Pentecost - If you love me, keep my commandments
A sermon preached by the Revd Ivo Morshead at St George's Campden Hill on 19 May 2013
Genesis 11 v 1-9; Acts 21 v 1-21; John 14 v 8-17
Jesus said to his disciples if you love me you will keep my commandments and I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you for ever. John 14 v15
Sixty or so years ago in what now seems like another life I had an office at the top of newly built block of offices in Wigmore Street just behind Selfridges. Such was the output of my all too fertile mind and before the age of personal computers I had, not one but two personal secretaries. It is to my everlasting shame and regret that occasionally I had both of them in tears at the same time. It was not because, I hope, that I bullied them but simply because they had not understood what I had ASKED THEM TO DO. I was a sitting example of the Tower of Babel , the symbol of mans’ confusion and inability to converse with one another . Jesus in the Gospel for this Whit Sunday was startlingly clear when addressing his disciples as to what he wanted them to do; if you love me you will keep my commandments and I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you for ever.
Whit Sunday or Pentecost, (the word Pentecost is the ancient Greek word 'pentecoste' meaning 50th day), has a lot to do with commandments. Yes, today is the fiftieth day after the Resurrection of Jesus and it is the day when we celebrate the coming of the Holy Spirit to the 12 disciples of Jesus when they were all together in one place having just added Matthias to their number to replace Judas Iscariot. It all happened at the same time as what the Jewish People now call the Feast of Weeks or Shevuot. Shevuot was, and is, a kind of Harvest Festival at which among other things they remember the return of Moses from the top of the mountain bringing with him the ten commandments. It is because of this Jewish Feast of Weeks 50 days, or, as in Deuteronomy chapter 16, seven weeks after the Feast of the Passover, that Jerusalem was packed with pilgrims who had come to celebrate this great occasion in their liturgical calendar. People there were not just the local residents of Jerusalem but would also have travelled from all over the Roman Empire and would have been there for the full seven days of the festival, hence the multitude of different tongues as we heard read in the lesson from Acts and to whom Peter addressed his speech and gave his explanation of what had happened. No, Peter and his is friends the apostles had not been drunk , rather they had been filled with the Holy Spirit that enabled every man to hear the message of the Gospel in his own tongue. Part of that message for us and startlingly clear are the words of Jesus, as we heard from the gospel reading, if you love me you will keep my commandments and I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you for ever.
The word advocate smacks of the law. An advocate is one who pleads in court on behalf of another. Peter in his address to the Jews in the Temple in his defence of their accusation that he and his friends were drunk quotes from the prophet Joel, as set out in the last verse of the epistle then everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. The underlying throb of the Old Testament is the inability of mankind, to be obedient to the commandments of God and to be saved from our sins. Right from page one of the bible with the disobedience of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, the making of the golden calf while Moses was up the mountain , then their hoarding of the manna when they were told only to keep what they needed for one day, just three examples of the whole nation’s many lapses. As for individuals! How much lower could you get than King David having the husband of a woman that he fancied put into the front rank of battle to ensure his death so that David could have his widow as his wife. The prophets of the Old Testament thundered away at rulers and people to obey the Law of the Lord but not with much success and at a great cost to themselves as Elijah found. He had the misfortune to come on the scene when King Ahab married the wicked Jezebel who imported her own prophets who persecuted Elijah, not only that, she took into her head to persuade her husband the king who was keen to buy the fertile vineyard of Naboth but was frustrated by Naboth’s legitimate desire to retain his ownership, to spread false rumours about Naboth who was, as a result, stoned to death. Elijah then has to flee for his life. So it goes on, the wickedness, seemingly innate in man, coming out into the open in so many ways, nationally and in individuals. Not much different today with the endless scandals ranging from corporate fraud in the big banks fixing interest rates by false returns, to us individuals as we pay our tradesmen in cash to help them avoid paying income tax and ourselves being charged with VAT.
In my life-time I have served at many altars in different churches and worshiped at goodness how many others. In very many of them, instead of the comforting beautiful flowers that we have here, there is painted on the reredos or the East wall itself, in large letters, the 10 commandments copied from the Old Testament in Exodus chapter 20, known also as the Decalogue. If my memory serves me right, Christ Church, from where our new vicar is to come, has them for all to see as they kneel at the rail to receive the sacrament of Holy Communion. We at St George’s hear them read at every weekday at the 8AM on Sundays during Lent but never at this our main service or during the rest of the year. Again it is the clarity of the commandments that are strikingly echoed by Jesus in Johns Gospel read today Jesus said to his disciples if you love me you will keep my commandments and I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you for ever.
The Jewish people elaborated on the Decalogue and it became so complicated that nobody could possibly keep it and remain unscathed from failing to keep to the law. What they needed desperately was an advocate, one who would plead their case on their behalf. Peter as we heard said to those in the Temple had the answer as he quotes from the prophet Joel. then everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.
We are indeed blessed in this New Testament time to rejoice on this day at the coming of the advocate , The Holy Spirit. As we come today to the altar rail to receive the blessed elements reminding us of the sacrifice of Jesus who died for our sins, rose again to sit on the right hand of the Father, and now is present with us in the Holy Spirit, may we raise our eyes at some point to look on the flowers that are behind the altar. Their colour is red and white. The red to match the vestments and altar frontals to represent the fire or life giving the power of the Spirit, the white to remind us of Whit or White Sunday when the newly baptised wore white clothing to signify their new found forgiveness as they came from the water of baptism having learnt in their catechism the ten commandments. May we be reminded indeed of these commandments and endeavour to lead our lives free of moral confusion and speaking with clarity to express in word and deed the blessings of our faith and the hope that is within us as set forth empowered by the Spirit of God.
