The Holy Spirit: Sermon 1/6


St John 7 On the last and greatest day of the festival, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.” By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified.


Today as a church we are beginning a new teaching series on the work and ministry of the Holy Spirit. I’ve no idea how many will engage or listen, how many might grow and progress in their Christian lives.

Physically seeing people is what we’ve been used to. We could count how many came to services on Sunday Mornings at Kiltermon or St John’s, or evenings at Breathe or the New Life evenings with our local christian brothers and sisters.

Today, it’s very different. At most, I see Likes on Facebook, numbers of Views, and the total who have looked at the sermon Blog page.

But what does that mean? Does is show signs of growth?

At home, we were glad to have very large conifers and laurels removed last year.
It opened up more car parking space for meetings, it created light to the house.
And in March as a family we all we dug in and raked and cleared and moved stones,
to prepare to sow grass. For weeks there were no signs of life.
But recently, with light rain, that lovely green sheen has appeared, and the Creation is expressing itself in new grass.

Jesus reminded us that unless a seed falls into the ground and dies, it will not grow up to produce a harvest.

How can we measure if we are growing, how we are getting on with God? 
Having Christian brothers and sisters can be good to help us be accountable.
But also, a great measure of growth, is the time we ourselves are able to spend with God.

As we get ready for this Thursday, to remember the day Jesus left the young fledgling church, to return to His Father, we are made to think about the preparations He had made to help the church grow. He had promised He would send them a Comforter, One to support, challenge, equip and reassure.

Could our first brothers and sisters have anticipated that only ten days later, God’s Holy Spirit would be poured out like water on parched ground, to bring life and hope and growth?

Perhaps they would remember all of the signs and preparation that Jesus had made.
He had been at festival in Jerusalem. Above the buzz of the crowd, He shouts out,

“Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me,
as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.”  
Anyone may go to Him. He will quench the thirst in our lives. The scriptures have pointed to this. We will be changed as we encounter God, and something new will flow in our lives.
St John helps us, in case there was ever any doubt, to understand exactly what Jesus meant.

He writes, ‘By this, He meant the Spirit.’
God’s Holy Spirit would be given to any who come thirsting to Jesus.

I cannot count today how many will listen or engage. I’ve no idea how you might attend to God. But I do know, that if you go to Jesus, thirsting for His new life, and hope, and forgiveness and joy, He will pour His Holy Spirit into your life, refreshing you, and flowing from you like rivers, through your life towards others.

This has been a funny old week.
On Wednesday we were so privileged that the Archbishop of Armagh came to our little church at Kiltermon, to record services.
Normally there would have been a great fuss. But not this week.
I noticed that the doors could be doing with a lick of paint; there were no flowers,
no churchwarden to carry his case, no supper afterwards. This time, I couldn’t even get a haircut, or put the car through the carwash.

It was such a privilege to have him there, in a small building tucked away at the side of a busy road. Because it is a place which matters to us here. 
Jesus did remind us that part of the measure of growth is seen in how we care for the small things, the things often overlooked.

The Archbishop said very kind words about us and the parish.
It was recorded for the Church Of Ireland, but also for BBC Radio Ulster.
I had to get over my first time on radio nerves, made all the easier by the quiet and understated approach by all concerned.

But an odd week, in which growth cannot be measured by numbers great or small.
It cannot be seen in the output of ministries, or how many come or go.
And in it, we greatly miss meeting together, and are trying to find meaningful ways to communicate with one another.

Small snippets of ministry are going on from Sunday School, Mums and Tots, Knit Pray love and others. And Jesus taught His church they when we are thirsty and go to Him, He will pour out His Holy Spirit, without measure into our lives. These are indeed very strange days, but as we get ready again to remember His returning to his Father, and the pouring out of His Holy Spirit as Living water into the church and world, let us open up our lives to Him.
Let us notice the small things which come from the heart, and let us see growth as it occurs amongst us.

God bless you in these days.
Amen.

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