Faith – Page 27 – Pocket Sized Pastor*

Children’s Sermon: Night Light

Bring a Night Light. Maybe bring something dark to cover the light. It’s based on this: https://dskidsermons.com/2018/05/29/june-3rd-2018-2nd-sunday-after-pentecost/.

Hi everyone!

I’m very glad to see you today.

So I want to talk about a sentence we’ll hear later, in our 2nd reading, and it’s something God says “let light shine out of darkness.”

Let…light…shine. That got me thinking – what are the different ways we can make light or help light shine? We can light a candle. Turn on a light switch. Light a fire. We can’t, on our own, make light – but we can use or create tools that can make light for us. And so I brought one of those tools today and that’s this: show the nightlight. And so when God says “let light shine!” I can turn this button on and….light shines!

Well, sort of. It’s a bit hard to see. This isn’t designed, like a flashlight, to give out light. It’s instead a light that is used at night. Use the cover to cover the light so that the kids can see how, a little light makes a big difference in a dark place. When we’re in a dark room, maybe in bed sleeping, and we wake up and can’t see anything – we can turn on this light – and we’ll be able to see. It’s not a lot of light so it won’t fill the room or hurt our eyes or what not. It’ll just be a little light to help us see – and to help us feel and believe that we’re okay and we’re not alone.

Now, there are times when we might feel like we’re a bit overwhelmed…or sad…or scared. We might feel like we’re in a room, in the middle of the night, and wondering if anyone can see us – or if there’s any light that can help us. We might even wonder where God is – thinking that, since we can’t see God, God isn’t really with us.

But what we hear in the 2nd reading is a promise that God has made to each of us. And that promise is that, no matter what, we’ve already been given God’s love – God’s joy – and God’s hope – through Jesus. So even in those moments when we feel really sad; even in those moments when we feel all alone; even in those moments when we feel alone – Jesus is right there with us. We might not see Jesus like we see each other. We might not feel Jesus like if we can feel our own hands. But Jesus has been given to us already. So we carry with us always, our own Jesus nightlight – who is always sending light to us when we’re sad; or afraid; or scared. He’s always telling us that we aren’t alone. And he’s making a promise that because we have him, in the end, we will be okay.

So always remember – no matter what – you’ve got Jesus. And there’s nothing in the night that can take that away from you.

Thank you for being here and I hope you have a blessed week.

Each week, I share a reflection for all children of God. The written manuscript serves as a springboard for what I do. This is from Christ Lutheran Church’s Worship on 2nd Sunday after Pentecost, 6/3/2018.

Remember: a sermon on the Sabbath

Observe the sabbath day and keep it holy, as the Lord your God commanded you. Six days you shall labor and do all your work. But the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God; you shall not do any work—you, or your son or your daughter, or your male or female slave, or your ox or your donkey, or any of your livestock, or the resident alien in your towns, so that your male and female slave may rest as well as you.Remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God brought you out from there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm; therefore the Lord your God commanded you to keep the sabbath day.â€‹

Deuteronomy 5:12-15

My sermon from 2nd Sunday after Pentecost (June 3, 2018) on Deuteronomy 5:12-15. Listen to the recording at the bottom of the page or read my manuscript below.

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So what can you say when the words don’t come?

As a manuscript preacher, I write down every word that I plan to say in my sermon. So it’s bit scary when the clock hits midnight on Sunday morning and I have a blank page. This usually doesn’t happen but for some reason, until a few hours ago, the words for today didn’t come.

Now, if I spend some time thinking about why this happened, it’s probably because I just ran out of words. Much of my time over the last week was spent giving words to the different things going on here at the church. Some of those words you’ll hear in our special congregational meeting right after the service. And others were spent helping to organize the New Jersey Synod Event at the upcoming ELCA Youth Gathering later this month. I also had a long email chain floating with various members of the Upper Pascack Valley Clergy Group as we made plans to meet and talk about our upcoming schedule. And since we’re nearing the end of our programming year here at church, there’s still emails to write about our special Sunday School Walkathon next week, prep for Graduates’ Sunday, Blessing of the Animals Sunday, and gearing up for another fun Vacation Bible School. When you take these different events, throw in the normal pastoral contacts, the Genesis Garden, the Tri-boro Food pantry, the prayers, phone calls and time spent with all the other churchy stuff that we do, together as a community, as we live out our faith – it’s sort of amazing how many words get said in this place before our worship on Sunday even begins.