Jesus said to his disciples if you love me you will keep my commandments and I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you for ever. John 14 v15
Genesis 11 v 1-9; Acts 21 v 1-21; John 14 v 8-17
Jesus said to his disciples if you love me you will keep my commandments and I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you for ever. John 14 v15
Sixty or so years ago in what now seems like another life I had an office at the top of newly built block of offices in Wigmore Street just behind Selfridges. Such was the output of my all too fertile mind and before the age of personal computers I had, not one but two personal secretaries. It is to my everlasting shame and regret that occasionally I had both of them in tears at the same time. It was not because, I hope, that I bullied them but simply because they had not understood what I had ASKED THEM TO DO. I was a sitting example of the Tower of Babel , the symbol of mans’ confusion and inability to converse with one another . Jesus in the Gospel for this Whit Sunday was startlingly clear when addressing his disciples as to what he wanted them to do; if you love me you will keep my commandments and I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you for ever.
Whit Sunday or Pentecost, (the word Pentecost is the ancient Greek word 'pentecoste' meaning 50th day), has a lot to do with commandments. Yes, today is the fiftieth day after the Resurrection of Jesus and it is the day when we celebrate the coming of the Holy Spirit to the 12 disciples of Jesus when they were all together in one place having just added Matthias to their number to replace Judas Iscariot. It all happened at the same time as what the Jewish People now call the Feast of Weeks or Shevuot. Shevuot was, and is, a kind of Harvest Festival at which among other things they remember the return of Moses from the top of the mountain bringing with him the ten commandments. It is because of this Jewish Feast of Weeks 50 days, or, as in Deuteronomy chapter 16, seven weeks after the Feast of the Passover, that Jerusalem was packed with pilgrims who had come to celebrate this great occasion in their liturgical calendar. People there were not just the local residents of Jerusalem but would also have travelled from all over the Roman Empire and would have been there for the full seven days of the festival, hence the multitude of different tongues as we heard read in the lesson from Acts and to whom Peter addressed his speech and gave his explanation of what had happened. No, Peter and his is friends the apostles had not been drunk , rather they had been filled with the Holy Spirit that enabled every man to hear the message of the Gospel in his own tongue. Part of that message for us and startlingly clear are the words of Jesus, as we heard from the gospel reading, if you love me you will keep my commandments and I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you for ever.
The word advocate smacks of the law. An advocate is one who pleads in court on behalf of another. Peter in his address to the Jews in the Temple in his defence of their accusation that he and his friends were drunk quotes from the prophet Joel, as set out in the last verse of the epistle then everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. The underlying throb of the Old Testament is the inability of mankind, to be obedient to the commandments of God and to be saved from our sins. Right from page one of the bible with the disobedience of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, the making of the golden calf while Moses was up the mountain , then their hoarding of the manna when they were told only to keep what they needed for one day, just three examples of the whole nation’s many lapses. As for individuals! How much lower could you get than King David having the husband of a woman that he fancied put into the front rank of battle to ensure his death so that David could have his widow as his wife. The prophets of the Old Testament thundered away at rulers and people to obey the Law of the Lord but not with much success and at a great cost to themselves as Elijah found. He had the misfortune to come on the scene when King Ahab married the wicked Jezebel who imported her own prophets who persecuted Elijah, not only that, she took into her head to persuade her husband the king who was keen to buy the fertile vineyard of Naboth but was frustrated by Naboth’s legitimate desire to retain his ownership, to spread false rumours about Naboth who was, as a result, stoned to death. Elijah then has to flee for his life. So it goes on, the wickedness, seemingly innate in man, coming out into the open in so many ways, nationally and in individuals. Not much different today with the endless scandals ranging from corporate fraud in the big banks fixing interest rates by false returns, to us individuals as we pay our tradesmen in cash to help them avoid paying income tax and ourselves being charged with VAT.
In my life-time I have served at many altars in different churches and worshiped at goodness how many others. In very many of them, instead of the comforting beautiful flowers that we have here, there is painted on the reredos or the East wall itself, in large letters, the 10 commandments copied from the Old Testament in Exodus chapter 20, known also as the Decalogue. If my memory serves me right, Christ Church, from where our new vicar is to come, has them for all to see as they kneel at the rail to receive the sacrament of Holy Communion. We at St George’s hear them read at every weekday at the 8AM on Sundays during Lent but never at this our main service or during the rest of the year. Again it is the clarity of the commandments that are strikingly echoed by Jesus in Johns Gospel read today Jesus said to his disciples if you love me you will keep my commandments and I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you for ever.
The Jewish people elaborated on the Decalogue and it became so complicated that nobody could possibly keep it and remain unscathed from failing to keep to the law. What they needed desperately was an advocate, one who would plead their case on their behalf. Peter as we heard said to those in the Temple had the answer as he quotes from the prophet Joel. then everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.
We are indeed blessed in this New Testament time to rejoice on this day at the coming of the advocate , The Holy Spirit. As we come today to the altar rail to receive the blessed elements reminding us of the sacrifice of Jesus who died for our sins, rose again to sit on the right hand of the Father, and now is present with us in the Holy Spirit, may we raise our eyes at some point to look on the flowers that are behind the altar. Their colour is red and white. The red to match the vestments and altar frontals to represent the fire or life giving the power of the Spirit, the white to remind us of Whit or White Sunday when the newly baptised wore white clothing to signify their new found forgiveness as they came from the water of baptism having learnt in their catechism the ten commandments. May we be reminded indeed of these commandments and endeavour to lead our lives free of moral confusion and speaking with clarity to express in word and deed the blessings of our faith and the hope that is within us as set forth empowered by the Spirit of God.
Jesus said to his disciples if you love me you will keep my commandments and I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you for ever. John 14 v15