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Sermon for
Pentecost
Acts 2.1-21
John 14. 8-17 [25-27]
Pentecost is
here already! Fifty days since we celebrated the risen Christ
on Easter Sunday. And now we have the great Festival of the Church
dedicated to the Spirit. Which is why all our vestments have
gone red for today. It is not just that I fancied a change of
colour! Today is Red in honour of the Spirit, - the colour of
flame; the colour of blood.
And today is
special as well because we have our visiting choir, the Ridgeway
Chorale, with us this morning! How lovely to have special guests
for the celebration! Welcome and thank you for all you bring
to our worship this morning.
So inspired
by the thought of all the singing today, I took my inspiration
for this morning's sermon from a song written by John Bell of
the Iona Community - The Enemy of Apathy .... which is a pretty
good way of describing the Holy Spirit.
Now many of
you will know that I am particularly fond of Iona music and songs...
This poem uses the imagery that comes from the Hebrew word for
the Holy Spirit which is Ruach - a feminine noun as it happens,
and so in Hebrew it is often used to ascribe to God aspects of
the feminine to go alongside the more familiar masculine terms
that we hear more frequently. Those of you who are familiar
with our baptismal font will know that the HS is often depicted
as a bird (along with the flames and the wind traditionally associated
with today) So here is the poem:
She sits like
a bird, brooding on the waters,
Hovering on the chaos of the world's first day,
She sighs and she sings, mothering creation,
Waiting to give birth to all the Word will say.
She wings over
earth, resting where she wishes,
Lighting close at hand or soaring through the skies;
She nests in the womb, welcoming each wonder,
Nourishing potential hidden to our eyes.
She dances
in fire, startling her spectators,
Waking tongues of ecstasy where dumbness reigned;
She weans and inspires all whose hearts are open.
Nor can she be captured, silenced or restrained.
For she is
the Spirit, one with God in essence,
Gifted by the Saviour in eternal love;
She is the key opening the scriptures,
Enemy of apathy, and heavenly dove.
Fantastic words!
Fantastic imagery - of the bird hovering - bringing order to
chaos in the mystery of creation and at the same time inspiring
our understanding of God's word in scripture.
It is easy
for us to overlook the importance and the role of the Spirit
- oh we pay lip service to the Spirit in our liturgy - but how
many of us really engage with this aspect of God? I suspect rather
fewer than those of us who focus on God as Father and Creator
or God as Son and Saviour? God as Spirit? Well its all a bit
strange isn't it? Unpredictable. Dangerous even! Hard to pin
down. But that is the point.
The spirit
dances in the tongues of fire above the Apostles heads - filling
them with courage and with words to share of God's love and saving
acts. The spirit comes whistling in on the wind - taking breath
away and yet leaving behind a new eloquence and confidence. The
Spirit is hard to define - to capture, silence or restrain as
the song has it, and yet the Spirit also brings understanding
and turns hearts to God of those prepared to be open.
Like music,
the Spirit speaks - not to our reason, but directly to our souls.
Filling us with wonder and joy. Bubbling out of us; driving us
to dance in sheer abandonment and delight. Like music too - especially
when music is shared - the Spirit creates community; bringing
together individuals in a shared purpose, a shared commitment.
This is the
last great festival of the church's year. Oh I know we have harvest
and remembrance to come later on - but those are relatively modern
inventions - almost more to do with celebrating our secular life,
not our life in God. Pentecost is the culmination of everything
- of Christmas and the Incarnation; of Easter and the Resurrection.
Pentecost is the moment when it all becomes real - moves out
from being a wonderful story and demands that we put into practice
all of that good Teaching that Jesus left us!
That is why
the Holy Spirit is the enemy of apathy. How can we remain apathetic
in the face of such energy and - well, spirit!
So as we go from this place of worship, we take into the world
the love, the passion, the fire, the breath, the music of God's
Spirit to share among his creation and bring order and inspiration
to the mess and muddle that so often we encounter.
For she is
the Spirit, one with God in essence,
Gifted by the Saviour in eternal love;
She is the key opening the scriptures,
Enemy of apathy, and heavenly dove.
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