Sunday 19/05/24

Pentecost 

John 15:26-27; 16:4b-15 Acts 2:1-21 Ezekiel 37:1-14

Pentecost is here! Also called Whit Sunday, for the traditional colour of white as a symbol of baptism, and for the witness of Christians to their faith as enabled by the Holy Spirit. It’s all about the Holy Spirit as the theme for celebrations today.

‘Come Holy Spirit.’ This is the prayer for the ‘Thy Kingdom Come’ global prayer movement that has run from Ascension Day until Pentecost. You may wonder why it is that short. Shouldn’t prayers be a little more extensive, a little more about the things on our hearts? I guess that many prayers, if not most, are indeed longer than just three words. But then, there are also many prayers that simply say: ‘Lord, please help’. And that is just as valuable. But for this particular time of prayer, ‘Come Holy Spirit’ is the essence of what we have been encouraged to pray. It may be that when we pray these words, they then lead into others; some about the things that occupy us the most, and that we are asking God’s intervention for. And the issues we offer up to God in prayer may well be according to the pattern of the Lord’s Prayer, beginning with the acknowledgement of who God is and praising his name.

After all that, we are now at the end of the aforementioned global days of prayer, as today is Pentecost. So, the celebration of the arrival of the Holy Spirit is here! It is in fact, the birthday of the Church! So, Happy Birthday!

The readings from John’s Gospel, the Acts of the Apostles and the prophet Ezekiel are all about the work of the Holy Spirit. Jesus calls him the Advocate; the one who speaks on behalf of and for God’s people, but who also is the ‘breath’ of God who brings to life that which was dead. As Advocate, the Holy Spirit comforts and challenges. He also protects and sometimes even prods the Church into action. All so that the truth be known and God is glorified. This is given a most remarkable turn in Ezekiel, when he records the vision of the valley of dry bones. Ezekiel records his vision as a conversation with ‘the spirit of the Lord’, who takes him to the middle of a valley full of dry bones saying: ‘Mortal, can these bones live?’ And Ezekiel answers: ‘O Lord God, you know.’ Then, through the prompting of God, Ezekiel prophesies and in different stages, the bones are dressed with flesh and finally breath comes into them and they are brought back to life. All, ‘so that you will know that the Lord has spoken and will act.’ it says. In John’s Gospel, Jesus announces the coming of the Holy Spirit, earlier referred to as the Helper, by now calling him the Advocate. Why Advocate? It has the connotation of a court of law, and of judgement. Well, there was something of a suit of law going on: God versus the world, or more to the point, versus evil; for God loves the world. And yes, Jesus came to deal with the problem of sin, doing for us what we could never do for ourselves to make us right with God. The Advocate comes when Jesus has gone up into heaven, so that he will be the one to prove the world wrong about sin and righteousness and judgement, says Jesus. The vindication of Jesus through the Resurrection and Ascension is the sign that sentence has been pronounced on evil. So that, in terms of a law suit, the Advocate is to prove that the world is in the wrong. There is more: ‘When the Spirit of truth comes,’ says Jesus, ‘he will guide you into all the truth. He will take what is mine and declare it to you.’ That is why the arrival of the Holy Spirit, the Helper, the Advocate, is also a comfort. The world thinks it has justice on its side. But God has said something else through his Son. It is his amazing work of salvation that has proved the world wrong and reset the balance. The Holy Spirit testifies to the truth and works in and through the Church to speak the living Word of God. There, then, is also our challenge. For we need to be open to the Holy Spirit, so that our love for God may remain real and steadfast. The fire that the disciples saw on that first Day of Pentecost, should be kept alive in our hearts, or we become empty shells. In Thy Kingdom Come, there is a reference to an African Study Bible which puts it like this: ‘No one likes to eat stale food or read twenty-year old newspapers.’ Bishop Anthony Poggo, Secretary General of the Anglican Communion, says, ‘We want fresh food and current news. Let us not give to God a love that is stale and cold. The Lord longs for the churches, as he longs for us, to be all we are meant to be, all we can become in the power of the Holy Spirit. On the first Day of Pentecost, the disciples who, like us, had been praying since the day of Christ’s Ascension, got far more than they ever imagined. The wind of the Spirit carried them into the streets of Jerusalem to share the Good News of Jesus Christ. The fire of the Spirit began to change them from within, giving them new gifts and enabling them to do new things and conquer old temptations.’ So, how can we share better the fire of God’s love, and live as new people, fully alive? Amen.