On this Sunday among all Sundays, we welcome you on behalf of our Lord Jesus into the fellowship of our congregation. This is Pentecost Sunday, the day we celebrate the Holy Spirit coming down upon the Church. It has been ten days since Jesus ascended to heaven. It is fifty days since Jesus rose from the dead, since Easter. It has been somewhere around three years since the Holy Spirit first came down upon Jesus at His baptism to mark the beginning of his ministry among us. This Sunday marks the continued presence of the Holy Spirit coming into the hearts and minds of every succeeding generation.
The Scriptures for the month of May have been from the Acts of the Apostles, focusing on the integration of the Holy Spirit into the establishment of the church. We have considered the Spirit as it directed Philip to seek out the Ethiopian Eunuch. We have celebrated the Spirit as it came down upon Cornelius and his household, extending the work of Jesus to the ‘ends of the earth’, beyond the Jews to the Gentile world. We have remembered how the Holy Spirit is integrated into the work of the church as its leaders gathered in Jerusalem to consider how best to proceed in a whole new world of faith of Jew and Gentile together in Christ.
That has all been done to prepare our understanding in what it is we have received in the gift of the Holy Spirit. What is happening to us with this gift on Pentecost. How things will never be the same for the church again.
As we welcome you to our church, we invite you to come into the wonder and the majesty of the Holy Spirit, to allow us to share Jesus with you, to bring to you the full measure of God's love.
As we welcome you back to our church, we invite you to renew yourself in the wonder and majesty of the Holy Spirit.
The call to wear red is to symbolize the flames that came down upon the heads of the disciples. The draperies in church will be displayed red for this day of celebration.
But more important than the red, more important than the flames that were seen on the heads of the disciples, more important even than the coming of the Holy Spirit, most important is what began.
In that moment, the doors of the church were opened to welcome in the world. The love of Jesus was replicated with power in the hearts of Jesus’ followers. From that moment, the world has never been the same. What began in our Lord Jesus has been multiplied in all of us who have been blessed with the Holy Spirit.
Pastor Peter
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