The Gospel passage this morning is the end of a rather lengthy "dinner" conversation Jesus has been having with his disciples. At this point in the story, the group has finished dinner. Jesus has washed their feet. Judas has left and now Jesus has been giving the disciples last minute instructions - rather like a Last will and Testament. Here is what I am leaving you, Jesus says. Here is what you should do in case of.... at one point he says "let us be up and leaving - you can almost picture the disciples starting to get up but he keeps on talking -- he keeps saying over and over how much he loves them and how he hopes they will love each other -- then he ends with a prayer -- for himself and them. And the prayer is this week's gospel lesson.

Jesus raises his eyes in prayer. Jesus prays for the glory of God that is soon to come. He prays of his intimate relationship with God and he prays for his disciples. Jesus prays that his disciples will be safe and protected in God's loving arms. He prays that his disciples will have the same kind of intimate relationship with God as he does. "...protect them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one, as we are one."

In his book Prayer, the Hidden Fire, author Tom Harpur states that the ultimate purpose of prayer, the purpose, the goal of prayer is to become one with God - to be in unity with God.

Of course, we pray for health, our own and others. We pray for peace, for justice, for good government, for victims everywhere, for many thousands of things, events and situations. But prayer, is not just about our basic wants, needs, hopes and fears. Prayer is ultimately about growing into an intimate relationship with God. It's about enlightenment, about finally awakening to who we really are and to our total unity with God, with all other living beings and with all of God's creation in nature.

The kind of deep sense of unity that Jesus had with God is a natural fruit of prayer. It is what Jesus is praying for in this morning's gospel lesson.

God answers prayer. And God has answered Jesus' prayer. There are many followers of Christ who we can be inspired by and have come into this kind of deep unity with God.

Sixteenth century mystic, Teresa of Avila was one such follower of Christ. Teresa managed to combine discipline and celebration, prayer and dance and a sense of reform with a sense of humor.

Teresa was born to middle-class parents in the city of Avila, Spain. At age 20, against the severe opposition of her father, Teresa entered a Carmelite convent in her hometown. In those days, entering a convent was not much of a retreat from the outside world. Convent life reflected the permissive attitudes that pervaded the rest of society. Prayer was largely ignored, worship mattered little, and the life of the clergy was hopelessly secular.

Teresa's early years in the convent were marked with illness. For nearly 30 years Teresa suffered from fits, tumors, and broken bones. Only when her vocation with God was finally in order, at age 45, did the physical ailments disappear.

Initially Teresa participated fully in convent life as she found it. When she discovered it was unable to satisfy her deep spiritual hunger, she began to dream of a reform movement based on a rigorous life of work and prayer. She longed for an order that offered an alternative to the affluence found in most contemporary orders.

Her initial efforts for reform were met with vigorous opposition, not only from nuns and clergy, but the nobility and townspeople as well. Everyone seemed to have a stake in the casual form religion had taken. Teresa was not easily discouraged. When she met local resistance she went directly to Rome and finally obtained permission to begin her convent.

Beginning with three nuns, the small group lived in almost perpetual silence as well as austere poverty. Their habits were made of woolen cloth and they wore sandals, not shoes on their feet. The order fasted regularly.

Though the life of Teresa's order was rigorous, it was not dull or joyless. Music and dancing were a regular part of convent life. "Virtue and merriment go hand in hand," she exclaimed. "Just because the order is austere, there is no need for austere people."

Soon her order was flourishing, and she was asked to begin another. The need for discipline, for an alternative to the affluence of her time was evident. In all she founded 32 convents and almost single-handedly began a reform movement that swept Spain.

During her long hours of prayer, Teresa frequently was led to ecstasy and rapture. Her mystical experiences enlightened her nuns and attracted hundreds of pilgrims.

Teresa held her mystical moments in perspective. Contemplation and action are never to be separated, she taught. Just as the active life is barren without contemplation, so the contemplative life is empty without action.

Nor did her great mystical moments mean that she lost her sense of humor. Even her reported conversations with God were filled with wit and charm.

Once she confided to God that, "If I had my way, that woman wouldn't be the mother superior." God answered, "If I had my way, she wouldn't either.

Another time when Teresa was attempting to cross a stream, she slipped off her donkey and fell headlong into the water, nearly drowning. It is reported that God reminded Teresa that he chastises those he loves. "I treat all my friends this way." Teresa turned her eyes heavenward and sputtered, "No wonder you have so few friends, when you treat the ones you have so badly."

Teresa's intimate connection with God, her relationship, her communication with God is one to which we can all aspire.

Jesus prayed that his disciples be one with God. His friends, his inner circle did receive this deep relationship with God. They went from being men who feared the authorities to men who stood up to them and witnessed the truth of Christ to many. God answered Jesus' prayer and gave the disciples strength, courage and a faith that was intimately connected to the Spirit and will of God.

Throughout the centuries there have been men and women, disciples' of Christ who have also developed an intimate connection with God. This relationship is developed through prayer and is the ultimate purpose of prayer. While we may not become mystics like Teresa of Avila, we can experience moments of grace, moments of deep relationship and unity with our Lord and his creation.

One practical way of moving towards this kind of union with God is to make a practice of reflecting, if only for a few moments each day upon the truth of our oneness with God. We are directly and immediately connected with each other and with all living things, with all of creation and with the living, sustaining reality of the Divine. We are all One. Take a few moments of silence now to reflect on our oneness with God.

