This week’s Readings and Sermon for Pentecost Sunday
The Collect for This Week
Holy Spirit, sent by the Father, ignite in us your holy fire; strengthen your children with the gift of faith, revive your Church with the breath of love, and renew the face of the earth, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen
The Post Communion Prayer for this week
Faithful God, who fulfilled the promises of Easter by sending us your Holy Spirit and opening to every race and nation the way of life eternal: open our lips by your Spirit, that every tongue may tell of your glory; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen
The Psalm for this Sunday is Psalm 104, verses 26 to 35 and 37
26 O Lord, how manifold are your works! In wisdom you have made them all; the earth is full of your creatures. 27 There is the sea, spread far and wide, and there move creatures beyond number, both small and great. 28 There go the ships, and there is that Leviatha which you have made to play in the deep. 29 All of these look to you to give them their food in due season. 30 When you give it them, they gather it; you open your hand and they are filled with good. 31 When you hide your face they are troubled; when you take away their breath, they die and return again to the dust. 32 When you send forth your spirit, they are created, and you renew the face of the earth. 33 May the glory of the Lord endure for ever; may the Lord rejoice in his works; 34 He looks on the earth and it trembles; he touches the mountains and they smoke. 35 I will sing to the Lord as long as I live; I will make music to my God while I have my being. 36 So shall my song please him while I rejoice in the Lord. 37 Let sinners be consumed out of the earth and the wicked be no more. Bless the Lord, O my soul. Alleluia.
Glory to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning is now and shall be forever. Amen
The First Reading for this Sunday is taken from the Book of the Acts of the Apostles, Chapter 2, verses 1 to 21
1 When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. 2 And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. 3 Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. 4 All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability.
5 Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven living in Jerusalem. 6 And at this sound the crowd gathered and was bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in the native language of each. 7 Amazed and astonished, they asked, ‘Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? 8 And how is it that we hear, each of us, in our own native language? 9 Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, 10 Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, 11 Cretans and Arabs—in our own languages we hear them speaking about God’s deeds of power.’ 12 All were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, ‘What does this mean?’ 13 But others sneered and said, ‘They are filled with new wine.’
14 But Peter, standing with the eleven, raised his voice and addressed them: ‘Men of Judea and all who live in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and listen to what I say. 15Indeed, these are not drunk, as you suppose, for it is only nine o’clock in the morning. 16 No, this is what was spoken through the prophet Joel:
17 “In the last days it will be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams.
18 Even upon my slaves, both men and women, in those days I will pour out my Spirit; and they shall prophesy. 19 And I will show portents in the heaven above and signs on the earth below, blood, and fire, and smoky mist. 20 The sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon to blood, before the coming of the Lord’s great and glorious day. 21 Then everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.”
This is the Word of the Lord Thanks be to God
The New Testament reading for this Sunday is taken from the First Letter of St Paul to the Corinthians, Chapter 12, verses 3 to 13
3 Therefore I want you to understand that no one speaking by the Spirit of God ever says ‘Let Jesus be cursed!’ and no one can say ‘Jesus is Lord’ except by the Holy Spirit.
4 Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; 5 and there are varieties of services, but the same Lord; 6 and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who activates all of them in everyone. 7 To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. 8 To one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, 9 to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, 10 to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the discernment of spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. 11 All these are activated by one and the same Spirit, who allots to each one individually just as the Spirit chooses.
12 For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. 13 For in the one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and we were all made to drink of one Spirit.
This is the Word of the Lord Thanks be to God
The Gospel reading for this Sunday is taken from the Gospel of St John, Chapter 20, verses 19 to 23
Hear the Gospel of our Lord, Jesus Christ, according to Luke Glory to You, o Lord
19 When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, ‘Peace be with you.’ 20 After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. 21 Jesus said to them again, ‘Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.’ 22 When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit. 23If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.’
This is the Gospel of the Lord. Praise to You, o Christ
Note :All readings are shared from the Church of England Lectionary App and are subject to copyright . © The Archbishop’s Council
This week’s sermon is delivered by Rev Samuel Hameem
“May my words and thoughts be acceptable to you O Lord my refuge and my redeemer amen.”
