Sermon 22nd June 2009

Today our Vicar, Cameron Barker, preaches based on the reading from Psalm 116.


“You're next, you know”. I'd thought that our conversation was over. My friend Stuart was just leaving, already at the front door. But his quietly-spoken parting shot launched me into a new and very different journey. Eleven years on, it brought me here, to become the Vicar of Herne Hill.

No doubt you have had that kind of conversation yourself: a seemingly innocuous comment that lands up becoming totally life-changing. If you haven't done so yet, it may well be that today turns out to be such an experience for you. Of course you will need the benefit of future hind-sight to realise it. But, if it does, you won't be able to forget this day, or these words, just as I'll never forget Stuart's to me.

We'd spent long talking, about his ordination selection residential, and what his future might be. At the time, it came out of the blue when he looked me in the eye as he was leaving, and said: “You're next, you know”. He meant I'd be next to go for ordination selection, of course – not that we'd ever talked about that before! But those words issued me a Godly invitation which turned out to shape my whole future, from that night onwards.

Today we reach the end of our Conversations with God series. We have been to some interesting places in these past two months. We've learned many invaluable lessons – about God, about ourselves, and about how we relate to Him. I've hugely enjoyed studying the Psalms - and I know that many others have too. It has been encouraging, affirming and challenging, all at the same time. But I really do wonder if the ending of this series may not prove to be the most important part of all. I'm sure it will be, if we take seriously the parting question posed by the anonymous author of Psalm 116. “What can I offer (GNB) / How can I repay (NIV) the Lord for all His goodness to me?”

That is a question rather than a comment, of course. But it's one that demands an answer - from each of us, as well as from the Psalmist. In the manner we have often seen in the Psalms, the writer gave his own answer. So now it's up to us to find, or give, our answer too. And by the nature of the question itself, the answer to it could shape the rest of our lives. It certainly did that for this Psalmist – as we have heard. But will it be true for us as well? At the end of this series, where will our conversations with God lead us? Given what we have learned, about Him and us, how will we respond to the God who knows, hears and saves us? Where might this parting shot take us, today, and beyond?

The answer could be 'nowhere'! I'm reminded of the story about a businessman who was in danger of being late for an important meeting. He was in a panic because he couldn't find a parking space. Looking to heaven he said, “Lord, help me! If you find me a parking space, I will read the Bible every day, and go to church every Sunday for the rest of my life. I even promise that I'll never fiddle my expenses again!” Just as he finished praying, amazingly, a car pulled out of a parking space right in front of him. Looking to heaven again, he said, “Never mind, I've found one”!

One of the key lessons we've learned from the Psalms is that we can cry out to God, in any and all circumstances. Of course I'd say there are far more important things to do that about than a parking space! But time and again – like in today's Psalm – we have heard how those who have gone before us have cried out to God for help. They have done so – as we also are invited to – as a sign of faith that God hears, and answers, prayer. Yes, we began this series with the reminder that God knows us and our needs already – because He made us. But, despite that being so, God still longs for us to communicate with Him – because he made us to be in relationship with Him.

As we also heard at the beginning, the Psalms offer us a language to communicate with God in. Despite what we may have thought about them before, they are written with great honesty and openness. As is clear in the original Hebrew, the Psalms are earthy, rough and above all, honest outpourings, from the heart, to the God who cares. They are very definitely not genteel, cultured prayers whispered by 'nice' people in the 'right' language. I also said then that we can't miss the point of any Psalm – and we haven't! Whatever the topic – from the depths of despair to wild joy – the writers have avoided the kinds of clichés that it's so easy to hide behind. Instead they have shown us how to pour out our hearts to the God who loves us.

We have been reminded too in this series of the nature of God's love for us. It has been only right, then, that we've had at least one example of how to say 'thank you' to God for what He has done for us. We have also been shown through the Psalms how to praise God for the amazing being He is – which we see not least in the staggering nature of His creation. We have been challenged to have a right fear of Him as well – the kind of wise fear that quite rightly reverences God's holy, majestic authority. That fear also helps us obey His commandments - which are simply the best way for us to live. And it prompts us to hate and shun all forms of evil too.

