Today’s service is led by the Revd Dr Elaine Colechin
Words of Scripture
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.
Acts 2:1-4
Hymn There’s a Spirit In The Air
Brian Wren © 1979 Hope Publishing Company OneLicence A-734713. Gareth Moore | Isle of Man Methodist Church
There’s a spirit in the air,
telling Christians everywhere:
“Praise the love that Christ revealed,
living, working in our world!”
Lose your shyness, find your tongue,
tell the world what God has done:
God in Christ has come to stay.
Live tomorrow’s life today!
When believers break the bread,
when a hungry child is fed,
praise the love that Christ revealed,
living, working in our world.
Still the Spirit gives us light,
seeing wrong and setting right:
God in Christ has come to stay.
Live tomorrow’s life today!
When a stranger’s not alone,
where the homeless find a home,
praise the love that Christ revealed,
living, working in our world.
May the Spirit fill our praise,
guide our thoughts
and change our ways.
God in Christ has come to stay.
Live tomorrow’s life today!
There’s a Spirit in the air,
calling people everywhere:
praise the love that Christ revealed,
living, working in our world.
Prayer of Invocation
O renewing, strengthening, uniting Spirit,
blow through your people this day.
Excite hearts, open eyes and ears, so that your grace, love and mercy—
made real through Jesus Christ’s death and resurrection—
can be spread across the world.
For all of creation is yours and all of creation should have the knowledge
to worship you, now and always. Amen
Welcome and Introduction
Grace and peace to you on this momentous day in the Church. I am the Revd Dr Elaine Colechin, and I am the current minister of Bromley United Reformed Church—a church that has at its heart community and celebrating its diversity. It is a church where, within its building’s walls, the joys and tensions of difference sit hand-in-hand, and how we make everyone feel welcome is a daily challenge. Despite what at times feels like hourly trials, it is an honour to serve and be a part of a community that brings people, from all walks of life, together because God loves everyone and turns no one away.
When a community is multi-faceted yet has a common task or aim how do you achieve it? There is the option of trying to make everyone alike. Our Old Testament reading today shines a light on what can be achieved when there are no hinderances to communication or understanding. Yet, the beauty of this world is not in its likeness. It is in its variety and diversity. Therefore, it is through difference that any aim or task is achieved. A community is built on celebrating and using the assortment of gifts within it. It is effective when it seeks to understand each part and to help each part understand each other and work together.
At Bromley United Reformed Church, we have a large vestibule that during the week is the home of a café. However, it is not staffed by church members. It is staffed and run by young people who are neurodiverse. They welcome the homeless of Bromley and the old and lonely. They make coffee for the busy parent and slices of toast for the bus driver on a break. They are observant and caring. They have become an essential part of the church, because they have helped us engage with the world differently. They have become an important part of the church, as they have found a place where the world does not treat them as different but as valued for their many skills and talents.
As the Holy Spirit descended on the disciples, the vestibule of Bromley United Reformed Church was possibly not what they envisioned. Yet, it offers a glimpse of what the church should be: diverse, welcoming, a place where everyone has a sense of value.
As we celebrate the coming of the Holy Spirit and pray again for the Spirit’s revival of the church, let us hold on to that thought. After all, God’s creation is not monochrome, it is gloriously technicoloured!
Reading Genesis 11:1-9
Now the whole earth had one language and the same words. And as they migrated from the east, they came upon a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there. And they said to one another, ‘Come, let us make bricks, and burn them thoroughly.’ And they had brick for stone, and bitumen for mortar. Then they said, ‘Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves; otherwise we shall be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.’ The Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which mortals had built. And the Lord said, ‘Look, they are one people, and they have all one language; and this is only the beginning of what they will do; nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them. Come, let us go down, and confuse their language there, so that they will not understand one another’s speech.’ So the Lord scattered them abroad from there over the face of all the earth, and they left off building the city. Therefore it was called Babel, because there the Lord confused the language of all the earth; and from there the Lord scattered them abroad over the face of all the earth.
Prayer
O Lord, how manifold are your works!
In wisdom, you have made them all; the earth is full of your creations.
We rejoice in all that you have made,
and seek to sing songs of praise that are pleasing to your ears.
Yet, as the wind of the Spirit blows among us,
we are tentative to breathe deeply.
We seek your anointing, but fear the power of the Spirit in our lives.
Lord, have mercy. Lord, have mercy.
Through your Spirit, you give us courage yet we are afraid.
Through your Spirit, you send us truth, yet we cling to our illusions.
Through your Spirit, you pour out healing, yet we hold on to our hurt.
Christ, have mercy. Christ, have mercy.
Forgiving Spirit, shake us to our core.
Set our souls on fire so that we might truly be your people
sharing your love and grace with the whole world.
Lord, have mercy. Lord, have mercy. Amen
Hymn Holy Spirit, Come, Confirm Us
William Brian Foley Faber Music Ltd, OneLicence A-734713. Sung by members of the Oxford Methodist Circuit and used with their kind permission.
