Readings: Acts 2:1-21; John 15: 26-27 and 16: 4b-15
I have two boys, one 19 and one 15, who are forever playing their music in my car, a travesty. After one drive, when my head was full of rap and rock, I played with the radio and discovered something wonderful just by chance. I came across Noongar radio. A radio station run by aboriginal people for aboriginal people, and suddenly I was privy to something a little unfamiliar to me. Aboriginal people interviewing other aboriginal people who are working in the community, discussions on the best way forward for their young people, views about the current political debates, music that they love, words that they speak, (they do a Noongar word and its meaning every day), and people who are making a difference. This radio station, more than anything else, says to me that we are brothers and sisters in this land together.

There are so many people, aboriginal and non aboriginal who are working for reconciliation, for peace and justice here in Australia. God`s spirit is moving freely around us, found in the deepest dimensions of life, not restricted by colour or race, but only by our willingness to open our hearts and minds to it.

It is like the Hebrews who knew God`s spirit in their land, and in the wind and fire and in the dawn of the world. Who heard the spirit in the harvest, in the valley of the dry bones, at the giving of the law on Mt Sinai, and in the prophets who spoke for the poor and dispossessed. It is like us, who see the spirit of God revealed in our modern scientific discoveries. In all of life from the earliest beginnings in the universe, in the galaxies and stars and planets, and from the smallest life forms to the complex creatures we have evolved into. All of life shows the presence of God`s spirit, in which we live and move and have our being. It has always been present in the world, inspiring and nurturing women and men in the ways of holiness and service and love. This ancient land has always been filled with the spirit.

Yet today is special. Today we celebrate Pentecost, when we wear red and remember the story of the Holy Spirit descending upon the followers of Jesus. Luke in Acts tells the story dramatically, the spirit coming as a rushing wind and descending fire, appearing as tongues of flame fifty days after Easter. That told by John is more personal. The risen Christ bestows the Holy Spirit on his followers on the night of Easter and his spirit is a brooding presence in their hearts and minds. Both represent a watershed moment in the life of the church. But in light of the universality of God what does this moment really mean?

To understand we need to explore its past. Pentecost`s roots are in Judaism, for it was very much a Jewish festival before it was a Christian festival. Occurring fifty days after Passover, it links Israel`s much older agricultural cycle to her religious history. It celebrates both the completion of the harvest as well as the giving of the law to Moses on Mt Sinai. As Marcus Borg says it was about the creation of a new kind of community, the way of living together radically different from life in Egypt.

The readings from both Luke and John reflect this history, building on what has gone before, while announcing something altogether new. Today we celebrate more than just an event in the past but a starting point to a future for us all. It is about the creation of a new community in Christ. A community anointed by God`s spirit and in continuity with the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. A community that calls forth peace and justice and reconciliation in the world, here and now.

This divine moment of reconciliation can be heard in the reading from Acts. The descent of the spirit as tongues of fire enables the disciples to speak in a universally understood language. The individuals in the crowd, from multiple countries, all hear the disciples in their own language. It is an amazing account and links powerfully to an ancient story in Genesis. At the Tower of Babel God scattered the pretentious human race across the earth confusing them by having them speak many languages rather than one. At Pentecost God reunites the scattered people into a new beloved community, one that is able to bridge differences and value diversity.

Pentecost is thus the beginnings of the reunification of humanity, where there is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female. The followers of Jesus became this community of reconciliation and renewal through the presence of the spirit. They began to share everything they had, former enemies became friends and people laid down their swords and picked up a cross. As the book of Acts goes on to say, there was no needy persons among them.

It is this spirit that leads us forward today. And gives us great hope. As Michael Morwood suggests, the story of Jesus reveals not only God but also our capacity as human beings to give expression to God`s spirit. We live with a belief and with a sense we are spirit people, sons and daughters of God, each one of us. Those at the first Pentecost experienced the same thing. They realised they too were bearers of God`s spirit and could live courageously in the world as Jesus did. We are to embrace this spirit, this rushing wind, or whisper, this constant nudging from within, and bear fruit in our own world.

Pentecost therefore is far more than a past event, it is about a future for us all. It is a future which we are to build together with God. As Greg Jenks believes, `Engagement with the spirit leads us to a much larger sense of God. It leads us to the character of Christ. It enmeshes us in a web of love from which all reality emerges, all life emerges.` This is where our future lies.

I return to the beginning of this sermon and see in the people of Noongar radio the spirit working in the world. In men and women who want to change things, who want to empower their own people to live full and complete lives. I see the spirit of God working in each one of us, that helps us to see the value of all people, including our indigenous brothers and sisters. I see the spirit working in those who are attempting to improve the health, education and lives of so many who are marginalised in our society. We can think of those here and from other churches who are involved with the Mowanjum community, an aboriginal community from our north, supporting its young people, offering practical assistance and allowing them to glimpse a future for themselves. I see the spirit of God moving in the small steps forward that our community has made to acknowledge aboriginal culture and spirituality and can only marvel that at a football game last weekend 90,000 watched as a dreamtime ceremony was performed. Small steps forward on a very long road. But they are in the right direction.

So today, in a world riddled with violence and hate, the Pentecost vision invites us not to settle for some ancient story or a world as it is, but to dream for a world as it could be. And to have faith that the spirit of God which has always been in the world, will always be in the world. We should wear our red with pride, believing that the spirit of God is reconciling us to each other, moving sometimes as a still small voice and sometimes as a raging wind or fire. Calling, inspiring and sometimes dragging us into the future, to form a new community of love and peace and harmony with one another.

I will finish with the words of a song we use at Wembley downs every third Sunday. Words that remind us of this reality.

Here we are Lord,
Help us to be still
And may your spirit move where it will
Help us be present here with you
Our hearts and minds and souls in you
Are filled with light
Truth come and be our life.
The song was sung by Jim Malcolm
Amen

References
Greg Jenks, Lectionary Notes, Pentecost.
Michael Morwood, `Is Jesus God`.
Marcus Borg, `Speaking Christian`.