Greeting

Celebrant     Alleluia! Christ is risen.
People           The Lord is risen indeed. Alleluia!

Celebrant     May his grace and peace be with you.
People           May he fill our hearts with joy.

Glory to God

Glory to God in the highest, and peace to his people on earth. Lord God, heavenly king, almighty God and Father, we worship you, we give you thanks, we praise you for your glory.

Lord Jesus Christ, only Son of the Father, Lord God, Lamb of God, you take away the sin of the world: have mercy on us; you are seated at the right hand of the Father: receive our prayer.

For you alone are the Holy One, you alone are the Lord, you alone are the Most High, Jesus Christ, with the Holy Spirit, in the glory of God the Father. Amen.

Collect

Celebrant    Let us pray.
Almighty and ever-living God, who fulfilled the promises of Easter by sending us your Holy Spirit and opening to every race and nation the way of life eternal, keep us in the unity of your Spirit, that every tongue may tell of your glory; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Hymn: Holy Spirit, Come with Power #643

(for personal viewing: Andrew Lapp)

Holy Spirit, come with power,
breathe into our aching night.
We expect you this glad hour,
waiting for your strength and light.
We are fearful, we are ailing,
we are weak and selfish too.
Break upon your congregation,
give us vigor, life anew.

Holy Spirit, come with fire,
burn us with your presence new.
Let us as one mighty choir
sing our hymn of praise to you.
Burn away our wasted sadness
and enflame us with your love.
Burst upon your congregation,
give us gladness from above.

Holy Spirit, bring your message,
burn and breathe each word anew
deep into our tired living
till we strive your work to do.
Teach us love and trusting kindness,
lend our hands to those who hurt.
Breathe upon your congregation
and inspire us with your word.

Readings

• A Reading from the Book of Acts of the Apostles (Chapter 2:1-21)
• Psalm 104: 25-35, 37
• The Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to John (Chapter 7:37-39)

Hymn: Spirit of the Living God #647

(for personal viewing: First CRC Church)

Spirit of the living God,
move among us all;
make us one in heart and mind,
make us one in love:
humble, caring, selfless, sharing—
Spirit of the living God,
fill our lives with love!

Sermon

May my words be in the name of The Father, The Son and The Holy Spirit. Amen.

The wind is one of the metaphors the Bible uses to describe the effects of the Holy Spirit. In the description of the Day of Pentecost we’ve heard this morning Luke says, “Suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting.” Jesus also said to Nicodemus in John’s Gospel, “The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So, it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.” Probably in the back of their minds were the famous words from Ezekiel in the Old Testament about the vision of the valley of dry bones, “Thus says the Lord God: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live.” We should remember that the same word means both “breath” and “Spirit” in Hebrew and Greek. In Greek, the word is pneuma, which reminds us of the power of the pneumatic drill. But the Holy Spirit is also symbolized by tongues of fire and by a peaceful dove, of which there is a lovely illustration at the top of our bulletin this morning. Just like the concept of wind, they are symbols of The Spirit and attempts at describing the indescribable and explaining the inexplicable. The advantage of a symbol is that, like a story and a picture, it means different things to different people. A metaphor conjures up a vision in our imaginations and it’s therefore much more powerful than a cold recital of facts.

So, these three symbols can each display the workings of the Holy Spirit in our lives, both individually and corporately as the Body of Christ. The image of the mighty wind shows us that the Holy Spirit brings dynamic power, provided we are ready to receive it. Without the aid of the Spirit, we are powerless. How often we feel powerless to do what we want to do, or what we know we ought to do – Paul’s famous words, “That which I would do, I do not and that which I would not do, I do!” We know what it means to be a good parent, but somehow, despite our best intentions, we never do as well as we meant to. That’s when we need to pray for the power of the Spirit, just as when we are tempted to overeat or drink too much or be violent or rude. We know perfectly well we ought to be able to resist these temptations, but when it comes to the point, we lack the strength. O, how we need to pray for the Holy Spirit’s power to aid us in our fight!

But we also need to be fired up by The Spirit with the tongues of its flames in our daily lives. So often we feel we are in a rut, both individually and corporately, and we need the fiery inspiration of the Holy Spirit to lift us out of the trough and up into the light of Jesus so that we can move forward as individuals and as a church. This pandemic has had a dumbing-down effect on not just us and the church but on society generally. O, how we need to pray for an uplifting of the Spirit in our lives!

But we also need to be nurtured and cosseted by the Spirit like the dove coming into our lives. Without this effect of the Spirit, we cannot enjoy the fruits of the Spirit: love, joy, peace and so on. We cannot be effective Christians if we don’t have these attributes dominating our characters and our actions in our community. We will lack confidence; we will be lacklustre and our lives and witness to Christ being at the centre of them will be ineffectual. O, how we need to pray for the softness of the dove to be at the core of our being!