We all know that we do and say things that offend God, and separate us from Him. So, last week, we learned how to say sorry to God, and receive His gracious forgiveness. It was, and is, another example of how we are to grow in this real, open, and honest relationship that God wants us to have with Him as our Father. As I say, it has been encouraging, affirming and challenging, all at the same time. And it's all been based on us remembering daily who God is and what He is like. That idea of remembering has been central in almost every Psalm – including today's. It's that sense of re-experiencing in the present what God has done, that reminds us of who He is and what He is like. That in turn enables the Psalmists – and so us – to express our thoughts and feelings, whatever they are, to this God.

We end with a Psalm that brings so many of these themes together – and issues this challenge to respond. Once again we have heard how someone cried out to God in desperate circumstances. As so often, we don't know the detail of what the writer faced – just that it was dire. This was gun-to the-head time – be it through persecution, illness or enemy attack. Honest as always, the Psalmist said how faith didn't come at all easily in such circumstances. But he kept at it, as best he could. And again as so often, like our businessman, the Psalmist made promises about what he would do if God helped him. Unlike that businessman, our Psalmist fully intended to keep his promises – because he knew that God was the only one who could help him.

So when God did not just hear but answer his cry for help, this Psalmist kept his promises. That's why he wrote this Psalm, as way to keep his promise to thank and praise God for his rescue. One of the hallmarks of the psalms is that prayers for help usually look forward to that time when the writer will praise God for hearing and answering. Logically, then, praise usually looks back, to the time of need when the writer cried out for God's help. That's the pattern we see here – and again it's meant to encourage us to do the same, both when we are in trouble, and afterwards!

Both prayer and praise are usually communal acts in the Psalms, as well as intensely personal ones. People came to Israel's place of worship, the Temple, first with their needs, and then with their praises. Those in need could be encouraged by those who had come to praise God for answered prayer – again as we can be when we are in different places spiritually. There's no doubt which place this Psalmist was at! His prayers had been answered! He came to praise and thank God for the rescue that reminded His people of just how merciful and gracious and compassionate and good and kind God is!

The Psalmist was there too to keep his promises – not 'just' of giving God praise and thanks. This had been a truly life-changing experience for him. So he wanted to give his praise a concrete expression of how he intended – and had promised – to live the rest of his life. “I will call on the Lord for as long as I live” is the refrain of Psalm 116. For this Psalmist that concrete expression took the form of a thank-offering. But that in itself was only a symbol – which meant so much more. In his enormous gratitude to God, this Psalmist came to offer the whole of his life back to God. In front of all these witnesses, he dedicated himself to be God's slave, to live for God alone.

It's in that context our Psalmist put this question that could yet shape the rest of our lives: “What can I offer / How can I repay the Lord for all His goodness to me?” Here we find his answer to it. Knowing that nothing could ever be enough, he offered all that he could to God: his whole life! He wasn't the first to do that: the Bible is full of stories of people who have encountered, and recognised, the greatness of God, and know that they can do no less in response. They are ordinary, even unnamed people, people like us. So, as we conclude this series, is this where our conversation with God will lead us too – to offer God the whole of our life?

Before you answer, here's an exercise that you may want to do first. Take three blank sheets of paper and give each one a heading from this Psalm. On the first, write, “I love God because ...” Then write what you have learned about Him from these Psalms. On the second, put, “I owe God because ...” and fill in what He has done for you. On the third, dare to head it, “To show my thanks, I will ...” Then make your commitments to the God who loves you, knows you, saves you, and hears you. And may your conversations with Him become ever deeper, more honest, and searching. And so let's pray ...

Sermon 14th June 2009

Today, Adrian Parkhouse, one our Lay Readers, preaches based on the reading from Psalm 32:

Conversations with God: forgiveness


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Sunday 14 June 2009 – “Conversations with God – Forgiveness” – Psalm 32

“Happy are those whose sins are forgiven,/ whose wrongs are pardoned…”

“Blessed is he whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered…”


1. So we come to almost the last of our studies from the Psalms, a series we have called “Conversations with God”. We have already considered the Psalmist’s acknowledgement of God’s knowledge and His guidance of us and His help towards us; and our responses of praise and of awe towards God. And today we read Psalm 32 – a Psalm that is written as a real conversation between the author and God: the first 7 verses and the final acclamation are the Psalmist while 8 to 10 are God speaking.

