The Jubilee weekend was chosen to fall across Pentecost, the time when the disciples, waiting patiently weeks after Jesus's resurrection, received the Holy Spirit.  The story, told in the Bible's 'Acts of the Apostles', is stunning and worth reading whether one is a believer or not.  Certainly, many hundreds of people who were in the area at the time were so totally convinced that they became Christians immediately.  The effect was so strong that large parts of the Church since then have focused on Pentecost as a key event that can and does happen to people nowadays; pentecostalism is possibly the fastest growing area within Christianity, with its promise that the Holy Spirit will enter you and that you will feel it.  In fact, one of the most practised short courses, the Alpha Course, builds up to a point when there is an expectation that the Holy Spirit will enter followers on a given day of the course.

God has many different ways of appearing in your life and a sudden experience of the Holy Spirit is one of them.  For others a life (or death) event may trigger changes in you that bring you to faith.  There is no single way and no prescribed timescale.  That is the gospel's offer and one that Jesus made clear in some of his parables, the stories he used to explain to people how God's relationship with people worked.  Jesus was very clear that 'late' believers were just as valuable to God as those who were instant Christians.  He said that God valued everybody equally and that there were no special rewards for anyone for how quickly they came to faith.

So take your time.  If you are able to open up and listen, you may hear that voice that asks you to believe.  You may not and that's OK with God too.  Jesus' s message is that he will be with you always, just waiting for you to turn to him.  He'll walk alongside you even when you don't know it and you don't care.  All you have to know is that if and when the time comes, he'll be there to listen, to support you and to carry you through, no matter how dark the times might be.  May the Lord be with you this Pentecost and forever.  Amen.