Acts 2: 1-18
[the idea here is a sort of rhythmic repetition, snappy and fast-paced and flowing, and bringing in some of the lyrics to the following hymn 'Gather us in'... I feel I got boxed in earlier in the week by the post-sermon hymn... it ain't pretty, but never mind]
Let us pray:
Spirit of the living God
Fall afresh upon us –
Help us to hear your voice
in word and in our thoughts...
Amen.
Gathered in
Gathered together in one
place
All the believers –
in one house
Sitting ...
Talking
Pondering upon Jesus:
Jesus who had so recently been
among them
And who had been himself
gathered
up to God the Father....
but, who, before he’d gone
Had asked them to gather...
And so,
they did.
In a room,
In Jerusalem...
Gathered together
Gathering their thoughts:
They waited...
And wondered:
Wondered what those last
words of Jesus had meant:
‘You will receive power from
on high’
‘I will be with you always’...
Always?
But he’d disappeared...
Gone to the Father;
So, how was that possible?
Called and gathered
They had been on an
incredible adventure:
A roller-coaster ride of
mystery and wonder
Of friendship and laughter
Of weddings and wine
loaves and fishes
Palms
Processions
Cheers, betrayal, and jeers
A journey of fear, denial,
Slaughter and scattering.
...and unspeakable bewildering
grief...
And then
Day’s dawn in a garden
And the world... turned
upside down
as a stone rolled away... with
resurrection’s promise fulfilled.
They gathered again
He appeared in their midst
With bread and wine and
blessing
And the promise of a helper...
On a day
when they’d gathered
together again,
A sudden unexpected noise
Loud:
like wind blowing out the cobwebs in the
corners of the mind
Blowing and rattling the
windows of imagination open
Blowing wide open the
doorways of their hearts
as the flames of the Holy
Spirit danced in their midst:
their eyes opened as if
seeing for the first time;
And their hearts were
comforted by the warmth of holy fire
And their minds understood
the words:
‘I will be with you
always’...
And in response:
So excited that together
they left the room
And, like the Spirit rushing
into that room and into their lives...
they rushed
out into the world:
Excited
Amazed
Shining and blazing with the light and life of God’s love.
Proclaiming what had
happened to all who would hear.
...And some who heard
thought they were drunk
but others from all around
the known world mysteriously heard the joyous good news in the language of
their birth.
And 3 000 were added to the
number of believers that same day.
And as they gathered,
So they scattered – to be
witnesses
And to call and to gather
others...
Who, in turn, would scatter
and proclaim the good news
of the message of Christ
down through the ages...
Generation upon generation,
Gathering and scattering,
Fired by the prompting of
the Spirit,
Hearing and sharing the
story:
Eating bread,
drinking wine.
Remembering the one who had
called them
and caused them to gather
Who told them that He would
be with them always;
Then -
told them to scatter
and to share the good news...
And now,
here,
in this place,
in this room,
we gather:
Week in, week out,
We gather.
Why?...
Because Christ has called us here –
although maybe in a less
dramatic way than those first followers on the day of Pentecost:
the drama which was the birth of the church.
We gather, because
it’s
something we just
do:
Almost a routine...
We get up
Get dressed
Have our bacon butty
or our cereal
or even that slice of
leftover pizza...
and, at the Spirit’s
prompting –
even though we may not have
realised that’s what it was –
we answer the call:
we gather in
this place
as generations before us
have gathered;
we hear again the good
news...
That good news is about
friendship:
God, in Jesus, saying:
‘I call you my friends’
‘I call you my friends’
God, through the Spirit
Being with us –
always.
The friendship expanding as
we, in turn, say to our neighbours:
‘I call you my friends’
As we stand alongside,
and walk with those around
us –
in joy and in pain and in
all the in between....
We are called to gather,
in order to scatter
and so we share the love of
God.
Here,
in this place,
in this room,
we gather:
and although at times we may
not even be aware of it...
Here, in this place,
new light is streaming
now is the darkness vanished
away.
The One who calls us friends
is with us still
in the mystery of the Spirit;
That same Spirit
who blows through this room
making, in our hearts, a home:
comforting and encouraging
challenging and inspiring...
with us always
calling us to gather
to hear again the good news;
to remember
and to respond once more:
to shine;
to blaze with the light and
life of God’s love
and then to scatter from
this room
and go and share:
share the good news with all:
the good news
that God calls us friends
that God is with us always –
that God will never leave us
or forsake us
that we are loved regardless
of age, or gender, or orientation,
or even if we did have that leftover
pizza slice for breakfast...
Here in this place
Gathered together as God’s
called people -
Even now...
the breath of God’s Spirit is filling the room,
Swirling around us
and within in us
Reminding us that
even as we
scatter and think about what God might be doing
in our own lives,
And in the life of the world
-
that we are not alone,
that each of us is part of something much, much bigger:
that we’re bound together in friendship –
with each other
And with God,
Who calls us
And gathers us
Loves us
and scatters us
and who, in the Spirit,
is the fire of love in our
flesh and our bone -
and who encourages us to
tell
the greatest love story the world has ever known.
Amen.
