Sunday Service

All Saints’ Church Renhold Bedfordshire, England

Eucharist service for Pentecost

Hymn – 156 - Come down O Love divine.

The Gathering

In the name of the Father,

and of the Son,

and of the Holy Spirit.

All Amen

The Greeting

Grace, mercy and peace

from God our Father

and the Lord Jesus Christ be with you.

All And also with you.

Alleluia. Christ is risen.

All He is risen indeed. Alleluia.

Introduction –

Jesus Christ, whom we worship, is our crucified, risen and ascended Lord and we have walked with him through his journey of love.

We have faced the agony of his suffering and death on a cross.

We have rejoiced at his bursting free from the bonds of death.

We have enjoyed his risen presence with us and his revelation of himself through the breaking of bread.

We have seen his return to the throne before which every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that this Jesus is Lord.

And now, with the followers of his own time, we await the coming of the promised Holy Spirit, his gift to his people, through whom we make Christ known to the world.

Responsory

As we wait in silence, All fill us with your Spirit.

As we listen to your word, All fill us with your Spirit.

As we worship you in majesty, All fill us with your Spirit.

As we long for your refreshing, All fill us with your Spirit.

As we long for your renewing, All fill us with your Spirit.

As we long for your equipping, All fill us with your Spirit.

As we long for your empowering, All fill us with your Spirit.

Silence is kept.

The Pentecost Reading –

A reading from the Acts of the Apostles (2.1-13)

When the day of Pentecost had come, they 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. Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven living in Jerusalem. And at this sound the crowd gathered and was bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in the native language of each. Amazed and astonished, they asked, ‘Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? And how is it that we hear, each of us, in our own native language? Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabs – in our own languages we hear them speaking about God’s deeds of power.’ All were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, ‘What does this mean?’ But others sneered and said, ‘They are filled with new wine.’

The Lord is here.

All His Spirit is with us.

Prayer for Personal Renewal

Chrism Oil may be brought forward, the bearer saying

Oil for the renewal of God’s people.

The president says

Be with us, Spirit of God;

All nothing can separate us from your love

Breathe on us, breath of God;

All fill us with your saving power.

Speak in us, wisdom of God;

All bring strength, healing, and peace.

Let us bless the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

All Let us praise and bless God for ever.

Blessed are you, sovereign God and eternal Father.

Daily your Spirit renews the face of the earth,

bringing strength out of weakness,

hope out of despair and life out of death.

By the power of your Spirit, may your blessing rest upon those anointed with this oil in your name.

Let it be for them a sign of your acceptance and adoption,

your equipping and empowering.

Form in them the likeness of Christ, that they may be witnesses of your astonishing love, and fill them afresh with life in all its fullness.

Blessed be God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

All Blessed be God for ever.

Anointing with the oil of Chrism

Hymn – 154 Gracious Spirit, Holy Ghost

Let us bless the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

All Let us praise and bless God for ever.

Confession

You raise the dead to life in the Spirit:

Lord, have mercy.

All Lord, have mercy.

You bring pardon and peace to the broken in heart:

Christ, have mercy.

All Christ, have mercy.

You make one by your Spirit the torn and divided:

Lord, have mercy.

All Lord, have mercy

May the Father forgive us by the death of his Son

and strengthen us to live in the power of the Spirit all our days.

All Amen.

Gloria in Excelsis –

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.

The Collect

Let us pray that the Spirit will work through our lives to bring Christ to the world.

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.

The Liturgy of the Word - New testament Reading 1 Corinthians 12.3b-13

Therefore I want you to understand that no one speaking by the Spirit of God ever says ‘Let Jesus be cursed!’ and no one can say ‘Jesus is Lord’ except by the Holy Spirit.

Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; 5and there are varieties of services, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who activates all of them in everyone. To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. To one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the discernment of spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. All these are activated by one and the same Spirit, who allots to each one individually just as the Spirit chooses.

For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For in the one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and we were all made to drink of one Spirit.

This is the word of the Lord.

All Thanks be to God.

Gospel Reading – John 7.37-39

Alleluia, alleluia.

Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful people

and kindle in them the fire of your love.

All Alleluia.

Hear the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to John.

All Glory to you, O Lord.

On the last day of the festival, the great day, while Jesus was standing there, he cried out, ‘Let anyone who is thirsty come to me, and let the one who believes in me drink. As the scripture has said, “Out of the believer’s heart shall flow rivers of living water.” ’ Now he said this about the Spirit, which believers in him were to receive; for as yet there was no Spirit, because Jesus was not yet glorified.

This is the Gospel of the Lord.

All Praise to you, O Christ.

Sermon –

I was reading an article earlier this week which had the heading “What is this Holy Spirit, this flame igniting the birthday candle of the church?”

As you might expect the answer to this question is complexed so here are my thoughts:

The Holy Spirit is God, expressed in a way we can sense him directly. As we might expect, the experience is overwhelming and mysterious as the Holy Spirit is deeply personal, touching us individually in unique ways that are provocative and emotional.

Even though God is more than biologically male or female, we use the traditional pronoun “he” because it keeps us in that great, long-running scriptural metaphor of the husband wooing and pursuing his errant, adulterous bride. In the metaphor, God is the husband or groom and we men and women of the church, are his bride. At Pentecost we see a deep spiritual ravishing, where our souls are exposed one to another and we are known in full.

