SENTENCE FROM SCRIPTURE

Send forth your Spirit, O Lord, and renew the face of the earth.

HYMN

GREETING

Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen

COLLECT FOR PURITY

Almighty God
to whom all hearts be open
all desires known
and from whom no secrets are hidden;
Cleanse the thoughts of our hearts
by the inspiration of your Holy Spirit,
that we may perfectly love you
and worthily magnify your holy name
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

SUMMARY OF THE LAW

Our Lord Jesus Christ said: The first commandment is this: “Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is the only Lord. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind and with all your strength.”

The second is this: “Love your neighbour as yourself.” There is no other commandment greater than these. Amen. Lord, have mercy.

CONFESSION

You made us to be one family
yet we have divided humanity,
Lord have mercy,

Christ have mercy.

You were born a Jew to reconcile all people
yet we have brought disharmony amongst races.
Lord have mercy,

Christ have mercy.

You rejoice in our differences,
yet we have made them a cause of enmity.
Lord have mercy,

Christ have mercy.

ABSOLUTION

May the God of love and power
forgive you and free you from your sins,
heal and strengthen you by his Spirit
and raise you to new life in Christ our Lord. Amen.

GLORIA
sung by Dougie Byers

COLLECT

O God,
who on the day of Pentecost,
enlightened the hearts of your people
by the fire of the Holy Spirit:
give us wisdom and understanding
and lead us in all truth
that your Church may be kept in the unity of the Spirit
and the bond of peace;
through Jesus Christ, our Lord,
who lives and reigns with you
in the unity of the same Spirit,
one God, world without end. Amen

READING:
ACTS 2: 1-21
read by Peter Boreham

The Coming of the Holy Spirit

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 people 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.”

Peter Addresses the Crowd

But Peter, standing with the eleven, raised his voice and addressed them, “Fellow Jews 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.’

SECOND READING
1 CORINTHIANS 12:3b-13
read by Kate Lidwell

Therefore, I want you to understand that no one speaking by the Spirit of God ever says “Let Jesus be cursed!” and no one can say “Jesus is Lord” except by the Holy Spirit. Now there are varieties of gifts but the same Spirit, and there are varieties of services but the same Lord, and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who activates all of them in everyone. To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. To one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, to another the working of powerful deeds, to another prophecy, to another the discernment of spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. All these are activated by one and the same Spirit, who allots to each one individually just as the Spirit chooses.

One Body with Many Members

For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For in the one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and we were all made to drink of one Spirit.

GRADUAL HYMN

GOSPEL READING
John 20:19-23
read by Rev Steven Ballard

Hear the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to St John chapter 20 beginning at verse 19

Glory to Christ our Saviour

Jesus Appears to the Disciples

When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors were locked where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.”

Give thanks to the Lord for his glorious Gospel

Praise to Christ our Lord.

SERMON

Fear is a funny old thing. It is irrational but real. It is usually associated with the unfamiliar or unknown. There have been times in my life when fear has taken hold. I think of my time in Africa travelling home at night, you didn’t slow down or stop at traffic lights for fear of being attacked- you just kept going, hoping you would not crash- it was terrifying. Whilst working with children with HIV in a half -way house in Africa, I had to take a 14- year- old on my own to hospital. It was frightening, this young, petrified girl was giving birth because her father had abused her, and I was responsible for her health and wellbeing. I was terrified as my Siswati was extremely limited, and the hospital was far from being hygienic! In the end she had to have a Caesarean and it all worked out. She had a baby girl whom amazingly she called Simphiwe meaning gift of God.

Fear can be healthy, but it can also be debilitating. It is fear that keeps us from developing our full potential. It is fear that keeps us from becoming all that God wants us to be. We see this in our epistle reading from Acts, the disciples are locked in an upper room out of fear. Fear is preventing them from being the disciples Jesus wanted them to be. After all they had witnessed the barbaric death of Jesus, and so they fear naturally for their own lives. They fear every sound and step outside that room. Fear has taken hold of them. Fear has imprisoned them in that upper room, preventing them from fulfilling their mission to share the gospel.

God does something extraordinary with our fears. We see this in Jesus’ disciples. God takes this huddled frightened group of people and makes them a force to be reckoned with. The group comprised about 120 people, including the disciples, Jesus’s mother Mary and his brothers. They were together in a house in Jerusalem, when suddenly they heard a sound from heaven like a violent wind fill the house, where they were waiting and saw tongues of fire resting upon each of them. Wind and fire came upon them. Wind and fire are symbols of power. Wind has the power to move and uproot and fire has the power to refine and transform. Power is the key word here.

