This weekend we celebrate Pentecost, Sulgwyn in Welsh, the day when the Holy Spirit inspired the disciples and transformed them into dynamic apostles, able to preach the Gospel or Good News to all who would listen. Pentecost (Gk for fiftieth) comes from the fact that this day is the 50th day after Passover. Whit or White Sunday comes from the tradition when people were baptised on this day which, of course, involved wearing white robes. A reference to this baptism will occur in the zoomed service on Sunday.
In the Gospels Jesus tells his followers that when he was gone they would have a hard task to show their love in the only really meaningful way – by obeying His commandments. But he was going to help them in this task by sending a councillor, or helper. This councillor (or one who gives strength) is a translation of the Greek word Paraclete – one of those many Greek words which does not have a direct translation. Some Bibles give the word Comforter which of course we use in the ninth verse of the Te Deum Laudamus, – you remember the verse which is a description of the Godhead ” The father of an infinite majesty: thine honourable true and only Son; also the Holy Ghost the comforter.” So there is another word, comforter, that gives us an alternative way of thinking about the same thing. Anyway, without going into a lengthy derivation, this Paraclete is the Christian Holy Spirit who witnesses for Christ and takes the things of Christ and declares them, proclaiming the life, death, resurrection and ascension of Christ and the necessity of Faith.
The Holy Spirit having been foretold we now come to its arrival, with the empowering of the Apostles. We learn in the Acts of the Apostles that the Spirit arrived with a sound LIKE the rush of a mighty wind and with flames AS of fire. These are clearly symbolic terms signifying the description of the experience, fire being the means by which both cleansing and judgement were achieved. The immediate effect of this experience was that those present were filled with the Spirit and heard themselves speaking in different tongues.
There is surely a parallel here with the Tower of Babel story in Genesis and the law giving at Mount Sinai. All sorts of suggestions have been made about the interpretation of the speaking in tongues. Phenomena ranging from the ability to speak in non-human language which fits in with St. Paul’s description of “tongues of angels” to the idea, which I tend to favour, that the hearers thought that they heard and recognised words and phrases of praise to God in their own languages. Obviously you can take your pick.
However, there is no doubt about the result of this experience. It marked the birth of the Church with Peter immediately giving the very first sermon which is the main part of the reading from the Acts., but which for reasons of time we had to omit from the zoom service. Let us now look at this sermon to be found in Acts 2: 14-21 in a little detail:
Obviously, The Apostles are rather hyped up after the speaking in tongues episode and Peter needs to emphasise to the crowds that the Apostles are not suffering from the results of very heavy session in the pub the night before; after that he gets quickly to the heart of the matter, drawing strongly on Old Testament prophecy and highlighting the significance of the gift of the Spirit from Jesus. Since God had raised Jesus from death, it followed that he was the Messiah and it was in consequence of this that he had poured out the Holy Spirit.
Later on in the speech, Peter told the crowd that God’s action in this way meant that all should be baptised in the name of Jesus so that their sins may be forgiven and that they might share in the gift of the Holy Spirit which was freely promised to them. Peter ends his sermon by bringing out two of the standard themes that have been emphasised so many times by so many preachers – to repent and to be baptised. Repentance meant to change the direction of one’s life, turning away from sin and Godlessness. Baptism meant receiving the gift of the Holy Spirit, being freed from sin and affirming an expression of faith and commitment to Jesus as Lord.
That then was the birthday of the Church.
So, what of the Church today. It has grown to an organisation of some 2000 denominations with many millions of members. But it should still be in continuity with that original group on that day of Pentecost nearly 2000 years ago, with the same objective. For that objective, we come back to that original instruction from Jesus stated in John’s Gospel – to obey his commandments. The greatest two commandments were to love the one and only true God, and to love one’s neighbour.
In both cases the word love, a translation of the Greek Agape, which means the all embracing Christian love expressing a respect for the other person, wanting the very best for them.
So, first of all as Christians today we need to promote the worth of God and His infinite love. There is no one way of doing this and we can waste so much time on internal controversy debating forms of worship, this or that method of preaching the gospel or of protesting against injustice.
We each have to serve God in our own way using the talents which He has given us and which He will correct, forgive, bless and use. In this we need to be dependent on and open to the Holy Spirit. In the words of David Jenkins, one time Bishop of Durham, “the Holy Spirit is given, to give us an intense personal faith, but it must be a personal faith which pushes us outwards.”
This means outwards to serve God in the best down-to-earth way that we know. All these ways will be different for each of us but will, for all Church members, have some things in common.
We need to worship – to celebrate the Worth and Glory of God.
We need to be disciples, again in the words of the late David Jenkins “letting God’s worth penetrate us by the spirit so that we grow and are transformed.”
We need to be evangelists, by which I mean we should defend our faith and help others become members of the community of God. We need to speak out against sin and against unrighteousness; occasionally to some may be given the gift of Prophecy.
To recap and bring this sermon to an end, Christians need to worship, to be disciples, to be evangelists and, finally Christians must speak out against injustice.
Brislington Community News 