I wonder what you do when you’re waiting for something. I was listening to a radio programme on boredom yesterday and they were talking about people do when they’re bored to fill the time and they mentioned a teacher who used to get so bored in meetings that they would count the window panes in the meeting room. I think that one of the most difficult times of waiting is when one thing has happened and you’re waiting for the next thing. Like when you’ve taken an exam and you’re waiting for the results. Maybe one of the things you might do in that time is look back, remember all the past papers you did, which questions you think you did OK on, which ones you’re not so sure about. Maybe you look forward to the results and what will happen next, after you’ve got them.
Last week we were thinking about the Ascension when Jesus returned to heaven, and this Sunday coming up is Pentecost, when we remember the arrival of the Holy Spirit with the disciples. This week is the week in between. The week of waiting.
I wonder what the disciples were doing as they were waiting. I wonder if they were looking back. I wonder if they were recalling what God had said about the Holy Spirit in the Old Testament through prophets like Ezekiel, “I will give them an undivided heart and put a new spirit in them”. Maybe they were thinking about what it will be like when people have a heart of flesh, soft towards God and others rather than a heart of stone, hard and cold.
Maybe they were sharing the stories of times that they had spent with Jesus, the things he had done, the times he had sent them out to preach and show what his kingdom would be like, things that we now read about in books like Matthew’s eyewitness account that we have just heard. Perhaps they were wondering if the Holy Spirit would bring more of those kinds of experience. Maybe they were looking forward with anxiety towards the things that Jesus had talked about, the troubles and the hardships. I wonder if they were reassured by the promise that the Holy Spirit would help them in those times.
What we have in common with the disciples is that we too can be encouraged by these accounts of the work of the Holy Spirit, both in the Bible and through the ages of the church.
What is different for us, however, is that we do not have to wait for the Holy Spirit. At Pentecost the Holy Spirit was poured out in a new way on all people. Jesus promised that he would baptise his followers, all of them, with the Holy Spirit. So, as Jesus’ followers we can know that the Holy Spirit is in our lives, guiding us, strengthening us, giving us gifts to build up the church and to tell people about Jesus, and making us better people. All we have to do is welcome him and allow him to work in our lives. If our life is like a cup, then we can choose to cover it up so that the Holy Spirit can’t get in, but God will keep pouring. All we have to do is to remove the cover and allow the Holy Spirit to fill us. As we come to take communion this afternoon we have the opportunity, as we remember Christ’s death and resurrection, to do that and to say yes to the Holy Spirit.
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