Spirit of Life
A very warm welcome to Waka Hourua from St Mark's School, and their families at our 10am service.
Some people would say that Pentecost Sunday is the birthday of the church.
Some 2,000 years ago a small group of disciples were waiting with fear about whether they too would be arrested and killed like had happened to their teacher, Jesus. The day of Pentecost was a day that the Spirit of God, the Spirit of abundant love and forgiveness, the Spirit of hope and joy, the Spirit of life and faith, filled through those frightened disciples. So began the church where their telling the story of God’s gift of forgiveness and love. They openly shared God’s never ending story with all people they met no matter their race, gender or status.
We too tell this story mostly through our actions towards other people. Our kindness, our encouragement and our respect, not only to others but also towards ourselves, speak volumes about what we believe. As we understand we are loved and forgiven by God, our relationships with others change so that we give that love and forgiveness away.
All people are welcome into church whether they are strong in their faith or whether they are frightened or very puzzled about what to believe.
Have you noticed: repeated prayer
Repeated prayers are well known and use words that allow for a depth of expression. We can go beyond the initial meaning of the words to communicate what lies beyond words.
It happens also when we sing Happy Birthday to someone. We are communicating our thoughts of valuing the birthday person, of our love for them our special family relationship with them.
Words although very important are often limited, for what we need to convey sometimes needs us to go beyond our limited words to express our love, our faith, our sorrow, our thanksgiving.
Sometimes repeated words become that vehicle. Prayerful liturgy with its repeated words has been that for generations. The Lord's Prayer is the best example.
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