Fires and Calling, Communication and Communion

The way what we speak and comoonicate say a lot about us dunt uht?

From the southern drawl of the United States to the rounded vowel sounds of Yorkshire, you don’t need me to tell you that we all communicate in very different ways.

Today is Pentecost, a high feast day of the church year. When the Holy Spirit was given to the disciples. It’s the birth of the church! Pentecost is about Communication, God’s communication with us, and God’s anointing of all of us to do His work in the world.

I trust and believe that God has given us what we need within this congregation, not just to grow numerically, but spiritually and in our love for one another.

I don’t buy into this language of poverty we use about ourselves sometimes. Have you noticed that the only time the word ‘dwindling’ is used, either in the media or elsewhere is about churches? Oh we’re all so old, oh we’re so small and we can’t do it, we’ve not got the resources to do this or that.

We may not be Soul Church (good as it is), but why would we want to be? We’re St Luke’s! We’ve got loads of people who do things, who lead services, who ask questions about what we’re doing, who care about each other.

When we get stuck in this poverty loop what does that communicate about God? To ourselves and to our community?

I think this is what Jesus is getting at in our Gospel when he says “Don’t you know me Phillip?” The disciples are constantly worried, anxious about this or that, Oh Lord can we do it? Who is going to be the greatest? Being unable to cast out demons because they don’t believe enough.

Jesus here is saying “Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these.”

Like Nike he says ‘Just do it.’

The way of Jesus started with twelve male disciples (and lots of women too, who although aren’t mentioned amongst the twelve, are just as important). There are just as many of us as that! We have huge resources, and that resource is you.

I say this to affirm all of us, we’ve got a calling, to do something, to be something, because God has anointed all of us.

“They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in tongues as the spirit gave them ability.”

Recently I went on retreat, to Magaluf. No, actually it was Staffordshire. I went to On Fire Mission, which is an inclusive Anglo-Catholic Charismatic Conference, that’s quite difficult to say when you’ve had a few.

There was a lot of waiting on the spirit, a lot of anointing, a lot of praying and worshipping together.

During this retreat I realised two things. Firstly, I needed to invite the Holy Spirit more into what I am doing, both in my activities and in my prayer life.

The Holy Spirit is the advocate and the guide, the holy presence of God that is always with us whether we feel it or not. The Holy Spirit is difficult to describe, but for me I see it (and I’m probably being heretical here, I think an alarm is going to start going off in Diocesan House.)

I see the Holy Spirit as the power of God that works within us, and through us. The power to change, to affirm and be all that we can be. The power of love.

We see in our Bible reading from Acts the reversal of Babel. The reversal of the pride of humankind, instead of us trying to be equal to God, or like God, God comes to be with us through the Holy Spirit. She, that hovered over the universe at the beginning of time.

The Holy Spirit guides us into truth, a deeper truth more wonderful than we can possibly imagine.

¹⁵ “If you love me, keep my commands. ¹⁶ And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever— ¹⁷ the Spirit of truth.”

This advocate understands us, knows us, loves us, sees us. But part of loving is doing.

Secondly, that I needed to ask for more help. That the weight of responsibility and the quantum leap from Curacy to Incumbency was massive. That I didn’t need to struggle on, but ask for more assistance, from my biggest asset, all of you. I wonder how many of you have been in that situation?

Do we regularly invite the Holy Spirit to guide us? Do we act like we have the advocate, the overflowing love of God with us? Do we remember God’s abundance?

Because we have been anointed folks, at our baptism. We have been given the advocate that will never go away from us. Jesus leaves his presence with us and my question to all of us is how do we respond to that? What is God calling us into as a community? What do you feel is your calling?

It could be inviting someone to church, it could be setting something new up, it could be committing to pray regularly, it could be giving time and money, it could be having a cup of tea with someone who’s lonely.

The disciples were scared, they cowered in a room amongst themselves, until Jesus came back to them, and then left the spirit to be their guide. They were anointed afresh, given a new perspective, and a new life in the spirit.

As a reminder of this outpouring on them, and on each of us, as a physical reminder I am inviting you to come and be anointed. No one must, it’s entirely optional and up to you, but if you’ve wondering what your calling might be, if you want to invite the Holy Spirit into your life and work, if you’re unsure what to do, or want re-dedicate yourself to God’s purposes, then come forward. Or maybe this time, if you don’t comfortable with that, perhaps pray, think, reflect on what you can do to bring God’s presence and Holy Spirit to you.

God gives us all we need, has sent us the advocate, and now sends us to do his work as disciples.  

photo by Moose Photos: https://www.pexels.com/photo/man-wearing-brown-suit-jacket-mocking-on-white-telephone-1587014/