Pentecost Sunday 28 May 2023 Sermon

 Pentecost Sunday 28 May 2023 Commitment

The original Pentecost was marked by spectacular signs – a rushing wind, flames of fire, the ability to speak new languages, and a big reaction from the crowd outside.

It can be like that, if the Holy Spirit comes in power. But He can also come quietly and subtly, still working wonders, just not so obviously.

It is a wonderful thing if even a single person is transformed by God's love and power.

The main thing is that He be received by the intended person. He comes, but do we want to know? If He wants to give something then we should be wanting to receive it.

This means that we let Him operate in our lives, giving Him even our will to let Him make the decisions that count, trusting that whatever He does will do us more good than we would have managed for ourselves.

This will make Pentecost life-changing.

We do not just say, Come Holy Spirit, but we facilitate His coming.

We can say we want Him to come, but attitudes and actions can negate what we just said. We cannot receive the Holy Spirit and hold onto our sins. Or, to put it another way, if we receive the Holy Spirit our sins and all that is out of place will be swept away.

Lord, make me ready where I am not. take away the negative things, fear, doubt, laziness, self preservation - all these things where I might hide, but don’t let me do that.

Instead, stretch me out as far as I can go - and that is more in line with what God wants to do for us.

We have been baptized and confirmed. On the day those sacraments happened it may not have made us feel any differently. But they can be slow-release in their working.

Whatever we said or promised on those days can be ratified and activated at a later time.

Many have had that experience, sometimes called Baptism in the Spirit, meaning a new awakening to all that we have heard before, but now it seems real.

When we have experienced the love of God in a deeper than usual way; there is no going back.

The Apostles were changed forever by their experience. From then on they would be without fear, ready to die if necessary to make salvation known to the nations.

We do not seek signs or sensations. We welcome them if they come, but we do not insist on them.

We do ask God to make Himself known to us, however, so that like those first disciples we will never go back to ‘Egypt’, to the ways of the world.

Pentecost can be any day, and needs to be everyday, as we re-orient ourselves to where God comes into our lives.

In short, we pray. We pray that we can build on whatever we have already discovered in matters of faith. So we don’t go backwards, don’t throw away the precious gift of faith; nor through neglect drift into indifference or despair.

We say to the Holy Spirit: Fill me with Your presence, and at the same time increase my capacity to receive You.

This is similar to what we do at Holy Communion. May it do us more good each time.

And for the whole Church, may it be re-vitalized in all points of belief and behaviour - that we can be one all across the world.

It is a lot to ask, so we ask for it all the time; especially on Sundays whereby we are refreshed and re-set for one more week! Come, Holy Spirit!