ACTS 2:1-21
Our Reading Today is taken from the Book of The Acts of
The Apostles.  It records how God’s Spirit – which gave new life
to Israel when they were in captivity – was poured out upon the
church – in accordance with the promise of the prophet Joel and
our Lord Jesus Christ…

When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one
place.  And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush
of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were
sitting.  Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a
tongue of fire rested on each of them.  All of them were filled
with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the
Spirit gave them ability.  Now there were devout Jews from every
nation under heaven living in Jerusalem.  And at this sound the
crowd gathered and was bewildered, because each one heard them
speaking in the native language of each.  Amazed and astonished,
they asked, “Are not all these who are speaking Galileans?  And how
is it that we hear, each of us, in our own native language?
Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and
Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the
parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both
Jews and proselytes,  Cretans and Arabs–in our own languages we
hear them speaking about God’s deeds of power.”

All were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, “What does
this mean?”  But others sneered and said, “They are filled with new
wine.  But Peter, standing with the eleven, raised his voice and
addressed them, “Men of Judea and all who live in Jerusalem, let
this be known to you, and listen to what I say.  Indeed, these are
not drunk, as you suppose, for it is only nine o’clock in the
morning.  No, this is what was spoken through the prophet Joel: ‘In
the last days it will be, God declares, that I will pour out my
Spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall
prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men
shall dream dreams.  Even upon my slaves, both men and women, in
those days I will pour out my Spirit; and they shall prophesy.  And
I will show portents in the heaven above and signs on the earth
below, blood, and fire, and smoky mist.  The sun shall be turned to
darkness and the moon to blood, before the coming of the Lord’s
great and glorious day.  Then everyone who calls on the name of the
Lord shall be saved.’

PROFESSION OF FAITH: A NEW CREED
We are not alone, we live in God’s world.
We believe in God: who has created and is creating,
who has come in Jesus, the Word made flesh,
to reconcile and make us new,
who works in us and others by the Spirit.
We trust in God.
We are called to be the Church,
to celebrate God’s presence,
to live with respect in creation
to love and serve others,
to seek justice and resist evil,
to proclaim Jesus, crucified and risen,
our Judge and our Hope.
In life, in death, in life beyond death, God is with us.
We are not alone.  Thanks be to God.

PRAYERS OF PETITION AND INTERCESSION
Let us pray — We have heard your word, O God, the word as “of
the Lord to these dry bones”.  We have heard your word and we
have felt the entry of your breath within us.  We have felt the
wonder of your life come to fullness within us – and we celebrate
it today.  What we have seen with our eyes and heard with our
ears, what our hands have touched – this we proclaim – that you
are the most High God, the Maker of all things, the one who is
able to bring all things out of nothing, to bring life out of
utter death.

Visit this awakening in our minds and upon our hearts, we pray.
Enable us to grasp its truth, to take ownership of this reality –
for the sake of our life as a community and as a church.  Help us
address the decay and death that is within us and around us with
a faithful heart.  Make rivers of living water well up within us
and pour forth from us that bone many come unto bone, that sinew
and flesh may cover that which is naked – and that the breath of
live may be in all.

O God – we pray for the blowing of your Holy Spirit upon everyone
of us.  For the rescue of those who are dead in hope and in heart
for those who deny the power of your hand and the goodness of
your will, and for the enlightenment of those who fail to
understand.

Hear these prayers for ourselves and for others – and hear too
all that we ask now for our world, for our nation, for our
community, for our church, and for our neighbours…..  Lord hear
our prayer……. Amen.

Lord God – you have opened your hands and poured out upon us many
blessings.  You watch over us and protect and guide us in the way
we should go.  We offer now before you these gifts – that your name
may be glorified in us and your work of salvation extended through
us to all the world.  Receive them and use them and us in your
service – we ask it in Jesus’s name.  Amen.