"Holy Father, protect them in your name that you have give me, so that they may be one, as we are one." Amen.

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Fellow people, all of you who are gathered in this service, listen carefully and get this story straight. I am not drunk as some of you suspect. We haven't had time to get drunk--it's only 9:30 in the morning. What you are witnessing is what the prophet Joel announced would happen:

"In the Last Days, " God says, "I will pour out my Spirit on every kind of people: Your sons will prophesy, so will your daughters. Your young men will see visions, your old men dream dreams.

When the time comes, I'll pour out my Spirit on those who serve me, men and women both, and they'll prophesy. I'll set wonders in the sky above and signs on the earth below,

Blood and fire and billowing smoke, the sun turning black and the moon blood-red,

Before the Day of the Lord arrives, the Day tremendous and marvelous;

And whoever calls out for help to God, will be saved!"'

Fellow people, listen carefully to these words: Jesus the Nazarene, following the deliberate and well thought-out plan of God, was betrayed by men who took the law into their own hands, and was handed over to you. And you pinned him to a cross and killed him. But God untied the death ropes and raised him up. Death was no match for him.

... Jesus is the Messiah and God raised him up from the dead. Every one of us here is a witness to it. Then, raised to the heights at the right hand of God and receiving the promise of the Holy Spirit from the Father, he poured out the Spirit he had just received. And that is what you see and hear today.

Everybody, then, know this: There's no longer room for doubt--God made him Master and Messiah, this Jesus whom you killed on a cross."

Change your life! Turn to God, each of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, so your sins are forgiven. And then receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. The promise is for you and your children, but also to all who are far away--whomever our God invites.

At Pentecost Jesus sent the Holy Spirit to be with his followers in a new and different way. The coming of the Holy Spirit was the last piece that transformed the disciples from simple, ignorant, misfits who did not understand much of what Jesus says to fearless proclaimers of the Good News. Jesus' teachings gave the disciples knowledge. Jesus' death and resurrection gave them faith and now the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost gives them fire.

But, we all know that the Holy Spirit was always in the world. The book of Genesis begins "In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while the Spirit of God swept over the face of the waters."

So what did Pentecost change?

Jesus promised that he would not leave his friends orphans. He told the disciples to go to Jerusalem and wait. And so they did. While they waited they prayed. And when they were all together something almost indescribable happened. Suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind and tongue of fire appeared on the people and they were filled with the Holy Spirit and the people began to speak in foreign languages.

On Pentecost, the Holy Spirit came into the world in a new and different way. That new and different way was one of emotion. That new and different way put aside rational and logical thought. That new and different way was with fire.

After Pentecost, we can feel the emotion of God. We can feel the emotion in worshipping God. And we can express that emotion.

In the Jewish tradition, then and now, there is/was little mysticism, emotion or spirituality. The Jewish tradition values logical thinking. They have rabbis which are teachers, not preachers. There is great value within the culture and the religion in education and scholarly pursuits. Compare this to the Pentecostal church where there is exuberant, emotional worship. They do not require their ministers have university degrees. The culture at that church values praise and spirituality and feeling the Spirit.

We may be some where in between these two traditions. The point is that we can get a glimpse at the kind of context in which the Holy Spirit came that first Christian Pentecost day so many years ago.

Today is Pentecost, the birthday of the church. A day where we are all Pentecostal. We celebrate the Spirit sent by Jesus. We celebrate the emotion of God. We celebrate the fire in our bellies. And we can learn how to do that from the Pentecostal church. The Pentecostal church has much to teach us in expressing our emotions - something that the United Church isn't exactly known for.

What would the Pentecost experience look like here at St. Paul (Ashmont) United Church?

In some churches people raise their hands when they sing and pray. We could try that. In some churches, people shout "Alleluia, preach it sister!" When they agree with the preacher. We could try that. In some churches, people say, "Yes, Lord" when the prayer speaks to them. These are ways of expressing emotion. And we could try that. For today is Pentecost and we celebrate the coming of the Spirit of fire!

Now, I am going to close with a true story about how the gifts of the Spirit are still available to us today.

Once Faith Smith was driving in Florida, when the Holy Sprit called her to pull off to the side of the road and park. As she prayed, she was led to enter the Catholic Church where she pulled over. She went in and began to pray, as led. As she prayed, the Holy Spirit overcame her and she began to pray in tongues, very loudly. It was something she could not stop if she wanted, unintelligible uttering spewing forth from her lips. Soon, an older Hispanic woman at the railing began to weep. She moved closer and closer to Faith, crying harder and harder. Finally, the prayer in tongues stopped. Faith felt rather embarrassed, afraid people would tease her, like at the first Pentecost. Instead, the woman grabbed her and hung on, still weeping. Faith finally found out the woman was a Cuban refugee. She had gone to her church to pray for her son, still in Cuba. She was praying for him, and asking to know about him and his safety. Faith's unintelligible babbling came to the elderly woman as fluent Spanish. Faith had been praying in tongues about the woman's son, in Cuba. The son Faith did not even know existed. Yes, God can still do miraculous things in the modern world, including, but not limited to, tongues. Yes, its true.

The Holy Spirit is alive and well. Let us celebrate with emotion. Let us celebrate with Fire! Amen.

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