By Reverend Andy Fleming, Associate Chaplain

During Godly Play this week, a student remarked: “I wonder if the Holy Spirit is with us in this circle?” For those of you who are not familiar with the concept of Godly Play, it is program that allows younger children greater access to Bible stories. The students sit in a circle while the story is told so they can all see the story props. Afterwards, the students are asked to share what they "wonder" about. This allows them to respond creatively to the story in their own way. This week’s story was about the arrival of the Holy Spirit, which coincides with the Day of Pentecost this Sunday.

The Day of Pentecost is a very significant one in the Christian calendar, observing the day in which the Holy Spirit comes to the followers of Jesus, the account of which is found in Acts 2:

When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Suddenly a noise came from heaven. It sounded like a strong wind blowing. This noise filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw something that looked like flames of fire. The flames were separated and stood over each person there. They were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and they began to speak different languages. The Holy Spirit was giving them the power to do this.

The coming of the Holy Spirit fulfils the promise Jesus gave the disciples - the promise he made just before he ascended to heaven. In the Godly Play story, Known in Waiting, students are simply told that Jesus promised to send the Holy Spirit to help the disciples do their work.

After prayerfully waiting, the disciples are gifted the Holy Spirit. Through the Spirit, they are empowered to share the gospel message in the streets of Jerusalem with all those gathered there for the Pentecost Festival. The festival attracted people from many different lands, who spoke many different languages. The remarkable thing about this was that those listening to the disciples could hear and understand the message despite their language barriers.

One aspect of this Bible story that stands out is the courage the disciples gain from receiving the Holy Spirit to go out into the world to share the story of Jesus, even at great personal risk. In our context, the Spirit provides us with courage too – courage to go into our world to share love and support in areas where we can have a positive influence and to stand up to our own values and beliefs when being challenged. At present, there are many people I know who are facing challenges and their courage – born of the Spirit – is both encouraging and inspiring.

I love the sentiments of courage by author K. J. Ramsey, who writes in The Book of Common Courage:

Courage is simply
the surrender to Love
– who finds you in your sin,
who seeks you in your pain,
who weeps for all the wrong
that has smeared mud over your name.

Let this shepherd lead you into courage with every passing day.

May the Spirit bless you with the courage you need.

Rev. Andy