Acts – Page 5 – Salvaged Faith

“Show Me” faith

Posted on May 22, 2011Leave a comment

A father was trying to teach his three sons to do their fair share of the house cleaning. The first place that he started was the bathroom.

Dad crammed the three boys into the room and proceeded to clean the toilet in front of them. Alright, I’ve showed them, the father thought. Next time, they can do it.

So, the next Saturday came, and the father set the boys to work. They wiped off the counter tops, cleaned the mirror and then stared at the toilet.

“How does that work again, Dad?” “Will you show us one more time?”

Well, the father got down on his hands and knees and cleaned the toilet again for their benefit.

Next Saturday… same situation… that toilet just wasn’t getting cleaned by itself. The boys couldn’t or didn’t want to learn how to do it.

So Dad got an idea. He called in the eldest son and showed him how to do it. Then he had the oldest son repeat what he had done – only on the clean toilet.

The next Saturday morning – Dad brought the oldest and the middle children into the bathroom.

“Okay son… now you teach your brother how to clean this toilet. Show him, what I showed you.”

Lo and behold, the toilet got clean!

The next Saturday, Dad had his middle and youngest sons come into the bathroom. Again, the older child taught the younger one what to do, with no problems.

Having run out of children, the next Saturday, Dad took the youngest son and their dog into the bathroom. “Alright son, teach Rufus here how to clean the toilet.”

The father never had to clean another toilet again!

There is an old adage in the medical world – “see one, do one, teach one.” First you see a procedure done… then you yourself do it… and then you teach a colleague or another student how to do it themselves.

This is something that is reinforced by various learning theories. We learn the best not when we hear, not even when we ourselves do something, but when we are able to teach another person. When we pass on what we have been taught, that knowledge sticks with us. It becomes a part of us.

So I want to keep one question at the back of our minds today… when was the last time you taught someone else how to be a Christian?

In our gospel lesson for this morning, we find ourselves reading very familiar words. “Believe in God, believe in me…. I am the way and the truth and the life.”

For thirteen chapters now of this gospel, Jesus has been showing the disciples the way. He has been showing them the truth, he has been showing them life.

He is like the father who gets down on his hands and his knees and cleans the toilet for his children to see.

This is what you should be and do. This is how you should live. Feed the hungry. Love the sinners. Seek the lost. Take care of one another.

And the very first words out of a disciples mouth?

“Show me one more time.”

Writer GK Chesterton once penned, “The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting. It has been found difficult and left untried.”

Like the three boys in the bathroom staring at a toilet, we faithful believers often find ourselves staring at the Way of Christ and don’t quite know what to do. The task is daunting. It is overwhelming. It smells bad. We don’t want other people to see us on our hands and knees like that.

And so we turn to Jesus… Will you show me again?

I have become convinced that a very large percentage of Christians in this world are living with a “show me” faith.

Ever pass by a homeless person on a street corner and pray: “I just wish you would show me how to help that person, God”

Ever get into a fight with a loved one and look to the heavens saying: “Jesus, just show me how to have more patience!”

Ever finish one chapter of your life and look forward to the next step of your journey with your heart crying out, “Please God, show me what to do next.”

Every time we utter those words, we are waiting for someone else to come and step in. We are praying for God to intervene. “Show me” faith keeps looking backwards, keeps returning to square one, keeps us from taking a step forward.

When the disciple Philip turned to Jesus and said, “Master, show us the father and then we’ll be content,” Jesus was quick to respond.

“You’ve been with me all this time, Philip, and you still don’t understand, you still don’t trust? You still don’t believe?”

How long have you been walked alongside Jesus? How long have you been sitting at his feet, listening, watching, but not putting into practice what he has taught us?

There is a small misunderstanding that we must clear up with the word, “believe.” Contrary to popular opinion, to “believe” does not to make a statement about something. It is not an intellectual decision or a theological opinion. No, the word as used in our gospels means to trust your life to someone or something.

To believe in God… to believe in Jesus Christ… means to have faith, to trust, that God is already there, already leading you on the path, has already given you everything you need in order to take the next step forward.

All that you need to do, is to do it. To take the leap of faith. To trust.

Jesus turned to Philip and pleaded… “Believe me! I am my father. My father is in me. And if you trust that you won’t only be able to do what I am now doing… but you will do even greater things.

I’m giving you this task. And you can do it.

I don’t have to show you anymore. Just take the first step and respond.

When you see that person on the street corner in need of some help and some love – don’t wait for God to show you what to do… you KNOW what to do… reach out your hand and do it!