Yet what probably pushed me over the edge this week was my time yesterday at the New Jersey Synod office near Trenton. As a member of the New Jersey Synod Candidacy Committee, I’m a part of the team that journeys with people as they become the next pastors and deacons in our church. Everything we do in the Candidacy process is, I feel, holy, and amazing, and also …completely draining. Before the meeting, I spend hours reading essays, applications, internship evaluations, and psychological profiles. Then, at the meeting itself, there’s always a pre-interview part where the team prepares themselves for the people we’re about to meet. And then we talk with each candidate for over an hour, discovering what they’ve learned, how they’ve grown, where they failed, and how their relationship with Jesus has shifted as they become the leaders God wants them to be. It’s really a blessing to be part of this process. And it’s awesome to see all the different kinds of people who know that Jesus matters; who knows that this church matters; and who want to serve and lead and be a part of what God is already doing in the world. But by the end of the day, after six long interviews and six tough and faithfilled decisions, the candidates and the committee are usually spiritually and emotionally wiped out by the end of the day. We end using a lot of words in a small amount of time to help shape and shepherd the next leaders of the church. So when the meeting is over, im home and the house is quiet – by the time 12:01 am on Sunday morning rolls around – there feels like there’s no more words left to say.

So what do you say when the words don’t seem to come?

Now I know that we all have moments when we feel like we’ve run out of words. But there are other times when we don’t even know where our words should start. We might have a friend or a family member who is hurting and in crisis. When we see them, our throat basically closes up because we know there’s nothing we can say to make their situation better. And there are moments when we are the ones who are hurting and we feel surrounded by too many people giving us words they think will help us but end up being words that are meaningless and Emory. There are moments in our lives when the sheer amount of work we do, be it for our jobs, our families, our homes, our church, and our friends – there are moments when we will use up all the words we could possibly share. And there are still other moments when there are no words that will bring to us, and to others, the peace we need.

And it’s in those moments when, maybe, it’s the act of living in the Sabbath that becomes the only thing we could possibly say.

We tend to, I think, focus on the Sabbath as a day of rest because Exodus 20 and Genesis 1 is where the Sabbath is intimately connected to God’s prior creative act. God created the world in six days and then, like every good project manager, God needed a break once the initial work was done. The Sabbath becomes this moment of time set apart as a divine mini-weekend. It becomes a place where we rest; where we recharge as a way to prepare ourselves for the next day, the 8th day, when the week restarts and we, like God, head back to work. But this connection to creation isn’t the focus we hear in today’s reading from Deuteronomy. The Sabbath isn’t only a moment where we rest, mimicking an all-powerful God who, for some reason, needed to take a break. Rather, the Sabbath is rooted in a freedom that was denied to the Israelites for generations as they served as slaves in Egypt. They didn’t get a break so God gave them one. And then God commanded that this Sabbath is also an invitation for all the people around us to get a break as well. The people we expect to serve us, to help us so that we can relax and recharge – every single one of them, whether they’re the busboy at your favorite restaurant, a masseuse at a Korean Day Spa, or even just a family member – everyone stops together. Everyone is invited to live as if all their necessary work is already done. Instead, all people get to just be – and live with and in the God who loved, and served, and did everything to make them free.

