Pentecost - the Holy Spirit comes to us.

Today we celebrate the coming of the Holy Spirit, which happened at the feast of Pentecost.

Luke’s version of what happened on the day the Spirit came to the disciples is written in the book of Acts.

 

When the Feast of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Without warning there was a sound like a strong wind, gale force—no one could tell where it came from. It filled the whole building. Then, like a wildfire, the Holy Spirit spread through their ranks, and they started speaking in a number of different languages as the Spirit prompted them.

 

I wonder how that story makes us feel? …

Excited, baffled, jealous…It seems so unlike our experience of worshipping together – so “not us”   -  that we might be tempted to forget it all together.

 

But the story tells us the Spirit came to all the followers of Jesus – and sent them out into the streets of Jerusalem and from there to the whole world with the message of the Good News of God’s love in Jesus. 

Whatever the Spirit is, however the Spirit comes, it is the reason we are here at all today, and it is, absolutely, for us.

 

I want to tell you a true story – which might sound strange – bear with me.

When I was in my twenties I went to Spring Harvest for the first time. Spring Harvest (for those who have never encountered it) is a large Christian conference/jamboree held in Butlin’s resorts around Eastertime. I went with a group of other young people from various churches, who normally sang in a Christian choir together. During the day there were encouraging talks with inspiring speakers; and every evening there was a large gathering for worship in the Big Top with a high-octane praise band on stage. The highlight for me was singing ‘O for a thousand tongues to tell my great redeemer’s praise’ and realising there were over a thousand voices singing together. 

One night we were told the worship team were praying for the Holy Spirit to come and be made known. 

Some people started dancing; some started shouting; there was a lot of singing; there were testimonies and encouragement to let the Spirit move through us.

I was wondering how all this related to me, sensible boring little me, who just liked singing in four-part harmony. And then someone on the stage suggested we try singing in tongues. The band played a few ripply bits of music… people around me started singing – more in syllables and sounds that in words… and I opened my mouth to see what would happen.

I sang a few sounds – and it felt good. It felt like I was praising God without thinking about what words I would use. I started to understand why some people raise their hands in worship – it just felt right and free and liberating. It had never happened to me before. And it has never happened to me since. But I think I learned that the Holy Spirit could come, in new and different ways, and help me to worship and think and live in a new way.

It felt a bit unusual – even strange – but it did feel like it was for me, just there and then – and I think it brought me closer to God’s presence.

But that was not the only time I have felt the Spirit at work: sometimes I have just known, deep down that something is true, or I have felt a little internal nudge to do something, or I have heard someone else say something or seen them do something and known that is God’s work being done, God’s Spirit at work.

In many different ways, in quiet ones and dramatic ones, in personal ones and group ones. the Holy Spirit is for us – for you – for now.

 

So I’d like us to spend some time exploring how we imagine the Holy Spirit, how we encounter the Holy Spirit and how we respond to the Holy Spirit.

 

Our Bible readings from the letter to the Romans and the gospel of John have offered some ways to describe or imagine the Holy Spirit.

The Spirit is described in Romans as the one who helps us in our weakness, who speaks for us in prayer when we don’t have the words, who stands alongside us as guide and strength.

At the Zoom Bible study last week people talked about this as a motherly image – the Spirit is the one who teaches us to speak, who stands up for us, who is there to help.

 

Luke’s Greek account uses the term ‘Paracletos’ for the Spirit – which some translations just translate as ‘paraclete’. Literally it means ‘one called alongside’– but most Bibles use terms like advocate, helper, counsellor. The Spirit is there alongside us to help us, just as a defence council would be in court.

Other Bibles use the term Comforter for the Spirit – something much more like that caring, motherly image.

 

Jesus also talks about the Spirit of Truth – the one who helps Jesus’ followers to understand what Jesus has said. This might mean the Spirit teaches us, or gives us an internal sense of when something is right, that internal nudge or niggle which helps us see God at work.

 

There are other Biblical images of the Spirit, too – a dove, the breath of God, cloud, and of course the experiences recounted in Acts of a loud wind and of fire.

 

When we use ‘spirit’ in everyday speech we mean something like ‘essence’ or ‘core’ – we might talk about the spirit of a novel, or a film. And when we talk about the spirit of a person we tend to mean those recognisable traits that a person has – their unique gifts and personality. So when Jesus send his Spirit, we would expect that Spirit to show care for the poor and broken, life poured out for others – it is the spirit of Jesus, and so it is a spirit of healing, goodness, and love.

 

These are all ways we can imagine the Spirit. So how might we encounter the Holy Spirit?

 

We have all sorts of different Biblical stories and images of the Spirit at work.

But I started this sermon by stating that the Spirit is for us.

So how do we encounter the Spirit? 

It may be in a quiet, deep moment of knowing the Spirit alongside us or within us.. but it may also be in a riot of activity. We might sometimes not notice the Spirit at work, like a gentlest of breezes, or we might hear a roaring wind.

 

But where we see good things happening, where people are stirred to love their neighbours, in the work of Christian Aid at the end of this Christian Aid week, in many different ways we can experience the Spirit at work.

 

One person suggested to the Bible Study that sometimes the Spirit is like the radio – the radio waves are there all the time, but we need to tune in to hear what’s being broadcast. Encountering the Spirit is sometimes about tuning in.

 

We have many ways to imagine the Holy Spirit, and many ways to encounter the Holy Spirit, but all if this is rather pointless if we don’t respond to the Holy Spirit.

When God speaks to us – in Scripture, in worship, in others, in an inner stirring of the Spirit.. we must respond, just as a wind moves the leaves on a tree or a sail on a boat.

 

We might see the effect of the Holy Spirit in other people’s lives – in extraordinary lives, in very Godly lives, and miss the ways in which the Holy Spirit is moving us – small and ordinary though we feel.

 

Desmond Tutu spent his life fighting apartheid, speaking up for the dignity and equality of black South Africans. 

He was a great man, a great preacher, a great example.

But he was very clear that when he preached to his parish when he was a priest in Soweto, it was the Holy Spirit which moved in people’s lives. Tutu was very clear that it is the Holy Spirit which turns ordinary people into great Christians.

 

In his own words, this is how Desmond Tutu told this story:

“Most of my parishioners were domestic workers, not people who were very well educated. But I would say to them, “You know, mama, when they ask, Who are you” — you see, the White employer most frequently didn’t use the person’s name. They said the person’s name was too difficult. And so most Africans, women would be called “Annie,” and most Black men, really, you were “boy.” 

And I would say to them, When they ask, Who are you?, you say, Me? I’m a God-carrier. I’m God’s partner. I’m created in the image of God.

And you could see those dear old ladies as they walked out of church on that occasion, as if they were on cloud nine. You know, they walked with their backs slightly straighter.”

What made the difference was them recognising the Spirit of God within them.

 

If we wonder ‘who are we to experience the moving of the Holy Spirit?’ , we need to remember that we, too are God carriers, God’s partners, created in the image of God to be vessels of the Holy Spirit.

The Spirit of God comes to us today as it came to the disciples at Pentecost. 

I pray we will respond as we go from here to live lives as ‘God-carriers’, to share God’s love and to live to God’s glory. Amen.