When you are having that fight, don’t wait for God to show you what to do… you know… you KNOW what God desires for you in that moment… you are just to proud or scared to let go and trust and to do it.

When you find yourself struggling with the next step of your journey, stalled out in the middle of the road… don’t wait for God to show you. God has been there beside you the whole time and every step you make down that road you can trust that God will be there. And if it is the wrong step, God will put you back on the right paths. Just trust him. Just do something. And do it out of the faith and hope and love that you have in your Lord and Savior.

It is time for us to stop having a “show me faith” and time for us to “go and do likewise.”

It is time for us to take a leap of faith, knowing that the one we trust has already shown us the way.

It is time for us to not only start to do, but to teach one another how to do it also.

That is what the community of faith is all about, after all. It is the people of God, holding, guiding, supporting, encouraging, teaching, learning together what it means to be the Body of Christ in this world.

I shared with you after our gospel lesson this morning a brief passage from the book of Acts.

This is after all, the outcome of the gospel. The Acts of the Apostles reminds us what happens when we go and do likewise.

The disciples took a leap of faith and with a good dose of the Holy Spirit they set the world on fire.

And they taught others who taught others, who continued to teach others this Way of Christ.

And one of those people was a man named Stephen.

Stephen didn’t wait around for Jesus to show him what to do… he trusted in his heart that God was with him, that the Holy Spirit had his back, and that he was called to act.

And just as Jesus promised, Stephen did amazing things – great things – in the name of God.

And when people stood against him, did Stephen back down and wait for Jesus to show him what to do next?

No. He trusted. He believed. He opened his mouth and let God speak through him.

Even as he was being killed for his beliefs – for his trust in Jesus Christ – he kept his faith. And he kept speaking. And he kept teaching.

And because he believed even to his death, a young man named Saul had seeds planted in his soul. And Saul one day met Jesus and became Paul. And Paul didn’t wait around for Jesus to show him… he went out there and he did likewise.

Are you a “show me” Christian? Or are you a Christian who is ready to “go and do likewise?” Take a chance. Take a leap of faith. Trust and believe…. Go to do and to teach.

Amen and Amen.

Already/Not Yet

Posted on May 16, 2010Leave a comment

Every Friday night we have dinner with the family – as we all set the table and prepare for everyone to come to the table and sit, and especially as all of the food is there and we are just waiting for the time to pray, my niece and nephew like to sneak bites from the food being set at the table.

The table is one of my favorite images of the kingdom of God… a great big huge table where are all welcome, all are loved.

And the amazing thing about the Christian community that is born out of the ministry of Jesus is that we today are like those little kids at the dinner table – and here and there we catch a foretaste of the glorious banquet.

In the Acts of the Apostles, Luke’s entire goal is to write down what happens to the disciples after Jesus leaves them. His goal is to document those early days of ministry, the birth of the church, the in-breaking of the Kingdom of God.

And if you went home and spent some time just reading straight through the book – you would find that it reads a lot like a journal. While the beginning chapters recall the story of what happened before Luke joined up with the band of disciples, the rest of Acts is Luke’s personal account of what happens in each leg of their journey. It is his personal witness to the Kingdom of God that has already taken root in the world. And, it is his testimony that the Kingdom of God was not yet fully in this world.

Now, the Kingdom of God is a phrase that we hear quite often.

John the Baptist preached that the Kingdom of God was at hand… just as he was preaching that Jesus was about to enter their midst.

When Jesus healed the sick, he said that the Kingdom of God has come near you. (Mt. 10:7)

But also on the gospels we hear all sorts of stories and parables that tell us funny things like the kingdom of God is like a tiny seed, or like yeast, or a priceless pearl. (Mt 13)

We hear things like the kingdom is hard for the rich to enter, but that it already belongs to little children.

We hear that the kingdom is something we are supposed to seek out, but that it’s not necessarily outside of us, but within and among us (Luke 17).

But I think the most confusing thing is that the kingdom has already come among us… and that each week, we pray for it to come in the Lord’s prayer.

The Kingdom of God is already here, but not yet fully here. This morning, I want to help us to see three ways that the Kingdom of God is already… but not yet.

Our first already/not yet has to do with the one we worship.

Already… Christ, the bearer of the Kingdom has been among us.

As the Acts of the Apostles begins, Luke reminds his reader that there is a whole other book that was written about the ministry of Christ from the beginning until the day when Christ ascended into heaven. But just in case they forgot the last bit of that story, Luke tells it again.