It’s in our nature to turn the Sabbath into a kind of rest designed to only help us do the work we do the other six days of the week. It’s harder, I think, to imagine the Sabbath as a moment in time where we, regardless of our job, regardless of our abilities, and regardless of our social status, where we, together, just get to be with the God who has done all work needed to love us; hold us; and keep us close. Our words, sometimes, can trap us into thinking we need to speak in this moment and every moment. When the words don’t come, we assume that means something’s wrong. But maybe that’s the moment when we need to stop speaking and instead put ourselves, our loved ones, and our neighbors into God’s Sabbath. And when we do that, we’ll see that it’s okay to not have all the words. It’s okay to sometimes not know what to say. And it’s okay to do that one thing all of us can do: we can sit with each other and just be. Because when the 8th day finally rolls around, who we meet and see there is the God who has already rolled the stone away. This Jesus has already been with us, there in every possible moment, including the ones when no sinkage word could ever undo the hurt we’ve felt, caused, or participated in. Our words won’t always be enough. But God’s Word is. And it’s through your baptism, through your faith, and through your relationship with Jesus Christ that end up moving you into a sabbath of just being where everything, and everyone, is whole, free, and loved.

Amen.

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Bigger Than Ourselves. From Pastor Marc – My Message for the Messenger, June 2018 Edition

15. 1500. 30,000. What do these three numbers have in common? They show how we are part of something bigger than ourselves.

June is a month where we will celebrate just how connected we are. When Jesus claimed us in our baptism, he did more than connect us to himself. He united us with everyone else whom he claimed as his own. Our faith is designed to be a team sport. We cannot follow Jesus on our own. We need others to pray for us. We need others to support us. We need others to love because Jesus loved us first. We are called to be people who connect, forming a community that is even bigger than Christ Lutheran Church’s walls.

On June 3rd, we will hold a special congregational meeting to discuss what it takes to be a community of faith. We’ll have one worship service at 9:30 am. Our congregational meeting will take place immediately after. After the meeting, we will then bless our Genesis Garden. The Genesis Garden is in its 33rd year. Together, we will raise over 1500 lbs. of fresh produce to donate to the Center for Food Action in Englewood. When we work together, we make a real difference. On June 10th, Lutheran youth (8th grade and up) from around Northern New Jersey will attend our 9:00 am worship. Afterwards, they’ll share brunch and go for a hike nearby. The first meeting of this new initiative met in May at Calvary Lutheran in Allendale. Youth from CLC had a great time, even discovering classmates at their schools who were Lutherans, just like them. We can’t wait to welcome these amazing kids to CLC. On June 17th, we’ll honor all graduates as we start our summer worship schedule. We’re proud of everyone who completed their schoolwork and are now taking that next step in their lives. And finally, on June 24th, we’ll host our annual Blessing of the Animals. We’ll worship in the Opsal (Fellowship) Hall. All critters, large and small, are welcome to attend. If your pet friend doesn’t like large crowds, feel free to bring a picture (even if it’s on your phone), and I’ll say a blessing over it. We’ll also celebrate our youth and adults who will be attending the ELCA Youth Gathering in Houston where over 30,000 people will gather for worship, service and fun.

This is a month where we will connect as a community. This is a month where we will see how we can do so much when we are together. I can’t wait to see you as a part of it.

See you in church!
Pastor Marc

Holy, holy, what: is our vision of God as strange as it should be?

In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lofty; and the hem of his robe filled the temple. Seraphs were in attendance above him; each had six wings: with two they covered their faces, and with two they covered their feet, and with two they flew. And one called to another and said: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory.” The pivots on the thresholds shook at the voices of those who called, and the house filled with smoke.

And I said: “Woe is me! I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips; yet my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!” Then one of the seraphs flew to me, holding a live coal that had been taken from the altar with a pair of tongs. The seraph touched my mouth with it and said: “Now that this has touched your lips, your guilt has departed and your sin is blotted out.” Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” And I said, “Here am I; send me!”

Isaiah 6:1-8

My sermon from Trinity Sunday (May 27, 2018) on Isaiah 6:1-8. Listen to the recording at the bottom of the page or read my manuscript below.

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What does heaven look like?

