It may come as a surprising thought that the ‘blessings’ we receive and enjoy have the potential to make us less Christ-like, but, depending on how we understand God’s promises and the goodness God gives, this can be the case. When we view wealth, success or power as unquestionable signs of God’s blessing, we are in danger of departing from the Gospel’s call to align ourselves with the least, and to find God’s blessing in community and sharing. This is the challenge of the readings this week in the Revised Common Lectionary.

My new book The Hour That Changes Everything – How worship forms us into the people God wants us to be is now at the printers, and is just weeks away from South African release. The international release on Amazon.com will follow shortly – watch this space for more information. If you’re looking for a resource that you can use as a congregational journey into a deeper understanding and experience of worship, then you will really want to check this book out. In addition to the main content of the chapters, there are fifty days of personal devotional guides, seven weeks of small groups guidelines and eight Sundays of congregational worship guidelines – making up a fifty day journey. For more information, check out the countdown posts on the Sacredise blog.

May your worship this week lead you into a new sense of connectedness with others, and a new generosity in sharing the grace and mercy of God.

READINGS:
Isaiah 1:1, 10-20: Isaiah prophesies against God’s people, expressing God’s displeasure at their worship and sacrifices while injustice remains among them. God invites the people to repent and confess, and if they do, God promises to cleanse and restore them.
OR Genesis 15:1-6: God promises that Abram will have descendants as numerous as the stars. Abram’s faith in this promise is considered to be the basis for his relationship with God (or is counted as righteousness).

Psalm 50:1-8, 22-23: God comes in judgement on God’s people, inviting them to offer genuine sacrifices of thanksgiving, and promising God’s salvation if they will do this.
OR Psalm 33:12-22: Strength, military might, magnificent horses cannot save people. Only waiting on God and trusting in God’s mercy is a safe refuge.

Hebrews 11:1-3, 8-16: Abraham is an example of faith, giving up his homeland and living as a foreigner in a strange land for the sake of a God-given inheritance.

Luke 12:32-40: Jesus promises God’s kingdom to those who follow Christ, inviting them to give up temporary, material security and wealth for heavenly security and riches. He encourages them to stay awake and be aware of God’s coming.

REFLECTIONS ON THEME:
Much is made of the promises of God in some circles, but little is said about the ‘cost’ of receiving God’s promises. Essentially this cost arises because God’s promises are always offered to the community, not just to the individual. And so, Abram is promised innumerable descendants, but must give up his homeland to live among foreigners (as the Hebrews readings explains). In Isaiah’s prophecy, God’s people can be cleansed and restored, but they must embrace justice and mercy. In the Psalms, God’s salvation is offered to those who, like Abram, will trust in God’s mercy. Finally, Jesus promises the Kingdom to his followers, but they have to release their faith in human or material resoucres, and commit to remaining always awake and aware to God’s coming – which, if we read the verses following the set section, is strongly linked with how we view and treat others. A great ‘hook’ for this week is the phrase “descendants of Abram”, for Abram’s story is the model for the faith we are called to this week – a commitment to trust in God and a willingness to discover & share God’s promises of grace and mercy in and with the “other”, the foreigner, the ones who seek justice, the ones we are called to serve.

CONNECTING WITH LIFE:
GLOBAL APPLICATION: There are so many ways that the idea of God’s promises and blessings intersect with the realities of our world. When we embrace a view (as so many do) that God’s blessings are given primarily to individuals, and that wealth, power and beauty are signs of God’s blessing, we will inevitably begin to strive for these “manifestations of blessing” for ourselves. The result, all too often, is that we grow selfish, self-centred, uncommitted to justice, and may even view poverty or suffering as signs of God’s judgement. When, however, we realise that God’s blessings are always given to communities, and that they are to be shared with the least – that the reality is that we have never really known God’s blessing unless it brings justice, mercy and provision to all, especially the poor and weak – our striving becomes sacrificial and generous. We begin to find our place among the “foreigners”, the impoverished and the marginalised, and we discover the richness of God’s reign within and among us as we share with all the blessings that come through us to all. How does this idea of “communal blessing” speak to the distribution of resources in our world? In what way can our commitment to receive God’s blessing in this way guide us as we vote, as we participate in civil processes, as we contemplate and petition the meetings of the powerful in our government, the G8 and the United Nations?

LOCAL APPLICATION: In so many ways we have developed a spirituality that hoards blessings, and keeps God’s promises to ourselves. Even the way we view salvation – as a personal escape from hell that requires no engagement with, or responsibility for, others, and that recognises no other possible avenues of grace – is a hoarding of God’s goodness and mercy for ourselves. And so, even within the church, we too easily hoard material wealth, facilities, people and opportunities, allowing our brothers and sisters in other communities, or other parts of our cities, to go without, to struggle and to suffer. How might our view and practice of Church change if we began to recognise that God’s blessings are given to be shared, that we are called to live “among the foreigners” and that it is here that God’s promises are fulfilled? How differently might we live if we chose to be “descendants of Abram” trusting God’s Kingdom promises whole-heartedly, and laying aside our usual human structures of security and comfort in order to recognise God’s coming through the least, the ‘other’, the ones who cry for justice?