What do they speak about? The person tells of the blessing, the happiness, of knowing forgiveness and compares it to the torture of unconfessed guilt. He tells of the decision to repent and of the receipt of forgiveness. And then he encourages others to pray to God and to experience the safety and security of knowing God. And in reply God promises to teach, to instruct and to counsel the repentant and forgiven man – so their relationship will be a natural one and not one which is forced, like a man controls an animal. And lastly the Psalmist responds with rejoicing. It is a happy psalm, a happy conversation. Man and God enjoying each other and looking forward to the future.

2. Psalm 32 is traditionally attributed to King David and as marking the close of one of the Bibles “tabloid moments”. David’s lust for the bathing beauty Bathsheba had led to a spiral of deceit and destruction: first her pregnancy, then increasingly desperate attempts by the King to lead her soldier husband to impregnate his wife and so cover up the affair; and finally an order to his army commander intended to lead, and leading, to the death in battle of Bathsheba’s ever-loyal husband and so disposing of a potentially troublesome situation.

This was sin writ large. But from the account in 2 Samuel it is not obvious that David felt any compunction about these actions – until God sent the prophet Nathan to challenge him with a parable of a rich man with cattle and flocks who chose to take a poor man’s only much-loved lamb to feed a visitor. David was enraged by the obvious iniquity: “The man who did this should die!” “You are that man,” said Nathan. “I have sinned against the Lord.” responds David.

So David repents and, while punished, finds forgiveness. And tradition has it that Psalm 32 reflects some of that experience: reflects it moreover from both sides of the conversation. We hear something of what is essential to both David and God in what might otherwise appear a simple transactional formula: “repent and be forgiven”. David wants to lose the pain and torment of guilt and knows that it will come with repentance: God wants to teach and instruct so that obedience becomes natural.

3. Put another way the Psalm gives us the view from both the main characters in the most famous parable Jesus told about forgiveness – that of the Prodigal Son or of the Forgiving Father. The son, facing hunger and poverty, realises the way out of his spiral of destruction is to face up to going home, saying sorry and offering to work for his father. In fact he finds more than he expects, sooner than he expects as his father runs out of the house, clasps him in his arms, dresses him in finery and shoes, puts rings on his finger and arranges a celebration feast. Why (asks his hurt brother)? Because he was lost and now is found, he was dead and now is alive. The chance to begin the relationship has started again.

The parable reflects the same drivers on both sides – the forgiving God and the forgiven son – as David wrote of in our Psalm.

4. Turning-up the parable of the Prodigal Son in Luke’s gospel (ch. 15) had me leafing through the gospel spotting the place of God’s forgiveness in the ministry of Jesus. I was and still am slightly shocked by the importance that it does play: I can only think that my surprise is borne of an assumption that Jesus spoke of other things, while the theology around forgiveness was a later construct of Paul. Wrong!

At the outset of his ministry, what was the message of John the Baptist? Baptism as a mark of a complete change of heart and the forgiveness of sins. And flip to the end, what did he say on the cross? “Father forgive them”. And what was it that he said which seemed to cause greatest angst among the religious folk? “Your sins are forgiven” – to the paralytic let down through the roof and to the prostitute who bathed his feet in perfume, to name two. He was clear that he had the authority to do this. And what did he do which annoyed them most? Meet with publicans and sinners –people like the prostitute, like Zacheus, like Levi. He was clear, he came to seek the lost, “to invite sinners to change their ways” (5:32). And what did he teach his followers: to pray for forgiveness for their sins and to be able to forgive others; and also, in Luke’s version of what we sometimes call the Great Commission, just before his ascension to heaven, he tells them/us “in his name the message about repentance and the forgiveness of sins must be preached to all nations…” (24:47).

So Jesus seems clear that he was here to help more people come to the point of the Psalmist. And so are we.

