Worship - 8 June 2025

Summary of this week's theme

Shavuot, a Jewish festival celebrated 50 days after Passover, is also known in Greek as Pentecost.  It marks two things: the offering of the first fruits and the giving of the Law at Mount Sinai - a joyful remembrance that God gave something new and vital.  As one Rabbi said, its message is: ‘I’m your God. Don’t abuse me or one another.’ 

God delights in creation, yet understands our capacity for harm.  From Cain to Sodom, God tries to set boundaries without taking away our freedom.  We often stray - what we call sin - but God faithfully seeks us, always meeting us where we are.

At the first Christian Pentecost, the Spirit filled the disciples in a house - and then overflowed. They had to go outside.  The miracle was not just in their speaking, but in others’ hearing.  Like Jesus, who met people where they were, the Spirit met people in their own languages.  This wasn't just a spectacle - it was abundant love overflowing.

That abundance is a theme in Jesus’ ministry: forgiveness without limit, tiny seeds becoming great trees, and a prodigal father embracing a wayward child.  Even the cross was an act of overflowing love.  Pentecost continues that movement - God reaching out in new ways to create something new: the Church.

But here’s the challenge: we’re not always good at new things.  We want others to change more than ourselves.  Pentecost reminds us that we must be willing to be changed, turned upside down even, to let God’s kingdom come.

As Peter quotes the prophet Joel in the passage from Acts, we’re shown salvation as something lived here and now - in relationship, in community, in diversity.  If Pentecost is the Church’s birthday, it began with noise, confusion, and power - a holy disruption. And we are called to keep that going.

So what do we take away?  That God continues to reach for us, and we must be alert, open, and willing to respond.  We must pray, discern, and most of all, go outside - to share the Spirit, without boundaries.  The Church, animated by the Holy Spirit, is a living force for transformation.  Each of us is gifted for a purpose.  Together, in God’s Spirit, we are called to be part of the new thing God is always doing.