Sermon by Rev Sydney Maitland for Sunday 28 May 2023.
Juan Bautista Mayno (1581-1649): Pentecost (Source)
• First Reading: Acts 2: 1-21 ()
• Epistle: 1 Corinthians 12: 3-13 ()
• Gospel: John 20: 19-23 ()
When I was working in the planning office, I had plenty of contact with architects, planning consultants, solicitors, surveyors and other professionals. All fully qualified.
But then there was another group of practitioners, described as ‘services’. There were planning services, drawing services, design services, architectural services, development services, building services, and so on. Generally they were competent and for uncomplicated matters their work seemed to be entirely satisfactory. They were not professional practitioners and did not claim to be. So we all knew where we were.
And yet in the mission of the church, we see a lot in the way of technique and much of this is quite helpful. Get your church noticed, engage with the community, provide a welcome to young families, the elderly, the disabled and people with special needs. And yes this is very laudable.
It may well act in support of parish life and help to extend it.
But it is not the same as the outpouring of the Holy Spirit or the revival of the church.
What happened on the Day of Pentecost was the gathering of the disciples of Jesus – maybe 120 – for prayer and worship and fellowship. You might say that it was like a normal church service, although I would be delighted to see 120 people in All Saints on a regular basis.
Yet they were waiting on God. Jesus had told them not to leave town but to wait for the further gift to be granted them. The Holy Spirit would be the person of Jesus among them while He was seated in glory at the side of God and hearing their prayers.
They did not know what to expect. Only that something was coming. What would it be? When would it come? How would they know it? What would they do with it? Where would they go from there once they had it? All these questions were open.
But Jesus was promising them a presence who would be wholly personal. Personal to Him and personal to each of the disciples. He would work from within their hearts and lives and he would enable them to express the good news of Jesus in the details of life and in its many challenges.
The Holy Spirit was there, giving new life to the disciples of Jesus long before the scriptures had been written or liturgical worship as we know it had developed.
Church order and governance, the management of money, the supervision of office holders and so on were well into the future.
And much of this became necessary to maintain a sense of order in the life of the church. The creeds only came to us from the 4th century general Church Council in Nicaea.
Yet what was true of the church in the month after the Ascension of Jesus is also true today.
The comfort that Jesus was giving the church was not a manual on marketing strategy or a code for appropriate and inclusive behaviour. Basic courtesy to all they met should have been enough to manage all contacts and relationships.
No, Jesus was giving the disciples His personal and intimate presence – and nothing less.
It was of Him, direct and there would be no intermediaries or people with special knowledge or qualifications. The Gnostics who claimed special knowledge and revelation were indeed a thorn in the side of the 1st Century church, but they came into the church which they had not helped to form. In this they had their own agendas and motives.
And the Holy Spirit came with His own gifts and ministries. Over time, He would cultivate in the church the fruit of Jesus’ life. Fruits of the Spirit – love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness and self-control. All of these being qualities of the life of Jesus and reproducible in the lives of His followers, the greatest of the fruits being love.
They were grown, not given. And then there were spiritual gifts: Supernatural gifts, given, received and exercised in the spiritual realm.
Not the same as natural aptitudes, of the kind that athletes train for in order to enhance their fitness before a contest and their performance during it.
No, these are matters of the Holy Spirit in the life of the church, and all are given to build up and edify that life of the church. They may be given though individuals but they belong to the Body of Christ.
For the gospel of Jesus Christ is a message for the spirit of men and women. It is a message about the things of God and how God has reached directly and personally into the human experience in order to achieve something that no amount of human art or science or politics or trade could achieve on their own.
For us, the gifts have not gone away. They are still there waiting to be sought and received and exercised. They are there to be developed into areas of Christian service.
But they are also there to serve the purpose and agenda of God, and that alone.
They are not there to refine human technique or learning or scholarship. They are there to serve the heart of Jesus who longs to see people brought into the community of His salvation.
All the social and cultural and charitable effects of the church derive from the power of the Gospel message. They never precede it and can never be substitutes for it. And without that mighty wind of God they are powerless.