Jesus suffered for us and died for us and then by God’s power he showed up again – alive as ever and for forty days he stayed with the apostles. And he taught them about his Kingdom.

It was a kingdom that they had witnessed when the hungry were fed and the blind were healed and the oppressed were set free. It was a kingdom whose power was Jesus. The kingdom was where Jesus was.

And after forty days, Jesus takes his disciples out of the city and they begin to think that this is the moment they had all been waiting for. One of them cries out – Lord, is this the time when you will restore the kingdom?!

Not yet…. The response Jesus gives is that it is not for us to know the times for these things. Not yet is the Kingdom fully come. And as a sign of that fact, Christ is lifted up before their very eyes – not to initiate the Kingdom of God… but he is taken away from their sight. Not yet, is the Kingdom of Christ fully present among us.

What we are left with are promises… the promise from Christ that he will be with us always. The promise of the Holy Spirit – the comforter and advocate who bears within us the seeds of the Kingdom. And the prophetic witness we have in the pages of Revelation that remind us that just as Christ came to be with us once… In the new creation, God will come and be with us again. “See,” the prophet John writes, “the home of God is among mortals. He will dwell with them as their God; they will be his peoples, and God himself will be with him.” (Rev. 21:3)

As the church, we are sandwiched between these experiences of God. We carry with us the memories of Christ’s life and teaching and death and resurrection and we witness to these things. We share the story. Just like kids at the dinner table who sneak a piece of broccoli out of the bowl and quickly pass it to one another – we are eager and excited about this glimpse. But at the same time, we wait. We long for the time when all things will be ready – when all will be present at the table, and when God Godself will be with us.

Our second already/not yet has to do with life and death in the Kingdom of God.

Already, the disciples have witnessed how Christ brought back to life children who were dead and his own friend Lazarus. Already, the power to heal in Jesus’ name has been transferred to the disciples. Miracles have been seen everywhere – including the most amazing miracle of all… Christ died for our sins and then was raised from the tomb. Sin, death, and evil have been defeated for ever more! As we follow the apostles through Luke’s account in Acts – we see signs and wonders of more healings and resurrections, of life and life abundant!

But not yet… Lazarus would eventually die once again. Each of those apostles would all be killed proclaiming the new life of the Kingdom of God. In our own lives today, we experience suffering and pain, death and loss. We grieve, we weep, we mourn.

Brandon’s great-grandma passed away on Thursday at the age of 99 years. She lived a long full life, but we have all been acutely aware for some time now that at some point, her body would fail and she would no longer be with us. Death is the reality of human life. And when it comes, it is not always a sad thing.

Not yet have the promises of the Kingdom of God been fulfilled. For we hear in Revelation that the time will come when the new heaven and new earth are among us. And in that time and in that place, Death will be no more. Reality as we know it, with its cycles of life and death and life again will be no more. There will only be life. Life abundant.

As the church, our foretaste of that life comes when we baptize little children and we place them in God’s hands. Our foretaste of that Kingdom life comes at the altar table when we eat the bread of life and the cup of salvation. Our foretaste of that Kingdom comes at every single Christian funeral… when we carry our fathers and mothers and brothers and sisters and friends across the threshold of death and place them into God’s hands. As the church, we proclaim the reality that death has been defeated, even as we are standing beside the grave. Like little children who stand on their tiptoes and peer over the edge of the counter, we see the dessert that awaits us. We know the truth of the end of our stories. This morning at our graduation breakfast, Wilda shared the story of a woman who wanted to be buried with her fork because she knew, that the best was yet to come.

Our final already/not yet has to do with the joy of the Kingdom of God

Already, we know that when we abide with Christ, when we join in the fellowship of other Christians that we experience joy. As Christ gathered with his disciples in the upper room before he was betrayed he breathed into them the spirit of peace. And we hear stories from the first books of Acts about the joy and the community, the singing and the fellowship that the early Christians experience.

Whenever two or more are gathered, there Christ is among them. We support one another in our walk of faith and together we know the good news of the Kingdom of God.

But not yet fully. There are difficult days. There are times when our church brothers and sisters drive us batty. We argue and fight. We have our ups and downs. We join together as the Christian community around the dinner table, but before we eat, we must confess all of the ways that we have hurt and neglected one another since we met last. Our lives are not yet perfect, and our joy is not yet complete.

And to be sure, there is much that takes away joy from our lives. There is sickness and pain. There is oppression and want in our world. We turn on the television sets at night and the last thing that we find there is good news. To put on a smile and pretend that everything is okay and that we are happy in the face of all of that trouble is dishonest and hypocritical.

