Pentecost Service.
Opening Prayer:
O God,
You who are always doing new things, surprising encounters and breathtaking wonders:
we confess that we sometimes close windows
against the fresh air of new ideas, against the winds of change.
God of Pentecost, Father, son And Spirit,
You who are every place and any time,
we confess that we often draw away from people who are different,
and world news or community concerns.
Forgive us when we are afraid or selfish,
And when we try to guard our hearts and souls against your moving Spirit.
Open our lives, and let your Spirit blow through.
Breathe your Spirit into our hearts and minds, let us be moved and let us move.
Amen.
Gospel John 15.13
When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth; for he will not speak on his own, but will speak whatever he hears, and he will declare to you the things that are to come.
SERMON: Pentecost & Spirit.
It is Pentecost. Det er Pinse.
Pentecost is the day of Spirit descending on the disciples as we heard in the Reading from Acts.
Pentecost is the day of a moving, burning spirit that moves within people and around people, and a spirit that burns with passion. Pentecost is the day of the church. Celebrating that we are people of earth, wind and fire!
Sometimes we get so focused on a limited version of our lives: the one here on earth, the one where we can measure and understand and calculate, the one where we can proof what we see, - and then we forget the other version of our lives. The version filled with more dimensions, and much more vision. The version where we can not measure nor understand and calculate everything, but still believe that it is true. The version of life where we can not prof our faith and hopes with tangible calculations, but where our lives, our loves, our hopes and our breath prove that there is so much more to life than we can express. We know love is, but how do we explain or prove?
“All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit.” It said in Acts. And the disciples breathed that divine breath in – and they lived and believed with that power of love, faith and hope in them. It ignited their speech; it gave them strength and it united them despite all the things that might have separated them.
The Spirit moves. The spirit moved them, and it moves us. If we let it.
Take a deep breath!
Take a deep breath! Put you hand on your lungs and feel the air/ the breath moving your body and giving you strength.
Think about how your body and your life literality would be lifeless without that breath. The breath of life – that keeps you alive and even more keeps your faith, love and hope alive.
It is Pentecost Sunday today. And it is all about Spirit, breath, movement, hopes, faith and being.
Take a deep breath, close your eyes. And think about where Gods Spirit moves you to go? Where does the spirit tell you to go? What does the spirit tell you to say and do? How does the spirit tell you to embrace life, creation, nature and each other?
Too many times we do not listen to the Spirit of Truth that tries to guide us, speak to us and make us listen. Like that gentle voice of care and forgiveness, that urges us to embrace the other; that persistent nagging voice of bad conscious that tells us what is right and wrong; that whispering voice of love that with every breath we take reminds us that we are indeed Children of God and breathing the breath of life, the breath of God.
Pentecost is the day to listen and believe. To listen to the spirit speaking to us, to listen to our consciousness and heart, to listen to each other and try to understand more. To believe that we are people of earth, wind, and fire. People of flesh and bones, but also of spirit, faith and passion.
It is Pentecost. And as one of my Danish pastor colleagues said: God vaccinated the whole World with Hope at Pentecost. That is something we can understand in these Covid19 times. Vaccinated with hope. We too long to be vaccinated with hope so we dare meet, dream, gather, hug, kiss and embrace life again.
The disciples back them were vaccinated with hope so the dared break their isolation and feat and go out into the world. They started preaching and they started the Christians church.
“God vaccinated the whole world with a dose of Hope when he sent the Holy Spirit to us at Pentecost, “Simon wrote. In that we can have comfort even when our world still seems isolated and restricted…. Pentecost is hope. It is breath and life. Breathe and believe! AMEN.