Pentecost

Opening Verse of Scripture Romans Chapter 5 Verse 5

The love of God has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.

Collect Prayer for the Day—Before we read we pray

God, who as at this time taught the hearts of your faithful people by sending to them the light of your Holy Spirit: grant us by the same Spirit to have a right judgement in all things and evermore to rejoice in his holy comfort; through the merits of Christ Jesus our Saviour, who is alive and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. CW

Holy Spirit, sent by the Father, ignite in us your holy fire; strengthen your children with the gift of faith, revive your Church with the breath of love, and renew the face of the earth, through Jesus Christ our Lord. CW

First Bible Reading Acts 2: 1-21

When the day of Pentecost had come, they 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.” NRSV

Second Reading Romans 8:14-17

All who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God. For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received a spirit of adoption. When we cry, ‘Abba! Father!’ it is that very Spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ – if, in fact, we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him.  NRSV

Gospel Reading John 14:8-17 (25-27) 

Philip said to Jesus, ‘Lord, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and you still do not know me? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, “Show us the Father”? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own; but the Father who dwells in me does his works. Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; but if you do not, then believe me because of the works themselves. Very truly, I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these, because I am going to the Father. I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If in my name you ask me for anything, I will do it. 

‘If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you for ever. This is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, because he abides with you, and he will be in you. 

‘I will not leave you orphaned; I am coming to you. In a little while the world will no longer see me, but you will see me; because I live, you also will live. On that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. They who have my commandments and keep them are those who love me; and those who love me will be loved by my Father, and I will love them and reveal myself to them.’ Judas (not Iscariot) said to him, ‘Lord, how is it that you will reveal yourself to us, and not to the world?’ Jesus answered him, ‘Those who love me will keep my word, and my Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them. Whoever does not love me does not keep my words; and the word that you hear is not mine, but is from the Father who sent me. 

(25-27) ‘I have said these things to you while I am still with you. But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything, and remind you of all that I have said to you. Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid.’ NRSV

Post Communion Prayer

Faithful God, who fulfilled the promises of Easter by sending us your Holy Spirit and opening to every race and nation the way of life eternal: open our lips by your Spirit, that every tongue may tell of your glory;

through Jesus Christ our Lord. CW

Commentary 

Today is Pentecost Sunday and it is the day upon which we remember the occasion when the first disciples came out of their small Jewish Sect, stopped gathering behind closed doors and they went out into the world and spoke with passion about Jesus. They did so with such enthusiasm that faith in Jesus became worldwide. We are told the events happened ‘when the day of Pentecost came’. Pentecost was a really important Jewish festival and it attracted a very large number of people to Jerusalem, perhaps just as many as Passover. People were off work, just like on a UK Bank Holiday. Pentecost means fiftieth and it was 50 days from Passover - our Easter. It was the Jewish Feast of Weeks, the time when the Jews celebrated the first fruits of the spring harvest. It had agricultural significance, but significantly it is also believed to have been a time when the Jews commemorated the giving of the law to Moses. The writer of the Gospel of Luke also wrote Acts and he liked to draw parallels between Jesus and Moses. If your look at the meeting of Moses with God at Sinai where the law was given (Exodus 19:16-18) there are very clear similarities with the Pentecost passage today. There was thunder and lightning, loud noise and fire, quite like the description of Pentecost.

Jesus had told his disciples that they were not to sit at home practising their faith, they had to go out and tell others. This is what Pentecost must mean for us, it is a time to remind ourselves that we are pushed out by the Spirit into the world. It is the same way that after his baptism the Spirit came and Jesus was pushed out into the desert. It might be cosier to stay at home, we might not want challenge in our lives, we might like the way that things are, however the Holy Spirit calls us to move and thankfully gives us energy!

