PENTECOST: What does it mean?

In the Church Year, the feast day of Pentecost is always celebrated on the fiftieth day after Easter (“penta”= five, e.g. pentagon). The preaching text describes that first Pentecost by recounting some remarkable events, such as the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the followers of Jesus and the reception of the Gospel by people of many different backgrounds. Thus, the Day of Pentecost is essentially considered “the birthday of the Church.”

When we come to Pentecost in the Church year, with Trinity Sunday just around the corner, we find our worship is taking us back again into high mystery. We are just coming back down to earth from the Easter Resurrection, when the Day of Pentecost jumbles everything up again. Now, not only are we to believe in God and Jesus, but also there is the Holy Spirit. It may seem like a lot to ask. And perhaps it is asking a lot of us. 

But life asks a lot of us. Many people find life is not all that easy to live out and that it’s even more difficult to live it out well. For Christians, this is where the Holy Spirit comes in - to enable us to live life, and even at times to live it well. This is why the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost is a major day of Christian celebration, and this is why every Sunday in the Creed we say, “We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life.” In this sermon, B.E. tells you a story of his own first experience of the Holy Spirit, “the Lord, the giver of life.”