5. There is a super Transport for London video on YouTube: 8 basketball players, 4 dressed in white and 4 in black: and you are asked to count the number of passes made by the team in black. The camera is static and the teams mill around the playground for a minute or so when the film stops. “How many passes?” You guess and then the question: “Did you see the moonwalking bear?” What bear? But the film replays and, lo and behold, in the midst of these players, dashing around, passing here, passing there, on walked a large man in a bear suit who proceeds to perform a Michael Jackson moonwalk before disappearing stage right. How did I not see it? How could I have missed something so big, someone so central to the action? Something so obvious? But I had done.

A little like I had missed or forgotten with time the fact that repentance, forgiveness and restored relationships is dead central to Jesus ministry – I know that there are also times when the need to be forgiven, to join the Psalmist in the acclamation of joy, to commit myself to being counselled and instructed by God in the way so obedience to Him, slips out of view. I carry the guilt. I know others do too. And it can be for lots of reasons: it can be because, like the son before he came to his sense, we have something to prove about our independence – perhaps about whether what we have been like or done or said was really wrong or was our fault; or it can because we find it hard to believe that forgiveness is possible: I am struck how things can’t be undone – from trying to undo gossip to trying to breathe live back into an innocent child hurt by our negligence, some things can no more be undone than David could have turned the world back to the day before he saw Bathsheba bathing on the roof of her house. How then can repentance and forgiveness help? And while we are about it what about “deathbed repentance” by an obvious sinner – what’s that all about; and anyway, why do we start from the assumption that man is bad and needs to repent? All fair questions: all of them questions I have asked; perhaps all of them questions that need to be asked on a journey of faith – on a journey to the one who wants us to see the moonwalking bear – which is, in the midst of all the confusion and all the excuses and all the demands of life, the call of our Father to repent to be forgiven and to grow closer to him.

6. It’s a quiet service this morning: it’s not been a long sermon. We have a chance to reflect.

Sermon 7th June 2009

Today our Vicar, Cameron Barker, preaches based on the reading from Psalm 111.


Late one dark night, a burglar broke into a house whose owners he thought were away. As he tiptoed into the living room, he suddenly froze in his tracks when he heard a loud voice say: “Jesus is watching you!”

When the house fell silent again, the burglar crept forward once more. “Jesus is watching you,” the voice boomed.

Again the burglar froze, absolutely terrified. He frantically looked all around the room. Then, in a corner, he spotted a birdcage, with a parrot in.

He asked the bird: “Was it you who said Jesus is watching me?”

“Yes,” replied the parrot.

The burglar heaved a sigh of relief, and asked the parrot: “What's your name?”

“Clarence,” replied the bird.

“That's a stupid name for a parrot,” sneered the burglar. “What idiot named you Clarence?” The parrot said: “The same idiot who named the Rottweiller Jesus.”

Now I must admit that the connection to today's sermon is perhaps a little tenuous - but it is there! As the anonymous author concluded Psalm 111 (in the New International Version at least): “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom”. It's very instructive, though, that in verse 10 the Good News Bible replaces the word 'fear' with 'honour'. Generally we're not big fans of fear – though that might hopefully change before I'm done! It's not just that a negative fear, of Rottweillers for example, is a sensible one to have in many circumstances. It's more that the positive fear of the Lord is a both healthy and vital one to have, at all times.

In many ways there couldn't be any better day to explore this rather unexpected avenue in our conversations with God series. After all, this is Trinity Sunday, a day when we are specially invited to contemplate the 'otherness' of God. If we're ever in danger of thinking we've got God all neatly taped in a safe box that we can fully understand, this day – and this Psalm – blow all that out of the water! And it may well be that we need this kind of shaking up at this point. Yes, from this series we now know that God knows us. We know that God is our shepherd, who guides and protects us. We know that God hears our cries for help. We know too that we should praise God for the amazing things that He has done – like giving us the wonderful gift of his Spirit. But perhaps we haven't fully grasped just Who it is that we are invited to be in conversation with – until now!

That can't be said of the Psalmist who wrote this song. As I say, the conclusion of his reflections on the nature and works of God is that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. In the Biblical meaning of the word, wisdom is the ability not just to understand life but also to cope with the problems that are an inevitable part of life. It's so key that we grasp this fact that the Bible has a solid strand of wisdom literature running right through it. There are whole books – like Proverbs and Psalms – that explore and explain wisdom. But wisdom appears everywhere – not least in the person of Jesus. And wherever it does, it's invariably closely linked to this clear, positive exhortation to fear the Lord.

