‘Then Jesus, filled with the power of the Spirit, returned to Galilee.’

Opposite the Deanery is Governor’s Green, a fenced area of grass adjacent to the Garrison Church, and in recent weeks I’ve loved seeing a number of Brent Geese circling in to land and to feed. As well as the wonder of witnessing these annual visitors from the Arctic tundra, wild and free, I also have a sense of wry amusement when I see them from a Deanery window, or on various other green spaces along the seafront - because they seem to settle on almost every local patch of grass there is - other than the ‘official’ area of Southsea Common set aside for them by the City Council. The imitation geese placed there seem if anything to put them off; the geese seem to have a collective mind of their own and to go wherever they will.

This sense of wildness and unpredictability underlies the fact that for ancient Celtic Christianity, the goose was a symbol of the Holy Spirit. That the geese come in on the wind builds on the biblical images of the Spirit as the breath of God and the wind of God, and complements the rather more delicate bird associated with the Spirit in Scripture: the heavenly dove that descends on Jesus at his baptism. When, later in his ministry, the Pharisee Nicodemus visits Jesus, Jesus says to him, ‘The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.’

Nicodemus found his encounter with Jesus unsettling, and for many in his time Jesus was dangerously unpredictable, constantly doing the unexpected and crossing boundaries and overturning expectations. So it was also for the synagogue congregation in Nazareth of whom we heard of in this morning’s Gospel. In Jesus’s home town, hearing him read would not have been unusual, but for him to then proclaim that the words of the prophet were being fulfilled right in front of them, was amazing - and if you read on, Jesus is then driven out of town by an enraged crowd.

Jesus, like the wild Brent geese currently wintering in Portsmouth, did not follow the rule book and could not be fenced in. He was filled with the power of the Spirit, which ‘blows wherever it chooses’. It is salutary for us to remember this unpredictability, when we consider the work of the Spirit in the world today, for it is not confined within the boundaries of the Church, or seen only in the lives of Christians. Anyone who came to last Tuesday’s Christian-Muslim evening in the cathedral, the thirtieth such annual event, listened to the presentations and engaged in round table discussion on our theme of the sanctity of life, could hardly have left thinking that we at the cathedral have the monopoly on wisdom and holiness. The Spirit was surely at work that evening, bringing two communities closer together, each speaking frankly and unashamedly from within their own tradition.

And in wider society, while there are many trends that rightly dismay the people of God, there are also movements of the Spirit that the Church needs to learn from, and join in with. As an example of learning from the wind of the Spirit: the Church would probably not have women priests and bishops, if it were not for wider societal changes concerning the role of women from which it was necessary for Christians to have the humility to engage with and respond to.

An example of joining in with a movement of the Spirit: the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust was founded a quarter of a century ago, and its patron is our King. It promotes and supports Holocaust Memorial Day, which is tomorrow, commemorating not only six million Jews murdered during the Second World War, but also those killed in other genocides since - Cambodia, Rwanda and Bosnia. The aim is to learn from the past and to challenge hatred and persecution in our own day.

The Church of England rightly supports this work, which is surely a work of the Spirit, and the Archbishop of Canterbury’s Secretary for Inter Religious Affairs is a trustee. The 2025 theme is ‘For a better future’ and all of us are invited to light a candle and place it (safely) in our windows at 8pm tomorrow to remember those who were murdered for who they were and stand against prejudice and hatred today.

Jesus spoke to Nicodemus of ‘everyone who is born of the Spirit’. That is you and me, and the image of the Spirit as a wild goose helps us understand that being a follower of Jesus is about far more than following the rules or assenting to some key beliefs. Last week I spoke about the Nicene creed, encouraging not to think of it as a list, but as an interconnected account of the Christian story - and indeed to consider it as autobiography: your story and mine.

This week I encourage you to think of the creed, and your worshipping life here, and whatever you do to pray and reflect on Scripture, as resourcing and shaping your day to day life, making you more open to where the Spirit wants to take you. There is no formula for this; it is about responding to what life brings, however unexpected; it is about improvisation and attention.

Catherine Edenborough, whose last Sunday this is, has shown me a brilliant image of this through her enthusiasm for the tango. I had not realised that the tango is all about improvisation within a structure, attending to your partner and responding accordingly. Your order of service has a wiggly line on it, which is part of the design on her ordination stole - apparently representing moves called reverse ochos - in this all done in response to the leading of Christ. Catherine led a memorable tango day here in the Cathedral, just one of a number of distinctive ways she has contributed to our life and work, in which beginners had a go, professionals showed the way, and Catherine lead a workshop exploring the spirituality of the dance.

Like the wild geese, you can never predict exactly how and where the dance will go, and so it is with Christian discipleship. The more we deepen our faith, and seek ways to grow in holiness, the better we will be able to move with the wind of the Spirit, and contribute our gifts to the work of the body of Christ, into which we were all baptised in the one Spirit. AMEN