The Feast of Pentecost.

Acts 2.1-21 tells the story of the coming of the Holy Spirit. Of course, the Holy Spirit has been around since the creation but it has been the preserve of a few: those called to lead and serve the people, priest and kings. Now the Holy Spirit is for everyone: all genders, all ages, all socio-economic groups. The whole people of God are called to lead and to serve. It is the sharing and the exercising of this gift by the entire community is what will bring new life and renewal: In John 20.19-23 Jesus breathes the spirit on his disciples recalling the spirit of God being breathed into humanity in the very beginning. It marks the potential for a new beginning, a new creation in which all God’s children are valued and included.

Today we celebrate the Ascension. Over the last few weeks our reading shave focused on where God is to be found. Just as the Nativity shows God descending to dwell with us, so the Ascension shows us ascends to dwell with God. Both revealing that humanity and divinity are to be found together, God is not far from us but as close to us are the beat of our hearts. The question then is not, where is God? but where are we? In both Luke 24:44-53 and Acts 1:1-11 Jesus sends the disciples back into the world, not just to their people, but to all peoples. We are now the human being who can carry the transforming power of God with us. Why then do we so often persist in “stand looking up to heaven” when Jesus is sending us to witness to whole world?

“You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they find their rest in you.”  This week’s readings, like last week’s, explore our desire for God and God’s desire for us. 

In John 14:15-21, Jesus repeatedly reassures us that that we are not alone, not “orphaned” because God’s deepest desire is to dwell in us.  Our journey into God starts with discovering our own belovedness.  As we are loved into being we recognize the beloved nature of all God’s children without exception and discover God in one another.  

The life of the risen Christ takes root in us slowly. 

In our readings today, we hear how it impacted those who first heard it.  In Acts, 2:14a, 36-41, there is sorrow and regret.  Peter explains that what is required is the desire to change, to repent, to turn around and be prepared to start again.  Yet there is something that must come before this:

In Luke 24:13-35, the disciples on the road to Emmaus, must first voice their disappointment, their crushed hopes “we had hoped”, they say “that he was the one to redeem Israel”.  It only when they can let go of their own hopes that they are ready to receive the altogether larger, all encompassing hope that Jesus offers them, not just for their own people, but for all God’s children.

It’s Good Shepherd Sunday: this year’s reading focuses not just on the sheep and the shepherds, but the sheep fold and, in particular, the gate to the fold.  

We are used to hearing the sheep and shepherd stories: we understand that God promises to care for us as a shepherd cares for her flock and that we are also called to be shepherds of God’s people, caring for others. When Jesus calls himself the sheep gate, though, things get trickier. Gates open both ways: they open and close, they allow for the sheep to go in and go out. 

The life of the risen Christ takes root in us slowly. 

In our readings today, we hear how it impacted those who first heard it.  In Acts, 2:14a, 36-41, there is sorrow and regret.  Peter explains that what is required is the desire to change, to repent, to turn around and be prepared to start again.  Yet there is something that must come before this:

In Luke 24:13-35, the disciples on the road to Emmaus, must first voice their disappointment, their crushed hopes “we had hoped”, they say “that he was the one to redeem Israel”.  It only when they can let go of their own hopes that they are ready to receive the altogether larger, all encompassing hope that Jesus offers them, not just for their own people, but for all God’s children.

Jesus has done his job and now the task of living the resurrection is handed over to us. 

We are not expected to do this on our own: both of today’s readings focus on the gift of the Holy Spirit that the risen Christ sends us.  For Peter, Acts 2:14a, 22-32, this is a dramatic and powerful gift: he recalls the prophet Joel promising that the spirit will be poured out on all people: old and young, men and women, slave and free. 

This gift allows us to dream new dreams and envisage a new future for all God’s people.  For the disciples, gathered together in fear after Christ’s death, John 20:19-end, the receipt of this gift is an altogether more gentle affair.  Christ breathes the spirit on them.  It begins with assuring us that we are forgiven; that the worst we can do does not have to be the last word; that even places of despair and hopelessness can be places of redemption and renewal.

The Day of Resurrection! Our dawn service starts before the sun has risen at 5am when we light the Paschal Candle from the new Easter fire outside of the church and carry the light of Christ into the dark church. It’s worth getting up early for this magical service where we sing the first alleluia of Easter by candlelight.

Our Festival Easter Mass starts at 10.30am. Here we bless the Easter garden and renew our baptismal vows: we die with Christ and are raised by him into new life.

Our readings for both services celebrate the mystery of a God who raises the dead to life with Peter’s proclamation of the resurrection in Acts 10. 34-43 and Matthew’s telling of the discovery of the empty tomb and the first meeting with the risen Christ (Matthew 28. 1-10).