“They were all together in one place”.

They had been waiting. Shortly before he ascended into heaven, Jesus had told them to “stay here in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high.” I wonder what we would have made of that command?

We too have been waiting, only with hindsight. We know that the Ascension gave those first disciples a job to do. The Ascension gives us the same job to do: with Jesus no longer physically with us, God’s primary means of working in His world is now through us. He commissions us to that task and today, on the Day of Pentecost, He equips us for it.

In His final charge to His disciples, Jesus makes a statement, issues a command and gives them a promise. The statement is that “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me”.

I’ve recently been reading a book entitled café Theology, by Michael Lloyd who says Jesus’ claim to have all authority is important because it’s an uncompromising claim.

Michael Lloyd writes: “Jesus doesn’t say “Some authority has been given to me, and some to Moses and some to the Buddha and some to Mohammed and some to Haile Selassie”. No, Jesus makes the audacious claim that “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me”.

Jesus carries God’s authority in His wounded hands on the Cross. His Resurrection and Ascension then authenticates and makes safe His extraordinary claim.

He then issues a command which is all-encompassing, when he states, “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.” All authority has been given to Him. And we are to make disciples of all nations.

This is a tall order – as some who are called as missionaries have discovered in the past. For, we’re not told to go to all nations and give them the benefit of western civilisation and education, but simply to give them Jesus: His teaching, His sacraments, and the new, Trinitarian understanding of God that Jesus – and the experience of the Spirit at Pentecost – occasioned. Christian missionaries who are most effective are generally those who seek to learn the culture of the indigenous peoples whom they find themselves among; they are those who seek to live alongside the people, learn their language, and so form relationships on equal terms as they share the love of God.

The promise Jesus makes to us is this: “surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age” – “all authority ….. all nations ….. all things I have commanded you ….. always”. This opens our eyes to the universal nature of our mission, which springs from His authority, and is completely and utterly dependent upon the universal nature and constancy of His presence: always and everywhere.

We are all together in one place. And we have been waiting for the Holy Spirit since Ascension Day. Historically, much has been written on the Spirit, and the Bible offers many different perspectives. Without pretending to exhaust the mystery of the Spirit, how do we relate to this third person of the Trinity, who is stirring things up again, today?

Here’s a rhyme I’d like to share:

There was an old man who cried Run!
For the end of the world has begun.
The one I fear most
Is the old Holy Ghost.
I can cope with the Father and Son!”

I suspect it’s like this with us, sometimes. We can relate to Jesus because he was a human being. We can relate to God as ‘Father’. Whether we’ve had good experiences of our fathers or sons, at least we know they’re people and not things. But ‘Spirit’ – and worse still – ‘Ghost’ all sounds a bit spooky and unreal. But the Spirit isn’t a thing – He is a personal being.

In the creation accounts, the Spirit is there helping the Father to love the world into being. Our human need to be loved, to be valued, to have meaning and purpose are all futile needs, unless we have the Father who loves us, values us and has purposes for us.

If we understand God in the three persons of the Trinity, it would be very odd if the Spirit were less than personal Himself. Instead of being the Holy Spirit, He would simply be the impersonal, un-relational, unknowing, uncaring, without-purpose, ‘life-force’.

Jane Williams (the wife of Archbishop Rowan) sees this as a particular problem in the West. She says, “The extent to which the Spirit failed to find an imaginative role in Western art is clear in all those pictures of two men and a bird. Compare that with Rublev’s mysterious and lovely Trinity of equal persons grouped around the table.” (If you’ve seen Rublev’s icon, you’ll know what she means - Rublev was a supreme artist of the Eastern Orthodox tradition.)

We have only to consult Paul’s letters to the believers in Corinth, Galatia, Rome and Ephesus to see that ‘the actions attributed to the Holy Spirit are personal actions, the doings of a divine person’ , for example:

• The Spirit searches all things (1 Cor 2.10)

• Knows the mind of God (1 Cor 2.11)

• Teaches the content of the gospel to believers (1 Cor 2.13)

• Dwells among or within believers (1 Cor 3.16; Rom 8.11)

• Accomplishes all things (1 Cor 12.11)

• Gives life to those who believe (2 Cor 3.6)

• Cries out from within our hearts (Gal 4.6)

• Leads us in the ways of God (Gal 5.18; Rom 8.14)

• Bears witness with our own spirits (Rom 8.16)

• Has desires that are in opposition to the flesh (Gal 5.17)

• Helps us in our weakness (Rom 8.26)

• Intercedes on our behalf (Rom 8.26-27)

• Works all things together for our ultimate good (Rom 8.28)

• Strengthens believers (Eph 3.16) and is grieved by our sinfulness (Eph 4.30)

And ultimately the fruits of the Spirit’s indwelling in us (when we are open to receive them) are the personal attributes of God (Gal 5.22-23), which are:

“….. love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.”

So, in his dealings with us, the Holy Spirit acts personally towards us.

The image of wind that is used of Him in the reading from the Book of Acts is simply a way of picturing His invisibility, power and unpredictable, uncontrollable sovereignty – not His impersonality. Yes, the Holy Spirit can be a dis-comforter and a disturber, but in today’s Gospel reading, as Jesus finishes explaining the role of the Holy Spirit to Philip, the full stop at the end of his sentence is the Peace! “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.”

Like Jesus, the Holy Spirit is a Person and He is divine. Wholly connected, there is no separation between God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. For the Christian, the Holy Spirit is given to us at our baptism. The life-giving power and presence of the Spirit is a gift – unsolicited, unexpected and undeserved.

Today is actually the anniversary of my own baptism but I was six weeks old at the time so I can’t say I was aware of being Spirit-filled! However, by the grace of God I am bold enough now to claim my Christian inheritance. And I like to believe that being baptised on the Day of Pentecost was a significant marker in my road to faith, even if it took a while to realise it.

For all of us who confess Jesus Christ as Lord, the Spirit lives with us and in us.

Shortly after this service, we will be baptising five people – two adults and three children. Don’t believe the doom-merchants who say the church is in decline!! Each of the newly-baptised will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. We are reminded today by John that the Spirit is a divine gift. Twice in today’s reading, the Father is specified as the sender (14.16, 26) and twice in the next chapter, Jesus is the sender (15.26; 16.7), which again reinforces their relational team-work.

The Spirit builds us into the Church and gives us gifts to share with the rest of the Church. ‘But He does not send us empty-handed into the Church. Like children arriving at a birthday party, we come with a present to contribute.’ He calls us to work together for the common good of all.

Another special part of today will happen in a moment, when we celebrate the gifts that our Churchwardens and Deputy Churchwardens bring to the party! We will commission them on our behalf in the Name of God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit: so they will remain inseparable!

We are all together in one place. And the Holy Spirit is with us and in us. Thanks be to God for His gracious gift. Amen.