It’s hard to imagine just what it was like for the friends of Jesus: Waiting, as he’d instructed when he left them, for the promise of the Father – the gift of the Holy Spirit. Who knew what they were thinking as they tried to make sense in the whirlwind of recent events.
In the following days everything would become clear. With the enlightening, rushing power of the Holy Spirit filling them they were propelled from their waiting room in Jerusalem out to the festival filled streets. Here they shared their new found understanding of God’s good news for all. Jesus lives – and so we live too. Alleluia!
In the Church of England we manoeuvre around these festivals with a kind of polite dignity. We know the story, rehearsed annually and perhaps a little dulled by familiarity. However, we need to be reminded that the disturber of the complacent, the enabler of the timid, the liberator of the tongue-tied and the encourager of the downhearted is still active and at work in the Church today.
As we celebrate and give thanks for the gift of the Holy Spirit this Pentecost let’s spend time in prayer each day asking God to fill us anew. Asking for the power to change what we cannot, and to enable us to live life well – just as God intended. That’s good news for everyone!
Holy Spirit, sent by the Father,
Ignite in us your holy fire;
strengthen your children with the gift of faith,
revive your Church with the breath of love,
and renew the face of the earth,
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen