Thought for the Week – From Rachel Reid, LLM – 20th May 2026

Pentecost

Don’t you just love a festival? Pentecost concludes the season of Easter, fifty days after Easter Day.

It’s been a wild ride for the disciples. First, their leader is crucified, and with his death, all their hopes died. Three days later he is risen! From misery and despair to joy, celebration and hope in just three days! Then follows forty days of encounters with the risen Christ – the Road to Emmaus, appearing in a locked room to a bunch of scared (and sceptical) disciples, and my favourite, a barbecue on the beach. Finally, many of them witness his ascension – he disappears in a cloud – awesome, scary and kind of shocking. A couple of angels casually mention that it’s all fine, he’ll be coming back some day, and will they just stop gawping.

I wonder how they felt after that? What were they supposed to do? Yes, they prayed, but they also kept themselves busy selecting and then casting lots (from which we get the word Lottery) to replace Judas.

It was the feast of Shavuot, the celebration of the wheat harvest and commemoration of the giving of the Law to Moses, and Jerusalem would have been packed out with pilgrims from many nations. The Apostles and Jesus’s other followers, men and women, and I imagine children as well, were gathered in a house when something amazing happened. Once more the foundations of the world shift, and the promised Holy Spirit arrives like rushing wind and flames of fire. The house can’t contain them, and they spill out on to the streets, and the pilgrims are astounded to hear in their own languages the glorious praise of Almighty God.

Three thousand became believers on that day, and it was catching! They ate together, shared everything, devoured the teachings of the apostles and gossiped the gospel. There were miraculous healings and people flocked to the Apostles just like they had to Jesus, bringing their sick and suffering loved ones to be restored. It must have been a bit like heaven on earth, for a while.

Even the persecution, which followed, could not destroy the Church, because it doesn’t run on fossil fuels or even solar power, but on the power of the Holy Spirit, a deep well, a burning flame, a mighty wind, a still small voice, a white dove, the spirit that hovered over the waters of Chaos at the dawn of Creation.

Friends, it is this Spirit that is still at work today, empowering the Church, teaching us what to say when we share our faith, changing hearts and turning people towards Jesus.

Let’s ask the Holy Spirit to come! Let’s sing out with that great Salvationist, William Booth, Send the Fire!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6kNXZzPX1rw&list=RD6kNXZzPX1rw&start_radio=1

Rachel