Pentecost Sunday 24th May 2015

When God is personally present, a living Spirit, nothing between us and him, our faces shine with the brightness of his face, our lives gradually become brighter and more beautiful as God enters our lives and we become like him.    2 Corinthians 3:15-18 paraphrased in The Message

As we keep the second greatest Feast of Christianity we have this morning a theme of light.

At the mid-morning eucharist the community choir will be singing This little light of mine and the Pentecost event in the epistle will be dramatised.

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.  Acts 2.3-4

 ‘This little light of mine I’m gonna let it shine’. When the Holy Spirit came on the first believers it lit them up. Jesus himself spoke a lot about light and gave us this invitation in his Sermon on the Mount. Let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.   Matthew 5:14-16

I wonder what you make of that? What does it mean for you to let your light shine before others? What sort of good works?

 Today, Pentecost Sunday 2015, is such an important day I’ve got a message from all three Bishops engaging with those questions and a present from them at the end of the service.

Play 3 min video clip with Cathedral chorister, Alexander Dance, Bishop Martin, Bishop Richard, Jules Middleton of the Point Church, Bishop Mark and church member Mary Wardell

I want to invite you to think a bit more about what you just heard as I give you a brief reminder.

After the introduction from chorister Alexander Bishop Martin spoke of Pentecost as the day when the Holy Spirit empowered the church for sharing the good news of Jesus Christ.

Bishop Richard then compared Chichester Diocese’s 20-30,000 church members to Hove Albion spectators rather than players. He suggested we pray day by day ‘Lord please use me today to share something of your love with someone who doesn’t know it’ and mentioned how vital it is we re-engage with the wonder of the Gospel story.

Jules then described her Church seeking to be a transforming presence meeting people where they’re at rather than expecting them to cross a church threshold.

Bishop Mark spoke of servant ministry commending care for the homeless and folk with debt problems.

Mary Wardell lastly picked up on the Prayer of St Richard to know, love and follow Jesus and said without the foundation of prayer anything we attempt for God as Christians is like walking up Mount Everest without the right boots.

Bishop Richard and Mary Wardell mentioned respectively how vital it is we re-engage with the wonder of the Gospel story and that we pray more.

To be woken up to the wonder of God in your life you need to pray and through prayer you also receive more of God in your life.  It’s an extraordinary circle and it’s no circle of delusion.

I remember once feeling God was a long way away and saying to him ‘God if you’re there show yourself’.

I happened to be walking in the garden and I felt a leaf on a tree speak to me: ‘I made you. I love you. I want to fill you with my Spirit’ That was when I first experienced the Holy Spirit in power and it helped me to pray more easily and love other people more.

When you’re thirsty for God and tell him so he gives you his Holy Spirit.

Before Pentecost Mary and the apostles kept a nine day prayer vigil to express their thirst for God which we’ve just imitated and then, we read, 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. 

To be filled you need to be empty.

Holy Spirit Sunday is a challenge to all of our self-sufficiency. It’s a reminder that to be filled by the Spirit we need the resolve to empty ourselves in service.

Pentecost is something very personal. It’s something that can happen in our lives if we let it.

It’s about illumination, as we heard in that paraphrase of the 2 Corinthians passage on the back of the eucharist booklet

When God is personally present, a living Spirit, nothing between us and him, our faces shine with the brightness of his face, our lives gradually become brighter and more beautiful as God enters our lives and we become like him.    2 Corinthians 3:15-18 paraphrased in The Message

‘This little light of mine I’m gonna let it shine’.

Come down, O love divine, seek thou this soul of mine,
and visit it with thine own ardour glowing.
O Comforter, draw near, within my heart appear,
and kindle it, thy holy flame bestowing.