Life in Technicolour

I wonder what brings you the most joy in your life?

The things that initially come to mind might well be quite superficial. Our favourite food or drink. A movie or TV show that makes us laugh. Buying a new car or going shopping for clothes.

But if we dig deeper, I want to go out on a limb and suggest that the things which really do bring us a deep sense of fulfilment are all about love and connection.

Time shared with loved ones and family. Laughter shared between friends. Even a sense of awe and wonder at the sacred connection we share with creation.

True joy lies in this deep sense of connectedness and communion. With one another. With the world. And ultimately, with God.

It is this deep abiding in God, that Jesus describes to his disciples in today’s Gospel. As he prepares them for his coming death, meeting them in their fear and worry and disillusionment, he assures them that he will not leave them as orphans. Instead, ‘I am sending you another Advocate,’ he tells them, ‘to be with you forever.’

That word, Advocate, is one which can be translated in a number of different ways. It can also mean comforter or helper, counsellor or ally. Or, as one particularly beautiful rendering puts it, ‘someone to stand by you’1.

Another way of thinking about the Holy Spirit, is to imagine him — or her — as the force of love between God the Father and Christ the Son. A power even stronger than death, that, on that first Easter Day, raised Christ from the grave and back to life.

This Holy Spirit — the Spirit of truth, the Spirit of love, the Spirit of resurrection — is the very breath of God which holds all things together. The one who, through Christ, draws us into the very life of the living God. Draws us into the love of the Trinity — Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

And raises us, in Christ, into the fullness of resurrection joy.

This is a joy which truly transforms and enriches our lives. The deep fulfilment we feel when surrounded by loved ones — this is the Spirit within, warming us with Divine love. The joy of laughter, the wonder of creation — all of these things are the Spirit’s work within us. A work which turns our lives from darkness to light, from grayscale into technicolour.

And, this is a joy, which when cultivated, can’t help but spread to others.

‘O Lord, you have made us for yourselves,’ St Augustine of Hippo famously wrote, ‘and our hearts are restless until they find their rest in you.’ Having found rest for ourselves, then, through the life of the Spirit within us, we are also commissioned to help the restless hearts around us find their rest in Christ.

To introduce others, by our words and our example, to the God who has previously been unknown to them. This ‘unknown God’, whom St Paul tells the Athenians, ‘made the world and everything in it.’ The one in whom ‘we live and move and have our being.’

We shouldn’t, then, be afraid to be fired up about our faith. To allow the Spirit within us to express the love and grace of God to the world.

‘Always be ready…’ writes St Peter, to give ‘an account of the hope that is in you.’ Writing at a time when Christians were being persecuted terribly, he still tells them to be bold in sharing God’s love. ‘Yet do it,’ he says, ‘with gentleness and reverence.’

In other words, it should be the quality of our love, our joy, our gentleness, which speaks volumes for Christ, rather than hate or judgment. Ushering others into our common life as a Church — a life which should be filled with care and compassion, rather than gossip or prejudice. Inviting others to see in practice how the life of the Spirit inspires us, raising our spirits and lifting our hearts.

Through our relationships with one another, as well as through our reverence in worship and the celebration of the sacraments, we invite people to encounter afresh the living God.

So that, through that encounter, they might be changed and transformed themselves.

So, how can we truly embody the joy of the Gospel in our individual lives and in our common life?

Only by receiving the Holy Spirit for ourselves. Only by asking God to draw close to us, to be alongside us in both our joys and our sorrows. The one ‘to stand beside’ us, no matter what we face.

And only by praying for the same work of God in the life of the Church today. For the Holy Spirit to move us in our sacramental life, making real to us the mystery of the Eucharist, making our hearts burn within us as we receive Christ in the bread and wine.

And to transform us in our relationships with one another — making us even more loving, even more compassionate, even more hospitable, especially to those who are not like us.

To pursue goodness and justice, as a powerful witness to a world in crisis, even when it costs us.

As the Feast of the Ascension approaches, and beyond that, the outpouring of the Spirit on the Day of Pentecost, there’s no better time in our church calendar, to pray for the Spirit’s renewing power.

In words, which the Church has prayed for hundreds of years,

Come, Holy Spirit,
fill the hearts of your faithful people
and kindle in us the fire of your love.

May we know the Spirit’s power in our lives, in the life of the Church, and in a world today that so desperately needs it. Amen.

Sermon preached at St John the Baptist, Risca Road and St John the Baptist, Rogerstone, both in the Tredegar Park Ministry Area, on Sunday 10 May 2026.