It was Pentecost last weekend, for those who were unaware. And if you don't know what that means, it's what's sometimes called the birthday of the Church. It's described in the book of Acts as a day that started with a prayer meeting and finished with a church of over 3000. In the middle were some other things, such as God resting on people and empowering them to speak in other languages - and enough joy that some onlookers thought that they were drunk. How many church meetings that you know does that sound similar to?
I was at a meeting on Saturday - the day before Pentecost - which had something of that in it. My church had hired the Centaur building at the Racecourse and invited people from local churches (and some not so local) to celebrate with us. There were quite a few people there from various places, including some from Cornwall and Eastbourne - and a couple of thousand others. Not quite as impressive as 3000 joining from 0, but a great gathering nonetheless.
And God was definitely there with us. If there were any doubt, the fact that a girl who couldn't walk got out of her wheelchair during the worship - and hasn't needed it since - made that absolutely clear. Apparently she went to her church the day after, and really stunned pretty much everyone there by walking in. I hope and pray the effects of that grow and grow.
The talk was about how God wants to set us on fire with the Spirit - did you know that bishops' mitres were originally designed to look like flames in remembrance of the first Pentecost? The whole point being that they were supposed to represent what had already gone on inside - and was still going on. And this is something that God wants to do not just for bishops, or indeed, clergy of any kind; but each and every one of us. Always; every day.
What will happen when we allow Him to do just that? What could happen? We know He wants us to change the world; or, rather, He wants to change the world in and through us - so, what would He do in and through us when we let Him? And what will that look like?
There's been a lot of talk about evangelism recently; but, although that will clearly happen, I think it's almost certainly among the least of what He wants to do. I can think of at two things which are much, much bigger than that, in my opinion. The first of these is that He wants to teach us to love, and to grow all our relationships through this. After all, love is what He said would mark us out among people - what others will notice.
And the second is to give us dreams and visions; to challenge our imagination and our faith. If He wants to change the world, He could send us anywhere and empower us to start anything. That's why He said 'the wind blows where it will, and you do not know where it comes from or where it is going; so it is with people born of the Spirit'. Where will you go?
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