This is a sermon about community. "When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place" (Acts 2:1).

There’s a whole lot to this narrative of the Day of Pentecost, but none of it, it seems, would have happened without the disciples being all together - in community. There are at least three things about "community" (read that "church") which it is helpful to remember:

1. Community can be difficult

The German philosopher Schopenhauer once said that people are rather like a pack of porcupines on a freezing winter night. The sub-zero temperature forces them together for warmth. But as soon as they press very close, they jab and hurt one another. So they separate, only to attempt, in vain, over and over again, to huddle together. Togetherness can be painful. But without i…