PENTECOST SUNDAY
Call to
Worship
The Day of Pentecost is here:
the day when the flames of faith dance in our hearts.
The Day of Pentecost is here:
the day when our babbling speech becomes the Good News for the world.
The Day of Pentecost is here:
the day when compassion is seared into our souls.
The Day of Pentecost is here:
let the people of God rejoice. Alleluia!
the day when the flames of faith dance in our hearts.
The Day of Pentecost is here:
the day when our babbling speech becomes the Good News for the world.
The Day of Pentecost is here:
the day when compassion is seared into our souls.
The Day of Pentecost is here:
let the people of God rejoice. Alleluia!
Prayer
Spirit of life
Fill our emptiness with your fullness
Fill our emptiness with your fullness
Spirit of power
Stir our hearts afresh
Stir our hearts afresh
Spirit of love
Touch us, and through us, our neighbour
Touch us, and through us, our neighbour
Spirit of Creativity
Enable and empower the gifts you have given
Enable and empower the gifts you have given
Spirit of Eternity
Draw us ever deeper into your Kingdom
Draw us ever deeper into your Kingdom
Prayer of
Confession
We confess to you how often our thoughts and motives are confused,
both individually
and when we are together as your people,
and that this confusion has often blinded us
to your interest in our lives.
both individually
and when we are together as your people,
and that this confusion has often blinded us
to your interest in our lives.
Break in on our confusion,
and astonish us anew, O God!
Our prayer is that you will claim us again
and silence within us our desire
to always have words for every occasion,
that we might hear the whisper of the wings of your Spirit dove.
and astonish us anew, O God!
Our prayer is that you will claim us again
and silence within us our desire
to always have words for every occasion,
that we might hear the whisper of the wings of your Spirit dove.
In the name of our Lord, Jesus Christ, we pray.
Amen.
~ from the Presbyterian Church of Aotearoa New Zealand website.
Bible
Reading Acts 2:1-11
When
the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. 2 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. 3 Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared
among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. 4 All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and
began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability.
5 Now there were devout Jews from every
nation under heaven living in Jerusalem. 6 And at this sound the crowd gathered and was
bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in the native language of
each. 7 Amazed and astonished, they asked, “Are
not all these who are speaking Galileans? 8 And how is it that we hear, each of us, in our own
native language? 9 Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and
residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, 10 Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya
belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, 11 Cretans and Arabs—in our own languages we hear them
speaking about God’s deeds of power.”
REFLECTION
Pentecost
Sunday. Today is a special Sunday for various reasons. It marks the day when
God poured out his Holy Spirit. In the past few weeks, in our gospel readings
from John’s gospel, Jesus had been talking about the coming of the Spirit, who
he described as ‘another advocate’ (Jn 14:16), the Spirit of Truth (Jn), the
‘Promise of the Father’ (Acts 1:4b). If the expectations of the disciples had
been built up, they were not disappointed. When the Spirit came, it was a day
that they remembered. It came in a way they could not have even begun to have
imagined.
I want to focus
on three points that we can take out of the descriptions of the coming of Holy
Spirit in Acts 2.
1.
The Declaration of
the Scriptures
All along, the
scriptures have declared that the Spirit of God has been actively involved in
the world.
Right from the
beginning of time, during the creation of the universe, we read of the role of
the Spirit when everything was a formless void: “and the spirit of God was
hovering over the waters” (Gen 1:2).
During the
period of Judges, men appointed by God for a special task, from time to time,
we read of how the Spirit came mightily on a particular judge, empowering him
to boldly carry out the role that God had chosen that judge to do. So for
example, we read: “But the spirit of the LORD took possession of Gideon” (Jdg. 6:34) or in the
strongman Samson’s life, we read again: “The spirit of the LORD rushed on
him, and he tore the lion apart barehanded as one might tear apart a kid”
(Jdg. 14:6) . There are many further
similar examples of how the Spirit of the Lord comes on various people
(Jdg11:29, 15:14). The prophet Isaiah too spoke of a similar experience: “The spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me, because the LORD
has anointed me” (Isa 61:1). This is particularly significant because
Jesus takes that passage and applies it to himself (Lk 4:18).
All these could
be described as ‘specific’ outpourings of the Holy Spirit, on specific
individuals for specific roles. However, these specific outpourings all
anticipated a universal outpouring of God’s Spirit on all people.
The people in Jesus’ day were aware of this fact. Many centuries ago, the
prophet Joel had said:
Then afterward I will pour out my spirit on all flesh;
your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams,
and your young men shall see visions.
29 Even on the male and female
slaves, in those days, I will pour out my spirit. (Joel 2:28-29)
Further,
according to Joel, when this universal outpouring happens, and when people
recognize this and accept this, those who call upon the Lord will be saved
(Joel 2:32). The truth of this remain the same. Page after page, chapter after
chapter, the scriptures consistently declare the universal outpouring of God’s
Holy Spirit. Even to this day, whenever we read the scriptures, they declare to
us truth of the promise of the Father: God’s spirit is given to all people and
in recognizing this and accepting this, we are truly able to call upon the name
of the Lord Jesus and be saved.