The Holy Spirit transforms. As we heard in our reading, the Spirit sounded like wind and looked like fire on the day of Pentecost. When wind and fire sweep over a place, everything is changed. When we think of natural disasters in our world today, the image of “Wildfires” is frightening. And yes, if we are being honest with ourselves, we have to admit that the idea of the Holy Spirit sweeping over us probably frightens us as much as the idea of being in the middle of a firestorm.

When we are transformed by God, we may do strange things and many of us don’t like the idea of seeming strange, or looking different to the world, we like to fit in. If we are transformed, we may demonstrate a kind of enthusiasm and excitement people haven’t seen in us before. People may call us “Nuts”, or ask us “Have you have lost it” these being a modern day equivalent of “They are drunk in the morning!”

With the gift of the Spirit we are liable to find ourselves capable of doing things we did not imagine possible, and with that capability, we may find new demands upon us. Again, the possibility of sudden change is intimidating to us.

When the Spirit, recognises our belief in Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour, he gives us gifts, which he doesn’t expect us to hide away in the cupboard, but He expects that we should get those gifts out and use them in the world around us!

The ability to declare who Jesus is, the insight to discern and declare what truth is, and the deep desire to help others—We should aim to wear these gifts out. My commentary suggests it is okay to use them up as the Holy Spirit honours the faithful who use their gifts, by replenishing them.

Speak the truth of who God is, speak clearly of what God is doing through Jesus Christ. Engage with strangers and people outside of your comfort zone, those who you have never imagined yourself being among before.

For example, if you are called to go among youth or children, God will give you the words and actions you need (I have experienced this in my leading of collective worship with the young people at school). Or if you find yourself mixing with a crowd that used to frighten you, fear not—God will make you attractive and understandable to them (again I have felt this when working with the street pastors or with the healing on the streets team in Luton).

The Spirit will not burn you as it sweeps over. The Spirit will refine you, for once you know Jesus Christ, you have the potential to be holy. Let the Spirit touch you long enough, and you will shine like the purest gold.

The Holy Spirit is power. Sometimes as Christians, we talk about power as if it is a bad thing, as if wanting power is inherently evil. In this case we are thinking of worldly power and we are right when we criticise such pursuits. Seeking God’s power is a different matter entirely.

Thinking back to movies as I often do in sermons these days, I can remember seeing the very first Star Wars movie when I was a teenager and being totally enthralled by all those lightsabres and the talk of “the Force.” I remember, like many others, thinking If only I could just get my hands on a real lightsabre, swinging it with the power of the Force in me!

Here is a factoid for you.. George Lucas the creator of the films based the Force on the impersonal energy of certain Asian religions, an energy that supposedly binds all things together, flowing through them. When reflecting on this from a spiritual perspective, I came to the conclusion that the Holy Spirit is the real Force, it is one thing that is capable of touching us more deeply than Asian religions or George Lucas ever imagined.

As Christians we believe in a personal, loving God and His Holy Spirit is the personal, loving Force. When we are open to the Holy Spirit, God’s creative power goes to work in us and the Holy Spirit works in us so that we can accomplish God’s eternal will. It enables us to go into the world with the power we need, we can be “The Jedi Knights of Christ”.

This Holy Spirit marks a new era, the one in which we now live. Properly attuned to him, we all are supposed to have a sense of the times, with our dreams and visions revealing what is coming. What is coming? A remaking of all things. The sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross triggered a new order to creation, which was visibly seen first in his resurrection. Satan, wielding sin and death, used to be the power broker, but no more. With the Holy Spirit in us, we can tell Satan, “Get behind me and Be gone!” As we move through time toward the full, visible return of Jesus Christ; His kingdom is present among us, and we make it more present each day by declaring the kingdom to be real, as we live as if it has fully arrived.

Let us follow Peter’s exhortation. Let us call on the name of the Lord and be saved and let us be sure all those around us have the same opportunity. The Spirit has swept over us as a church once again, the fire will burn, and we will be comforted and strengthened for eternity.

Amen

The Creed – (Please Stand)

We believe in one God,
the Father, the Almighty,
maker of heaven and earth,
of all that is,
seen and unseen.

We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ,
the only Son of God,
eternally begotten of the Father,
God from God, Light from Light,
true God from true God,
begotten, not made,
of one Being with the Father;
through him all things were made.
For us and for our salvation he came down from heaven,
was incarnate from the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary
and was made man.
For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate;
he suffered death and was buried.
On the third day he rose again
in accordance with the Scriptures;
he ascended into heaven
and is seated at the right hand of the Father.
He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead,
and his kingdom will have no end.

We believe in the Holy Spirit,
the Lord, the giver of life,
who proceeds from the Father and the Son,
who with the Father and the Son is worshipped and glorified,
who has spoken through the prophets.
We believe in one holy catholic and apostolic Church.
We acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins.
We look for the resurrection of the dead,
and the life of the world to come. Amen.

Prayers of Intercession

We pray for God to fill us with his Spirit.

Generous God,

we thank you for the power of your Holy Spirit.

We ask that we may be strengthened to serve you better.

Lord, come to bless us