Psalm 111:10 is exactly mirrored in Proverbs 1:7, for example. It's also foundational to any number of other teachings and stories in the Bible, from start to end. And we mustn't ever fall into the common trap, of thinking that the fear of the Lord is an Old Testament idea. As the PCC heard this week, the fear of the Lord was a key part of the work of the Spirit in and through Jesus. There are numerous other echoes in the New Testament of this crucial Old Testament concept, that the fear of the Lord is the same as knowing and loving God. It is the beginning of wisdom, of right living in and for the God who has called us into relationship with Himself. And so this Psalm, like the others in this series, is just one, of many, related strands.

We still need to look at it in some detail, though. That's the only way to understand how the writer got to the place where he wants us also to be. For this Psalmist – as for many Bible writers – it begins, and ends with praise of God. In Hebrew, Psalm 111 starts with the word 'Hallelujah' – which does mean 'Praise the Lord!' As we know, part of praise is thanking God. So that's what the Psalmist set out to do, not just with his friends but also in public worship. He did so in a really very clever way here – which is completely lost on us! Psalm 111 is made up of 22 half-lines, each of which starts with the successive letters of the Hebrew alphabet.

It's a form of poetry that was then set to music, though the tune is long lost. Psalm 111 was most likely used at one of the major religious festivals in the Temple – though, again, we can't be sure which. In one sense that doesn't matter. What matters is that the Psalmist picks out so many of the reasons that there are to thank and praise God – and does so very eloquently. And, in case you have not yet discovered this for yourself, one of the many joys of the Psalms is that they give us words to use when we can't find our own. So, if you are ever stuck for what to thank and praise God for, or on how to do it, remember this Psalm – and use it!

You can say it, in your head or out loud. You can sing it, to a tune you know, or to one that you make up. Be sure to record it if it's any good, because we can always use it in our public worship! Another way that we can use Psalm 111, or others like it, is as a pattern for our thanks and praise of God. This Psalm teaches us to remember and praise God not just for what He has done – but also for what that tells us about what He is like. That's certainly what this Psalmist did in his Psalm. He remembered, and praised, God for what He has done. But he didn't stop there. He went on to write about what God's deeds show about His nature, His character. And that in itself is a fine example and pattern for us to copy.

Again, that is just what we are meant to do. This Psalmist, like the others, wouldn't see that as plagiarism. All he was doing, in fact, was copying God's own example! God does not ever forget what He has done – and He doesn't ever want us to either! 'Remembering' is a key concept in the Bible. I've said before that it's more the sense of re-membering, or re-experiencing, the past in the present. This isn't dead history we're talking about. It's re-living the gifts of God's goodness and faithfulness and generosity and kindness – of His justice and liberation. And there is no doubt that when we re-experience God's amazing, wonderful gifts so freely given – no matter what our present circumstances - we will want to thank and praise God all over again!

Hopefully you also noticed how the Psalmist's main focus in his song was the central event of Israel's history. The story is woven in and out throughout this Psalm. It's the story of God's deliverance of His people from slavery in Egypt, and the gift of a land of their own. Even though we can't know exactly when Psalm 111 was written, it was hundreds of years after the Exodus. But for the Psalmist, as for Israel, this wasn't dead history. It was real and live and present, a constant reminder of God's promise, of His covenant with them. It's important for Christians too, even more hundreds of years on. But to it we'd particularly want to add thanks and praise for the amazing wonderful and staggeringly generous gift of God's Son, Jesus.

Jesus' death in our place and his resurrection is at the heart of the story of our faith. And we believe that they speak even more eloquently about the nature of this God of love and forgiveness, the God of life and restoration. But what we can't lose sight of is that for us too, knowing this story, and becoming part of it through faith, must lead us to the exact same place as the Psalmist. For us to be wise, for us to know how to live for God and to understand life from an eternal perspective, we too must fear the Lord!

