Sunday Sermon 31st May 2020
Pentecost John 20 CCM
Today we celebrate the Day of Pentecost, which marks the end of the Easter period in the church. Pentecost is the Jewish festival called “the feast of weeks”, originally marking the end of the grain harvest.
Easter has been leading up to today’s service – today we celebrate the giving of the Holy Spirit to the church. It was the Holy Spirit which enabled Peter and the other disciples to stand up and to declare their faith.
Pentecost in Acts chapter 2 is all action – fire and energy and dynamic. But in John, Pentecost is about gentleness and peace. In the few short verses of today’s Gospel, Jesus gave his believers two precious gifts: the Holy Spirit and his peace. The Holy Spirit can be a difficult concept for us to understand. We understand God the Father, Jesus the Son, but what is the Holy Spirit?
I was ordained a priest during the feast of Pentecost, and was charged by the Archbishop to go out and preach, to teach and to minister in the power of the Holy Spirit, knowing well that none of us has the power to minister effectively without that spirit. Without the gift of the Spirit, none of us have the wisdom, the strength and the grace to be a disciple.
The Holy Spirit is the third person of the trinity who comes into the world every day to draw us into the love of God. Jesus calls the spirit the parakletos, which quite literally means “someone called alongside”, but variously translated as the “comforter”, counselor or helper. It doesn’t help our understanding of the spirit as a person when we see the Holy Spirit depicted as a dove, or fire, a great wind, or the breath of God. But for me, the Holy Spirit is the God who walks alongside me and connects me with God the father and Jesus the son. The Holy Spirit is the guarantee of Gods’ personal presence with us.
Jesus promised it, and we must believe it. It was the empowering of the Holy Spirit which strengthened the disciples to go out into the world and spread the good news. Sometimes, being a witness to the world is not easy, especially when we do not know how our witness will be received.
As clergy, we are so privileged to be invited into significant relationships with people at important times in their lives, but I believe that as Christians we are all given roles to play in the kingdom of God. We really are all part of the body of God on earth.
Jesus own ministry began when he was about 30 and he was baptized in the river Jordan by John.
The gospels tell us that as Jesus came up from the water the heavens opened and God’s spirit came and rested on Jesus like a dove, and there was the sound of a rushing wind. With the anointing of the spirit, he changed from Jesus the carpenter to Jesus the Christ.
Jesus knew that his disciples would need that same Holy Spirit to continue his ministry after his death and resurrection: the spirit which would empower, equip and strengthen them for their mission.
The Holy Spirit changed a group of Jesus frightened followers who were lost and without direction into the foundation of the church.
From people hiding from authority to people who were not afraid to go and preach in the synagogue.
With the gift of the holy spirit came the gift of peace. I am sure most of you would have heard the Hebrew word Shalom, which is usually translated into the English word peace. But shalom doesn’t just mean peace as in the absence of conflict. It has a much deeper meaning.
"Shalom" is used to both greet people and to bid them farewell, and it means much more than "peace, hello or goodbye"....Shalom also means completeness, wholeness, health, peace, welfare, safety soundness, tranquility, prosperity, perfectness, fullness, rest, harmony, the absence of agitation or discord. In other words, the word shalom is a mighty blessing!
So my wish for all of you, my friends, is that you welcome the holy spirit into your lives, and that you may always have shalom.
AMEN
Today we celebrate the Day of Pentecost, which marks the end of the Easter period in the church. Pentecost is the Jewish festival called “the feast of weeks”, originally marking the end of the grain harvest.
Easter has been leading up to today’s service – today we celebrate the giving of the Holy Spirit to the church. It was the Holy Spirit which enabled Peter and the other disciples to stand up and to declare their faith.
Pentecost in Acts chapter 2 is all action – fire and energy and dynamic. But in John, Pentecost is about gentleness and peace. In the few short verses of today’s Gospel, Jesus gave his believers two precious gifts: the Holy Spirit and his peace. The Holy Spirit can be a difficult concept for us to understand. We understand God the Father, Jesus the Son, but what is the Holy Spirit?
I was ordained a priest during the feast of Pentecost, and was charged by the Archbishop to go out and preach, to teach and to minister in the power of the Holy Spirit, knowing well that none of us has the power to minister effectively without that spirit. Without the gift of the Spirit, none of us have the wisdom, the strength and the grace to be a disciple.
The Holy Spirit is the third person of the trinity who comes into the world every day to draw us into the love of God. Jesus calls the spirit the parakletos, which quite literally means “someone called alongside”, but variously translated as the “comforter”, counselor or helper. It doesn’t help our understanding of the spirit as a person when we see the Holy Spirit depicted as a dove, or fire, a great wind, or the breath of God. But for me, the Holy Spirit is the God who walks alongside me and connects me with God the father and Jesus the son. The Holy Spirit is the guarantee of Gods’ personal presence with us.
Jesus promised it, and we must believe it. It was the empowering of the Holy Spirit which strengthened the disciples to go out into the world and spread the good news. Sometimes, being a witness to the world is not easy, especially when we do not know how our witness will be received.
As clergy, we are so privileged to be invited into significant relationships with people at important times in their lives, but I believe that as Christians we are all given roles to play in the kingdom of God. We really are all part of the body of God on earth.
Jesus own ministry began when he was about 30 and he was baptized in the river Jordan by John.
The gospels tell us that as Jesus came up from the water the heavens opened and God’s spirit came and rested on Jesus like a dove, and there was the sound of a rushing wind. With the anointing of the spirit, he changed from Jesus the carpenter to Jesus the Christ.
Jesus knew that his disciples would need that same Holy Spirit to continue his ministry after his death and resurrection: the spirit which would empower, equip and strengthen them for their mission.
The Holy Spirit changed a group of Jesus frightened followers who were lost and without direction into the foundation of the church.
From people hiding from authority to people who were not afraid to go and preach in the synagogue.
With the gift of the holy spirit came the gift of peace. I am sure most of you would have heard the Hebrew word Shalom, which is usually translated into the English word peace. But shalom doesn’t just mean peace as in the absence of conflict. It has a much deeper meaning.
"Shalom" is used to both greet people and to bid them farewell, and it means much more than "peace, hello or goodbye"....Shalom also means completeness, wholeness, health, peace, welfare, safety soundness, tranquility, prosperity, perfectness, fullness, rest, harmony, the absence of agitation or discord. In other words, the word shalom is a mighty blessing!
So my wish for all of you, my friends, is that you welcome the holy spirit into your lives, and that you may always have shalom.
AMEN
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