I bet if I handed out a piece of paper and some crayons to everyone, each one of us could dream up some far out visions of what heaven might look like. Several of us would color pictures full of blue skies with white fluffy clouds floating by. Others might include some pearly gates, roads covered in gold, and angels flying everywhere. More might decide that heaven needs people. So we’d include pictures of loved ones, making sure each person looked their best. We might want to include images from nature, like mountain ranges with amazing vistas and tropical paradises with white sandy beaches. Each one of our pictures would be different but I’m pretty sure all of them, whether we can draw or not, would be something beautiful. Heaven, I think, should be beautiful. It should be almost indescribable. Because when we imagine being with God, basking in God’s perpetual light, there’s no one word in the English language that can fully describe what we’d actually see. Heaven is more than just a place that looks good. It’s a reality that gives us a sense of wholeness, comfort, and peace. Heaven should feel like we’re finally home because heaven is beauty, peace, hope, and love made real. Heaven, in other words, should be gorgeous. But what if it isn’t? What if heaven is very strange? What if heaven isn’t only blue skies and white fluffy clouds but is more like the image described in our first reading from Isaiah today?

Isaiah, in this passage, is experiencing a vision. He meets God in the place where God promise to be, and all Isaiah can initially see is the very bottom of God’s robe. God, it seems, is sitting on an elevated throne, high in the sky. And hanging down, filling the entire space, is God’s massive robe. Now, imagine, if you can, the hem – the very bottom of a robe – filling up the this entire church. But don’t stop there. Also imagine that this robe engulfs the parking lot outside, the housing subdivisions all around us, and it covers the reservoir and even fills up the sky. This is the massive, gigantic, and overwhelming reality that Isaiah has to grapple with. Yet this vision of heaven, of the Temple, of hanging out in the place God promises to be, doesn’t end with only this overpowering picture of God. The vision continues with these strange flying creatures called seraphim who are like flying serpents filling the sky. These creatures who are tending to God each have six wings. Two cover their eyes, shielding themselves from looking directly at God’s face. They use two more wings to cover themselves, keeping everything discreet. The other set of wings are the ones they actually use to fly. And as they fly, these strange creatures begin uttering a phrase we are familiar with: holy, holy, holy. Yet the seraphim are probably not singing these words in a beautiful and melodic way. No, these “holies” are harsh, loud, and downright terrifying. They shake the very walls of this version of heaven and fill the place full of dense smoke. This vision is downright terrifying. And it’s one where every one of our senses is overpowered and where all our expectations about God’s house is undone. The beauty of heaven as we imagine it to be runs head first into the reality of who God is. And it’s at that moment when Isaiah does the only thing he can do: he admits exactly who he is. And then a seraph comes down, with a piece of red hot coal, to cleanse his words by burning his lips.

I don’t know about you but this vision of God’s holy house doesn’t really match up with my own understanding of what being with God is like. But – maybe it should. Because our image of who God is influences what we expect God to be. And if our image of God, of this Father and Son and Holy Spirit; if this image is soft, and beautiful, and very peaceful – then we might not be seeing how incredible God actually is. God should do more than inspire our sense of peace. God should inspire our wonder. God should do more than meet our expectations. God, instead, should make our mouths hang open in awe. And once we finally get it, once we finally realize how indescribable and unimaginable God actually is – it’s then when we realize a fundamental truth about who we are. God is strange and terrifying and loving and peaceful all at the same time. Which means there really is a God and we’re not it. We are not the center of the universe. We are not the ones in control. We are just us: human beings that are imperfect, small, and sometimes broken. The God who we worship and celebrate and who connects with us each and every day is a God that is so vast, so massive, so indescribable that even the prophet Isaiah only got a hint of just how incredible our God actually is.

Now, our vision of heaven, of what it’s like to hang out with God, should, I think, include blue skies, angelic beings, and every beautiful thing we can imagine. Because this is the image of God’s kingdom that we see expressed in the garden of Eden. This is the image of God’s realm that Jesus’ ministry pointed to and what he worked to bring about. The golden roads, beautiful scenery, and a heavenly city full of people is the vision of what forever looks like in the book of Revelation. Our relationship with God is an honest-to-goodness treasure and our faith is a beautiful jewel that will hold us forever. But this God who is our treasure is also a God full of strangeness and awe. And that’s a good thing. Because it takes a strange kind of God to do that very strange kind of thing and decide to become like Isaiah, small and human and cowering in God’s throne room. It is the God who is beyond measure who chooses to become just like us. Because the only thing that can match God’s indescribable reality is God’s indescribable love. We are not the center of the universe but God has decided that you are the center of God’s. And so God doesn’t wait for us to be ready for heaven before God shows up. Instead, Jesus comes down and through his life and cross, we see what God’s kingdom of hope, love, and mercy looks like. And then, through our baptism, through our faith, and through the simple act of being fed at the Lord’s table, we discover just how central all people are to God. The heaven we imagine will never be as strange as we need it to be. Because it’s only a strange kind of God who would decide that each of us, as we are, are necessary for the new reality that God is bringing about.

