(All our songs this morning are from Singing the Faith (StF) numbers will be given where available)
Welcome to our Sunday Service, this week comes courtesy of The Vine at Home and Twelve Baskets
Click on the blue links to follow them for bible readings and associated links
Opening Prayers
Take a moment to still yourself, and become aware of your breathing, of your body, of your
presence in this space.
If you feel comfortable, you might like to close your eyes for a bit and concentrate on your
breathing, taking a deep breath in and a slow breath out. In a moment of quietness take a
few more relaxing breaths.
Now, you might like to imagine that you are sat in that upper room with the disciples. You
are not alone in still feeling lost and confused, asking what next. Wondering too if you are
capable to continuing the mission of Jesus. Suddenly, the room is filled with a violent wind,
and you can see tongues of fire.
What is happening? This is terrifying. There is a part of you that would like to get up and
run but suddenly a sense of calm comes over you, you hear your brothers and sisters
talking, you realise the languages are unfamiliar, but you understand the words. With a
sense of joyful confidence, you want to head straight out to meet with the people outside.
Those you encounter are confused but Peter explains what has gone on. With that, you
join with all those who were in the upper room and share the words and teachings of
Jesus. People understood and many came forward to be baptised.
As you sit here now, today, in this time of worship, perhaps you are asking similar
questions to the disciples, perhaps you too can feel lost, confused, asking what next,
wondering if you are up to the task in hand…
Take in another deep breath, breath out slowly and know this…
You are loved.
You are known.
You are accepted, just as you are.
You may now wish to say the Lord’s Prayer in a version or translation with which
you are familiar.
Reading
Acts 2:1-21
Responding to the reading
Pentecost begins with waiting.
The disciples are gathered together, unsure of what comes next. Jesus has gone. The future is uncertain. They are in that in-between space, holding onto a promise, but not yet seeing how it will unfold.
And then, everything changes.
A sound like a rushing wind. Tongues of fire. Voices speaking in languages they have never learned. Suddenly, the Spirit is not just an idea or a memory: it is alive, moving, disruptive.
This is not a quiet moment. It is bold, visible, impossible to ignore.
And what is the result? Not confusion, but connection. People from different nations,
cultures, and languages hear the message in ways they can understand. The Spirit does
not erase difference, it honours it. It speaks through it.
For those of us walking a thoughtful, inclusive path of faith, this matters deeply. Pentecost
reminds us that God’s presence is not confined to one voice, one culture, one way of
understanding. The Spirit moves beyond boundaries: expanding, including, drawing
people together without making them the same.
Then Peter stands up and interprets what is happening. He reaches back to the prophet
Joel: “I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh.”
Not just a few. Not just the powerful, but everyone, all flesh.
Sons and daughters. Young and old. Those who are often heard: and those who are often
overlooked. Pentecost is a moment of radical inclusion.
But it is also a moment of calling. The Spirit does not simply comfort the disciples: it sends
them out. It gives them courage to speak, to act, to live differently.
For us, Pentecost asks some important questions:
- Where do you see the Spirit moving in unexpected places today?
- How might God be speaking through voices or experiences you have not yet fully heard?
- What would it look like to be open: not just to being comforted by the Spirit, but to being changed by it?
The Spirit does not leave things as they are. It stirs. It challenges. It creates something new.
And perhaps that is both the gift and the risk of Pentecost: God is still speaking, God is still moving, and we are invited to listen and to respond.
May you feel the breath of the Spirit in your life: disrupting what needs to change, igniting what needs to grow, and calling you into a wider, braver, more loving way of being.
Song – 167 STF – Colours of day dawn into the mind
Song – 370 STF – Breathe on me, breath of God
Blessing
The Spirit of God is inclusive, invitational and wild.
The Spirit of God is ahead of you, already at work in the world out there.
The Spirit of God invites you to join in the work of healing, hope and love,
May you encounter that Spirit this day, and every day,
Amen.
