Day 94 - Strengthening and guiding

I have the honour of leading worship on Sunday – Pentecost. It’s a daunting privilege. For many of us, Whitsun rolls off our tongues more easily than Pentecost. Pentecost is actually the older term, as Whitsun arrived in England with the Normans in 1066! A corruption of White Sunday, it refers to the clothes worn by those who were baptised on this seventh Sunday after Easter. Late in the twentieth century, churches began to revert to the term Pentecost and this was aided from 1971 by the late May bank holiday being a fixed date that does not always coincide with Pentecost. What an unusual thing for a secular decision to help churches!

How does it help churches? Because so many churchgoers feel torn between celebrating the ‘birthday’ of the church and enjoying a three-day weekend with family or even the whole half term. This year Pentecost does indeed fall on the first weekend of the half-term break. Why is it sometimes termed the ‘birthday’ of the church? Because the Holy Spirit was poured out on the apostles and on all the gathered believers and Simon Peter preached the best sermon of his life, such that over 3,000 people were baptised and converted to the new way.

Let us pray:

Heavenly Father, for most of the period covered by the Hebrew Scriptures, the Holy Spirit descended on specific people for a specific task; we thank you for the outpouring of your Spirit on all who believe, that we can all experience the power of Jesus’s love and his willingness to serve.

Jesus our Saviour, you breathed on the disciples who were hiding in the upper room after your resurrection. Your Holy Spirit began to work in them but was still not freely available to those who choose to follow you on the narrow but rewarding way. We thank you that every Christian has your Spirit within to strengthen and guide, just as if you were still walking among us.

Holy Spirit, you arrived on the day of Pentecost as a wind and flames. The gentle breath of God entered the world on that day with a passion and a demand. Having you within them enabled the apostles to speak in many tongues – a forerunner of the message of salvation spreading around the world. We thank you that you are able to work without ceasing through our frail human bodies and that you constantly nudge us in the correct way of thinking, speaking and acting.

Trinitarian God, we ask that this Pentecost, we will sense you afresh in our lives; that we will be willing for the winds of change to work within us and through us. Come and blow away the cobwebs of tradition and safety, come and shatter our complacency, come and shape us and our churches to be places where all work is done for the glory of God. May the words of the grace be truly felt: the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with us all, evermore, Amen.

Elaine Kinchin