Notice that I have said “we need to pray for the Spirit” consistently through this sermon and one of the many ways the Holy Spirit inspires Christians and the church is to create a real special time of corporate prayer. I have discovered that many of us have been praying more than usual during this period of lockdown, and the Archbishop of Canterbury has invited Christians around the world at this time of Ascension and Pentecost to take part in the programme called “Thy Kingdom Come.” The Spiritual Development Committee at All Saints’ have decided we should join in, and we will be having a Zoom prayer group meeting every day for the next two weeks, Monday to Friday, at 1:30pm – you can find all the details on the flyer attached to this bulletin. I invite as many of you as possible to attend, it promises to be an exciting time as we pray together at this important time in the Church’s calendar. It starts tomorrow. Be there or be square!

So, let’s pray, pray and pray again and be ready for when the wind of the Spirit begins to blow, to harness its power, its inspiration and its love as it changes our characters and makes us more effective as human beings and Christ’s witnesses upon this planet. We know that’s what we want to be – but without the power of the Holy Spirit we will achieve nothing. Amen.

Song: Come Holy Spirit – led by Jacky Bramma

Chorus:

Come Holy Spirit Come, Fill me, dwell within me,
Come Holy Spirit Come, Lord Blessed Trinity.

Prayers of the People

Leader: God of Love
Response: Receive our prayer.

The Lord’s Prayer

Our Father…

Offertory Moment

We are called as followers of Christ to take a prayerful, proportionate and deliberate approach to givings to ensure that the parish receives the funds it needs to support ongoing ministry. Please consider making a donation now through our parish donation page or by enrolling in pre-authorized giving. Offertory envelopes can be delivered or mailed to the church.

Accept this invitation to generosity in the spirit of the regular Sunday offertory, knowing that your gifts, however they are made, are blessed by virtue of being to the glory of God and for the purpose of serving as Christ’s disciples through our own lives and vocation.

Hymn: Praise to the Lord the Almighty (vs. 1,2,3) #384

(for personal viewing: Mormon Tabernacle Choir)

Praise to the Lord, the Almighty, the King of creation!
O my soul, praise him, for he is your health and salvation!
Come, all who hear; now to his temple draw near,
join me in glad adoration.

Praise to the Lord, who o’er all things so wondrously reigneth;
shelters thee under his wings, yea, so gently sustaineth:
hast thou not seen how thy entreaties have been
granted in what he ordaineth?

Praise to the Lord, who doth prosper thy work and defend thee;
surely his goodness and mercy here daily attend thee:
Ponder anew what the Almighty can do,
if with his love he befriends thee.

The Blessing

The Spirit of truth lead you into all truth, give you grace to confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, and strengthen you to proclaim the word and works of God, and the blessing of God Almighty, The Father, The Son and The Holy Spirit, be among you and remain with you always. Amen.

Thursday, May 28

Last week I very nearly forgot to do my assigned Thought and Prayer of the Day. Some of you may have noticed it was posted rather late in the evening on Thursday. It’s so not like me to miss a deadline … at least, not under normal conditions. But in these present days, I find I am forgetting any number of things. I forgot to pay last month’s Visa bill, forgot to put the garbage out mid-week, thought a Friday was a Thursday, and only belatedly remembered to wish a dear friend happy birthday.

My increasing state of muddled thinking is, I think, due to this unparalleled limbo we are all in. Days are largely undifferentiated and we feel somewhat unanchored as we wait for things to change. This got me thinking about the space between Ascension and Pentecost and what it must have been like for the disciples. It was possibly a strangely liminal moment for them too, as they waited out the days between Christ’s final leave-taking from them and the promise of a new way forward. When Christ had been with them in life, there had been ministry and energy — places to go, people to preach to, multitudes to feed. On the days leading to the crucifixion and through the risen Christ’s appearances to them that followed, each day must have been intense and momentous. But this week, the disciples are living through a profound “now what?” moment. The source and centre of their ministry is truly gone, and yet they know that a time will soon come when they will have the signal to rally and go forth into the world

The suspension of in-person worship has challenged us to figure out how to be church without being in church. We miss the things that give us comfort and companionship, but in this “in-between” time, we still need to be thinking about those people who have no relationship yet with God and no church family.  Are we daily praying that friends and family, and neighbours and colleagues might come to faith in Jesus Christ? Are we sharing the Sunday zoom invite with family and acquaintances in the same way we would invite them to a regular Sunday service? (For those who are shy about attending church, this is a great time to sample the waters: a Zoom service provides perfect anonymity and eliminates any fear of not knowing what to do when.) Are there those out there who are experiencing such a void in their lives now because of this pandemic that they might be thirsty to hear about the love and peace of Christ? How are we reaching them?

