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Sunday 27th May, 2012 Pentecost Sunday Sentence A new heart I will give you, and a new spirit I will put within you, says the Lord God; I will put My Spirit within you and you shall live. Ezekiel 36:26 Collect Almighty God, You sent Your Spirit to be the life and light of Your Church; open our hearts to the riches of Your grace, so that we may bring forth the fruit of the Spirit in love, joy and peace; through Jesus Christ our Lord, Who is alive and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God now and for ever. Amen First Lesson Acts 2: 1 – 21 When the day of Pentecost had come, the disciples were all together in one place. And suddenly from heaven 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. Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven living in Jerusalem. And at this sound the crowd gathered and was bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in the native language of each. Amazed and astonished, they asked, "Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? And how is it that we hear, each of us, in our own native language? Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabs--in our own languages we hear them speaking about God's deeds of power." All were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, "What does this mean?" But others sneered and said, "They are filled with new wine." But Peter, standing with the eleven, raised his voice and addressed them, "Men of Judea and all who live in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and listen to what I say. Indeed, these are not drunk, as you suppose, for it is only nine o'clock in the morning. No, this is what was spoken through the prophet Joel: 'In the last days it will be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams. Even upon my slaves, both men and women, in those days I will pour out my Spirit; and they shall prophesy. And I will show portents in the heaven above and signs on the earth below, blood, and fire, and smoky mist. The sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon to blood, before the coming of the Lord's great and glorious day. Then everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.' Psalm 104:26 – 36 Lord, how various are all your works: in wisdom you have made them all, and the earth is full of your creatures. There is the wide, immeasurable sea: there move living things without number, great and small. There go the ships to and fro: and there is that Leviathan whom you formed to sport in the deep These all look to you: to give them their food in due season When you give it to them, they gather it: when you open your hand, they are satisfied with good things. When you hide your face, they are troubled: when you take away their breath, they die and return to their dust. When you send forth your spirit they are created: and you renew the face of the earth May the glory of the Lord endure for ever: may the Lord rejoice in all his works. If he look upon the earth, it shall tremble: if he but touch the mountains, they shall smoke. I will sing to the Lord as long as I live: I will praise my God while I have any being May my meditation be pleasing to Him: for my joy shall be in the Lord May sinners perish from the earth, let the wicked be no more: bless the Lord o my soul, O praise the Lord Epistle Romans 8: 22 – 27 We know that the whole creation has been groaning in labour pains until now; and not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly while we wait for adoption, the redemption of our bodies. For in hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what is seen? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience. Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words. And God, who searches the heart, knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. GOSPEL John 15: 26-27 & 16:4b – 15 Jesus said "When the Advocate comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who comes from the Father, he will testify on my behalf. You also are to testify because you have been with me from the beginning. *************************************** But I have said these things to you so that when their hour comes you may remember that I told you about them. "I did not say these things to you from the beginning, because I was with you. But now I am going to him who sent me; yet none of you asks me, 'Where are you going?' But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your hearts. Nevertheless I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you. And when he comes, he will prove the world wrong about sin and righteousness and judgment: about sin, because they do not believe in me; about righteousness, because I am going to the Father and you will see me no longer; about judgment, because the ruler of this world has been condemned. I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth; for he will not speak on his own, but will speak whatever he hears, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. He will glorify me, because he will take what is mine and declare it to you. All that the Father has is mine. For this reason I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you. © New Revised Standard Version of the Bible Copyright 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA, and used by permission. All rights reserved NOTES ON THE READINGS Pentecost and its readings (of which there are alternatives if you read your Lectionary) are really very full on, as the saying goes these days. One could almost fill a book on comments about the readings, and part of me would like to do that. However I will attempt to be as brief and yet as pithy as possible. First Lesson For most Christians, this is a well-known and often studied part of Scripture. However, it remains so that much of the real point and purpose of the tale is lost on moderns. This story has nothing to do with speaking in tongues (glossolalia to some) but about the reversal, if you will, of the damage ‘done’ at the Tower of Babel. That is why the emphasis is upon the reference to the various languages spoken by the various people from around the Mediterranean. Ordinary, currently used languages. And the point of that is simple and Biblical - the emphasis is on restoration of fellowship together, reconciliation. Do not miss that point, as well as seeing that the issue being dealt with are present and immediate. That is much of the point of the entire Bible and the Christ event in particular. Notice how the response of some outsiders was to denigrate and deride? You will notice how often that tactic is employed by people who do not want to see the reality and