Christian Pathway

Pentecost in Jesus time was about giving thanks for the first fruits of the harvest and when the law was first given to Moses. For us it is when the Holy spirit was given to us.  However being first can often mean being different, doing something that others cant do, or listening to something people cant hear or feel. Can mark you out, all the way from the school playground right up to people today.  This means It is often the lot of any christian who knows the holy spirit to be seen as filled with new wine, drunk. We can be sneered at, as they were in acts.  Disbelief of those that dont listen to the spirit is part of our lot.  

There are many reasons for this Because , the holy spirit is rarely for us  as it is in acts of a violent gust of wind, but more often  as our hymn today, a breath of God. Breath felt in prayer, in silence.  Both of these things make it quite brave, a true act of faith to follow the spirit.  To listen to something akin to a breath of God when people just think you’re drunk or have lost the plot can mean you have to gird your loins and drown out the noise.   The gentleness of the spirit also means it can be drowned out by noise and by stress and by anger.   Which often means when we need it most, so we have to try hardest to listen and be guided, and healed by the spirit.  The good news is its easy to practice and be prepared when these times come.  All we have to do is pray.  The more we pray, the better we hear. Then the grace of God means that as we listen more and more, we hear more and more.   

So yes when you practice listening to the spirit, and get better at hearing it, and trust more when you are guided by it, you may be seen as drunk!  My advice is don’t listen to them, dont be swayed. Not only can they not hear it, or feel it, people who sneer are deaf to it, numbed to it, because of the things that silence it for us, anger , turning away in disbelief , or just the noise of life, silence it for them.   We are people of prayer, and as such we try and listen, disbelievers never open themselves to the breath of God and that does silence it for them I think.  So they wonder what music we listen too as we hear the spirit move on us. 

This makes our faith even MORE logical if you ask me, because we know their are bands of light we cannot see, sound we cannot hear, some animals have organs we don’t know what they do,  and we as christians practice using parts of us that tune into God, via his advocate.  Advocate means to  publicly recommend or support. and we become the advocate of God when we listen to his advocate.  We become a public part of his story and that again marks us out.  which brings us to the veyr start of  my sermon today.  The tall poppy, that makes us differnt to all the other kids in the playground. The reaction to that should be “good” I am being who he made me to be.  

Evidence if you need it that you are following the spirit, are acts of Love, because God is love,   as it says in one John “God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him or her”. The spirit is the reverse of anger, hence why anger or stress can drown it out.   If your faith is making you unkind or cruel, then I suggest you are listening to something else. Because god is love, and his advocate is an advocate of love and is love.  Gods advocate is love, and when we act in love we become is advocate here on on earth.

I love how the bible twirls totally logically into a virtuous cycle. 

So to summarise todays sermon, the holy spirit is more often felt as a breath, we can practice hearing this breath through prayer. Others who dont want to listen through anger or disbeleif cant hear it,  or feel it. We as christians can practice listening and feeling the spirit through prayer. This can mark us out and make us seem different.  However this is a good thing because the spirit is an advocate and guider for us to act in love because God is love.

Be brave, listen to the  spirit, act in love, listen through prayer, be his disciple be his hands.  Bring his grace upon all those around you even when grace costs.

Because the rewards are eternal, the hope never ending, and the love beyond all measure.I

Amen