RESOURCES FOR WORSHIP:
Prayers:
Shared Blessings
Children of Abram

Hymn Suggestions:
Now Thank We All our God
Trust And Obey
Christ From Whom All Blessings Flow
Save Me
Take Up Your Cross
You Have Shown Us: Lyrics, Video (The song starts after the speaking part)
Freely, Freely (God forgave my sin) (Link to YouTube video)
God Of Justice (Link to YouTube video)
Lifesong (Link to YouTube video)

Liturgy:
A Liturgy for the Eucharist
A Liturgy of Compassion

Video Suggestions:
Blessing Others
Hebrews 11

As what I call the “God’s Story” part of the Liturgical Calendar begins to draw to a close, we are prepared for the second half of the year – the “Our Story” part which happens in Ordinary Time. And that preparation is in the form of a gift – the Pentecost gift of God’s Spirit, God’s community and God’s call. It is easy, after all of the work of the calendar so far to just breathe a sigh of relief and just get through the last few weeks with as little effort and stress as possible. But, the Pentecost event needs our best efforts – and some new ways of thinking about it. Which I hope I’m helping to stir up in this post.

May your eyes be opened and your heart be filled as you celebrate the ever-present Spirit of God this week, and as you receive the empowerment of God for the journey ahead.

READINGS:
Acts 2:1-21: The believers are filled with the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost, and they start to praise God in various languages.
Or Genesis 11:1-9: Humanity seeks to build a tower that reaches the heavens, but God confuses their language and they scatter over the earth.

Psalm 104:24-34, 35b: The world and all its creatures depend on God for provision and breath – which leads the Psalmist to commit to praise God.

Romans 8:14-17: God has given us God’s Spirit by which we know we are God’s children, sharing both in God’s glory and God’s suffering.
OR Acts 2:1-21: See above.

John 14:8-17, (25-27): Jesus promises the Holy Spirit to be an advocate for his followers, and to lead them into truth.

REFLECTIONS ON THEME:
Pentecost is another season that is easy both to underestimate and to grow too familiar with. The potential themes are also many and varied and which can make this celebration difficult to tackle well. Perhaps the oldest mistake we make with this season is to speak of it as the Spirit’s “coming” – as if God’s Spirit was absent from the world before this. Jesus gives us a clue to a different understanding, though, when he says that “the world cannot receive him because it isn’t looking for him…” Pentecost is essentially a breakthrough in our human capacity to apprehend and experience God’s activity which is (and always has been) active in all of creation (including us). At Pentecost we learn to look for God’s Spirit – and the readings for today make it clear that God’s Spirit can be seen and found anywhere and everywhere we look. It is this awareness that there is nowhere that God is not that breaks down Babel’s walls of division. In receiving the new awareness of God’s Spirit we find that we all speak a common Spirit-enabled language – the language of God-imaged, Spirit-filled, humanity. Once our eyes are opened to see God’s Spirit in all things (including those who are different from us, who are hostile toward us, and who are most repulsive to us), everything changes. We know ourselves (and all creatures) as St. Francis did – as God’s children and siblings of one another – and we willingly share Christ’s suffering (as Paul says) to bring God’s creation into awareness of this unity and community in God’s Spirit.

CONNECTING WITH LIFE:
GLOBAL APPLICATION: Across the globe human beings suffer from a blindness to the Spirit’s presence and activity. When we use the earth as nothing more than a resource to enrich ourselves, we have failed to recognise the Spirit. When we justify killing, exploiting, marginalising or dehumanising others, we have failed to see the Spirit in them. When we embrace a rampant individualism and consumerism, we have failed to recognise God’s Spirit and the community of all things in God’s Spirit. Pentecost is a wake up call for our world – how different might our politics, economics and environmental policies be if we recognised God’s Spirit in all things, and if we took time to really learn our common language? How would this consideration impact how you pray, speak, act, vote, spend, advocate and play? How can you and your community participate in the Spirit’s work and help others to recognise God’s Spirit in all things?

LOCAL APPLICATION: It is all too common among Christians to speak of God’s Spirit beign “with” us and “not with” others who believe differently from us. We speak of churches and people where God’s Spirit has “left” and we talk about places where we think God is no longer present. Whenever we fall into this trap, we have missed the gift of Pentecost, and have made our God too small. But, when we realise that God’s Spirit is everywhere – although we and/or others may not be looking for or able to recognise God’s Spirit for whatever reason – we find our view of these others changes. We suddenly discover that God can be encountered in every person, and every place – from a untouched places of breath-taking natural beauty to slums and disaster areas. And, once we have seen this, we discover that, like Jesus, we would rather suffer than inflict suffering on these Spirit-filled ones. We would rather sacrifice than exploit Spirit-filled people and the Spirit-filled world for personal gain. We would rather listen for the language of our common humanity than deny the humanity of a single person – even if they deny ours. What would it mean for you and your community to take Pentecost seriously? What defenses might have to come down? What hands might have to be offered to others? What beliefs might have to be released? What actions might have to become obsolete? What people might have to be welcomed and embraced?

RESOURCES FOR WORSHIP:
Prayers:
A Pentecost Thanksgiving
A Pentecost Confession
Ordinary People
Building Blocks Of The Kingdom

Hymn Suggestions:
Breathe On Me Breath Of God
O Thou Who Camest From Above
Spirit Divine Attend Our Prayers
O Spirit Of The Living God
Love Divine, All Loves Excelling
Deep Calls To Deep: Chord Chart; Lead Sheet; mp3
Breathe (Link to YouTube video)
All Who Are Thirsty (Link to YouTube video)
Spirit Of The Living God (Link to YouTube video)
Shine Jesus Shine (Link to YouTube video)
O Let The Son Of God Enfold You (Link to YouTube video)

Liturgy:
A Liturgy for Pentecost
A Liturgy for the Spiritual Feast

Video Suggestions:
Pentecost – Acts 2
Pentecost Prayer
Pentecost
Pentecost

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