Opening Prayer

Prayer written by Hildegarde of Bingen

When Pentecost Day arrived, they were all together in one place. They were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages as the Spirit enabled them to speak.

Come, Holy Spirit, come!

Holy Spirit, making life alive, moving in all things, root of all being, cleansing the cosmos of every impurity, effacing guilt, anointing wounds. You are lustrous and praiseworthy life, you waken and re-awaken everything that is.

Children’s Time

The day the Holy Spirit came

Confession & Words of Assurance

 

Almighty God, 

You call us to be your voices in this world and we stay silent.
You call us to be your hands in this world and we keep them hidden.
You call us to be your feet in this world and we go our own way.
When we meet those who are doubting and say nothing, forgive us.
When we meet those who need your touch and do nothing, forgive us.
When we are called to take up your cross and carry nothing, forgive us.
Breathe life into these bones bring freedom to these lives that we might declare with heart and soul and voice that you are our Lord and our God. Amen

We have a new chance every day, a new chance every moment when we confess our wrongs and vow to do better. Through this act of confession may we be strengthened in making new choices, knowing that your love for us knows no bounds and we are always forgiven… we need only ask.

Scripture

 

The Coming of the Holy Spirit

2 On the day of Pentecost all the Lord’s followers were together in one place. ² Suddenly there was a noise from heaven like the sound of a mighty wind! It filled the house where they were meeting. ³ Then they saw what looked like fiery tongues moving in all directions, and a tongue came and settled on each person there. ⁴ The Holy Spirit took control of everyone, and they began speaking whatever languages the Spirit let them speak.

⁵ Many religious Jews from every country in the world were living in Jerusalem. ⁶ And when they heard this noise, a crowd gathered. But they were surprised, because they were hearing everything in their own languages. ⁷ They were excited and amazed, and said:

Don’t all these who are speaking come from Galilee? ⁸ Then why do we hear them speaking our very own languages? ⁹ Some of us are from Parthia, Media, and Elam. Others are from Mesopotamia, Judea, Cappadocia, Pontus, Asia, ¹⁰ Phrygia, Pamphylia, Egypt, parts of Libya near Cyrene, Rome, ¹¹ Crete, and Arabia. Some of us were born Jews, and others of us have chosen to be Jews. Yet we all hear them using our own languages to tell the wonderful things God has done.

¹² Everyone was excited and confused. Some of them even kept asking each other, “What does all this mean?”

¹³ Others made fun of the Lord’s followers and said, “They are drunk.”

Peter Speaks to the Crowd

¹⁴ Peter stood with the eleven apostles and spoke in a loud and clear voice to the crowd:

Friends and everyone else living in Jerusalem, listen carefully to what I have to say! ¹⁵ You are wrong to think that these people are drunk. After all, it is only nine o’clock in the morning. ¹⁶ But this is what God had the prophet Joel say,

¹⁷ “When the last days come,
I will give my Spirit
    to everyone.
Your sons and daughters
    will prophesy.
Your young men
    will see visions,
and your old men
    will have dreams.
¹⁸ In those days I will give
    my Spirit to my servants,
both men and women,
    and they will prophesy.

¹⁹ I will work miracles
    in the sky above
and wonders
    on the earth below.
There will be blood and fire
    and clouds of smoke.
²⁰ The sun will turn dark,
and the moon
    will be as red as blood
before the great
    and wonderful day
    of the Lord appears.
²¹ Then the Lord
    will save everyone
    who asks for his help.”

 

Sermon

 

Performed by Margaret Whisselle

Prayers of the People

(Please add your prayers aloud and in the comment in section below)

God of wind and flame, blow into our lives. Ignite the fire of hope, fan the flames of possibility. Transform us into a people who share Your love with a world in pain, a people who proclaim Your hope into a world given to despair, a people who live as though the world can be changed into the kingdom that is to come.

God of Pentecost, you speak the language of Your people in both joy and sorrow. We pray for all those who are happily with their loved ones and in contact with them through the gift of technology. We pray for those who awaken every morning with a sense of adventure as they make the best of the world around them, altered as it is right now.

We also pray for those torn apart by the happenings of our world, those driven to protest for justice, those with no time to mourn the lost of yet another life gone too soon. We see You in the hospital rooms and on the street marching. We hear your words of inclusion in the speeches and cries for peace of people who have had enough of illness, oppression and hate. Even in our isolation, You are always there.

We pray for the helpers, the allies, the activists, the first responders, the educators, the caregivers. We need only look to them to see the winds of the Holy Spirit rushing through every aspect of our lives.

Gathering all these prayers into one, we offer the prayer tradition has taught us:

Our Father, who art in heave, hallowed be Thy name. Your kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.

Benediction & Commission

 

As you stay in your space

As you enter a new week, may you experience God’s presence.  May you feel God pouring out the Holy Spirit over your heads and your thoughts and the words of your lips, over your hearts and your feelings and emotions and your compassion for all others, and over your hands and your feet as you put into action all that God commands you.

During this week, may the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with each of you; Amen.