Pentecost in English is also known as Whitsunday. It is a word which comes from the time when Pentecost like Easter was important for baptism and all those who were to be baptised (catechumens) wore white, hence White Sunday. It was a time to witness to your faith. Today we wear red to remember the fire which came and descended upon the apostles. the likening of the Spirit to fire is a symbol of the fact that we canot control God's Spirt, the Spirit moves where the Spirit will.  Lorenzo de’Medici, the great Florentine patron of the arts was very proud of the spectacles he staged for the people. Among his many productions were several amazingly realistic religious pageants performed in church. One Pentecost, he wanted to present the image of the fire of Pentecost and he used actual fire to depict the descent of the tongues of flames on the apostles. The fragile stage set caught fire and, before horrified onlookers, the entire church burned to the ground. Perhaps this work of Lorenzo has an important lesson to teach us, that the Holy Spirit is a consuming fire and not to be contained within a hearth of our making. The Holy Spirit is not tame, or to be tamed, but rather unpredictable. This is why the Celtic Christians preferred the image of a wild goose rather than a dove. Perhaps the Holy Spirit would devour some of the things which we value?

When you look at how that faith spread throughout the world it was amazing and humanly speaking quite beyond explanation. The metaphorical flames of Pentecost burst the doors of their little gathering wide open and they were sent out into the wide world. No more a tiny Jewish sect, now they had to become a world wide faith. That is why Pentecost is thought of as the birthday of the church. The day when the church burst its doors wide open. For the church today in our secular context we might think of our mission as being impossible, but the history of the church shows that through the power of the Holy Spirit, the Mission is entirely possible. Emil Bruner rightly said that ‘The church exists by mission as fire exists by burning.’ The Church does not own the Holy Spirit, rather the Holy Spirit possess the church. Peter promises that the Holy Spirit would be poured out on all flesh. Everyone would have personal first hand experience of God's presence in their lives. The Holy Spirit is for each one of us. The Holy Spirit means that our faith is not something second - hand, we do not speak of what others have told us, we speak of what God has done for us, we speak of our own personal experience of God.  Charles Royden

Meditation

The Holy Spirit moves us forward to think that we do not have to be content with the way things are, that we can aspire to follow the radical way of the gospel. Later in Acts 17 we read that the Christians went around proclaiming Jesus as King and they were turning the world upside down. Of course they were troublesome but they weren’t turning the world upside down, they were turning it right side up ! This is the way God intended it to be. A world where we fight for peace not war, where children and adults can sleep without the fear of being bombed. The challenge of the Spirit is for us to live, work and pray for a world in which there is peace, a more equal sharing of the worlds resources, so that families do not have to go hungry, where people plagued by curable diseases have access to medicine.

Like those first disciples we should be empowered to think and act differently. The followers of Jesus should be characterised by being a forgiving, healing, reconciling, inclusive community. If we want to know what this should look like then we look at the life of Jesus. That is why we will go on through the summer months in the ‘Ordinary Sundays’ learning the teachings of Jesus, taking them to heart and asking how we can behave in the way he teaches us.

The world's faiths have in common so much of the teaching of Jesus, giving water to the thirsty, feeding the hungry, defending those who cannot defend themselves, looking after the homeless, caring for the poor in body and in spirit. Some of this is very reassuring, comforting, life giving. But of course the Holy Spirit is also challenging, and disruptive. What if God through the Holy Spirit wants you to be moved out of the security of the locked room onto the pavement outside, to a place outside of your comfort zone? The Holy Spirit moved the disciples physically around the world as missionaries, The Holy Spirit moved the disciples from being Jewish to a very different expression of their faith. The Holy Spirit challenges us in all kinds of ways and this can be something we resist. It was hard for those first disciples to accept new ideas, such as who could become a follower of Jesus, what religious practices were acceptable etc. They struggled over issues which some churches are still struggling over today. Describing the Holy Spirit like a wind is very revealing because the wind can be quite destructive.

