The great Christian Feast of Whitsunday, concluding the forty days of Easter followed by the 10 days after the Ascension of our Lord, commemorates that day of Pentecost in Jerusalem when God provided the waiting disciples with a mighty sign.

As we read in Acts chapter 2, tongues as of fire were distributed and rested on each one, and they were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to declare God’s mighty deeds in languages or dialects different from their own, but recognisable to the Jewish pilgrims and proselytes from elsewhere who had come to the mother-city of Jerusalem to celebrate the Feast of Pentecost. When a measure of power is conferred, responsibility is required. God’s gifts and bestowals don’t happen only in order to delight the immediate beneficiaries. Bound up with the gift is a task, and today there is a word to us about the task as well as the gift.

When the Holy Spirit came to the waiting Church on the Jewish feast of Pentecost, the apostles, and in particular St. Peter, were empowered to preach the Good News. Before that they were pretty much in retreat, not to say in hiding. The emphasis of the account of this manifestation of the Holy Spirit among them is in the ability to spread the praise of the Lord to men “of other tongues” gathered in Jerusalem for the feast of Pentecost.

Even the visible manifestation was of “tongues as of fire” resting on each one, and the Greek word for “tongues” in both contexts is the same. The Apostles had been baptised with the baptism of John the Baptist before or at the beginning of the Lord Jesus’ own ministry. Now they were being “baptised” with the Holy Spirit as they became empowered to be understood by a greatly enlarged circle of people than formerly.

For this initial group of the Church, one could say that their water-baptism and their Spirit-baptism were separate events, but as the story of the spread of the Good News unfolds in the Acts of the Apostles, we see these two aspects coming together to form one category, a “mystery” or sacrament of initiation into the Spirit-filled life of the Body of Christ.

Confirmation, or the Laying on of Hands, is spoken of sometimes as an ordination - the baptised lay person’s ordination to his or her calling. And what is that calling? We can’t do better than look at what our first lesson shows us was the calling of the infant Church. First they were called spontaneously to expound to people outside the church the mighty works of God. That is something that all of us in some way or another are empowered to do. We are called in one way or another to a God-centred life rather than a self-centred life, just as the earliest Christian disciples were called.

But secondly, we see that some are given special powers and therefore special responsibilities. Peter, standing with the apostles, was given a special power of utterance to explain what was going on to those inclined to be opposed. His sermon brought together the known events of Jesus’ life, death and resurrection and some of the Old Testament prophecies and writings in such a way that as we are told at the end of his speech, they were cut to the heart.

At that point these ones realised that they were part of a generation that had thrown God’s gift back in His face and rejected His only Son.

What could they do?

Peter told them that they could repent and be baptised in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of their sins; and they too would receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

Peter and the other apostles exercised their special apostolic gifts because by their possession they had a special responsibility conferred on them. Indeed only some and not all in the infant church could be apostles, but all could and should in their own way tell out to others the mighty works of God. All of us who have been baptised and confirmed have been empowered to do that as well. Are we exercising our responsibility?

In the account of the Christian Day of Pentecost the first responsibility conferred on those who receive a share in the Lord’s own Spirit, is to be witnesses to the mighty works of God before the Jerusalem crowds. Essentially it is that sort of responsibility that remains to the people of God.

There is nothing as basic to the Christian task as that of being witnesses to God. There was, above all other mighty works of God, the one that it was the first Christians’ task and burden to share and proclaim: namely, the mighty work of the Resurrection of Jesus. It is a task that remains to the people of God today.

If we are sharing the proclamation of the Resurrection of Christ, then that is evidence enough that the Spirit bestowed at Pentecost is received by us today. The atoning and healing work of the Body and Blood of Christ, given for us all upon the Cross, is the victorious fruit of Christ’s Resurrection, without which the Cross would be wholly ineffectual for us.

For the Church to witness, the Church must gather round her Lord. For the witness to continue in power, the Church must continue to be gathered and thus to share the Spirit that the Lord confers upon us. And if we share that Spirit, we share in the responsibility of proclaiming and conferring upon our community the new beginning of the forgiveness of sins.

For commentary, information and devotional material see www.churchofenglandcayman.com and www.anglicansatprayer.org