Pentecost, Sunday 23 May 2021
So today is Pentecost, it’s often seen as the birthday of the church – and is a chance to celebrate – but why? What exactly are we celebrating?
I wonder what you think of when you think of the Holy Spirit? Does any imagery come to mind?
Biblical images - Dove, Rushing Wind, Tongues of Fire, Hovering over the water, still small voice – all very different kinds of images, telling us different things about what the Spirit is like.
But what does the Spirit do? What does it mean for us and how we live and relate to God?
I want to focus on 3 things:
1. Brings God’s life and love – the fruits of the spirit are love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Gal 5)
If we are filled with God’s spirit, these are the things that will grow in our hearts - whereas anger, fear, self-righteousness, pride or greed – these all too common feelings, will be replaced, transformed. If we allow the Holy Spirit in, the spirit who inspires peace, justice, healing, transformation, and care, we will live a life of righteousness.
And let’s not forget joy. This is one of the most important gifts as it has such power to overcome the more negative emotions. I recently read the Book of Joy – which documents a week that Desmond Tutu spent with the Dalai Lama, talking about joy. These are both men who have seen enormous suffering and experienced profound personal loss, and yet they are both incredibly joyful people. Reading the book was a joyful experience in itself – full of compassion, wisdom and humour – it reminded me of the possibility of joy, even when life is challenging and things seem bleak.
Do we pray enough for the holy spirit to come into our lives and bring these gifts? Do we give the spirit time to work in our lives? Do we open ourselves up to the spirits transforming power?
And this leads me on to my second point….
2. The Holy Spirit can make us uncomfortable
The spirit can prompt us to do things outside of our comfort zone. Just look at the disciples – they were hiding in a room – and the spirit prompted them to go out into enormous crowds and preach a message that would not be well received by everyone. It opened them up to the possibility of ridicule and even danger. And it required a courage and openness on their part to follow the Spirit’s promptings.
I wonder how much we listen when the Spirit prompts us? Are there times when we don’t like where things are going, shut down or draw back? Are there times when we block off emotions or insights because they might be too painful or scary? Are there times when apathy sets in, and we just stick with the status quo, because it’s easier?
I’m sure we can all answer yes to this – we all have times when we’ve drawn away from God’s spirit and don’t give God any time.
But what about the times when we have listened – when we’ve followed God’s promptings? Yes, it can be scary and uncomfortable, but this is when wonderful things can happen. We might heal a broken relationship by saying sorry first, we might help someone in distress by bothering to stop and see if they are ok, we might contribute towards ending an injustice by being brave enough to speak out against it.
So yes, God’s spirit can bring us wonderful gifts of joy and peace – but it doesn’t mean we will always be comfortable or find it easy.
One of the most uncomfortable things it can require of us, is to listen, connect and love those who are completely different or other. Which leads me on to my last point….
3. God’s spirit helps us to speak each other’s languages and breaks down barriers
There are a lot of different languages spoken in the world today, and I don’t just mean national languages. There are the languages of different political parties, different religions, different classes, ages or skin colour.
How many of the older generation understand what the young are talking about? Having a teenage daughter, I have had to learn new words and phrases, that feel totally foreign to me. I’ve had to learn to look at the world through her eyes to understand her views on so many important issues like #blacklivesmatter, #metoo, LGBTQIA+*, environmental issues…….it sometimes feels like I’m learning a new language.
And how many young people stop and try and understand the older generation? Listen to their views and experiences?
Across age, tribe, nation and more, many people in the world are becoming increasingly black and white in their conversation and thinking. This is often exacerbated by social media platforms, which have algorithms to share the views of people most like us!
But the Holy Spirit breaks down this binary mentality. In the reading today, the Spirit caused the disciples to speak other people’s languages, it gave them the words they needed and brought understanding.
When we are filled with God’s Spirit, the barriers come down. We connect with people – even those we disagree with. We work to understand them and listen to them, and we love them, even if we don’t agree with them or they are different from us.
So, to go back to my original question – why are we celebrating Pentecost? We celebrate the gift of the spirit, when it was poured out in a new and fresh way, and for all the gifts it brings including joy and peace.
I pray we would continue to seek those gifts, that we would open ourselves to the Spirit’s promptings and be brave enough to follow where we are led, and I pray that in doing so, we would connect with those who are different, build understanding and bring God’s love and joy to more people in our beautiful world, and so truly be the church God intended.
*Definition of LGBTQIA
L - Lesbian. Lesbian is a term used to refer to homosexual females.
G - Gay. Gay is a term used to refer to homosexuality, a homosexual person, or a homosexual male.
B - Bisexual. Bisexual is when a person is attracted to two sexes/genders.
T - Trans. Trans is an umbrella term for transgender and transsexual people.
Q - Queer/Questioning. Queer is an umbrella term for all of those who are not heterosexual and/or cisgender. Questioning is when a person isn't 100% sure of their sexual orientation and/or gender, and are trying to find their true identity.
I - Intersex. Intersex is when a person has an indeterminate mix of primary and secondary sex characteristics.
A - Asexuality. Asexuality is when a person experiences no (or little, if referring to demisexuality or grey-asexuality) sexual attraction to people.
+ - The "+" symbol simply stands for all of the other sexualities, sexes, and genders that aren't included in these few letters.