Pentecost Article for the Swindon Evening Advertiser
04 June 2006
I was listening to a radio report the other day in which it was pointed out that the overall crime rate in England and Wales has fallen for the past eleven years. Yet the perception is different. Many people think that the crime rate is on the increase and this instils fear.
Fear paralyses relationships. People put up barriers towards one another and live behind locked doors both literally and metaphorically. Neighbours are strangers to one another. New comers into an area can be regarded indifferently or even suspiciously. People become isolated and a sense of community is not present. But we are not made to be lonely. We are made for community, for friendship, for love.
The feast of Pentecost, the coming of the Holy Spirit on the followers of Jesus, is about opening doors to life not closing them. We hear how the apostles were hiding behind locked doors because they were afraid. The Spirit of God comes to set them free, to enable them to live.
We celebrate the feast of Pentecost because that same Spirit comes to set us free from our fears and enables us to live. Pentecost is not about yesterday but about today – what God wishes to do for us.
We are in a different world from the first disciples. We live in a different society. We have to face our particular challenges which can seem to threaten us but which can be faced.
At a recent conference of Churches Together in England, four challenges were identified as needing attention. They were the challenge to build community in new housing areas so that people do not feel vulnerable and lonely; the challenge to build up good relationships between people of different faiths and cultures; the challenge to face up to modern forms of slavery such as the trafficking of women for the sex industry and the challenge to care for the environment so that we can hand onto future generations a world that has been cared for and not exploited.
These four challenges can seem overwhelming. We can do something about them if we are willing to allow the Spirit of God to take away our fears and enable us to renew the face of the earth.
I was listening to a radio report the other day in which it was pointed out that the overall crime rate in England and Wales has fallen for the past eleven years. Yet the perception is different. Many people think that the crime rate is on the increase and this instils fear.
Fear paralyses relationships. People put up barriers towards one another and live behind locked doors both literally and metaphorically. Neighbours are strangers to one another. New comers into an area can be regarded indifferently or even suspiciously. People become isolated and a sense of community is not present. But we are not made to be lonely. We are made for community, for friendship, for love.
The feast of Pentecost, the coming of the Holy Spirit on the followers of Jesus, is about opening doors to life not closing them. We hear how the apostles were hiding behind locked doors because they were afraid. The Spirit of God comes to set them free, to enable them to live.
We celebrate the feast of Pentecost because that same Spirit comes to set us free from our fears and enables us to live. Pentecost is not about yesterday but about today – what God wishes to do for us.
We are in a different world from the first disciples. We live in a different society. We have to face our particular challenges which can seem to threaten us but which can be faced.
At a recent conference of Churches Together in England, four challenges were identified as needing attention. They were the challenge to build community in new housing areas so that people do not feel vulnerable and lonely; the challenge to build up good relationships between people of different faiths and cultures; the challenge to face up to modern forms of slavery such as the trafficking of women for the sex industry and the challenge to care for the environment so that we can hand onto future generations a world that has been cared for and not exploited.
These four challenges can seem overwhelming. We can do something about them if we are willing to allow the Spirit of God to take away our fears and enable us to renew the face of the earth.
© Clifton Diocese 2007 | Disclaimer
