Sunday 27th May - Pentecost
9.00 a.m. Parish Communion, St Margaret of Antioch, Barley
10.30 a.m. Parish Communion + Junior Church, St Mary Magdalene, Barkway

Monday 28th May
No Morning Prayer

Tuesday 29th May
8.15 a.m. Morning Prayer, St Mary Magdalene, Barkway

Wednesday 30th May
8.15 a.m Morning Prayer, St Margaret of Antioch, Barley

Thursday 31st May
8.15 a.m. Morning Prayer St Mary’s, Reed

Friday 1st June
 
Saturday 2nd June
9.00 a.m Morning Prayer, St Margaret of Antioch, Barley

Sunday 3rd June - Trinity Sunday
9.00 a.m. Parish Communion, St Mary’s, Reed
10.30 a.m. Parish Communion with baptism of Hector Wallace and Junior Church, St Margaret of Antioch, Barley
6.00 p.m. BCP Evensong, St Mary Magdalene, Barkway

THE COMING MONTH
(Morning Prayer usually takes place each day: Monday and Tuesday in Barkway; Wednesday and Saturday in Barley and Thursday in Reed)

Monday 4th June
7.45 p.m. Barkway VCC, Manor Farm

Thursday 7th June
8.00 p.m. Friends of Barkway Church committee meeting, The Old Post Office, Barkway

Sunday 10th June - Trinity 1
10.30 a.m. United Benefice Sung Eucharist, St Mary Magdalene, Barkway, with the Revd Canon Michael Sansom
7.30 p.m. Simply Reeds, Concert at St Mary’s, Reed, in aid of church funds

Monday 11th June
7.00 p.m. Church Times study group

Saturday 16th June
11.00 a.m. Baptism of Charlie King, St Mary’s, Reed

Sunday 17th June - Trinity 2
9.00 a.m. Parish Communion, St Mary Magdalene, Barkway
10.30 a.m. Parish Communion, St Mary’s, Reed
2.00 p.m. Friends of Barkway Church Open Gardens (until 6.00 p.m.)
5.00 p.m. All-age worship, St Margaret of Antioch, Barley

Monday 18th June
7.30 p.m. Barley PCC mission sub-group meeting, Willetts, Barley

Wednesday 20th June
8.00 p.m. Deanery Chapter, St Mary’s Aspenden
8.00 p.m. North Buntingford Prayer Group, High Bank, Reed

Thursday 21st June
5.00 p.m. Wedding Rehearsal, St Mary’s, Reed

Saturday 23rd June
3.00 p.m. Marriage of John Newman and Penny Baxter, St Mary’s, Reed

Sunday 24th June - Trinity 3
9.00 a.m. Parish Communion, St Margaret of Antioch, Barley
10.30 a.m. Parish Communion with baptism of Mitchell Winkworth and Junior Church,St Mary Magdalene, Barkway
2.30 p.m. Burma Star service, St Mary Magdalene, Barkway

Monday 25th June
8.00 p.m. Deanery Synod

Genesis 11.1-9; Acts 2.1-21; John 14.8-17, 25-27

A cat was on patrol one dark night, quietly walking from room to room in his owner’s house, looking for intruders. As he entered the kitchen, he saw a small mouse, in search of food, by one of the cupboards. Immediately, the mouse took off, with the cat in hot pursuit. Through the dining room, through the living room they flew, around the corner and past the stairs. Finally, in the hall, the cat cornered the mouse. 

From his corner, the mouse turned to face the cat and said,” What do you plan to do with me?”

“I’m going to eat you,” said the cat.

“But why?” asked the mouse. “What have I done to you?”

“Because that’s what cats do, I really have no choice in the matter; it’s the way the world has been ordered.”

“Well, do what you must, then, but I can’t watch.”

So, the mouse covered his eyes with his paws, and turned to face the corner. 

Instantly a “woof-woof, woof-woof-woof” was heard, and the cat took off like a shot out of a cannon.

The mouse peeked out to make sure the cat was gone, and then said to no one in particular, “Thank goodness, I’m bilingual.”

Language can unite or divide in many ways. In two of our readings today, we see this in action.

In the Tower of Babel story, language becomes a dividing feature. The Babylonians, desiring to make themselves great, through their own strength, end up being divided, scattered abroad and speaking many different languages so that they cannot understand one another.

And then we see in out reading from Acts, that the Holy Spirit’s work is to unite, and to bring back together those who have been scattered; people who cannot understand one another because they speak different languages. The Holy Spirit enables those of all language to hear of God’s deeds and power, to hear the message of the Gospel.

Sadly the language of the Church today appears to be again something that is dividing peoples. The Holy Spirit enabled the apostles to speak in a language that everyone could understand; in many ways we in the 21st-century Church are speaking a language that those outside do not understand.

