The readings for this Sunday are for those of Pentecost Sunday:

• Acts 2.1-21

• Psalm 104. 25-35, 37

• Romans 8. 22-27

• John 7. 37-39 (John 20. 19-23 or John 15. 26-27, 16.4b-15)

You might like to use the link below to find the above readings, and click on any of the reading above that you wish to use: http://www.katapi.org.uk/CommonWorship/CWLectionarySelV.php

Collect of the day

Let us first spend a few moments in silence to centre ourselves,
to gather ourselves in our souls,
to come before the Lord just as we are with our joys and sorrows,
our hopes and our fears, our loves and our pains.
Let us just focus our minds and hearts on Jesus who is the answer for every problem.
Let us pray that the Spirit will work through our lives
to bring Christ to the world.

Silence is kept

God, who as at this time
taught the hearts of your faithful people
by sending to them the light of your Holy Spirit:
grant us by the same Spirit
to have a right judgement in all things
and evermore to rejoice in his holy comfort;
through the merits of Christ Jesus our Saviour,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

Amen.

Holy Spirit, sent by the Father,
ignite in us your holy fire;
strengthen your children with the gift of faith,
revive your Church with the breath of love,
and renew the face of the earth,
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Amen.

Prayer before the Sermon

Loving Heavenly Father,
we thank you for the words you have given us today.
We know they are words of life and salvation.
Open our hearts Father, touch our souls,
forgive us our sins especially our lack of faith,
help us to respond to your word.
May we know that you are our Lord and Saviour
who promises us the power from on high,
your Holy Spirit.
May we experience in our hearts your love
and your presence always.

Amen.

A homily based on the gospel reading of today is given below:

Come Holy Spirit! Fill our hearts with the fire of your love!

An Orthodox Prayer for the feast of Pentecost:

Heavenly King, Advocate, Spirit of Truth,
You are everywhere and fill all things,
The treasure-store of all good things, and giver of life.
Come and make your home in us,
Cleanse us from every stain of sin,
And in your goodness save us.

(A hymn from Orthodox Vespers for the feast of Pentecost.)

The Spirit of God fills the universe, Genesis 1. 1-2

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep; and the Spirit of God was moving over the face of the waters.

God’s Spirit was filling the whole universe, this is something that we must understand even as we celebrate the feast of Pentecost today.

How do we understand this truth?

Take energy for example – apart from fuel and coal, we speak of all sorts of energy production these days, especially alternative energies – the windmill power, solar power, earth power, hydro-electric power etc. We are exploiting energy that is already there. We are not creating it. We don’t see it, but it is there.

The Spirit of God that fills the universe is like that. Divine energy is everywhere. It is up to us to connect to and have our lives empowered, transformed and changed.

The Prophets and Saints

We have several examples of people who have tapped into God’s energy that transformed not just themselves but the world around them. In the whole of the Old Testament which is the history of our salvation, we have examples of men and women who were filled withthe Holy Spirit. They were the prophets and holy men and women who spoke God’s word for the people.

Pentecost (Whit Sunday)

Is the greatest event after the resurrection of Jesus. It was an event of unimaginable dimensions. What happened, as we see in the first reading of today’s lectionary is something incredibly divine and spiritual, something that catapulted the first Christians into passionate followers of Jesus. The apostles received the Holy Spirit and from being fragile, weak human beings they were empowered by the Holy Spirit and became great witnesses of Christ.

In comparison to what we see in Genesis 1.2 and Acts of the apostles 2. 1-11, our world is quite different from the Spirit of God which is the Spirit of Love. The spirit of the world, often, unfortunately, is the spirit of hatred, lack of forgiveness, greed, lust as opposed to love, anger, injustice, exploitation of the poor and weak, exorbitant profit making, in short, often the spirit of the world is the spirit of evil.

Several things going on in our Parish

In spite of the lockdown, you can pray at home and open your heart to receive God’s Spirit.  If you explore this website you will find resources that might be of use to you in your personal prayer and reflection.

The Holy Communion that we celebrate in church or on line is a moment when a person can open one’s heart with faith to the Spirit of God.

Our hearts are half empty. We are not filled like a half empty glass of water. Or maybe, our hearts, like glasses, are upturned and cannot receive the water. Jesus had said: “Out of the believer’s heart shall flow rivers of living water.” He said this about the Spirit of God which believers in him were to receive. (cf. John 7.38-39)

The secret of receiving the Spirit of God is submission to God, surrender to God and inviting God to enter your heart. As we heard in the Gospel this morning, the fruit of our submission to God is peace of God and the gift of the Holy Spirit and forgiveness of our sins (cf. John 20. 19-23)

Life becomes a great deal more meaningful and fulfilling when we let God in into our lives. We haven’t arrived but the journey of following Jesus is exciting and spiritually empowering in our souls.

The crux of the message that God is giving us today on this Pentecost Sunday is this :

• Listen to God.
• Obey him in your heart.
• Give your life to God.
• Make God the absolute and only centre of your life.
• Your life will be transformed for ever!

Please spend some time in silence, responding to what you have heard today and listening to what God might be saying to you in your heart ….

Pause to pray …

A further Prayer you can say now:

Lord Jesus,
I believe you are the Son of God.
Thank you for becoming one of us.
Thank you for dying on the cross for my sins.
Thank you for rising from the dead
to give me hope and the gift of eternal life.

I repent of my sins
and invite you into heart and life
as my Lord and Saviour.
Please grant me your Holy Spirit
so that I may know you, love you
and follow you every day of my life.

Amen.

[Revd Dr ST Mattapally, Rector, Springline Parish, Diocese of Lincoln]