In the Narnia tales by C. S. Lewis. You may remember that in the magical land of Narnia, God appears in the form of a great and mysterious lion named Aslan. One of the children who had stumbled into Narnia and encountered the lion wondered, "Is Aslan safe?" "Safe?" a resident of Narnia replied. "No, my dear, Aslan is not safe. But he is good." The Holy Spirit is not safe, it is the work of the Holy Spirit to rearrange us, to shake and unsettle us, but always to bring us closer to God.  Charles Royden

Hymns

1. Come down O love divine 
2. We are one in the Spirit   
3. Spirit of holiness
4. O thou who camest from above
5. Spirit of God unseen as the wind
6. Christ on who the Spirit rested (Michael)
7. Come gracious Spirit, heavenly dove (Melcombe)
8. Filled with the Spirit’s power with one accord (Go Forth)
9. Lord the light of your love is shining
10. Breathe on me breath of God fill me with life anew
11. Head of thy church

Prayers for Sunday and the week ahead

Almighty and Everlasting God look with favour upon your people. As on this day you sent upon the first disciples the gift of your Holy Spirit, so pour that Spirit out upon us this day. Open our hearts to your living power. Cleanse us from every impurity and forgive our sin as you have promised. Lead us and teach us and grace us with your presence. Grant us the dreams and visions you have promised and make us messengers of the good news of Christ Jesus our Lord. Indeed, unite us through the power of your Spirit so that all people may be moved by the witness we make and so that songs of praise may rise to you here and everywhere, both now and for ever more.

Lord, lead us to be peace-makers, building connections between individuals, focusing on what unites people rather than on what separates us and highlights our differences. Lord, it's easy to harm relationships; forgive us the divisions and bitterness which we have created in our homes and families with friends and colleagues at work. Enable us to seek for a fresh start and give us the power of your Spirit to use opportunities to build up and make new the bonds between people.

Gracious God, Spirit of Life, surging freely, loving generously, seeking endlessly, move upon the face of our world and embrace all its creatures with grace. Startle the powerful and the humble with your power and tenderness, your purpose and determination, your patience and mercy. Hear our prayers of thankfulness and our requests for your intercession. 

O living God, come and make our souls temples of thy Spirit.

Sanctify us, O Lord. Baptise thy whole Church with fire, that the divisions soon may cease, and that it may stand before the world as a pillar and buttress of thy truth.

Sanctify us, O Lord.

Grant us all the fruits of thy Holy Spirit: brotherly love, joy, peace, patience, goodwill and faithfulness.

Sanctify us, O Lord.

May the Holy Spirit speak by the voice of thy servants, here and everywhere, as they preach thy word.

Sanctify us, O Lord.

Send thy Holy Spirit, the comforter, to all who face adversity, or who are the victims of men's wickedness.

Sanctify us, O Lord.

Preserve all nations and their leaders from hatred and war, and build up a > community among nations, through the power of thy Spirit.

Sanctify us, O Lord.

Holy Spirit, Lord and source of life, giver of the seven gifts,

Sanctify us, O Comforter.

Spirit of wisdom and understanding, Spirit of counsel and strength,

Sanctify us, O Comforter.

Spirit of knowledge and devotion, Spirit of obedience to the Lord.

Sanctify us, O Comforter.

Blessed be the love which chose us before the foundation of the world. Blessed be the grace that saved us before the world began. Blessed be the glory prepared for us from all eternity. Blessed be God for ever and blessed be his glorious Name! Amen Charles Haddon Spurgeon, 1834-1892 

May Christ inflame the desires of all people to break through the barriers which divide them, to strengthen the bonds of mutual love, to learn to understand one another, and to pardon those who have done them wrong. Through Christ’s power and inspiration may all peoples welcome each other to their hearts as brothers and sisters, and may the peace they long for ever flower and ever reign among them." 

Pope John XXIII, Pacem in Terris, #171 

God, who as at this time taught the hearts of your faithful people by sending to them the light of your Holy Spirit: grant us by the same Spirit to have a right judgement in all things and evermore to rejoice in his holy comfort; through the merits of Christ Jesus our Saviour, who is alive and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.