There are different types of church language. Some people speak in the language of theology - the language of Bible study, learning, academic institutions, the language that expresses through words what we should know about God. But nobody wants to hear, unless it’s the media focusing on what divides Christians.

Others speak predominantly in the language of spirituality - the language of prayer and worship and liturgy. Again, as numbers in church across the country on a Sunday imply, we are not speaking a language that others understand.

And there is the language of social action - a language where the church speaks through its care of others, through things like speaking out for asylum-seekers, providing for the poor, and so on. It’s a language that improves the lives of many, but a language that sadly seems at times disconnected from Christ himself.

None of these languages are worthless, and all communicate something of God and are important for those who speak them, but somehow they are failing to communicate with the many people outside the church walls.

The Holy Spirit, I believe, is still very much at work in our world today, and longing to communicate with those within and outside the church. But, sadly, many Christians seem all too unaware of the Spirit’s power, and of how it can bring us to life.

I’m reading an interesting book at present by Graham Tomlin called Spiritual Fitness. He highlights how for many people the church is irrelevant. In writing a previous book, he came to the conclusion that there needs to be something that comes before evangelism. That people need to be interested before they hear the Gospel.

If we think about Jesus, the crowds he spoke to on the whole had shown that interest before he spoke - they were following him around or had had interest raised because of what they’d seen him do.

Tomlin writes this:” Several years ago I wrote a book called The Provocative Church. Its basic idea was that the best evangelism happens as the answer to a question. Trying to talk about the Christian faith to someone who is not remotely interested is like trying to get blood out of a stone. It’s a whole lot easier talking to someone who has seen or experienced something that has intrigued him and made hi wonder whether this Christian thing has something in it after all.

“The question is, therefore, how do we provoke the question. How do Christians get people who normally dismiss faith to begin to ask whether there might be a God who takes a real interest in them after all? The answer is the kingdom of God.

“When people experience the reality of the kingdom, life as it was always meant to be, under the strong and gentle rule of God, that is when they begin to experience a longing for something else, something we once knew as a human race.

“And so the church’s first task is not actually evangelism, or just getting the words right, but displaying the life of the kingdom in its own life and community, which in turn will provoke the questions that lead to effective evangelism.”

Tomlin looks at the lengths that people will go to to achieve physical fitness - joining a gym, being disciplined about exercise, making it a priority in their week, working hard to achieve fitness. And he asks how we might similarly achieve spiritual fitness.

Many people assume that faith will just happen, that they don’t really need to put much effort into it. But the Christian virtues, those things that display the kingdom of God don’t just happen within us. The big difference is that unlike physical fitness which is down only to the discipline and hard work of the participant, spiritual fitness relies not only on us, but also on the Holy Spirit, which shapes and hones us, if we give it place.

Those qualities that Christians need to display, if Tomlin is right, all come down to the Holy Spirit. They are things that will grow and develop in us, if we are open to the Spirit’s working within us. But the Spirit doesn’t force its way into our lives; we need to develop an openness to its work through prayer, and the discipline of a spiritual life.

The sort things I’m talking about are clearly laid out for us in Scripture. A good starting-point is the fruit of the Spirit as found in Galatians chapter 5: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, humility and self-control. If we are open to the Spirit, then these things will grow in us.

Advice from Peter: “you must make every effort to support your faith with goodness, and goodness with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control and self-control with endurance and endurance with godliness and godliness with mutual affection and mutual affection with love. For if these things are yours, they will keep you from being ineffective and unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

And Paul to Timothy: pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance gentleness.

There are other similar lists. The key to them all is spiritual fitness, our growth and development through the Holy Spirit, which begins with our desire to grow and develop.

The discipline comes in opening our hearts to the Spirit, in inviting it into our lives, in prayer and in community together.

The Bible is very clear that Christianity is not an individual activity but is something we do in community. We have a God who lives in the community of the Trinity - more of the Trinity next week. Christians who grow in faith are those who are open to the working of the Holy Spirit through other Christians as well as directly in themselves.

Our spiritual lives need as much attention as our physical health, but in a busy world, they are often neglected, both by Christians and by those with no faith.

Spirituality is big business these days, but true spiritual growth comes for those who stick at it, not who just choose a bit of this and a bit of that and give up when it no longer gives them a spiritual high.

This is a massive subject and I don’t have time to dwell more on it today. But, if we are to begin speaking in a language that others can understand, we need to do that with the Holy Spirit.

When we do it on our own, as with Babel, we become divided in our language; if we do it in the power of the Holy Spirit, we will be united, and others will hear the message that we seek to share, the message of love, joy, peace, patience, godliness and faithfulness.