Fear of the Lord isn't too common a topic of conversation amongst modern Christians, I don't think. But maybe it needs to be! And if we can grasp what the fear of the Lord is – and is not – then perhaps it will become that. Mind you, I did find a web-site this week that promises to release people from the fear of the Lord! I suspect, though that the owner of that site has confused the fear of the Lord with servile fear. That's the fear of trouble and punishment at the hands of an abusive authority. But the fear of the Lord is rather a filial fear, the kind that comes from not wanting to offend someone you love. Yes, it is a fear that reverences God's holy, majestic authority – quite rightly. It helps us to obey his commandments – which are the best way to live. And it prompts us to hate and shun all forms of evil; but that is precisely how God designed us to be anyway.

So at this Communion service on Trinity Sunday, through Psalm 111, we are encouraged to praise God. We're to do that for what He has done – and for what that tells us about Who He is. The point that we are invited to reach in conclusion – along with the Psalmist – is that the fear of the Lord is indeed the beginning of wisdom. And so I'll end with a quote from the writer and pastor, Mike Yaconelli, that boldly urges us to go there. He said:

“I would like to suggest that the Church become a place of terror again; a place where God continually has to tell us, 'Fear not'; a place where our relationship with God is not a simple belief or a doctrine or theology, it is God's burning presence in our lives. I am suggesting that the tame God of relevance be replaced by the God whose very presence shatters our egos into dust, burns our sin into ashes, and strips us naked to reveal the real person within. The Church needs to become a gloriously dangerous place where nothing is safe in God's presence except us. Nothing – including our plans, our agendas, our priorities, our politics, our money, our security, our comfort, our possessions, our needs ... Our world is ... longing to see people whose God is big and holy and frightening and gentle and tender ... and ours; a God whose love frightens us into His strong and powerful arms where He longs to whisper those terrifying words, 'I love you'.” And so let's pray ...

Sermon 31st May 2009

Today, our Associate Vicar, John Itumu, preaches based on the reading from Acts 1:1-8:

Power!

In the period between Easter day and Pentecost we read that Jesus appeared to his disciples many times and spoke about the kingdom of God. v3 It is at one these meetings that they ask:
Acts 1
"Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?" 7His answer to them: "It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. 8But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth."
It seems they misunderstood the nature of this kingdom. Of course the word ‘kingdom’ means a territorial sphere – which can be pointed out in a map like the United Kingdom. But the kingdom of God is not a territorial concept! It cannot be mapped. They obviously confused between the kingdom of Israel and the kingdom of God.
Jesus’ answer doesn’t make things any easier…8But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you’ he tell them.
What power is this?
· Is it ‘power to the people’ to take part in a different kind of ‘kingdom restoration’? is it about toppling Roman rule and reclaiming once more the occupied territory
· Or had the restoration of the kingdom of Israel, a priority to them, been replaced by the mission of the world?

Bearing these circumstances, it was easy to misunderstand this word ‘power’

In the two volume Luke- Acts ‘power’ used at least 25 times.
In 20 of those power is associated with miraculous/supernatural acts:
Some examples:
· Birth of Jesus foretold - Luke 1
34"How will this be," Mary asked the angel, "since I am a virgin?"
35The angel answered, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you

· Healing of a paralytic - Luke 5
17One day as he was teaching, Pharisees and teachers of the law, who had come from every village of Galilee and from Judea and Jerusalem, were sitting there. And the power of the Lord was present for him to heal the sick.
· Many people being healed - Luke 6
17He went down with them and stood on a level place. A large crowd of his disciples was there …and people who had come to hear him and to be healed of their diseases. …19and the people all tried to touch him, because power was coming from him and healing them all.
· Peter & John before Sanhedrin - Acts 4
7They had Peter and John brought before them and began to question them: "By what power or what name did you do this?"
· Stephen’s ministry - Acts 6
8Now Stephen, a man full of God's grace and power, did great wonders and miraculous signs among the people. 9Opposition arose… and men began to argue with Stephen, 10but they could not stand up against his wisdom or the Spirit by whom he spoke.