Amen.

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Children’s Sermon: Eating Trinity

It’s Pentecost – so we’re going to light a fire in the baptismal font.

Hi everyone!

I’m very glad to see you today.

So it’s about look at clock and I don’t know about you, but it’s at this time of the day when I could use a little snack. What about you? They’ll say yes. So let’s see. What do I have? Pretzels! Mmm. Let’s have some of these pretzels.

Pass out pretzels. Start eating.

So did you ever look at these kinds of pretzels before? They’re kind of cool. They are like 3 different sections but they make one pretzel. There’s this part and this part and this part. And they’re all connected together. This kind of pretzel needs all these different parts to make it a full pretzel. If the pretzel was broken and it didn’t have this part Bite it so it’s missing a piece or this one bite it again or this one bite it – it’s still sort of a pretzel but it’s not exact. For this kind of pretzel to be whole – to be complete – it needs all 3 pieces together to make 1 whole pretzel.

Today is a special day in the church calendar and it’s called Trinity Sunday. Now Trinity is a word that doesn’t appear in the bible. In fact, the word itself didn’t show up until several hundred years after the bible was finally compiled and put together. The word Trinity is a word that describes God. And like this pretzel, the word Trinity talks about God’s 3 parts. And these parts are the ways we experience God in our lives. There’s the part that creates – that we sometimes calls Father. There’s the part that saves us – that we sometimes call Son. And there’s the part that helps us every day in our lives – and that we sometimes calls the Holy Spirit. Now these 3 parts aren’t distinct – they’re not 100% unique. Like this pretzel, they move and flow and are attached to each other so all parts of God are involved in making us who we are; all parts of God are involved in saving us; all parts of God are involved in helping us through our lives. God is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. God is 3 and one and One in Three. God is the Trinity.

Now the Trinity is confusing – so don’t worry if you don’t understand it. I don’t understand it fully either – and I don’t think I ever will. But the trinity does show us something. It shows us how God chooses to be – and that’s connected. Like this pretzel, with each part being connected to each other, so God chooses to be connected; to be in relationship; to reach out and form these bonds of love, friendship, and family that make God who God is. And since God chooses to be connected, we are invited to be connected to each other – to our friends, family, church members, and even strangers – just like God is.

Thank you for being here and I hope you have a blessed week.

Each week, I share a reflection for all children of God. The written manuscript serves as a springboard for what I do. This is from Christ Lutheran Church’s Worship on Trinity Sunday, 5/27/2018.

Uh oh. John 3:16.

John 3:16 is one of the most famous verses of the New Testament. It has become, over the years, the text used to define what it means to follow Jesus. When someone hands you a religious piece of paper while you are walking on the street or waves a sign while sitting in a football stadium, they are acting as if God is waiting on you to make a choice. The choice is simple: choose Jesus or choose the world. And once you choose Jesus, God will choose you.

But is this the point of John 3:16? I don’t think so. When we leave scripture in scripture, John 3:16 (by reading John 3:1-17)becomes less about the choice we make and more about the choice that God has already made. Jesus, God incarnate, is having a conversation with a guy named Nicodemus. God is already there. Jesus is a human being taking the steps that will lead him to the cross. God has already made the choice to love the world. Nicodemus thought he was the one choosing to come to Jesus. But he is suddenly realizing that Jesus came to him.

In a recent article in the Christian Century, Thomas Long shared a story that the former publisher of the magazine, John Buchanan, once told him. The publisher was a pastor and was baptizing a two-year old child. He read the standard pronouncement from the prayer book: “You are a child of God, sealed by the Spirit in your baptism, and you belong to Jesus Christ forever.” Unexpectedly, the child responded, “uh-oh.” “Nicodemus’s response to Jesus could be heard as a shocked, ‘uh-oh.’ Moving politely toward Jesus with an inquiry, Nicodemus alarmingly finds Jesus moving toward him to rescue him, to transform him, to save him.”