On Sunday, we will celebrate Pentecost and recall the marvel of that moment when the disciples, were “all together in one place. And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability.” (Acts 2: 1-4)

We too are recipients of the gift of the Holy Spirit, and we don’t have to wait until we are together again in our building to be empowered by it, even if our efforts are chaotic and disruptive and misunderstood as it was at that first Pentecost.  Let us seek out ways to witness to Christ’s teachings, each to our ability, even during this time of social disruption. Indeed, perhaps especially in this time of social disruption, we can play our part in the ongoing renewal of the church. It may not be tidy or comfortable or perfectly executed. But as C.S. Lewis once wrote, “”Where we find difficulty we may always expect that a discovery awaits us.” It’s possible we might forget to put the garbage out once in a while or fail to start a meeting on time, but the important thing is we remember the Pentecostal birthday of the church and remain open to the ways we can praise God and prophesy in our present day.

Prayer:

We may not be able to gather together in one place and take strength from each other’s presence. But we know you are with us, Lord Jesus, and we are united by your love for us.

We may not have the gift of tongues bestowed upon us. But we too are blessed with the grace and guidance of the Holy Spirit.

Like your first disciples, we commit ourselves to put our own abilities to use to spread the Good News of your transformative presence to those who have not yet heard of your love for them. Amen.

Tuesday, May 26

One of the things that most doctoral students quickly learn in their quest to broaden the existing body of knowledge in their field of study is to set out to achieve a small, rather than a monumental, addition to what now exists within their chosen realm.

A sobering “reality check” is typically accomplished at the start of one’s studies by a deep engagement in the existing academic literature and research. This typically results in several peer-reviewed sources that have already dealt with the area you intended to study – a humbling experience. There is also benefit in getting some sage advice from one’s faculty advisors charged with successfully shepherding your efforts to a successful end. “Aim for something that incrementally moves forward the body of knowledge that already exists; that is your goal,” said my at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education at the University of Toronto. While at the time I was not sure this was good advice, I eventually saw the wisdom in such counsel. Along this road too was the all-important exercise of creating THE QUESTION that would drive my thinking, research and writing for the next several years – seven to be exact of full-time and part-time study while continuing my full-time teaching career.

This week we draw to the close of the Easter season with the cusp of Pentecost looming only a few days away. So… what has your Easter journey been like this year? For most of us, it has been a disruptive time brought on by the global pandemic. Without church life as we have known it and limits placed on celebrating Easter in 2020, your emotions have likely been battered and perhaps even left you feeling a bit “spiritually-challenged.” However, the last few months of imposed social restrictions on work and leisure activities may have allowed you some more time to attend to sustaining your faith – perhaps thinking a bit more about a personally relevant phrase from a recent sermon you heard over Zoom, or investigating the meaning of a particular Bible passage while being quarantined at home. You may now find yourself at a new or revitalized “starting point” in your faith journey or with the desire to further your understanding of Scripture. You may have a QUESTION you want to have answered … maybe about a particular parable told by Jesus in the gospel, or what exactly is meant by the New Covenant, or what does Pentecost mean?  Remember, it does not have to be an earth-shattering question of grand theological importance – rather, start small and begin with something that has meaning for you at this time.

Helping you answer this QUESTION and pursuing more information about it may be easy or it could be harder than you think. All Saints’ has a wealth of knowledgeable persons starting with our current interim priest, the Rev. Geoff Lloyd, other All Saints’ clergy, and many gifted lay members of the congregation who no doubt could help you. We hope to soon re-start other forms of spiritual growth and development activities once the “all clear” is given by the Diocese to resume worship and small group gatherings. Of course, such assistance in answering your QUESTION is greatly aided by an abiding faith in God the Father, a heartfelt desire on your part to have regular conversations with Jesus through prayer and listening, and in following the wise guidance of the Holy Spirit to help you, and indeed all of us, to learn and grow even in an incremental way as members of a vibrant faith community in Whitby and beyond.

Prayer

Lord, in my effort to be a faithful disciple, I often have questions about my faith, how to practice what you have taught in the Scripture, and whether I fully understand what you are calling me to do. Help me to call on those around me to answer those small and sometimes big QUESTIONS that come my way. Remind me too that you are always there as a source of knowledge and guidance to enable me to move forward, even in small ways, and help answer my QUESTIONS in order that I may further your purpose in this life. And for all of this, I am most thankful. Amen.