31st Mat Feast of Pentecost

PENTECOST

Collect after Ascension: “Leave us not comfortless”
Common Worship Liturgy – underlines the expectancy of God giving us the opposite of being without comfort – the Holy Spirit then comes upon the Church.

BIBLE
The Spirit of God & the Holy Spirit – to be found throughout the books of the Bible
Hebrew texts: the spirit is often a sign of God’s presence: antithesis of what is wrong with the world.
Greek texts: the Spirit of God becomes the gift of Jesus: emergence of Trinitarian theology

THEOLOGY
Ever since Acts 2 – the church has wrestled to understand the interaction between the Holy Spirit and the Church and the Holy Spirit and the believer:
1) General agreement: a new way of life: a new philosophy
Sarx v spirit

2) General agreement: a new language – one of the most common words in Acts
Apostles spoke in a spiritual language which went beyond local dialects
Commonly interpreted now as speaking in tongues
What emerges thro Early Fathers is a universal language of the Spirit
LOVE JOY PEACE – part of the new way of life.

3) General agreement: a new channel for all our energy
We are all different
We are all unique
One good at one thing: one good at another
“There are varieties of gifts – but the same spirit.”

FH Chase calls the events of Pentecost – “the sunlight of a new day”
Darkness overcome
The light which the spirit brings illuminates the first church
NEW WAY OF LIFE; NEW LANGUAGE; NEW CHANNEL FOR OUR ENERGY