31st May, 2020.
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My dear friends,

If you have ever been to our annual St John’s day service in St Paul’s Cathedral, you will have seen representatives of the other Orders of St John. There are five mutually-recognizing Orders. As well as our Order – the ‘Venerable Order’ – there is the Roman Catholic Order of Malta, the Dutch Order of St John (Calvinist), and the German and Swedish Orders of St John (Lutheran).

During the Coronavirus pandemic, it is interesting to see that the other Orders of St John have been undertaking very similar work to us in the Priory of England and the Islands. The website of the German Order of St John - https://www.johanniter.de – (mostly in German, but with some English and good photographs) shows that they are running ambulances and first-aid centres, helping in clinics and in care homes. It is good to see the other Orders of St John at work during the pandemic and to realise that we are inspired by values and beliefs that transcend language, nationality and denomination.

It would be rather nice, once the Coronavirus pandemic is finally over, if we could meet some of our friends in the other Orders of St John for a cup of coffee (or even a glass of wine), swap stories and see what we could learn from each other. It might lead to some very valuable friendships.

     With continued prayers and kindest regards,

The Rev. Dr ROBERT BEAKEN, County Chaplain
PENTECOST – 31st MAY 2020.
 
Acts of the Apostles, chapter 2, verses 1-21.
The Gospel according to St John, chapter 20, verses 19-23.
It is said that after one of the debates in the General Synod, the cleaners found the speech notes which one of the speakers had left behind. In it, he or she had written a marginal note: argument weak here: shout loud, wave arms, and say the Holy Spirit agrees with you.

            Today, Pentecost, is the great feast of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon the apostles. I must regrettably recognize that down the years some Christians have not exactly given God the Holy Spirit a very good press. I ask you to forget tales of manipulative pastors and nutty religious sects. Instead, I want us for a few minutes today to focus clearly on the Person of God the Holy Spirit; and I want to say from the outset that the Holy Spirit is wonderful, liberating and exciting.

            To hear some Christians talk, you could be forgiven for thinking that the Holy Spirit hadn’t really existed prior to Pentecost. This, of course, is untrue: the Holy Spirit has always existed – He is the Third Person of God the Holy Trinity. Time, space, and even eternity are the work of the Holy Spirit. There never was any place, or indeed any person, wherein the Holy Spirit was not to be found. The Holy Spirit, quite simply, is the creative, life-giving, sanctifying power of God; or, as I prefer to think of the Holy Spirit, God’s love in action.

We first encounter the Holy Spirit in the Bible in Genesis, the first book of the Old Testament, where we read:
 
In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was waste and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep; and the spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.
 
We can see the Spirit of God in various places in the Old Testament, though not very clearly. He comes into sharper focus in the New Testament, especially at the Annunciation, where we read that the Archangel Gabriel said to Mary:
 
The Holy Spirit shall come upon thee, and the power of the Most High shall overshadow thee; wherefore that which is to be born shall be called holy, the Son of God.
 
We go on to see the Holy Spirit at work throughout the four Gospels, particularly at Christ’s Baptism, at the Transfiguration, and most powerfully in the Resurrection.

            And so we come to Pentecost. A few days after Christ’s Ascension back to Heaven, God gave the Apostles a special gift to help them in their work: God poured the Holy Spirit upon them in a new and wonderful way. The description of what happened at Pentecost in the Acts of the Apostles is poetry. St Luke is here attempting to describe the indescribable.

What we can say plainly is what happened afterwards: the Apostles were transformed by their experience of the Holy Spirit. They were still ordinary, fallible, sinful, weak, loveable men, just the same as the rest of us. They had been bowled over by the Resurrection, and they were still trying to work out its significance. Suddenly at Pentecost, they received the Holy Spirit, and it changed them – gave them oomph. Empowered by this indescribable spiritual experience, they set forth to spread the Gospel, the Good News of Christ. In so doing, these very ordinary men, filled with the love and creative power of God, quite literally changed the face of the earth and the course of human history.

            Now, to be fair, the Holy Spirit is perhaps not the easiest part of Christianity to grasp. One of the reasons is that we cannot see the Holy Spirit; we can only see where He has been at work.

            I have been reading a lovely novel called Miss Garnet’s Angel by Salley Vickers. Part of the plot involves Tobias from the Old Testament, and the Archangel Raphael. At one point Tobias asks the Archangel Raphael what he worships? ‘How would courage and truth and mercy and right action strike you’ answered the Archangel Raphael. ‘But those are not Gods’ protested Tobias. ‘Tobias, for Heaven’s sake’ answered the angel, ‘what do you think a God looks like when he works in men?’ It makes the point beautifully.

            Part of the problem is that the Holy Spirit is rather self-effacing. He is like a bright light. If we stare into the light, we shall come over all giddy and not see clearly. Instead, we are supposed to follow the direction of the light and see where it is shining. And here is a most important clue: the Holy Spirit will always direct our attention away from Himself and towards Jesus Christ. The Incarnation is the Spirit’s greatest action, and He seeks to draw us ever close to Jesus Christ, who is our redeemer and friend.

            The Holy Spirit is God’s gift to all who have faith in Him. Some Christians make a great fuss about praying for the Spirit to grant them certain gifts or skills. I notice that always ask for glamorous gifts, and not the dull ones like cleaning the church, or hard ones like the charism of celibacy. The nature of a gift is that you don’t deserve it; you simply receive it. Much better to pray O Holy Spirit, I am a Christian, I want to be a better one and follow Jesus more closely, I’ll just let you guide me and help me, as you know best.

Dom Gregory Dix, Anglican Benedictine monk and scholar, used to say that once we accept a Christian vocation, we are signing a blank cheque and leaving God to fill in the details.
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            It may be a long time since we started our Christian pilgrimage through life. Some stages of the journey are tougher than others. On this Pentecost Sunday 2020, let us in heart and mind write out our blank cheque anew. Drawn on the account of our lives, let us simply sign our blank cheque and offer it to God. Here, Holy Spirit, take this and give it to Jesus. You fill in the details, and use me and my life as you know best. Amen.