Big Mud Puddles & Sunny Yellow Dandelions

“Big Mud Puddles and Sunny Yellow Dandelions” is the heading of an e-mail that grabbed my attention, when I was supposed to be writing this sermon.  Now I’m usually pretty disciplined and can avoid distractions but that title was just too intriguing to ignore!  Unable to resist the temptation, I read on and discovered it to be a sort of take on life through adult versus children’s eyes.  

The message was rather long but a couple of paragraphs resonated:

“When I hear music I love, I know I can’t carry a tune and don’t have much rhythm so I sit self-consciously and listen.
My kids feel the beat and move to it.  They sing out the words.  If they don’t know them, they make up their own.

When I feel wind on my face, I brace myself against it.  I feel it messing up my hair and pulling me back when I walk.
My kids close their eyes, spread their arms and fly with it, until they fall to the ground laughing.”

So what has this to do with The Day of Pentecost, I hear you ask?  Well I think it could easily relate to the reactions of people described in our reading from Acts.  On that day when the church was born, language was not a barrier to God’s outpouring of energy that touched every person who was present.  The Church speaks today of the need to be fully inclusive, and rightly, and this account of the young church in Acts is a good example of what that means.  Everyone there in Jerusalem heard God’s message in their own language, although some sneered at what was going on.  Peter’s reaction in defence is amazing!  When you think, this is the same Peter who denied having known Jesus!  Here he is, preaching to a crowd of believers in occupied Jerusalem, quoting the prophecy of Joel to testify to what is happening: “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.” 

God poured His Spirit into Peter, which gave him courage and boldness to preach the Gospel of Christ.  This same Peter who was afraid to say he knew Jesus prior to the crucifixion, now fearlessly preaches the Risen Christ – according to God’s plan. 

This is the crux of the Pentecost message:  the gift of the Spirit of God is new life.  God empowered Peter and enhanced his potential.  He longs to enhance our potential too:  He calls us to be ourselves, to live up to our potential and gives us the gifts we need to do it. 

Whilst today’s account of the Spirit’s activity is about noise and rush, it is good to remember the gentler activities of the Spirit in bringing about peace, reconciliation and healing.  Healing in the Christian sense is concerned with wholeness, that is, the well-being of the person in body, mind and spirit.  This is crucial if we are to reach our full potential, to become the person God is calling us and loving us to be. 

We have in our Team a Healing Fellowship and after this service, The Laying-on-of-hands for healing will be offered by those involved in the ministry of healing to anyone who would like to receive it (in the All Saints Chapel, which is behind the organ).   The focus for the laying on of hands is on the healing love and power of God in Christ, demonstrated by Jesus himself and testified to in Scripture. Those who are offering the laying on of hands will have prayerfully prepared themselves and see themselves as conduits for God to work through:  God is the healer, any power present is from Him and is the work of the Holy Spirit.  You may wish to seek prayer for healing for yourself, another person, or simply to receive the laying on of hands without saying anything at all:  God knows all of our needs before we even think or ask.      

As disciples of Christ, the Holy Spirit is the power in which we live and move and have our being.  It is the same Spirit that hovered over the face of the waters in creation; the same Spirit that put the “HA!” in AbraHAm! 

When we say The Creed together, we declare: “We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life …..”  The Holy Spirit is the energy source – the powerhouse from which we’re sent to live and work to God’s praise and glory, however He equips us to serve Him and in whatever capacity.   

That service is different for each of us.  For me, it means a strong sense of engagement in God’s mission to the world, such as we experienced in our recent Deanery mission under Bishop David’s dynamic leadership.  The spin-off from that week of intense missionary activity is very exciting – not least for “The Box” youth project here in Epping, due to open any day now.  This is a tangible example of what happens when God pours out his Spirit on his people – and in this case, He gave Tim and Alison Dolan the vision. 

Extending our vision at the start of this Christian Aid week, we can consider how we might help to redress the imbalance between rich and poor.  And this is not just about donating funds, although of course that is part of it.  Christian Aid does not simply pour humanitarian aid into poverty-stricken countries but rather enables people to learn new skills and to become self-sufficient; to help them to reach their full potential.  Please read their stories and consider how you can help. 

To be truly Spirit-led means to have the courage to ‘let go and let God’; to be so at ease in our relationship with Him to the extent that we trust Him to be in control of our lives. 

When the Holy Spirit came like the rush of a violent wind on that first day of Pentecost, we are told “All of them were filled”:  many multi-national people of many languages and yet they all heard and understood God’s word in their own tongue.  No-one was discriminated against; no-one was left out. 

“Receive the Holy Spirit” is the invitation in the reading from St John’s Gospel  (20.22), if you recall – this is important: it’s an invitation.  It is available to everyone but we have to RSVP in the positive!  Jesus invites us to receive the Holy Spirit. 

Yes, the Holy Spirit is conferred on us in our Baptism (and at other times in Confirmation, and Ordination), but what we do with it – how we respond – is still down to us.  I can’t claim to remember much about my baptism because I was only seven weeks old at the time!  But since I’ve learned to view my life in terms of a journey of faith, I like to believe the date was significant because today, Whit Sunday, is the anniversary!  “Whit Sunday” is said to derive from the white robes worn by the baptised and this day ranks, after Easter, as the second greatest festival in the church.  Easter and Whitsun used to be the most popular dates for baptism.  Even though it took me a number of years to respond to the gift of the Spirit for myself, by the grace of God, I got there in the end!  And I can honestly say, never have I experienced such indescribable joy as I do now in serving the Lord.

Which brings me back to where I started:  to the e-mail I received!  In our daily lives of Christian discipleship, when we sense a whirlwind of activity that is of the Spirit – how do we react?  Do we do the ‘adult thing’ and brace ourselves against it for fear of messing up our hair?! 

Or do we, child-like, throw caution to the wind, put out our arms and learn to fly!  Will we run the risk of letting the Holy Spirit fill us and lead us into a deeper relationship with God?