A season to celebrate - A Pentecost Day address

A season to celebrate! Well this evening we have entered very much into the Jesus story from birth in Bethlehem through to those climactic days of execution and resurrection in Jerusalem. We have been reminded through the story of the encounter with that Samaritan woman at the well just how different in attitude Jesus was from most of his contemporaries. And ultimately we have landed on the shores of Pentecost through which we find the Jesus story going on through fallible people being guided and empowered by the Holy Spirit - the Go Between God.

Now given that the Holy Spirit is the third person within that mysterious community, the Holy Trinity, it goes without saying that the Holy Spirit is in harmony with God the Father and Jesus Christ, the Son. So Pentecost is a time when we are reminded that God is still present with us through the Holy Spirit and that the Holy Spirit has been given in order that the story of Jesus might go on.

And what is that story? It is nothing less than the story of unlimited love to the whole of humanity without regards to whether or not we deserve it. It reached beyond racial and religious barriers as shown in that encounter with the Samaritan woman. It is not restrained by moral failings of the recipient - whether the Samaritan woman was morally flawed or a victim of the fickleness of men or mere cruel fortune we do not know but certainly in many an encounter Jesus brought a dignity to those whose lives were tattered. And as for gender issues, notice how Jesus breaks down the conventions of his time in which women were kept out of the public space and discouraged from bothering themselves with mens’ business.

Indeed Jesus in his stories and through his actions constantly challenged all manner of forms of exploitation, cruelty and degrading treatment. His desire was that all should receive abundance of life. And yet unlike many radicals his path was the path of non violence for ultimately his ministry was about setting people free from the practice of domination.

Nowadays we often speak of Pentecost as being the birth of the church for without the Holy Spirit there could be no church worthy of the name. And yet we need to be cautious in using such a description. For it can give the impression that the Holy Spirit is merely about the growth of an institution whose conduct has not always been benign. Better perhaps to look to that which should always be the vision of the church, the Kingdom of God in which the work of Jesus finds fulfilment.

So at Pentecost, we can look to the Holy Spirit to guide us in enabling people to be connected to God’s all inclusive love. At Pentecost we can look to the Holy Spirit in our struggle for the domination free world of non violence to which Jesus points us. At Pentecost we can look to the Holy Spirit to help us both communicate and live out grace through which we are all treated better than we can ever deserve.

The path of Christ is at times both difficult and counter cultural. Like the closest followers of Jesus we need help. Like them we know the difficulties of being Jesus people. But like them we know a source of hope. For just as it was the Holy Spirit who enabled them to move from their failures into being those who astounded the crowds at Pentecost in Jerusalem, just as it was the Holy Spirit who enabled them to turn the world upside down, so to it is the Holy Spirit who enables our faith to be deepened and equips us to carry on the liberating work of Jesus in our world today.