In the inbetween time between the already and the not yet, the church has the blessed opportunity to find joy among one another. We share what we have and experience true fellowship. But at the same time, united by our faith and the joy of what God intends for us, we can confront the pain and suffering and injustice of the world with a rightous anger. We can speak out against those places where God’s joy and peace has not been made complete, we can weep with those who suffer, and we can hold forth a vision of the day that is spoken of in Revelation – the day when weeping and crying and pain will be no more.

We gather today as children before the dinner table. Gradually, pieces of the meal are being set for us. And here and there we catch a wiff of the banquet, we sneak a taste of the bounty, we eagerly await with one another the glorious feast that awaits us. But we wait… until what we see already becomes the glorious feast that is yet to come.

Down to the River to Pray

Posted on May 4, 2010Leave a comment

The last few days have been simply overwhelming in my life. The first reason is that there is just a lot to do. My weekend was jam packed full of good church related things like a Holy Spirit filled training with leaders from my church and a beautiful celebration of marriage and excitement about renovations being made at the church. But there is also a lot of heaviness of heart that comes from my cousin being sick and searching for answers and my husband’s great-grandmother facing the end of her life and seeing pictures and hearing stories of my last hometown Nashville under water.

I opened up my worship planning book this afternoon trying to figure out what to preach on. For the past few weeks I have been following our churchwide bible study (although most days, I’m not sure people get the connection between the two) and this week the topic is the Household of God – the creation of God’s people who are sent to be witness to God’s love. It fits in okay with the whole Mother’s Day thing happening, but for some reason in the midst of all of my exhaustion and anxiety, it feels a little too schmaltzy.

Want further proof of my “unsettledness” – just listen to my dream last night. I was in an elevator with these two twenty something women who were gossipping and saying horrible stuff about other people and the elevator started to tip and we heard a snap and then went plummeting downwards – the elevator falling faster and faster and faster down the shaft with screams and shouts until I woke up.

So, when I opened up the book of Acts today, I found it kind of funny that Paul was dreaming too. A man stood pleading in his dream – COME HELP US! And in that plea, Paul felt the urgency of God’s calling and immediately the band of evangelists packed up their bags and made a long journey to Phillippi.

And they wandered around in the city for a few days, settling in, seeing what would arise, and finally on the Sabbath they went down to the river… “where we supposed there was a place of prayer.”

I read that phrase and my heart skipped a beat. Because there is a lot of praying happening by the river these days. I don’t know anything about Ancient Roman culture or why they guessed that people would be praying at the river, but I know today that praying happens at the river. I’m not sure what Paul and Luke and the others thought they might find there – but I know that if I were able to head over to the Cedar River here in Iowa or down to the Cumberland River in Tennessee, or even to the Mississippi River Delta and the coastlines of the Gulf of Mexico there would be a lot of praying going on.

COME HELP US! the vision came in Paul’s dream. And they got up and left and went down to the river to pray.

We could talk about the church gathered at the river and have the visions from Revelation in our minds… the faithful gathered at the river with their beautiful robes, but instead my mind is going to pictures of the church gathered at the river with sandbags and stories of hope and songs of peace and offerings of money for recovery. My mind is going to images of churches full of people who have just come from the river and are now stopping for a free meal and rest for their tired arms and legs. My mind is going to images of churches that have traveled hundreds of miles to come to the river and help rebuild.

And as we head down to the river to pray and help and listen and cry and share… as we are the family of God down by the riverside… maybe others will hear our stories of hope, like Lydia did. Maybe they will be moved by the good news and they will put down what they are doing and open their hearts to us and join us in this journey.

Everything is not alright today. And maybe my dream was just an indication of the helplessness that I feel as things fall apart. But if we go down to the river to pray with our brothers and our sisters and our mothers and our fathers we might just find the strength we need to keep going and the hope that we need to survive.

preaching in spanish

Posted on June 2, 2009Leave a comment

I should probably also post about the amazing experience it was to PREACH in Spanish!!!

Thanks to Adrianna, our translator, I was able to take my sermon for our bi-lingual pentecost service and preach it in BOTH languages.

I was nervous, but really just more excited about the opportunity to do it. And when I got up there, it all just rolled off my tongue. Well, except for the r’s because I can’t roll my r’s yet.

I know I made tons of mistakes, but I did it!

