Jesus tells the disiples they have the authority to forgive sins and bring wholeness.

 

But we still might wonder whether this coming of the Holy Spirit is really for the likes of us, even if it does come for all, bring peace & purpose and send people out. Maybe we should leave it to the noisy parts of the church? But maybe there’s more to the coming of the Spirit than just noise…

 

In June 2019 I was fortunate enough to be at a large gathering at Gwennap Pit in Cornwall. 

Gwennap Pit is an outdoor amphitheatre created by and for tin miners to gather and worship – John Wesley preached there often.

On the day I went the tiers of seating were pretty full and there was a lively band playing. 

 

Right down in the centre of the space there was a man with enormous flags, in the colours we associate with fire – red, yellow, orange, moving them in breeze (I have a short video on my phone if you want to see it later!). All in all it was a pretty impressive event. 

 

But for me, I felt the Spirit move most not in all the activity and noise, but towards the end of the service, when my friend Steve invited people to come up to receive a prayer and to be anointed with oil as a sign of the presence of the Holy Spirit with them. Quietly, softly, people came to Steve and to me as we stood with oil and we prayed with them and then used the oil to make the sign of the cross on their palm, as a sign that God’s love would go with them.

 

I felt the Holy Spirit in that place – blessing everyone, calming fears and bringing hope. And making people ready to go out in God’s name.

 

Pentecost is often called the birthday of the Church – the day that blessed all the gathered disciples, changed them into people of purpose and courage, and sent them out to tell the world the good news. The many languages the followers of Jesus spoke that day meant that everyone around them could hear and understand the good news of God’s love shown in Jesus Christ.

 

If this is the birthday of the church, it is a day for us – we are the church. We, too, need to be part of this action of God’s spirit – celebrating the gift Jesus gives us so that we, too can all receive the blessing, be changed, and be enabled to go out to others ready to speak of God’s love in a language they will understand.

 

We need the gift of the Holy Spirit to be fully faithful as followers of Jesus. We don’t need to get ourselves in a tizz about how the Spirit comes to us: it can be quiet, or it can be noisy; we can be with others or we can be alone; it can be when we hope for it or when we least expect it.

But Jesus promises the Spirit will come to fill, change and empower us.

 

I recently heard a programme on Radio 4 about the writer J.B Priestly – best known now as author of ‘An inspector calls’ – but famous in his day for all kinds of writing and speaking. 

In one of his last television interviews, he said 

“We have to hope, because despair is useless. We have to love… So if anybody wants a short guide to a decent life, let me offer this [from Wordsworth]. ‘We live by admiration, hope and love.’ “

The phrase is from Wordsworth’s poem ‘The Recluse’ – and the full quotation is:

‘We live by Admiration, Hope, and Love;  
And, even as these are well and wisely fixed,  
In dignity of being we ascend.’

 

Both Wordsworth and Priestley believed that human beings owed it to themselves and to others to be as good as they could be.

 

I found myself wondering if ‘admiration, hope and love’ was quite enough for followers of Jesus.

 

Of course we admire Jesus – we seek to be like him.

But it is through the Holy Spirit that we are enabled to follow Jesus – to live our whole lives in his service.

We hope – but not only because of our own abilities, but because of the strength God gives us through the Spirit.

We love – yet the Spirit teaches us that that love is not just for our families, or those we know well, but for the whole world.

 

This Pentecost we can pray that we receive anew the gift of the Spirit – so that as faithful followers of Jesus we can know the power of God’s love for all people – a power that transforms and a power that sends us out to share Good News for all creation.

In the name of Jesus, in the love of the Father, and in the power of the Spirit. Amen.