Collect
God, who as at this time taught the hearts of your faithful people by sending to them the light of your Holy Spirit: grant us by the same Spirit to have a right judgement in all things and evermore to rejoice in his holy comfort; through the merits of Christ Jesus our Saviour, who is alive and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.
or
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.
Post Communion
Faithful God, who fulfilled the promises of Easter by sending us your Holy Spirit and opening to every race and nation the way of life eternal: open our lips by your Spirit, that every tongue may tell of your glory; through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Readings
Acts 2.1–21
When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. 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. Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability.
Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven living in Jerusalem. And at this sound the crowd gathered and was bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in the native language of each. Amazed and astonished, they asked, ‘Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? And how is it that we hear, each of us, in our own native language? Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabs—in our own languages we hear them speaking about God’s deeds of power.’ All were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, ‘What does this mean?’ But others sneered and said, ‘They are filled with new wine.’
But Peter, standing with the eleven, raised his voice and addressed them: ‘Men of Judea and all who live in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and listen to what I say. Indeed, these are not drunk, as you suppose, for it is only nine o’clock in the morning. No, this is what was spoken through the prophet Joel:
“In the last days it will be, God declares,
that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh,
and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,
and your young men shall see visions,
and your old men shall dream dreams.
Even upon my slaves, both men and women,
in those days I will pour out my Spirit;
and they shall prophesy.
And I will show portents in the heaven above
and signs on the earth below,
blood, and fire, and smoky mist.
The sun shall be turned to darkness
and the moon to blood,
before the coming of the Lord’s great and glorious day.
Then everyone who calls on the name of the Lord
shall be saved.”
Gospel – John 14.8–17 [25–27]
Philip said to him, ‘Lord, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and you still do not know me? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, “Show us the Father”? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own; but the Father who dwells in me does his works. Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; but if you do not, then believe me because of the works themselves. Very truly, I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these, because I am going to the Father. I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If in my name you ask me for anything, I will do it.
‘If you love me, you will keep my commandments. 16And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you for ever. This is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, because he abides with you, and he will be in you.
[‘I have said these things to you while I am still with you. But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything, and remind you of all that I have said to you. Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid.]
hymn 136 – Rejoice, the year upon its way
hymn 137 – Come down, O Love divine
hymn 138 – Come, Holy Ghost our souls inspire
hymn 349 – Come, let us join our cheerful songs
Sermon on Pentecost (WhitSunday)
Here we are at WhitSun, Pentecost. Many call today the birthday of the one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church.
What do you do on your own birthday – or what about your beloved’s birthday, your wife’ or husband’ or your son’ or daughter’s birthday? Some of my acquaintances get dressed in their best and take the day off so that they can do something different – if only a day out with the family, or if you are young, a special meal somewhere nice.
But that is it, isn’t it? We just have one day, perhaps a few drinks and then the year begins again. We repeat the same old dull year all over again. No change for the next 364 days. We haven’t changed the world in any way on our birthday. However, isn’t Pentecost something so very different from the very mundane birthday celebrations we usually have? Imagine this happening on your birthday –
suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them.
Nothing like this has ever happened on my birthday! What about yours? No great, rushing, violent wind sounds in our hearing when we take our loved ones out on our special birthday outing. But it did happen at the birth of the Church, just as we recall it each year on this day, the day we read this chapter from the Acts of the Apostles.
Do we stand “amazed and astonished” like all those foreigners who heard those poor, ignorant fishermen speaking in so many languages, and they listened as if they were being directly addressed in their own mother tongue? Do the people speaking within these four walls speak to their contemporaries with that force of meaning and import? Or do we consider this preachers’ ramblings meaningless chatter? Are we startled by what we hear? Do we comment on the situation as those in Jerusalem did so many centuries ago?
All were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, ‘What does this mean?’ But others sneered and said, ‘They are filled with new wine.’
Are we amazed by the words we hear? I know that I perplex many with my rantings. Do any or you ask, “What does this mean?” when we leave church – or even over coffee after worship? Do we ever delve any deeper into what we hear anywhere, not just in Church? What is the significance of a politician’s words or anything else we hear? Do we ever look into the meaning of the simple conversations we have day by day? Do we delve into why someone said something to us, which may signify something portentous. And so do we ask, “What does all this mean”?
We may not get what the other person is saying, but I don’t think we are as cynical as those who sneered about those poor fishermen when they accused them of being drunk at such an early hour of the day. Shouldn’t we be able to say, whenever we speak with someone – anyone at all
‘how is it that we hear, each of us, in our own native language? Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabs – in our own languages we hear them speaking about God’s deeds of power.’
Never mind the foreigner amongst us, do we speak in a way that our neighbour gets enthusiastic about what we say to them? Do the members of our family hear something very important as we speak with them about life, the universe and everything? Don’t we all wonder whether anyone ever hears us speaking about important matters?
The philosopher has always wondered at the power of language, pondering just how meaning is conveyed through phonemes and syllables, through the power of the word delivered with a voice. Ultimately, that is all I have – I only have my voice to deliver to you what I understand to be powerful and important in my life, just as those words the fishermen pronounced proclaimed God’s deeds of power.
Isn’t it strange that every year we listen to this story of the coming of the Holy Spirit onto those men so long ago? Why? My teacher would explain that we want this to happen today. We want to live out that primordial event of salvation in our own lives right now.
By reciting this origin history we are trying to make it a very real event in our own lives. We are opening ourselves to that fundamental reality the early church proclaimed as its beginnings, that perfect time of origin, which connected them with the resurrected Jesus, that time when the divine was immediately part of their own lives. Don’t we want the same thing? Don’t we want that deed of power and meaning to be part of our own lives? How do I address those “Parthians, Medes [and] Elamites” and anyone else who may be visiting me from faraway places where my mother tongue is unknown? Do I speak louder and louder because no one can speak to me in my own language (as that familiar trope about the English in foreign parts has it)?
Or, more hopefully, do I rely entirely on the gift of tongues – hoping that my seemingly random sounds actually do mean something to somebody else? Or do I have to hope that other people have the gift of interpretation so that they can understand my gabbling?
When we in the Church repeat the story of the day of Pentecost, we want to have a lively birthday celebration. We call to mind so much more than a judgemental thought about ignorant fishermen being drunk so early in the morning (however true that might be of those fishermen from so long ago or even fishermen nowadays).
This story of Pentecost brings together so many strands of the christian message, that salvation had come into the world in Jesus, that his promise of a comforter – the Holy Spirit – was fulfilled, and the Church is filled with the gift of tongues (known and unknown) as well as the gift of interpretation. All things have conspired to culminate on this day, the celebration of Pentecost when the disciples spoke about the deeds of God’s power directly to strangers in their midst. Aren’t we hoping to do the same today, with whomever we meet?
Don’t we want to be as happy as those so-called inebriated fishermen? Their joy has come to the surface, just as ours should. – We have all seen something new which we want to share with everyone of our acquaintance. This is the joy of communication, when language – the gift of tongues and interpretation together – when language expresses our experience of life in all its fullness, an experience we want to share with everyone we meet, just like that drunken fisherman on the corner who sings his joy to all the world.