Holy Spirit, come, confirm us
in the truth that Christ makes known;
We have faith and understanding
through your helping gifts alone.
Holy Spirit, come, console us,
come as advocate to plead;
Loving Spirit stand beside us,
grant in Christ the help we need.
Holy Spirit, come, renew us,
come yourself to make us live;
Make us holy through your presence,
holy through the gifts you give.
Holy Spirit, come, fulfil us,
you the love of Three in One;
Bring our lives to full completion
through your work in us begun.
Reading Acts 2:5-21
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.”
Reading 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. And 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.
Sermon
If there was only one thing that could be changed about the universal church, would it be that it spoke the same language? Now given the scriptures from the books of Genesis and Acts we have heard, by that, you might be thinking I mean linguistics. After all, understanding what we say to one another does help in building purposeful and effective communities. But when the church is trying to show the world the awesome grace of God through Jesus Christ, words, as we have discovered over the centuries, are only a small part of that mission. Rather would it not be better if we had an actual common doctrine, a common interpretation of Scripture, a practice of worship that is truly universal? Would it not be better if the Church were just one church?
This is beginning to sound like a sermon that would be more appropriate for the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity than Pentecost. But as Luke painted in the scene of the disciples speaking in the languages the crowd understood, and as the priestly authors of Genesis also did in their description of the great city that the people of God were able to build, we possibly get a glimpse how the Church needs to change in the world today. The multi-dimensional diversity of the Church is confusing to both those outside and in. Therefore, better that the Church has one dimension, is mono-cultural; that way there is no room for confusion and God can be made known!
“Come,” says God, “let us go down, and confuse their language, so that they will not understand one another.” (Genesis 11:7)
The tale of the city of Babel reads, initially, as another instance of God punishing the people’s behaviour. In the chronology suggested in the order of the chapters in the book of Genesis, it would appear that humanity had recovered from the great flood in all senses; humanity was back, it would seem, to being up to its old tricks. We hear those words of a tower being built heavenward and the immediate thought is humanity was trying to express itself as greater than God again. Yet, despite the tone of the authors, when you delve into what is going on, there is nothing sinister about what the people were constructing. Yes, the people were building the city to give themselves an enduring identity, but it was more about them working as one for a common purpose than trying to establish any sort of grandeur. It may not have quite been the purpose God had originally intended for them, nevertheless it was kind of the only way they could interpret their purpose. There is something comforting about bricks and mortar: they allow one to physically express what one is trying to build. And in the case of the people at that point in the book of Genesis, they were truly try to build God’s kingdom.
The problem with bricks and mortar is that what begins as an expression of community can very quickly come to confine that community. God never intended the people to be restricted, to be defined by walls or borders or even landmasses. When God made the covenant with world through Noah, the instruction to the people was to “be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth!” (Genesis 9:1, 7) God wanted the world to be filled with God’s people, not for them just to be in one small corner. Therefore, in shaking up their ability to communicate, the priestly authors of Genesis tell us how God got things back on track, scattering and diversify the people.
Unfortunately, in humanity, with diversity comes division. Therefore, our Old Testament scriptures then revolve around one of those divisions trying to get back to an interpretation of that initial oneness of the people. And then came along Jesus.
The pairing of the tale of the city of Babel with the story of the day of Pentecost might be seen as God restoring the people’s understanding of one another. However, if we go back to what Luke recorded, there was not just one language being spoken that everyone understood. The disciples were all speaking other languages so that the crowd heard the message in their own tongues. This was not about doing away with the diverse; through the Holy Spirit the disciples were able to engage with the diversity of the world to spread the Good News. The vision of Joel—everyone, not matter what creed, culture, ability, orientation, being able to know God and God’s grace and mercy! Therefore, despite it making life easier, we could say, the Church was never destined to be one-dimensional. It was, though, destined to have a common purpose: to build the kingdom of God.
On this day of Pentecost, what then might the Church be expecting as the wind of the Spirit blows through God’s people?
Many a prayer today will be raised for the Spirit to revive the Church and for the Church to be God’s beacon in these dark and difficult times. In the British context, there may even be prayers raised for the Church to return to the heart of many a community. Yet, in raising those prayers are thoughts revolving around bricks and mortar or that the Church’s mission is to build the kingdom of God?
Well, it probably comes down to what we interpret the kingdom of God as!
In the gospel of John, we hear some of the grapple of disciples with who Jesus is and how he relates to the Godhead. Without spoiling next Sunday’s exploration of the Trinity, what comes into view is that the oneness of God is multi-dimensional! We see God in each of the three persons of God, but in each, we also discover something new about God! And what we discover in John 14, through Jesus’s response to Philip, is that this is what the Church should strive to also do as it is of God and in God!
I began this sermon by suggesting that if there was one thing we could change about the universal church it should be its multi-dimensional diversity! It hinders the Church’s sharing of the Good News and its building of God’s kingdom! But if we did away with it and became monochrome, we would not be a church that is of God or in God. God made the world broad, multi-dimensional, multi-cultural, multi-coloured, and many other multis. And God is all these things too. Therefore, if the Church is going to show God in the world in a way that world might understand, then the Church has to be and has to embrace all that makes the world different, diverse and beautiful, and allow God to make us equally diverse.
