PENTECOST
Acts 2: 1-21 John 15: 26-27.16: 4b-15
We are approaching another Bank Holiday weekend as the end of May nears. People dashing off in different directions to have a few days of sunshine, they hope, as spring fades away into the background and summer takes its place. It is also one of the major festivals in the Church year. Pentecost, or Whitsunday, is marked as a day of special significance and until 1972 used to be the Bank Holiday weekend.
The disciples were gathered together when, all of a sudden, we read of sound like a rush of a violent wind filling the house where they were. Tongues of flame appeared around them and rested on each one of them. The disciples were filled with the Holy Spirit.
It is as if the Holy Spirit came into existence at that time. That is not so. God is Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Always was, always is, and always will be. It is the moment of Pentecost that sees the Holy Spirit becoming dominant in the Church.
The Holy Spirit plays an active role in giving to the disciples courage to face the trials that they will face. It gave them power to go ahead. For us today we receive the same Holy Spirit in our lives. We are give courage to meet dangerous situations. We have the power to cope with the trials of life. In addition eloquence when needed and the joy of Christian life are all to be seen as the work of the Holy Spirit.
Elsewhere in the Acts of the Apostles (5:32) we learn how the Holy Spirit is given to those who obey him. The measure of the Holy Spirit which we may possess depends upon the type of person that we are. If we are trying to do the will of God, hearing his word and fashioning our life around what we hear and learn, then we will experience more and more of the wonder of the Holy Spirit. We will see it at work all around us. We will be able to share some of the feeling, the experience, that the disciples felt in the days of the early Church. To the disciples the early Church was a Church filled with the Holy Spirit and that was the source of its power.
Going back to the early Church try to imagine the scene. The disciples were meeting, partly in fear of the Romans, and possibly discussing amongst themselves what their future would be. All of a sudden there was a sound and flames appeared. It must have been both a terrifying experience and a mystifying one.
To visit a foreign country it helps to be able to understand a little of the language of that land. Simple words like ‘please’ and ‘thank you’ are essential as is also ‘may I have a cup of tea’. To be in a room surrounded by people speaking in different languages can be quite confusing. But to the disciples they were given the power to understand what was being said. It was a gift of the Holy Spirit which was greatly treasured and which was to serve them well in their ministry. If a message, in this case the Good News, is to passed on to people it is far better to be passed on in a language that is understood by the listeners. A person walking into the room filled with the disciples speaking in different languages may well think that the room was filled with drunkards. But, probably for the first time the disciples were hearing the word of God which went straight into their hearts in ways that they could fully understand. Such is the power of the Holy Spirit.
Today we recognise that power and give thanks in our worship. That same Holy Spirit is working within us. Leading our lives following the teaching of God and following the way of his Son we will find our life empowered as the Holy Spirit works within us.
Collect for Pentecost
God, who as at this time
taught the hearts of your faithful people
by sending to them the light of your Holy Spirit:
grant us by the same Spirit
to have a right judgement in all things
and evermore to rejoice in his holy comfort;
through the merits of Christ Jesus our Saviour,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.