(Acts 2:1-13)

1 On the day of Pentecost all the believers were meeting together in one place. 2 Suddenly, there was a sound from heaven like the roaring of a mighty windstorm, and it filled the house where they were sitting. 3 Then, what looked like flames or tongues of fire appeared and settled on each of them. 4 And everyone present was filled with the Holy Spirit and began speaking in other languages, as the Holy Spirit gave them this ability. 5 At that time there were devout Jews from every nation living in Jerusalem. 6 When they heard the loud noise, everyone came running, and they were bewildered to hear their own languages being spoken by the believers.7 They were completely amazed. “How can this be?” they exclaimed. “These people are all from Galilee, 8 and yet we hear them speaking in our own native languages! 9 Here we are—Parthians, Medes, Elamites, people from Mesopotamia, Judea, Cappadocia, Pontus, the province of Asia, 10 Phrygia, Pamphylia, Egypt, and the areas of Libya around Cyrene, visitors from Rome 11 (both Jews and converts to Judaism), Cretans, and Arabs. And we all hear these people speaking in our own languages about the wonderful things God has done!” 12 They stood there amazed and perplexed. “What can this mean?” they asked each other.13 But others in the crowd ridiculed them, saying, “They’re just drunk, that’s all!”

These are good days in the life of the preacher. We are following through the sequence of events after Jesus’ resurrection and ascension and stories, such as today’s passage about Pentecost are some of the most uniquely positive in all of Scripture. Jesus promised his disciples before he ascended into heaven that the Holy Spirit would come to them to give them the power to tell the whole story of his life and death. Ten days later, after his Ascension they were gathered together in Jerusalem to celebrate the Jewish Feast of the Pentecost, the Holy Spirit came to the disciples. The Spirit came with a sound like the rush of a mighty wind, but it wasn't a windstorm (the house didn't blow down). Tongues like flames of fire, but not of fire, appeared on the apostles' heads (their hair didn't catch on fire)

This is the beginning of the church of which 2,000 years later we are still a part. The ability to speaking in tongues, as they did on then, so that people could understand is variously interpreted as a gift equally available to us today, or as a one off outpouring of the spirit, for the disciples, at the birth of the church. Pentecost is above all a story of recreated communication both between people who would not otherwise have understood each other.

There are different ways to describe the Holy Spirit:

• Prayer: we pray to the Father, through the Son and in the Holy Spirit (C S Lewis)
• Music: The music, feelings and person listening
• Love: Lover, beloved, love (Augustine)
• Words: The preacher, the listener and the sermon
• Eucharist: simultaneously an act of remembering and anticipating – drink this all of you in remembrance of me until I come again.

The gift of the Holy Spirit is to see the world in different ways - through the eyes of hope. The Holy Spirit teaches us how to tell the stories about ourselves. One person might see suffering but then (through the Holy Spirit) can see redemption and possibility. One person might see problems and difficulties but then (through the Holy Spirit) can see chance and opportunity. One person might see unhappiness but then (through the Holy Spirit) can see love and caring. Story telling is how we make sense of our lives; ‘we are our stories’ (Crossley, 2000). The three stories of the Holy Spirit are remembering (past), recognising (present) and realising (future).

• Remembering (who we have been)

This is reconnecting people with themselves. The Holy Spirit teaches us to live with and to make a friend of our past. The actions of God are new but they are cast in the moulds and images of old memories (Brueggeman 1986:2). David used the image of a Shepherd to describe God. Jesus went to Jerusalem in order to root what was he was doing back into Israel’s history and tradition. No prophet can die outside Jerusalem (Lk 13:33) and so it was there that he would be crucified. Even on the cross he used words from Israel’s past (Psalm 22) to express his feelings of being abandoned.

The ability to live with our past and to remember well is the ability of the artist and this is a gift given to us by the Holy Spirit. A relationship has passed over onto another level if people can draw from shared memories. Even nicknames can be an indication of ownership, belonging and affection - at school I was known as 'bouncing blubber'

• Recognising (who we are)

This is introducing people to themselves. It is through the Holy Spirit that people realize their true nature as children of God (John 1:12). The Holy Spirit enables both an awareness of self and an understanding of God:

For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the man’s spirit within him? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the spirit of God. We have not received the spirit of the world but the spirit who is from God that we may understand what God has freely given us (1 Cor 10:11-12)

• Realising (who we will be)

This is enabling people to dream and to imagine about the best of themselves. It is helping people to realise that things are not set in stone and that which we desire to be to some extent we already are; time is a powerful agent of the Holy Spirit. We worship a three-mile an hour God (Kosuke Koyama 1979) moving at people’s average and normal pace of walking. The Christian message is gentle enough so that it wouldn’t break a bruised read (Is 42:3) but so sharp that it penetrates even to the dividing of soul and spirit, joints and marrow (Heb 4:12).

These are good days in the life of the preacher. We only need to be able to touch the hem of the garment of this extraordinary redemptive power given to us by God. How often are we able to accept this gift of story telling about our lives? How often do we rejoice in the unpredictable, untidy, unencumbered nature of grace from a powerful, playful and intriguing God? How often do we dance the unfettered rhythms of grace? Today is a day for enjoyment and delight