Power was precisely what they needed. For as we said earlier the disciples were lacking in strength and courage. They felt totally incapable of carrying out the task of preaching the Gospel and witnessing to Jesus. They needed someone to empower them. They were empowered by the coming of the Holy Spirit. The coming of the Spirit provided the apostles with the energy, the momentum, the enthusiasm, the courage, the love, and passion to get on with the task Christ had given them to do. The Holy Spirit would help them, but he wouldn’t do it for them. The disciples were no longer alone for they had the Spirit of God dwell within them.

But what the disciples did not understand at this moment was that the coming of the Holy Spirit would close one door- the door of the earthly life and ministry of Jesus-but more importantly would open another- the empowering of a new and unsteady little gathering of believers who will give birth to the church which will spread throughout the world. As T.S. Eliot would later put it, “In my end is my beginning” the end of one era gives rise to the beginning of another.

We see this beginning of another era in the changes in the lives of the disciples at Pentecost. No longer were the disciples confused. Now they understood the plan of salvation completely. No longer were they timid. Now, they were confident, speaking publicly. Think about Peter – two months earlier he was so afraid that he denied Jesus three times. Now he was speaking to the crowd with confidence and understanding that he had never had before.

It is Luke who demonstrates the effects of the Spirit in the ministry of the apostles. Luke likens this story of the Spirit to the feast of Pentecost, the fiftieth day after Easter. At that time Pentecost was a Jewish feast which celebrated the ancient covenant which God gave to his chosen people through Moses. There was a tradition that the covenant was given to the people on the fiftieth day after the exodus. What Luke does is make Pentecost into a Christian feast when God renews his covenant with his people through the power of the Spirit. In that power the disciples speak a new word to all peoples gathered, from different parts of the Roman Empire. For Luke it is the feast of the Holy, Spirit, when all these people are offered a new opportunity to renew their relationship with God. It is a time for new beginnings, a time of new creation. Through the Holy Spirit a whole new life is possible.

The same spirit of God is here today. As St Paul says it is the same Spirit “working in all sorts of ways in different people.” The Spirit is not shy of difference but is free to deal with people as individuals: there is a variety of gifts. That great variety emerges from the one Spirit in which we were all baptised. This one Spirit lives, dwells, and works within us.

Some of you might be thinking it’s all right for the disciples to speak in tongues and work miracles but I’ve come to church this morning and I’ve NEVER felt the Holy Spirit. Well today you can. God’s Spirit can touch us and fill us. He works in a variety of ways for some he will touch and bless through the reading of God’s word, for others through the silence- the still quiet voice, for others through music, for others through prayer, and for others through people and fellowship. God wants to fill us with his Spirit, but he needs our invitation. He will not push his presence into our hearts and lives, but rather we need to be willing to open our hearts to his coming. The fullness of his presence in us is up to us and how willing we are to make room for him in our hearts and get rid of some of the clutter within us.

Just as God touched those first disciples, so he can touch us too. God can take our fears and weaknesses, our powerlessness and through the Holy Spirit transform that which would separate us from God into a passion for God. Pentecost is about passion. A life without passion is no life at all. It is only when we surrender to God and admit our powerlessness and helplessness- Lord, I can’t do it on my own; Lord, I cannot do it in my strength is the moment when we are ready to receive God’s Spirit and when by our invitation God’s Holy Spirit rushes in.

His Spirit floods our inmost dwelling. Rarely nowadays does the Holy Spirit come with the loud sound of a wind, or with what looks like tongues of fire, or with the ability to speak in foreign languages. Pentecost was a one-time special event. It needed to be dramatic to mark a new covenant and beginning.

Today, the Holy Spirit comes to you through the quiet, humble preaching of the Word. On the surface, it doesn’t look like anything spectacular. But on the inside of you, all kinds of changes are taking place.

And what happens when we combine God’s Word with bread and wine, as Jesus did on the night he was betrayed? Once again, it doesn’t look like anything spectacular, but it is. Because when we partake in communion the Holy Spirit can change us.  He can strengthen our faith, and he increases our love for Christ and our love for one another. The presence of the Holy Spirit turns humans from being turned in on themselves, to being turned out towards the world, founded in communities of love such as we heard of at the end of the reading in Acts.

When the Spirt fills us we change. The change is gradual, but it happens. In the market -place the crowd changed gradually from scepticism to amazement. They are thrilled when they hear the apostles speaking their language. It’s a bit like people saying with a mixture of relief and enthusiasm: “Now you are speaking my language!” When that happens there is communion, where before there had only been misunderstanding and division.