When we have built ourselves comfortable, enduring identities, we do not want them to change. We want to sustain them and that becomes are our mission. Yet, that was not Jesus’s commandment to the disciples. It was not what the initial gift of the Holy Spirit, whether as Advocate or Wind and Fire, was about. The Church’s mission in Jesus’s commissioning of the disciples was and is to show God to the world. That means accepting the Holy Spirit’s leading in the ways of Christ. It means being changed so that others might be too!
“Come,” says God, “let us go down, and confuse their language, so that they will not understand one another.” (Genesis 11:7)
This might not be our first prayer as the Church on this Pentecost Sunday, but if we believe that the world is God’s, then we have to welcome God’s way of spreading the Good News. We have to be scattered; we have to be made more diverse; we have to listen to the Holy Spirit and be reminded of all Jesus said and did in the world.
That might be a scary thought, especially if we are particularly fond of our bricks and mortar. But let us not forget what else Jesus said to the disciples: “Do not be afraid! I am with you always!” And through the Holy Spirit, God is. Amen
Hymn Holy Spirit, Living Breath of God
Keith Getty (b.1974) and Stuart Townend (b.1963) © 2006 ThankYou Music OneLicence A-734713. Performed by the Westminster Presbyterian Church, Des Moines, Iowa, Virtual Choir.
Holy Spirit, living breath of God,
breathe new life into my willing soul.
Let the presence of the risen Lord
come renew my heart and make me whole.
Cause your word to come alive in me;
give me faith for what I cannot see,
give me passion for your purity;
Holy Spirit, breathe new life in me.
Holy Spirit, come abide within,
may your joy be seen in all I do.
Love enough to cover every sin,
in each thought and deed and attitude.
Kindness to the greatest and the least,
gentleness that sows the path of peace.
Turn my striving into works of grace;
breath of God, show Christ in all I do.
Holy Spirit, from creation’s birth,
giving life to all that God has made,
show your power once again on earth,
cause your Church to hunger for your ways.
Let the fragrance of our prayers arise;
lead us on the road of sacrifice,
that in unity the face of Christ
may be clear for all the world to see.
Offertory
God of wind, word, and fire, we bless your holy name on this day
when you sent the light and strength of the Holy Spirit
to inspire and gift your disciples.
We give you thanks for all the gifts, great and small,
that you have poured out on all your people,
across time and generations.
Accept now all that we are and offer,
helping us to use the gifts you have give us
to be living praise and witnesses
of your love throughout the world
through Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with you
in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen
Intercessions
Advocate, interceding one, when as your Church we seek your leading,
your guidance to broaden our sharing of your love, grace and mercy
with the world, we pray too for your direct action in the life of the world.
In the leadership of nations as unions rather than divisions
are championed and matters of empire challenged …
Come, Holy Spirit, come.
In communities where difference fuels hatred,
building walls when none should feel closed in …
Come, Holy Spirit, come.
Where perspectives are trying to be changed, those who have felt ignored given agency, and social cohesion is the process of restoration …
Come, Holy Spirit, come.
Where there has to be a letting go of situations, health,
and even life itself …
Come, Holy Spirit, come.
Advocate, interceding one,
all these things we pray in you and through you,
with the words of Jesus that we prayer together as your people:
Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come, your will be done,
on earth as in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread.
Forgive us our sins
as we forgive those who sin against us.
Save us from the time of trial
and deliver us from evil.
For the kingdom, the power, and the glory
are yours now and for ever. Amen
Hymn Praise the Spirit in Creation
The Revd Michael Hewlett (1916-2000) © Oxford University Press | GIA Publications OneLicence A-734713 sung by the Revd Dr Elaine Colechin
Praise the Spirit in creation,
breath of God, life’s origin:
Spirit moving on the waters,
quickening worlds to life within,
source of breath to all things breathing,
life in whom all lives begin.
Praise the Spirit, close companion
of our inmost thoughts and ways;
who, in showing us God’s wonders,
is himself the power to gaze;
and God’s will, to those who listen,
by a still small voice conveys.
Praise the Spirit, who enlightened
priest and prophets with the word;
his the truth behind the wisdoms
which as yet know not our Lord;
by whose love and power, in Jesus
God himself was seen and heard.
Tell of how the ascended Jesus
armed a people for his own;
how a hundred men and women
turned the known world upside down,
to its dark and furthest corners
by the wind of heaven blown.
Pray we then, O Lord the Spirit,
praise the Father, praise the Word,
Source, and Truth, and Inspiration,
Trinity in deep accord;
through your voice which speaks within us
we, your creatures call you Lord.
Dismissal and Blessing
Go then in the peace of God
and may the Holy Spirit rest upon you,
encompassing you and supporting you.
May the Holy Spirit travel with you,
transforming, leading and equipping you.
And may the Holy Spirit encourage and strengthen you
as you serve and worship the triune God
now and always. Amen