We have just started our sermon series on ’Church on the Move’. We are exploring stories from Acts which show us the different ways in which the early Church was on the move and what we can learn from their experience as we start to be a church on the move at St Peter’s.
One of the strong themes throughout Acts and in the reading from Sunday about Barnabas in Antioch (Acts 11: 19-30) is the presence of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit guided Jesus’ disciples and was with them wherever they went, including in unexpected places and encounters.
Acts starts with Jesus instructing his disciples through the Holy Spirit and telling them they would be baptised with the Holy Spirit. He then says: “you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” (Acts 1: 8). All the moving and the journeys in Act involved the Holy Spirit moving among and with the disciples.
We have left behind Pentecost and entered ‘ordinary time’ in the church calendar. But we can continue to pray that we too will be filled with the Holy Spirit, strengthening and empowering us in the exciting journey ahead.
Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful
And kindle in them the fire of your love.
Send forth your Spirit, and they shall be created.
And you shall renew the face of the earth.
O God, who by the light of the Holy Spirit,
Did instruct the hearts of the faithful,
Grant that by the same Holy Spirit we may be truly wise and ever enjoy his consolations.
Through the same Christ Our Lord.
Amen.
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