are determined to avoid it. (They did it with Jesus; that crown of thorns etc., was not torture but derision!) The real and huge difference for people at Pentecost was that, heretofore supposedly, the Spirit of God was available only to people in position of leadership: prophets, holy people, kings and such like. But the OTY prophets were aware that the Spirit was available to all who would listen. Read Isaiah and Ezekiel carefully (Ezekiel 37 is an alternative reading for this morning) and see how they understood God to be working. Psalm And even the Psalmist was aware of the activity of the Spirit of God in this rather lovely and wide-ranging psalm. Keep you eyes open and see how often the old Jewish writers discovered God as they simply observed life around them. God is visible in the very ordinary aspects of life and of living ... and history. Epistle Even dear old Paul has his eyes open in that remarkably Jewish manner. He was aware, as are we surely, that life and creation itself is in struggle to move towards a more fulfilling future. And the Spirit of God is with each one of us as we struggle to see where we are heading, and faithfully hoping, sometimes when all hope seems lost. GOSPEL If any of you ever wonder whether God is around or not, spend some time pondering this most remarkable of passages. Jesus was preparing His ragtag disciples for when He would be with them no longer. Rather than get them looking to one or other of the Eleven, Jesus pointed them to their own awareness of what is right and true and valuable. It may come as some surprise to people like old me who was taught way back that the Holy Spirit was available only to those ‘born again.’ That furphy needs solid demolition, for the reality is quite otherwise. How many people (even of no professed faith) are profoundly aware of where truth and justice lie? In other words, you may well find that God has been at work with the most surprising of people long before you encounter them! And rejoice in that, for heaven’s sake. May I spend a bit of space talking about this part of the Gospel: And when (the Spirit) comes, he will prove the world wrong about sin and righteousness and judgment: about sin, because they do not believe in me; about righteousness, because I am going to the Father and you will see me no longer; about judgment, because the ruler of this world has been condemned. I have often found people confused about what John meant when he wrote this and what Jesus meant when He spoke these words. Let’s look at them one at a time. Before we get quite there, stop and remember that ‘righteousness’ = justice. It is not ‘being good;’ it is being just, true, honest. This is all about correct assessment of the realities, if you like to put it that way. about sin, because they do not believe in Me – The sin of those who rejected Jesus was the failure to see where truth lay, or even the refusal to head in that direction because of their own rejection of truth. How often do you find people following the lie because they consider that path more beneficial to THEM. about righteousness, because I am going to the Father and you will see me no longer. If there is one huge thing that was established by the Cross and resurrection of Jesus is that it all proved Him to be right and true, and His executioners as being totally in the wrong. about judgment, because the ruler of this world has been condemned. One of the surprising things that I discovered many many moons ago was this: like the passage above, Jesus was proved right and evil proved wrong. The ‘ruler of this world,’ the great deceiver who always has a human face pardon me, will jump up and down about being right, but that activity may well make the opposite so very clear. In Biblical terms, evil is destroyed simply when the light hits it, so to speak. When I can see evil, I can defeat it because now I see it for what it is. Mind you, I have to choose to defeat it, so the responsibility lies with me. NOTES FOR A SERMON It has long struck me as ironic (even blasphemic!) that this life-giving faith so open to real life and truth, should so often be reduced to an almost death-dealing credo that can only divide people into categories that have little or no bearing on the facts. It was only yesterday (25.3.11) that I had a discussion with a post-Catholic charismatic whose view of anyone who held any ‘doctrine’ different to his as ‘satanic!’ His mind was so rigidly closed to any light or life that I found myself grateful not to have retained such a narrow and distorted view of life and of the Faith. One needs no great and vast knowledge of Scripture to realize that neither Old nor New Testament demands such a bitter and introverted perception of God. From Abraham on the promise was of blessing to the whole world, and not to some sort of religious minority. Sure, there is often the concept that lots of people will refuse to head in the direction to where truth points, but that was not stating that truth itself is narrow. It is through long and constant study of the Scriptures that I have long been pointed in the direction of understanding that – for instance – the Spirit of God did not commence life, so to speak, at the first Christian Pentecost. One need only start at Genesis 1 to see the first reference to the Third Person of the Trinity. And one need only read the OT prophets to see how often they understood the Spirit to be at work in all manner of people. Just tomorrow I will be preaching about the Woman of Samaria, in which incident in John 4 it is clear that even that lady of the night was keenly aware both of her own search for truth and of the imperative to head that way. And she was a Samaritan! One of the important issues that I will raise is to point people to the stunning ending to that tale. Whereas the woman in question was prepared to head for the well for water in the heat of the day, avoiding any human contact – especially male! – the nett result for that entire town was the resolution of the problems facing it, the acceptance of the woman in question, and the closing off of any future possibility of returning to a split and divided community. This is so very clearly the work of the Spirit. It is today’s Gospel that, for me at least, the fact is underlined in red, so to speak, that the real issue for all humans is to be open to truth, justice and equity, and that all humans have the encouragement of the Holy Spirit to head in such a beneficial if somewhat risky path. For heaven’s sake, the entire Biblical Faith is about reconciliation and peace, none of which can come about unless the total and utter truth of situations can be faced, dealt with and resolved.