The crowd of 3,000 believers are now incorporated fully into the one body with its many parts. Each part matters and each part has a vital role to play. Each part is to exercise their gifts and talents for the building up of the whole. We are not to bury our talents but to share them with one another. We come to church to share with one another , and to support and encourage one another in our faith.

Faith in God is everything. God’s presence in our lives is vital. It is like breath, without which we cannot truly live, and we can do nothing of lasting value and worth without God’s spirit and presence working within us.

Pentecost is all about God’s presence with us. Our bodies are a temple of the Holy Spirit, and we are blessed and touched by the Spirit’s presence to the extent to which we open and surrender ourselves to his dwelling in our lives. God’s presence with us is everything and the more we acknowledge his presence within us, the more passionate we become for the things of God, and for God himself. So, Pentecost celebrates God’s presence within us. Pentecost fills us with a passion- a passion for God and his purposes. Finally, Pentecost is about power. As Paul said: “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me”. The apostles lost their fear and found in Christ’s Holy Spirit that strength to witness to the ends of the earth and so no matter what we face we too can lose our fears and have that same strengthen and power. Amen

In a few moments of quiet we invite God to touch us afresh with his Spirit.

NICENE CREED

We believe in one God, the Father, the Almighty,
maker of heaven and earth,
of all that is, seen and unseen.
We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ,
the only Son of God,
eternally begotten of the Father,
God from God, Light from Light,
true God from true God,
begotten, not made,
of one substance with the Father.
Through him all things were made.
For us and for our salvation
he came down from heaven;
by the power of the Holy Spirit
he became incarnate of the Virgin Mary,
and was made man.
For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate;
he suffered death and was buried.
On the third day he rose again in accordance with the Scriptures;
he ascended into heaven
and is seated at the right hand of the Father.
He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead,
and his kingdom will have no end.
We believe in the Holy Spirit,
the Lord, the giver of life,
who proceeds from the Father.
With the Father and the Son,
he is worshipped and glorified.
He has spoken through the Prophets.
We believe in one holy catholic and apostolic Church.
We acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins.
We look for the resurrection of the dead,
and the life of the world to come. Amen.

PRAYERS

Holy Spirit coming as wind and fire
free and irrepressible,
we pray today for all
who long for change but fear it.

We think of the poor and the hungry,
the homeless and the refugee,
the sick and unemployed,
the downtrodden and oppressed,
these and so many others,
who yearn for a new beginning,
an opportunity to start afresh.
May their prayers be answered and their dreams realised.

As you came at Pentecost
come again today.

We pray for those who see change as a threat,
a sweeping -away of everything that is tried and trusted,
and the imposition of unknown challenges
and an uncertain future.
May they rest secure in the knowledge,
that whatever else may change,
you will remain constant.

As you came at Pentecost
come again today.

Holy Spirit coming gently as a dove,
we pray for all who long for peace,
and all who have lost sight of what peace really means.
We think of those in homes racked by tensions,
families spilt by disputes and domestic abuse,
communities scarred by prejudice and intolerance
and countries torn apart by hostilities and war.
May dialogue triumph over confrontation,
and unity replaced division.

As you came at Pentecost
come again today.

We pray for countries
where war and hostility
are wrecking lives and devastating communities.
We pray for those still living and struggling in Ukraine,
that you will strengthen and help them in these days.
We lift to you all, those who have fled
and found refuge in different countries,
help them to settle and may their fears
for those they have left behind
be unfounded and may their family members safe.
We pray for any children
that have been orphaned through war
and ask that they will find new families and homes.

As you came at Pentecost
come again today.

We pray for those who long for the Pentecostal Spirit of new life
after a time of sickness, hospitalisation or injury.
May your Spirit touch them,
breathe healing into their weary bodies
renew and restore them
to their former strength and well- being.

As you came at Pentecost
come again today.

Holy Spirit you changed the lives of the Apostles
and of countless people through history,
just as you are changing our lives in turn,
each renewed through your sovereign power.
Come now and change our world in all its need,
so that it may enjoy hope and peace, healing and harmony,
and so that all may come to a saving knowledge
of Jesus Christ as Lord.

As you came at Pentecost
come again today.

Merciful Father accept these prayers
for the sake of your Son Jesus Christ our Lord
who taught us to say together,

Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread.
Forgive us our sins
as we forgive those
who sin against us.
Do not bring us to the time of trial
but deliver us from evil.
For the kingdom, the power and the glory are yours, now and for ever. Amen.

HYMN

BLESSING

God of power,
May the boldness of your Spirit transform us,
may the gentleness of your Spirit lead us,
and may the gifts of your Spirit equip us
to serve and worship you, now and always. Amen.

DISMISSAL

Go in peace to love and serve the Lord.
In the name of Christ, Amen.