St Albans and Welwyn Methodist Circuit Service – PENTECOST SUNDAY – Sunday 28th May 2023
Theme: ‘The Purpose of Pentecost’ – prepared by the Revd David Jebb
Invitation to Worship
As we wait in silence, fill us with your Spirit.
As we listen to your word, fill us with your Spirit.
As we worship you in majesty, fill us with your Spirit.
As we long for your refreshing, fill us with your Spirit.
As we long for your renewing, fill us with your Spirit.
As we long for your empowering, fill us with your Spirit.
nothing can separate us from your love.
Breathe on us, breath of God; fill us with your saving power.
Speak is us wisdom of God; bring strength, healing and peace
Praise Song STF 31 ‘May the glory of the Lord fill his temple as we gather in this place’
Prayers
Lord, as we worship today on Pentecost Sunday, give us a vision. Move us by your Holy Spirit. Bring good news to us all. Bring freedom and peace to broken people, And let us get a taste of Heaven here on Earth. Open our eyes to see you as you are. And open our hearts to praise you. Give us a vision that will take us out of our comfort zones And lead us into new ways of serving you. Help us to be agents of your love to all people In a world where there is much division and hate. Helps us to be beacons of hope In a world that is sinking deeper into despair. Help us to be agents of your peace In a world that is torn apart by conflict and wars. In our worship today our God, Give us a vision through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
STF: 385 Holy Spirit, we welcome you
The Holy Spirit Comes at Pentecost
2 When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. 2 Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. 3 They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. 4 All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.
5 Now there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven. 6 When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment, because each one heard their own language being spoken. 7 Utterly amazed, they asked: “Aren’t all these who are speaking Galileans? 8 Then how is it that each of us hears them in our native language? 9 Parthians, Medes and Elamites; residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, 10 Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya near Cyrene; visitors from Rome 11 (both Jews and converts to Judaism); Cretans and Arabs—we hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues!” 12 Amazed and perplexed, they asked one another, “What does this mean?”
13 Some, however, made fun of them and said, “They have had too much wine.”
Peter Addresses the Crowd
14 Then Peter stood up with the Eleven, raised his voice and addressed the crowd: “Fellow Jews and all of you who live in Jerusalem, let me explain this to you; listen carefully to what I say. 15 These people are not drunk, as you suppose. It’s only nine in the morning! 16 No, this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel:
17 “‘In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people.
Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions,
your old men will dream dreams.
18 Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days,
and they will prophesy.
19 I will show wonders in the heavens above and signs on the earth below,
blood and fire and billows of smoke.
20 The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood
before the coming of the great and glorious day of the Lord.
21 And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.’
Sermon: ‘The Purpose of Pentecost’
I want to highlight is that Pentecost is about mission. Even though I take it not that the disciples spoke to the crowd in ‘other tongues’ but rather that the crowd overheard, what is clear is that the Holy Spirit crosses national and cultural boundaries so that people hear the praises of God in their own languages.
Now on one level, there is something almost unnecessary about this miracle. Although the Jews who heard were from different lands, these are almost certainly ‘not in the main … pilgrims [who had] come to Jerusalem from the Diaspora for the feast, but rather Diaspora Jews who had come to live or retire in Jerusalem, and no doubt would have attended some of the synagogues founded in Jerusalem by Diaspora Jews’
In other words, this is a group of people who could speak a common language together anyway, despite their different nationalities. They could understand Hebrew, the language of their faith. Why not just address them in Hebrew? But the Holy Spirit takes the Gospel to them in the language of each of their cultures. They do not have to work within the language and culture of the established religion in order to hear the Good News.
For me, this is a vital approach in mission. One of the problems we have in church life is that we want to draw people into the community of faith, but we expect them to adapt to our ways of doing things and learn our jargon. We add unnecessary barriers to the acceptance of the Gospel.
This is not what the Holy Spirit does. Think about the ministry of Jesus himself in the Incarnation. He did not stand at a distance and expect people to come to him. Rather , he took on human flesh and dwelt in the midst of the people to whom he was sent. The Holy Spirit mirrors Jesus. He desires to take the Gospel to people where they are in a form they can understand.
That becomes the challenge for us. When we are filled with the Spirit, we shall not simply want to make more people who are Methodist or United Reformed or Anglican like us. We shall want to establish new communities within the many cultures of our world, our nation, and even of our locality. That’s why ‘Fresh Expressions’ ‘Messy Church’ / new ways of being church and all sorts of experiments in sharing the Gospel in culturally appropriate ways are at heart Spirit-led approaches to mission.
We should expect this. When Jesus told his followers they would be baptised with the Holy Spirit, he said the consequence would be that they would be his witnesses. The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of mission. The disciples were to be witnesses ‘in Jerusalem, in Judea and all Samaria, and to the ends of the earth’. Again, the work of the Spirit is not in creating a church that waits for people to come to her on her terms. The Spirit makes us missional people who move out of our comfort zones into the places where those who need the love of God are comfortable. By the power of the Holy Spirit, we share the love of God in Christ in other people’s comfort zones, not our own. This is what Spirit-led people do.
In conclusion, then, we have every reason to welcome the Holy Spirit rather than fear him. Who wants to be more like Jesus? Let us welcome the Holy Spirit. Who is hungry for a taste of God’s coming kingdom? Let us invite the Holy Spirit to come. And who wants to share the love of Christ in word and deed in a needy world? The Holy Spirit is already at work, within us and going ahead of us. Let us seek more of his power.
Yes, come Holy Spirit.
In Ephesians 5:18 Paul calls us to continue to be filled with the Spirit – and I take that as an open invitation to come back to the Father’s table with an empty bowl and say, ‘Lord, fill me up again.’
Do we dare to pray that? May it be our regular and persistent request. Heaven will be thrilled. Amen
Prayers of intercession and the Lord’s Prayer
Loving God, we pray for unreached peoples and nations, for those who live in countries closed to the gospel or in places where there are no Christians. We pray that our church with be good news to them by supporting mission workers who are ready and willing to share the gospel of Jesus with them. We pray for refugees and displaced people, for those who are listening to Christian radio stations secretly, and for those who are seeking you – may they meet the living God wherever they are. May you appear to them in dreams and visions, may they find strength in listening to your Word, and may they be touched by the testimonies of workers who are witnessing to them and walking alongside them as your voice and hands. We pray, loving God, that this Pentecost your Holy Spirit may find entrance to many minds that are darkened by prejudice and closed by fear of others. Bring clarity of vision and calmness of mind we pray to all ministers and preachers and missionaries/workers who serve the genuinely unreached and help them to continue to do the mission in Christ’s way. Amen.
