Pentecost in cyberspace
30 May 2004 – Jonathan Kerry preached for us on the Day of Pentecost: "It is very appropriate to celebrate Pentecost in a web-based Church..." The reading was from Acts chapter 2.
In 1st century Jerusalem, God-seekers travelled from across the known world and gathered to celebrate the festival of Pentecost. Today, 21st century God-seekers from across the world log on from home, work or internet cafe to celebrate...
We, what are we celebrating?
Is it the marvel of technology, the wit and wisdom of the web designers, or the skill of programmers? Is it to celebrate that we are among the fortunate minority who have access to sophisticated machines and the internet? Is it, for the very privileged few, that we are able to log on as visible characters in Church of Fools rather than as "ghosts"?
Maybe, for some here, but I dare assume that many here today are indeed seekers after God, and it is to seek God that we are here. We celebrate the Creator, not the creation – though the creation is very clever and fun.
We celebrate the God who created each one of us, who indeed created all that is, and who gave people the ability to devise this remarkable church in cyberspace to bring us together, seen and unseen pilgrims in this virtual Jerusalem.
It is very appropriate to celebrate Pentecost in a web-based Church, because the Christian Pentecost is a festival of communication: God’s gift of communication and God’s mission to communicate.
Maybe soon, translation software will be more reliable and words such as these will be understandable in many tongues – but we are not there yet!
However, today, and in this church, we can begin to share our faith with an international audience in ways that are perhaps as astonishing as the experience of those apostles and crowds in the 1st century.
For them as for us, the challenge was to seize the opportunity of an audience curious to hear what God has to say, and to learn what motivates the followers of Jesus.
Now, just as then, we have a diverse audience full of curiosity.
For the first apostles, and still for us, the message is the gospel of God – the creator of all, who offers us unconditional, self-giving love and eternal life through Jesus his Son.
And the same Spirit of God, poured out at the first Christian Pentecost, gives this church, and each of us, the mission to communicate that message in cyberspace and in the world of flesh and blood.
Rev. Jonathan Kerry is the co-ordinating secretary for worship and learning of the Methodist Church in the UK.
