Extracts from our Pentecost service
So…today – with sisters and brothers right around the world, we are celebrating the day when God’s Spirit, God’s divine energy and breath, flowed through people in a fresh, exciting new way. God’s Spirit had been moving before that day, of course. In fact, we hear about the Spirit of God in the very first couple of chapters of the Bible and to read a few of them to us, I welcome up Colleen Chambers, our friend from Vancouver…
Readings: Selected verses from Genesis 1-2 – The Message
1 1-2 First this: God created the Heavens and Earth—all you see, all you don’t see. Earth was a soup of nothingness, a bottomless emptiness, an inky blackness. God’s Spirit brooded like a bird above the watery abyss.
3-5 God spoke: “Light!”
And light appeared.
God saw that light was good
and separated light from dark.
God named the light Day,
he named the dark Night.
[Later…] before any grasses or shrubs had sprouted from the ground, God formed Man out of dirt from the ground and blew into his nostrils the breath of life. The Man came alive—a living soul!
So there we heard extracts from the two story-streams in the book of Genesis that tell us about God’s creation of the cosmos. These wonderful, poetic accounts – our origin stories – differ in a few details but they both tell us that we were made out of love and that God’s Spirit was part of the divine creation – God’s Spirit brooding before first light; God’s Spirit – God’s breath – bringing life to humankind. So we learn that God’s Spirit is creative, mysterious and life-giving. Throughout the Hebrew scriptures, we hear accounts of how God’s Spirit inspired people, encouraged and strengthened them, filled them with all kinds of wonders and gifts. The Spirit of God worked through prophets and priests, servant girls and Kings as God’s story of love was passed down from generation to generation. Then, one day in Nazareth, a teenage girl is given some news that will change her life and turn the world upside down for God’s Spirit was about to move again…That teenager’s name was Mary and she was to bear the Saviour of the world! Let’s rejoice again in that outpouring of the Spirit as we sing the hymn that Lou chose for her baptism service today…a hymn we don’t traditionally sing in June but one which might remind us of the Spirit’s role in the birth and the life of Jesus… O Come All Ye Faithful…
Well…they do say the Spirit moves in mysterious ways! Where were we, oh yes… God’s creative, life-giving Spirit moved again, Mary became pregnant and Jesus was born…revealing to us the astounding truth that God loves things by uniting with them, becoming them, not excluding them. Jesus went on to dance to the Spirit’s tune throughout his life. In fact, his whole ministry began when he declared that God’s Spirit was working through him to share good news, healing, liberation and joy. And he did…through Jesus’ actions and the Spirit’s stirrings, the despairing were given hope; the fearful were offered peace; the outcast were given a divine cwtch. Of course, as we know all too well today, sometimes people would rather choose hatred and fear, scape-goating and division over unity, compassion and extravagant love and so Jesus was put to death on a cross. But God’s Spirit had not finished her dance and so, on the third day as creatures began to stir, so did God’s life-giving Spirit and Jesus rose from the dead, showing that love is stronger than hate; life is stronger than death. That very evening, Jesus appeared to his disciples in a locked room and through him, the Spirit moved once again. Rhiannon’s going to read to us what happened next…
Reading: John 20:19-22
So, Jesus breathed on his disciples and they breathed in God’s Spirit. That’s how the writer John tells us the Holy Spirit came upon his disciples. Luke remembers it a different way…with noise and crowds, pilgrims and people wearing colourful clothes and speaking in languages from all over the world. It was chaotic. It was unexpected. It was wonderful. It was not unlike some of our Monday morning English language lessons! And so, to read us Luke’s version of events in just a few of the languages spoken and heard on a Monday, I welcome up some of the Monday morning crew…
Reading: Acts 2:1-21, 41-42 – read in English, Arabic, Romanian, Welsh and French!
Isn’t it wonderful that on the day we celebrate the Spirit’s fresh outpouring so that all nations, those speaking all languages, could understand God’s good news…that we have some of our church family telling us of that in Welsh and English, in French, Arabic and Romanian? And on that first Pentecost, we’re told that after the divine din and holy hullaballoo, those who welcomed the good news were baptized. Well God is still speaking, the Spirit is still moving and people are still being baptized today. Literally today…for Lou and Nathan have accepted God’s welcome with joy and that joy ripples on as we welcome and baptize them today…
Baptism of Nathan and Lou…
Welcome into membership of Nathan, Dorothy, John, Mary & Gwenllian…
Today we’ve witnessed baptisms, welcomed new members and seen the Spirit move amongst women and men, the young and young at heart, people who have different stories to tell and even different languages with which to tell them! And that’s what Pentecost is all about…shining bright with God’s spirit as we celebrate that there is no boundary to God’s blessing.
You see, at that first Pentecost, at a time when the religious leaders taught that God could only act through set apart people in set apart ways and set apart times, God’s Spirit came rushing in to break down those human made barriers. God’s Spirit would blow where it was needed – through women and men of different ages, status, nationalities…at God’s party everyone was welcome and what it feast it would be! And that mysterious, mischievous Spirit still isn’t owned by one religion or group of people! God’s spirit shimmies and shimmers in the most unexpected of people and places…so it’s right today that our Pentecost celebrations will continue with a celebration lunch with our refugee friends, most of whom are Muslim; with a shared film viewing together and an evening service with The LGBT friendly congregation at The Gathering tonight…reminding us that the Spirit can be glimpsed in friends of other faiths, heard through modern day storytellers and embraced with those the Church too often shuns.
For today, we declare once again that God loves things by uniting with them not excluding them; Christ came to offer life for all; and the Spirit, the very breath of God is in every living thing. To God be the glory! Amen.