Luke obviously associates power with doing of miraculous signs and supernatural acts. And I am not referring to the pushing of people to the ground that we sometimes see on stage with some fire brand evangelists!
By reading these accounts we can safely conclude that the power the disciples will receive in 1:8 will include performance of miraculous signs and wonders. These signs and wonders would greatly enhance disciples’ witness concerning Christ in Jerusalem – and they badly needed it
There was going to be hard work in Jerusalem with all the post resurrection fear and anxiety. Remember the couple on road to Emmaus who had lamented…we had hoped he was the one who was going to redeem Israel (Lk 24:21)
There was the Sanhedrin to think about, not forgetting the no-nonsense brutal Roman regime.

So what’s their story?
The Holy Spirit comes at Pentecost (Acts 2)
They had been told to wait… do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my father promised (1:4)
And then He came:
With a sound – ‘like the blowing of violent wind’
With a visible sign – ‘what seemed like tongues of fire resting on each one of them’
With speech – they began to speak in other as the Spirit enabled them
Let me say a little more about tongues as someone once said that it is an alien concept to many Anglicans.
These speakers were known to be Galileans who spoke with a heavy accent.
Mt 26:73 – in the incident where Peter disowns Jesus he is accosted by a group who tell him ‘surely you are one of them – your accent gives you away.’

The Galileans were looked down upon by people from Jerusalem as being provincial, even uncultured.

John 1:46 – while Jesus was calling his disciples he calls Philip who in turn finds his friend Nathaniel. Philip says to him, ‘we have found the one Moses wrote about, Jesus of Nazareth…and Nathaniel asks ‘can anything good come from Nazareth? (a town in Galilee)
Come and see!

Jn 7:52 - Jewish leaders debating on authenticity of Jesus tell Nicodemus their colleague (and a secret admirer of Jesus) – Look into it and you will find that a prophet does not come from Galilee

But suddenly these Galilean people could be understood as a sign that all believers would be gathered under the headship of Christ looking forward to that great day when the redeemed company will be drawn from every nation, tribe, people and language…

Some even made fun Acts 2:13 – they’ve had too much wine…

Amazed and perplexed they ask – what does this mean?
Peter rises to the occasion and begins to explain it all, beginning with the prophecy of Joel that pointed to this day. In that the first meeting, 3000 were added to their number! Talk about power!
The good news was now spreading a like bush fire. In Acts 4:4 the miraculous healing of man lame from birth causes conversions to rise to 5000! Imagine what would happen if we had just one conversion every week!

Clearly there was a power at work!
That was not all. Acts 5:1-11 records the supernatural demise of Ananias and Sapphira.

Let’s read on from Acts 5:14
14Nevertheless, more and more men and women believed in the Lord and were added to their number. 15As a result, people brought the sick into the streets and laid them on beds and mats so that at least Peter's shadow might fall on some of them as he passed by…

Even Peter’s shadow had power; the same Peter, the Galilean fisherman found by Jesus, who had denied our Lord three times.
Out of Jerusalem into Judea and Samaria the signs and wonders followed them.

This power had its difficult moments too…
Acts 8
A man called Simon was so impressed that he offered Peter and John some money to buy some of this power to give him ability to lay hand s on people with instant results!

The words of Jesus had come true.
You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you

They had already exceeded their own expectations – Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth

That is why we are here today. We are part of that great wonderful legacy; this is the story of our faith. The Holy Spirit is associated with new beginnings. He is transformational. He is the power to do and be what has not been possible before now. His presence in our lives does not leave us the way we are. Things change!

He brings new attitudes in all areas of our lives – be it our relationships, finances, personal lives – bringing order out of formlessness and emptiness,
He helps us finding meaning in life. He is the power by which we will find forgiveness, he breathes new life into a dying relationship, and He can release in us the gift of generosity.

There is a nice little summary worth memorizing in Galatians 5:22 where the apostle Paul the fruits of the spirit as - love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Do you miss any of these, from time to time? How well are we doing in this area?

For a worshipping community/church it may be new ways of worship, even a greater openness and expectation of the ‘supernatural’ during the services etc. Do we come together like today with an expectation that God will do a new thing, even the supernatural? Church meetings were one of key places where the extraordinary happened! And friends this was their story which is now ours and which we must carry on faithfully. They prayed expectantly that God would act in power – and he did! The good news is that this power is ours too. It costs you nothing. You only need ask. It is the power that will break the strongholds in our lives. Let us now ask for that power in prayer…