Suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind! As if on cue this past week – there was a full day of strong winds all over Northern Europe and the UK last Friday. As one preparing a sermon and perhaps for the rest of you preparing for this weekend, it brought to mind this phrase from our reading from Acts – there came…a mighty rushing wind. During that storm, our tallest…
Suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind. [Acts 2:3] As if on cue, on Saturday, there was a mighty rushing wind all day – to turn our minds to the celebration of Pentecost! A wind to unsettle us, to move us, unseen physically, but we feel the effects, it was something beyond our carefully controlled lives! Today we continue to celebrate Pentecost, the third great feast of the Church year…
Suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind. Happy Pentecost! Happy Birthday to the Church! We celebrated Jesus’ Resurrection on Easter 50 days ago. We continue to follow today, the pattern of the actual history experienced by the Apostles. Fifty days after that first Easter, the Apostles and others were praying in a room, like we are today, and suddenly the Spirit descended upon them – like a mighty rushing wind…
Suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind. I made up some posters for the Pentecost services with a kind of provocative title, “Reconstructing Babel”. Surely we’re not called to do that again, constructing a great tower, a great city with towers reaching into heaven? It didn’t end well last time! The Tower of Babel in Genesis 11 is a story of right human desire that went wrong. They said, Come,…
Suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind. Today is the Feast of Pentecost, called Whitsunday in the English tradition, a name that is said to derive from the white robes worn by the newly baptized on that day. So it is most appropriate that on this great Feast we have baptized Maximillian Christian and we believe he has been born from above and made a child of God, a member…
I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. Today is Pentecost – the third greatest feast of the Church – we celebrate God pouring out his Spirit to make Christians, followers of Jesus Christ, to create the Church. This gift of the Spirit of God is something powerful and a claim unique to the Christian faith. Jesus says, the world cannot receive [the Spirit], because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him,…