I think what was also amazing about the service was that for the first time in a while I felt like I was really worshipping. I felt like the music and the words and prayers and even my own preaching just flowed over me. The Spirit was ABSOLUTELY there and I felt so at peace and refreshed afterwords.

Bill Cotton sent out in his weekly preaching memo today something about the two pentecosts – the noisy clamor filled one from Acts, and the quiet breath of peace from John. There may have been multiple languages being spoken – but I absolutely felt Christ’s breath of peace as the Holy Spirit washed over us.

Whose Baptism

Posted on January 11, 2009Leave a comment

Acts 19:1-7, Mark 1:4-11

This morning I want to share with you a modern parable about a group of men who drove to Des Moines in order to see a crazy traveling preacher that had made her way to Iowa.

The gal’s name was Jane B. and she dressed in all black and leather with a blue Mohawk where a normal person’s hair would be. In part, these small town guys from Marengo just wanted to see the spectacle. But when they got there, when they stood on the banks of the Des Moines River and heard her preach – they were moved.

That traveling preacher, Jane B., was telling them that dipping down in that icy cold water could wash away their sins. It would make them clean. Repent! Jane B. said. Turn away from your past mistakes. Become clean again and live as a new person!

Well, those small town guys from Marengo didn’t talk about their problems with other people – being self-reliant types. But each of them had something that tugged at their conscious, some action or behavior that they needed to be washed away. And so they presented themselves to Jane B., one by one, and were washed clean. That’s what baptism is after all – a washing clean of your spirits.

As they continued to listen to Jane B. for the rest of the day, they also heard something that warmed them from the inside out. Someone else was coming – someone who had a message even more powerful that that of Jane B. She was only the messenger, pointing the way for the Savior of their lives.

That group of men headed back home and knew their lives would be different. They promised to meet every week at the local coffee shop to keep one another on track and help each other look out for this Savior who was coming.

Things went okay for a few years. They had become their own private little group, and while they sometimes talked about their experience, most of the time, they just kept it to themselves. They weren’t sure that other people would understand. They wanted to make another journey back to Des Moines, to see if anything had happened, but thought for sure they would have heard by now if the Savior had come.

One morning, a young man walked into the coffee shop, right over to where the group of men were sitting. He ordered a cup of coffee and then sat down, right at the table with the other guys and started a conversation.

“Good morning!” he said. “Do you guys come here often?”

A grunt of affirmation was his response.

“You guys here just to enjoy the coffee? Or are you getting together for some other reason?”

One of the men looked up. “We made some promises a few years ago. To change our lives. So we get together here every morning to help one another out.”

The stranger seemed very intrigued by this. “Oh yeah?” he said, “What brought on the change in your lives?”

Another one of the men replied, “A trip out to Des Moines, to hear that crazy preacher Jane B.”

The young man could hardly contain himself. “You guys are believers?! That’s terrific! I’m a preacher myself. The name is Paul and I’m going from community to community trying to encourage people to follow the Way. You don’t know how excited I am to already find some of you here! Now tell me, Did ya’ll receive the Holy Spirit when you became believers?”

The group of men stared back at the stranger. “Holy Spirit?” One of them replied. “Not quite sure I’ve ever heard of the Holy Spirit before. Maybe we’re talking about different things.”

Paul responded, “I thought you said that you went out to see Jane B.? Whose baptism did you receive?”

“Whose baptism?” was the response. “We just went down there and heard Jane preach and all of us were so moved that we got washed clean there in the water. So I guess, Jane’s baptism, I guess. They we all headed back home. Is there something we missing?”

A large smile spread across Paul’s face. “Oh my friends,” he replied. “How much you have missed! Jane B. baptized all who came to her, young and old, and she preached repentance and washed away sins. But she also promised that someone was coming after her – the Savior – the one whom we should all believe in! I’m here to tell you today that that Savior came… and his name was Jesus. Jane’s baptism is merely the beginning… there is so much more for you to hear!”

Paul stayed with them a few more hours and shared with them about how Jane B. had been preaching one day out in the river when something amazing happened. A seemingly ordinary young man walked down to the river and asked to be baptized. Jane B. dunked his body under the water like the rest, but as he came back up, the very heavens seemed to break open and a bright light came down out of the clouds and settled upon the man. And then, deep within Jane B’s spirit she heard the words – almost as if they had been spoken from above… “This is my Son. This is my Beloved. With him, I am well pleased.”

Ever since that day, Jane’s ministry diminished and the ministry of that man, Jesus, began. Paul shared with them about how he fed the hungry, and healed the sick, how he preached a message of love and forgiveness. And then he told the men gathered around the table about how Jesus had stepped on the toes of power and was executed.