Faithful God, you fulfilled the promise of Easter by sending your Holy Spirit and opening the way of eternal life to all the human race. Keep us in the unity of your Spirit, that every tongue may tell of your glory; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who is alive and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen. 

Almighty God, we your children pray: let your glory come down. 

Let the Fire fall as on that first Day of Pentecost. 

Revive our spirits, fill us with new excitement, 

with joy unspeakable and faith for a dying world. 

Empower us to speak your Word; to utter the words of Life; 

using a variety of languages to bring the good news to the poor. 

LORD, let your fire fall once again on this church, on this community, 

on this country, and to the ends of the earth. 

In Jesus name and in the power of your Holy Spirit. Amen.

Additional Resources

Commentary

Pentecost reminds us of the relationship which exists between God and Jesus. It would have been so much easier and more convenient if Jesus had been more specific and told us precisely all we needed to know in words of one syllable. But of course, it is never made that simple: we have to do some of the work ourselves. We have to commit ourselves first to the loving lifestyle of the God who is known to us in Jesus: "If you love me, you will keep my commandments, and I will ask the Father, and he will give another Advocate, to be with you forever. This is the spirit of truth..." Yet again, it appears, we are being told that to know God is to act like God in love and compassion; we shall discover the Spirit of truth as we live by the truth.

In the Old Testament in Genesis Chapter 11 there is the story of the story of the Tower of Babel or Babylon. Babel stood for all that was evil in the Jewish tradition and this was because the people of that city had dared to build a tower which reached up towards the heavens. Of course, there is a play on words here, because the word Babel has connotations of confusion, and the punishment for thinking that they could build such a tall tower was the confusion of their language. The Acts story reverses this judgement, and tells us how the Spirit of God now brought people from different countries, normally separated by their language together, and then enabled each of them to hear what being said in their own language. This meant that all the visitors to Jerusalem heard the disciples speaking in their own tongue. Luke's theological creativity has brought these two stories together and makes appoint about the significance of language and speech, especially with regard to the preaching of the good news of Jesus Christ.

A passage which has been omitted from today's readings, but which is included in the Lectionary readings for today is Romans 8: 14-17 where Paul writes about the gift of the Holy Spirit which is given to all believers. He goes on to say that this Spirit is God at his creative work. He continues by saying that there are no distinctions to be drawn between the various works of God. Thus, God creates, God judges, God reconciles; all is the work of the one God. It is the Spirit of God which undertakes all that God wills, and it is the grace of God which underlies all God's actions. This Spirit makes us the children, the inheritors, of the estate of God. The one proviso is that we remember the cost of this grace to God, bearing in mind that what we suffer is also to be offered to the Father to be made holy, just as was the offering of Christ himself.

Meditation  What is Pentecost ?

Pentecost is the festival when Christians celebrate the gift of the Holy Spirit. It is celebrated on the Sunday 50 days after Easter.

Pentecost is regarded as the birthday of the Christian church, and the start of the church's mission to the world. 

The Holy Spirit is the third part of the Trinity of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit that is the way Christians understand God.

Celebrating Pentecost  Pentecost is a happy festival. Ministers in church often wear robes with red in the design as a symbol of the flames in which the Holy Spirit came to earth. 

Hymns sung at Pentecost take the Holy Spirit as their theme, and include: Come down O Love Divine, Come Holy Ghost our souls inspire, Breathe on me breath of God, O Breath of Life, come sweeping through us, There's a spirit in the air and Spirit of the Living God, fall afresh on me.

Pentecost Symbols  The symbols of Pentecost are those of the Holy Spirit and include: flames, wind, the breath of God and a Dove.

The first Pentecost  Pentecost comes from a Jewish harvest festival called Shavuot. The apostles were celebrating this festival when the Holy Spirit descended on them.  It sounded like a very strong wind, and it looked like tongues of fire. The apostles then found themselves speaking in foreign languages, inspired by the Holy Spirit. People passing by at first thought that they must be drunk, but the apostle Peter told the crowd that the apostles were full of the Holy Spirit.