Pray...
Holy One, fill us with the Spirit,
that we may taste and know the sweetness of new language.
Fill us with the Spirit,
that we may your share the learnings that come with new hearing.
Fill us …and let us overflow. AMEN
I hope you all have a hard hat tucked under your chair,
perhaps I should have provided them for you.
‘Sparks fly, winds blow, sounds weave in and out and all about.
Amazing things happen when God’s Spirit is set loose!’
I am not talking about the streamers that flew through the air,
at the start of the service... but rather what they represented.
It’s Pentecost!
... and on Pentecost, it is never just stories, or thoughts about what Pentecost means.
We must be fully aware that the Spirit is here.
Here... moving and stirring and preparing to clobber us on the head,
and tug our hearts and change our lives.
So look out... look up... and stay awake!
Don’t let tongues of fire fall... and miss it!
Don’t get caught thinking of what’s happening later today,
and miss the wind of the Holy Spirit rush in... now!
Look out... look up... look around.
The Holy Spirit is ready to take your heart by storm.
Pentecost is now!
Pentecost is the day when the Church finds its voice.
A day that it discovers it has a truth to tell,
new life to live.
The Church at Pentecost is a people that speak with one voice,
about God’s mighty deeds and powerful love.
These deeds of power and love, have, in Jesus the Christ,
given life, to a reconciled community.
You and I are a part of that reconciled community.
It is also a day of birth.
In the history of the Christian Church,
Pentecost marks its beginning – the birth of the Church.
It was the first church gathering.
It was noisy and confusing, and full of God.
Pentecost was, and is, a festival day that Jewish people
celebrate on the fifteenth day after Passover.
It is also called Feast of Weeks.
A time when grain, and lambs, and kid goats,
are offered to God for various reasons.
The Christian Church has kept the name, Pentecost.
And now we celebrate
- the coming of the Holy Spirit,
- gifts of the Spirit for all people,
- and the birth of the Christian Church.
Tomorrow, June 10th
we celebrate another birthday.
94 Years ago,
the United Church came into being.
People of the Methodist Church, the Presbyterian Church,
and the Congregationalist Church came together in 1925,
celebrated God in their midst,
and formed the United Church of Canada.
A few years later the Evangelical Brethren joined as well.
Both Pentecost and Union,
point to connection, to one Spirit, and community.
‘Sparks fly, winds blow, sounds weave in and out and all about.
Amazing things happen when God’s Spirit is set loose!’
‘When the day of Pentecost had come, the disciples were all together in one place. And suddenly there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability.’ Acts 2:1-21
Why do we so readily assume
that the promise of the Spirit’s guidance
was offered only to the first generation of Christians?
Why do we so often presume
that the Spirit has no new truths to unfold to us?
Why do we presume that the Spirit might not use us...
we who gather here today...
to change the world, set captives free, bring hope and justice?
And why do we seem so reluctant
to claim the spiritual freedom that Jesus talked about,
and promised?
Could it be ... that the Spirit of God, the Spirit of the living Christ,
is doing something... now... today...
doing something in you and me... with you and me?
Look up... look out... look around... look in your heart.
Don’t be afraid of to what or where the Spirit of God may nudge you.
Open your heart to being empowered, energized and strengthened
to respond to the Spirit’s urging,
no matter how outrageous or life-changing it may seem.
On this Pentecost Sunday
let us lean into the power of the love that lives in, with, between and beyond us,
so that we can be intoxicated with the desire to embody love.
Let us see visions, and dream dreams.
It will be wild, and dangerous,
and we may have to speak in different ways
to one another and to the world,
but we will understand one another
as long as love is our guide.
The Spirit of love will live and breathe in
in us, and it will be as if we are on fire, my friends.
People may think we are drunk or mad or both,
but it is only morning, early yet,
just breathe deeply of the Spirit of love,
and let’s dream dreams.
Let’s let the Holy Spirit move and rest... stir and bless,
and let our dreams be filled with visions of the Spirit of love
who continues to inspire us!
Let it be so among us!!!
Among us as we look out and look beyond what we understand...
to live and move and have our being in the Spirit.
‘Sparks fly, winds blow, sounds weave in and out and all about.
Amazing things happen when God’s Spirit is set loose!’
Grab the Spirit, hold on tight!
Dance with the Spirit... let it all go!
Be fully aware that the Spirit is here.
Here... moving and stirring and preparing to clobber us on the head,
tug our hearts and change our lives.
Today... this day... in this place!
Happy Pentecost!
