Weekly letter from St Luke's - 21 May 2021

Dear Parish Friends

This Sunday is the Day of Pentecost, or the last Sunday of Easter. It is the day when we remember and give thanks for the fulfillment of the promise that Jesus made before his Ascension to send the Holy Spirit to enable and empower the disciples to become apostles, messengers of the Good News. We thought last week about the time between the Ascension and Pentecost. Why did the disciples have to wait? They spent this time in prayer and practical matters, such as choosing Matthias to replace Judas, but I’m sure were also anticipating what was to come. Perhaps one reason why they had to wait was that it was not yet the right time.

One of the main holy festivals of the Jewish people was the ‘Feast of Weeks’ that was held fifty days after Passover, to celebrate the end of the grain harvest. The Greek work for this was ‘Pentecost’. Thus at this time Jerusalem would have been filled with pilgrims from every nation to celebrate the festival. It was therefore the ripe time, fifty days after the death and resurrection of Jesus at Passover time, for the spirit to be made manifest. God working God’s purposes in God’s time.

So we celebrate this together on Sunday, and remember God’s gift of the spirit and God’s ongoing work in our lives, our community and the world, according to God’s plan.

Services are as usual at 7am and 9am. The weekly notice paper is attached together with the order of service for the 9am service which will be streamed over Zoom. Wear something red if you have it as a sign of the tongues of fire that fell on the believers.

Yours in Christ

Rev’d Timothy