2.
The Transformation
of the Disciples
When the mighty
outpouring of the Spirit came upon the disciples, they were immediately
transformed. There was a transformation of their attitudes, their thinking, their
speaking and their behaviour (in other words, their thoughts, words and
actions). All at once they were transformed from being frightened followers to
fearless evangelists. Until that time, just after the resurrection of Jesus,
whenever we encounter the disciples, they are behind locked doors for fear of
the Jews (Jn 20:19b, 26). This because it was perilous to be associated with
the crucified Jesus, especially since there were those who opposed the
‘rumours’ that he had risen from the dead. Here they are again, gathered
together in one place (Acts 2:1) when the spirit came upon them as a rushing
wind (v.2:2b) and tongues of fire (v.3b).
What happens
next is not explicitly stated, but we can imagine that they left their room and
went outside because people were able to hear them (v.6) and also because we
know Peter stood up to address the crowd (v.14). From this, we know that they
were no longer frightened; they did not need to hide indoors any longer. They
no longer need to talk in secret about the amazing things they were witnessing.
They could come out into the open. They were transformed! They were liberated!
The apostle Paul reminds us elsewhere that such freedom is the mark of the Spirit:
“Now the Lord
is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom”
(2 Cor 3:17).
May the Spirit
of God continue to transform our lives and liberate us from those attitudes and
feelings that cause us to feel bound, locked in. Remember, with God’s Spirit,
there can only be freedom and liberation and transformation. The disciples
experienced this and so can we.
3.
The Proclamation of
the gospel
When we think of
the Pentecost event recorded in Acts 2, it is easy to get caught up in
understanding the supernatural phenomena – rushing wind, divided tongues of
fire, speaking ‘in tongues.’ These phenomena are of crucial importance to that
universal outpouring of the Holy Spirit. They confirm that something wonderful
and yet inexplicable was happening. The disciples were the immediate recipients
of the powerful Spirit of God. And while it is only right for us to be drawn to
try and understand these phenomena, they all ultimately point to another
crucial phenomenon that we can so easily overlook: the proclamation of the
gospel. This is at the heart of the events of that day.
It was not so
much that the disciples were speaking in other languages, but that the hearers
could understand what was being said. This is what the crowd said: “…in our own languages we hear them
speaking about God’s deeds of power” (v.11). Therefore, whatever was
happening was not to be seen as an end in itself. The rushing wind, the divided
tongues of fire, and the speaking in other languages as the Spirit gave them
utterance was to proclaim God’s deeds of power! And we know from what
immediately follows what these ‘deeds of power’ were.
In Acts 2:14-36,
Peter, now transformed and filled with the Holy Spirit and with power, preaches
the first ever recorded sermon that we have. And in summary, this is what he
says about Jesus: “you killed him. God raised him. He lives forever. He is
Lord!” Again, we go back to the Apostle Paul. When teaching the church in
Corinth about the Holy Spirit, he writes: “… no one can say "Jesus is Lord" except
by the Holy Spirit” (1 Cor. 12:3b). This is exactly what Peter is
doing. He is proclaiming the gospel, that Jesus is Lord, and he does this by
the power of the Holy Spirit. And everyone one, although speakers of different
languages, can understand what he is saying!
God’s Holy
Spirit transforms us and enables us to believe and say with confidence that
Jesus is the Lord of our lives and of this world. And when we say this with the
conviction that comes from the Holy Spirit, people will hear, people will
listen, people will take this message seriously.
Amen
Prayers
Come, O Holy Spirit.
Come as Holy Fire and burn in us,
come as Holy Wind and cleanse us within,
come as Holy Light and lead us in the darkness,
come as Holy Truth and dispel our ignorance,
come as Holy Power and enable our weakness,
come as Holy Life and dwell in us.
Convict us, convert us, consecrate us,
until we are set free from the service of ourselves,
to be your servants to the world. Amen.
by John Henry Newman
May the Gifts of the Holy Spirit
bring fire to the earth
so that the presence of God
may be seen
in a new light,
in new places,
in new ways.
bring fire to the earth
so that the presence of God
may be seen
in a new light,
in new places,
in new ways.
May our own hearts
burst into flame
so that no obstacle,
no matter how great,
ever obstructs the message
of the God within each of us.
burst into flame
so that no obstacle,
no matter how great,
ever obstructs the message
of the God within each of us.
May we come to trust
the Word of God in our heart,
to speak it with courage,
to follow it faithfully
and to fan it to flame in others.
the Word of God in our heart,
to speak it with courage,
to follow it faithfully
and to fan it to flame in others.
Pentecost Prayer by Joan Chittister,
OSB
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