The last ten days have been very important in the Church. Ten days ago, we celebrated the Feast of the Ascension in the Church, in which we celebrated the ascension of Jesus into heaven, in the hope and faith that he will return for his second and final coming. This same Jesus made another promise that he would ask the Father and he would send the Holy Spirit to guide and strengthen us.
And today we are here to celebrate the feast of the Pentecost. Today is a historic day for the Church and for our individual and family lives as Christians, because today we are celebrating the Feast of Pentecost. This day is very important in our church life for many reasons.
On the one hand, today is also called the birthday of the church, which has its own significance, but at the same time, this day has a unique status because on this day, God once again fulfilled another of His promises, as He fulfilled His other promises made in the New and Old Testaments. In her lectionary reflections, an English theologian and author Jane Williams wrote about the feast of the Pentecost that,
“It is typical of God’s calling to us on the day of Pentecost, instead of being allowed to dwell on what it feels like and means to have tongues of fire resting on you, the disciples have to go straight out and start preaching.”
On this day, we heard couple of reading from the Scriptures, and If we recall the readings from the Gospel according to John, we could see that Jesus breathed on his disciples and said receive the Holy Spirit, but if we recall the reading from the book of Acts, we could see that the Acts account has got it just right.
If we dig bit deeper into the first few verses of the reading from the book of Acts, we could come to know that the description of descending of the Holy Spirit is in just first four verses of the Acts chapter 2, but the rest of the chapter is mostly Peter’s sermon on that day.
We all know the immediate context of the day of Pentecost, we all that Jesus' disciples were hiding, afraid of the Roman government and its soldiers, when the Holy Spirit descended on them. And if we read the first few verses of Acts chapter 2, we could come to know that these verses are full of vivid detailing, and it goes like this,
“When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability.”
You might be thinking why did God take such great care to send the Holy Spirit, while creating His only Son in an inn in the silence of the night? In answer to this question, the NIV Quest Study Bible writes,
“The Spirit appearance at Pentecost was tumultuous – a rushing wind, the appearance of flames of fire, a cacophony of languages being spoken at once, shouting and confusion, but it wasn’t show over substance. The effects were dramatic because they represented the birth of Jesus’ church and the inauguration of the mystery by which Jews and Gentiles would be brought together in one body around Jesus the Massiah.”
And that is what Peter is doing in the Acts chapter 2. We could see and sense his excitement and the immediate effect of the Holy Spirit in his sermon. He was able to do this because God the Holy Spirit was with him and God’s presence in opportunity, not horror, redemption not judgment, that is why Peter offered the crowd what God is offering through faith in Jesus Christ the redeemer.
And the same dynamic is at work in our today’s Gospel reading. Jesus breathe on the Holy Spirit so they can take up Jesus’ mission. In today’s Gospel reading, Jesus did not only appear to reassure his disciples. He gave them something to carry forward. He sent them out, just as he was sent.
Although the disciples were not ready at that time. They had failed, scattered and hidden. Yet Jesus still chose them. He did not wait for them to become perfect. He sent them as they were and gave them a mission.
If we ponder on our lives, we often think we need to fix everything in our lives before we cand do anything meaningful. But the passage we just heard form the Gospel according to Jon shows something different. It shows that we are always being sent, even in our weakness.
And Jesus breathes on them. He breathes on terrifying, scattered and hidden disciples. Although it was a simple action, it changed everything, and that is what we see in the reading from the book of Acts.
As we are celebrating this very important and solemn feast on the church calendar, we need to remember that the spirit is not earned, it is given. We also need to remember that the strength, courage, wisdom and direction do not come from us, they also come from the Holy Spirit.
On the Day of Pentecost, we come to know through the reading form the Acts that, the disciples filled with the holy Spirit and went out to fulfil God’s mission. Today is not a day we are remembering a moment or event from the past, rather it continues in us. We are sent into our daily routines, conversations, and choices. Not to do everything, but to live in a way that reflects God and his Holy Spirit through our spiritual, emotional, individual, family and church lives. But the question is, are we reflecting God through it.
If not, let ask God to help in this way, so we may also share his redeeming work, which he did it through Jesus, and we as church can glorify his name through us.
God bless you all. Amen.