Paul shared that after his death, the followers of Jesus’ Way claimed that he was still around – that he had been raised from the dead – but Paul didn’t believe it himself until Jesus appeared to him, himself. Paul confessed that he had once tried to round up and arrest followers of the Way, but that meeting the risen Christ face to face, changed everything in his life. Paul told them about the power and the love and the grace that comes when the risen Christ lives within you – when the Holy Spirit dwells in your heart and guides your every action. Paul told them what true transformation and life can look like.

The men looked down into their coffee cups and then gradually looked up into each others eyes. First one, then another, then all four of them stood up and looked directly at Paul.

“We don’t know all the details yet, we don’t quite understand how it works. But we want to be a part of this way that you are talking about. We want to experience what you have shared about God and about that kind of relationship. How do we do that?”

“Well, do you have any water?” was the reply.

A few glasses of water were brought to the table and one by one, Paul baptized the men in the name of the Father, our creator, of the Son, our redeemer, and of the Holy Spirit, our sustainer. And the immense power of the Holy Spirit filled these men, a new sense of life that came with the realization that God didn’t just forgiven them of their sins, but that God loved them. That God was for them and that God wanted them to share this new life with others. They found the strength to share their stories with others that they met – to help them to come along on the journey and to discover what life in Christ was truly all about.

Douglas Ottati writes, “The gift of the Spirit in baptism sweeps people up into the dynamic of the Spirit and its expansive Way. It drives believers to participate in the church’s expansive mission. It empowers them to witness in word and in deed to a universally inclusive reality. And so by the Spirit they are empowered to witness to a truth that many in today’s terrorized and war-torn,” and I might add, economically troubled, “world may need to hear.”

Like the men in the coffee shop, our modern day believers at Ephesus from the book of Acts, I have to admit that for a long time in my own life, I didn’t know just how much I was missing.

Growing up, my family was very nominally Christian. We always went to church on Christmas Eve – but usually at my grandparent’s church in Cherokee, Iowa. Sometimes, we would go on Easter Sunday. And in our minds – that was what qualified us as Christians.

In high school, as I have already shared with you, I became more active in the church, more regular in attendance, was baptized and confirmed in the church, and got to thinking, alright – this is what makes me a Christian.

In many ways, I didn’t know that was what God was doing in me at my baptism. I thought it was about forgiveness of sins and about “getting in” to the Christian community. At the time, I went through the motions, but I never really opened myself up to what was happening. I wasn’t quite ready to trust God with my life… I thought I had… but I hadn’t.

I was missing the fact that God was already at work within me, preparing me, leading me, guiding me, getting me ready to follow. I was missing the fact that being a Christian wasn’t about rules I had to follow or conditions I had to meet, but about letting God in Christ through the Holy Spirit into my life. That it meant I became a different person not because I had to, but because the Spirit of God was transforming me.

And I think that there are a lot of people in our world today – and maybe even in the church this morning – who are in the same place. We live without the blessings of the fullness of baptism because we have underestimated “the power bestowed on us in our baptism” (Hooke) – not realizing what the Holy Spirit is all about.

The Holy Spirit is the weird, out there part of the Trinity of God that we just can’t quite put our fingers on. Especially when we are told that the Spirit should be giving us gifts of tongues and prophecy. I don’t know about you, but I’ve never spoken in tongues before.

Ruthanna Hooke assures us that while , “we tend to think that prophecy has to do with foretelling future events… in Luke’s Gospel and in Acts, to prophesy is to speak about the present; it is to speak in God’s name on behalf of God’s work in the world.” It’s telling the truth about what God is doing, and with the Holy Spirit behind you, that truth has the power to change the world. When we are baptized with the Holy Spirit, we are given the “power to proclaim the gospel with boldness,” in ways that everyone can understand.

That is why Jesus’ Baptism is so different from the one received by John. In the words of William Loader “To be baptized with Jesus’ baptism… meant an act not only of receiving divine grace… but also joining with Jesus in his reaching out and like Jesus, being equipped and inspired by the Spirit to do so.”

While our baptisms may be something that we do only once, the work of the Holy Spirit never stops within us. It calls us out of our selves to discover what life in Christ and life alongside Christ is truly all about .And in doing so, we are called to walk with Christ to the sad and the lonely, the hurting, those who are struggling and those who see only darkness. We are called to live out of the life and ministry of Jesus Christ, whose name is high over all names, and whose baptism we claim as our own.