June 4, 2006

Jane Knowles

Pentecost Sunday     
Acts 2:1-21     Matt 18:15:20

Alleluia; God's love is spread abroad in our hearts through the Holy Spirit.

Who would have thought that this exchange would work out so wonderfully? Several years ago I began serious planning although even when I was a little girl -- I think only of about 5 or 6 -- I first saw photographs of boiling mud pools in New Zealand and have wanted to visit ever since. Mud pools went on to geysers, and volcanoes and bush and tracks and Maori, and in my planning I suppose last of all Pakeha. I had a cousin who had emigrated and we heard wonderful tales from her, and I have been thrilled to meet up with her daughter and family whilst we've been here. Many friends have visited and returned to England with travellers' tales. There was no question, I was going to make a trip, and so how amazing that at the same time that I was making enquiries of the Bishop here, Glynn was doing the same with the Bishop of Oxford, and the rest is history.

Well, what have we found? To begin with, tremendous brightness and colour, and I now understand a little of New Zealand art. We found grandeur and beauty of scenery hard to exaggerate. We found out the reason that New Zealand is so green; we have found the majesty of mountains, rivers and seas, and trees and flowers and all the rest of it, but more than that, much more we found a people who were open and generous and welcoming and tolerant. We found enthusiasm for new ideas, whilst maintaining and cherishing the old. We found an excitement and quest for understanding and knowledge particularly in church circles and we found a freshness and progressiveness which I have not encountered before and will certainly take home with me.

But what has all this got to do with Pentecost you may be thinking; it's all very nice, but not very theological. Well actually it has everything to do with Pentecost and everything to do with baptism as well. Today we welcomed little Matthew into the church with enthusiasm and joy, just as you welcomed me; new life, new beginnings.

Today we celebrate new beginnings, and we think of the future. Today we celebrate love, and the gift of life and love. Today we celebrate being together as a church and enjoying each other's company and today we celebrate a meal together, a holy meal to which everyone is invited, and as with all good celebrations we share a cake too. And as we remember those disciples empowered by the Holy Spirit we pray that Matthew will be empowered by the Holy Spirit too.

During my time here I have had many theological discussions with lots of people and whilst it seems we are continually changing our names for God, (and people have been doing that from the beginning of time) and whilst we have been hearing how Jesus was just a man, or not, …the one thing that seems to be most constant is the power of the Holy Spirit. I like to think of the Holy Spirit as God in action. I believe it is the Holy Spirit that joins you to me, and to your neighbour and to all the people with whom you come in contact, and it is the Holy Spirit that is joining us here in St Matthew's in Auckland, New Zealand to the villages of Ramsden and Finstock and Leafield and Wilcote, and we cannot be unjoined. We are mysteriously woven together now. I was told recently of the Maori concept of the rope, individual strands woven together making a strong whole; I like that, and in England we might think of it as being woven into a tapestry. It cannot be undone. We are part each other's story.

I cannot explain the incredible generosity that we have received; You are good people; you are faithful and positive and generous and not afraid to make your opinions known, and active and all the rest of it, but there's something else; somehow you have been empowered to love me, and I in my turn have been similarly empowered and so, if that is not the Holy Spirit at work, I don't know what is.

We had a party the other night and no one was turned away; no one was excluded and those who could, came, rich and poor; those with lovely homes and those with no homes at all. That was the church in action as it is supposed to be; that's what Jesus taught us; that come what may love is at the top of the agenda.

So today we have a birthday cake, because it is the church's 2006th birthday, and we have balloons and candles and photographs and the world seems a more got together place; but within that huge family of human beings we have tragedies too, and whilst we celebrate we cannot forget the suffering that is going on in East Timor and Java. We can't send birthday cakes to Java and they would not be appropriate, but today, I ask you in the generosity that I know you have to open your hearts for the people who have suffered as a result of the earthquake there, and give generously. We will make sure that the money goes to the appropriate organisation. The strange thing is that in your giving you will receive so much more. The stories of Jesus may be simple, but the message is profound. Love one another as I have loved you, that your joy may be complete.

On Ascension Day we had a bunch of balloons in the Chancel, and in the morning of that same day we released balloons into the sky as a symbolic gesture reminding us of all those children who had died as a result of heart disease. Jesus and those children all died, and today we celebrate the fact that as they left their bodies behind so their spirits are with us always.

Today the Holy Spirit comes to us again; today and every day; as I burst this balloon the air will be free to travel where it wills; it can travel to you and if we open the doors, to those outside and who knows, to those across the seas, and even to the little rural benefice where I come from whose photograph we can all see; so it is with the Holy Spirit.

Happy birthday.