Pentecost

Sunday 31^st May – is Pentecost Sunday

Acts 2: 1-21. The essential nature of Pentecost is that the Spirit of God is for all people not for any special group – so the Spirit breaks down barriers between people. To emphasise the point Luke has Peter quote the prophet Joel which emphasises that the Spirit is no respecter of age, social position or gender and the group itself gathered in Jerusalem were from different ethnic groups and languages but in the Spirit could comprehend each other. For me, it recalls one facet of Psalm 42:7 “Deep calls to deep in the roar of your waterfalls” Psalm 42.7

1 Corinthians 12: 3b-13. The one Spirit manifests himself differently in different constituent people in Christ’s body – the church. Paul mentions some gifts (not a definitive list) but only to emphasise that while there are different gifts there is only one spirit. The gifts of the Spirit are all given to build up the church into a collective whole. The seven-fold gifts of the spirit are traditionally based on Isaiah 11:2 -3 and they are wisdom, counsel, understanding, fortitude, knowledge, piety and the fear of the Lord. These are the gifts that are prayed for at ordination ceremonies.

John 20: 19-23. As a theological counterpoint to the Lukan scheme of how and when the Spirit was given, we have John’s version which has Jesus breathing the Spirit on the disciples on the evening of Easter Sunday. The theological point being made is slightly different showing for one that the Spirit of the Father is breathed through the Son and chronologically tying the giving of the Spirit closer to the death and resurrection of Jesus.

Pentecost has been called the birthday of the church.

In fact I have heard of churches actually having a birthday cake in the service and while I actually think that was a bit twee it does emphasis a point that the church deserves the recognition that its beginning was something entirely new, entirely different and worth celebrating.

It is fashionable to knock the church. And the church has a very imperfect history and has done many mistaken things in its time. That is because whatever else we might be, we are still a collection of flawed individuals who make mistakes and worse but the whole is infinitely greater than the sum of our parts.

It is good to remind ourselves that the church – the people – is a divine body – a building made of living stones – no less than the body of Jesus Christ on earth.

Speaking of the Roman Catholic church someone once said that, It must be divine because the intrigues and scandals and rifts that have plagued the church for 2000 years would have killed off any ordinary organisation ten times over and yet they are still here.

The church understood as Christ’s body on earth, if you write off the church you write off Jesus Christ.

The needful thing of course as the living stones of this building is to consciously try to conform ourselves to the image of Christ. That way we naturally represent Jesus more accurately.

Sanctification is the process of setting ourselves apart for God’s use.

One of the main ways in which we are different from non-believers is that we set ourselves apart for worship. We worship – give worth to - the source of our life, the revelation of God in Christ, and the indwelling Spirit that binds us together and seek to derive strength and guidance from that worship.

Worship orientates our life and guides us in our decision making and strengthens us for life’s battles as and when they arise.

We often say we want to be more Christ-like, meaning more caring, concerned for the poor of whatever, but if you look at Jesus in the Bible one of the ways to be Christ-like is to worship! Christ was often in the Temple, or synagogue or retreating by himself to pray. The Temple was central to his life so if we really want to be more Christ-like we, like him, need to have worship at the centre of our lives.

Whatever else we are say the church may be for or want it to do – we derive our identity and strength from worship which in turn is empowered by God’s spirit, the Spirit that formed us and constitutes us.

So a very happy birthday to the church.

I’ll end with Teresa of Avila’s famous words.

 “Christ has no body now but yours. No hands, no feet on earth but yours. Yours are the eyes through which he looks compassion on this world. Yours are the feet with which he walks to do good. Yours are the hands through which he blesses all the world. Yours are the hands, yours are the feet, yours are the eyes, you are his body. Christ has no body now on earth but yours.”