This weekend we are celebrating the Queen’s seventy years on the throne. A platinum jubilee is unprecedented in this country’s history and, whatever your views on the institution of monarchy, few would dispute that the Queen’s sense of duty and her record of service are worthy of celebration. Although I was alive, aged four, when Elizabeth II succeeded her father in February 1952, I have no memory of it. But I do remember the day of her Coronation, 2nd June 1953. With my family, I was crammed into our neighbours’ front room to watch the great event on the tiny screen of their black-and-white telly. Afterwards we decamped to Hendon football ground for tea. As it was pouring with rain, as it had been doing all day, we had to sit up in the stands to munch our soggy sandwiches. But that just about sums up my memories of the beginning of the Queen’s reign. We were all given a commemorative cup, saucer and plate but, sadly, they have not survived the seven decades since.
But today is also Whitsunday, traditionally regarded as the anniversary of the Christian Church’s foundation at Pentecost, as recorded in the Acts of the Apostles, when tongues of fire descended on the disciples and they were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to preach. It is because of that event that we are here today. This congregation – our forbears and ourselves - has worshipped in this Meeting House for three-hundred and twenty-two years, but a continuous line of witnesses stretches back beyond an April day in 1700 to that room in Jerusalem where the friends, followers and family of Jesus had gathered for the great Jewish festival.
Now I don’t know how the Queen’s accession and coronation were marked in this Meeting House but I do have some idea of what the situation was here at the time – and it wasn’t good. A succession of short and sometimes unhappy ministries had come to an end and a two-year period without a minister had begun. The Meeting House itself was in poor condition and attendances at services were small. There was a real possibility that the congregation would die and the Meeting House would close. Some words from the book of Revelation, attributed to the Spirit and addressed to the church at Sardis, may have seemed appropriate to the tiny congregation here: “people say you are alive, but in fact you are dead. Wake up, and put some strength into what you still have, because otherwise it must die!” (Rev. 3: 1-2)
But it didn’t die, and seventy years later we are still here. As dire as things must have seemed, there were those who did wake up, who were determined that this congregation and its witness would continue. Not only did they work to save it, they enlisted the support of the Eastern Union and the General Assembly in appointing a new, young minister – named Philip Hewett – whose innovative and enthusiastic two-year ministry began the process of turning things around. The Spirit, the Spirit of a free and loving faith, was still active here. As it told another church in the book of Revelation, “I know your strength is small, yet you have observed my command and have not disowned my name.” (Rev. 3: 8)
In the events of Pentecost it is the Spirit who acts on the disciples and who fills them, inspires them to preach and to continue with the witness initiated by Jesus. But inspiration and excitement only get you so far. At some point, in church life, you have to address more practical matters. Someone has to do the work of running things while the more charismatic figures are off doing their thing! In the Jerusalem church, some business had to be done. A new apostle was needed to replace Judas Iscariot so a procedure for doing this had to be established – which it was and Matthias was appointed. The apostles’ preaching left them little time to attend to day-to-day matters, problems and disagreements so a seven-strong group – the first church committee, if you like – was elected. Among them was Stephen, “a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit”, as Luke describes him, who was to become the first Christian martyr.
The need to give some order to the growing Church was one of Paul’s concerns. He recognised the variety of tasks to be done but was at pains to value them all and to see those who undertook them as equally endowed with gifts of the Spirit. He wrote: “There are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit. There are varieties of service, but the same Lord. There are varieties of activity, but in all of them and in everyone the same God is active. In each of us the Spirit is seen to be at work for some useful purpose.” (I Cor. 12: 4-7) He goes on to list some of these – such as wise speaking, healing, prophesying – but makes clear that “all these gifts are the activity of the one and the same Spirit.” (I Cor. 12: 11). And all who share in the community and its work are, for Paul, “limbs and organs” of “Christ’s body” – the Church - be they apostles, prophets, teachers, healers, or simply helpers and guides to those in need. All of which leads up to his call to love, the greatest of spiritual gifts.
Transferring this insight of Paul’s into our own situation, we see that the tasks we are called to undertake as members of this faith community are equal to those set out by Paul. To be a secretary or a treasurer, a trustee or a committee member, a leader of worship, a tea-maker or a flower-arranger, may not be as spectacular as being a miracle-worker or a speaker in tongues, but it is arguably more important. As Paul himself said, the most important gifts are those that build up the community, and when it comes to worship, as with church life more generally, everyone can contribute something. Paul wrote: “when you meet for worship, each of you contributing a hymn, some instruction, a revelation,…see that all of these aim to build up the church.” (I Cor. 14: 26). Any ability you can contribute to building up this faith community is a gift of the Spirit. Anything you can do to support, strengthen and enliven this faith community, even it is simply taking part in its worship, is the work of the Spirit. And it is such gifts and such work that will maintain our witness in a troubled and suffering world where it is so badly needed. Don’t underestimate the value of whatever you can contribute to the witness of this community, and when you feel the Spirit calling you to do something, give that call your most profound consideration.
The life of this community and the worship at its heart is why we are here. Neglect them, become “lukewarm’ towards them – as the Spirit in Revelation accuses the church in Laodicea of doing – then it will die, as it nearly did seventy years ago. The Spirit told the Laodiceans that because they were neither hot nor cold, “I will spit you out of my mouth.” (Rev. 3: 16) Extreme words, but they are simply saying that a church which has lost its sense of purpose, its awareness of why it came into existence, its vibrancy as a faith community – such a church is already dead and only awaits its last rites. Pentecost celebrates the dynamic birth of the wider faith tradition within which our own faith community has its roots, inspiration and foundation values, which is why we recall and celebrate it today.
We may have travelled some distance as a faith community and we are in many respects not what our forbears were, but I believe there remains a spiritual link between ourselves and not only the men and women who worshipped here seventy years ago and three hundred years ago, but also those who gathered in those first Christian communities the best part of two thousand years ago. Paul set out their ethos in a letter to the Thessalonian church: “We beg you, friends, to acknowledge those who are working so hard among you…Live at peace among yourselves…be patient with everyone. See to it that no one pays back wrong for wrong, but always aim at what is best for each other and for all. Always be joyful, pray continually; give thanks whatever happens; for this is what God wills for you in Christ Jesus.” (I Thess. 5: 12-18). Hold to that ethos and we will be true to the Spirit that has filled all loving communities of faith, regardless of the particulars of doctrine and theology. May it be so.