The Christian life isn’t about choosing Jesus. Instead, it’s about noticing that Jesus already chose us. If we’re not saying “uh-oh” to the God who is making us into something brand new, we’re not realizing what Jesus is actually doing. Following Jesus means we will end up following something other than ourselves. Jesus doesn’t keep us where we are comfortable. He takes us to the place where we will be transformed. And once we’re transformed, we’ll discover who God is calling us to be.

Each week, I write a reflection on one of our scripture readings for the week. This is from Christ Lutheran Church’s Worship Bulletin for Trinity Sunday, 5/27/2018.

Bigger than ourselves. From Pastor Marc – My Message in the Messenger, June 2018

15. 1500. 30,000. What do these three numbers have in common? They show how we are part of something bigger than ourselves.

This is a month where we will connect as a community. This is a month where we will see how we can do so much when we are together. I can’t wait to see you as a part of it.

See you in church!
Pastor Marc

Go Away: Does Jesus Leave?

Is it really to our advantage if Jesus goes away?

One of the odd parts of today’s ready from the gospel according to John 15:26-27;16:4-15 is Jesus’ talk about going away. He’s promises that he is leaving. This seems to contradict other pieces of scripture, especially in Matthew, that Jesus is “God with us” and he will be with us until the end of the age. It’s easier (and more comforting!) to talk about Jesus’ being with us, right now. A Jesus who is with us is a Jesus who makes a difference. So what can we do with a Jesus who is about to walk out the front door?

One thing we can do is look at the context of this passage. Jesus is in the middle of his long sermon preparing his followers for what comes next. Jesus, in John, knows he will be killed. His reality is going to change. The people who experienced him in person are, after the Cross, going to experience him in a different way. Jesus, who ate, slept, and sweated just like the rest of u. But now he is becoming something new. That newness is a type of leaving. Jesus’s followers will need to learn how to hold onto Jesus once Jesus’ death, resurrection, and ascension are the current reality. Their old experience of Jesus will be replaced by something they didn’t plan or expect. And the new thing that will make this happen is, according to the gospel of John, the Holy Spirit.

It’s the Holy Spirit that helps all of us to experience Jesus in different ways. It’s the Holy Spirit that helps us see the Jesus who is (in the Spirit), right before us. It’s the Holy Spirit that gives us the faith to trust that God’s promises are meant for you and for me. And Jesus’ chooses to make himself known to us through the Spirit. We are here, right now, because the Holy Spirit brought us here. God needed you in this space, to hear the words of God’s promises, and to experience the community God has brought into being The Holy Spirit is how God connects, serves, and loves all of us. And the Spirit is the only thing that can inspire us to connect, serve, and love each other in the exact same way.

Each week, I write a reflection on one of our scripture readings for the week. This is from Christ Lutheran Church’s Worship Bulletin for Pentecost, 5/20/2018.

Children’s sermon: light a fire in the baptismal font

It’s Pentecost – so we’re going to light a fire in the baptismal font.

Hi everyone!

I’m very glad to see you today.

So I want you to stand right about there….and look straight ahead. What do you see? The altar. The baptismal font. The pretty red paraments. Everything looks great, doesn’t it? We have the baptismal font setup here. We have the altar with almost everything it needs so we can share in communion with each other later in the service. There are red flowers on the floor and there’s red all.over.the.place. What shape/images are on the red paraments? Yellow flames of fire.

We’re surrounded by red which is a color that can represent fire. It represents how bright a fire can get. It represents the color a fire can get. And it represents the heat – the red hot heat a fire gets out. Where do you see fire? Fireplaces. Forest Fires. The altar candles.

We usually imagine fire in all those places – but we don’t usually think about fire in the church. But today…we will. Today, we’ll hear a story that’s full of fire. We hear how Jesus’ friends, after his resurrection, are gathered together just like we are. They’re hanging out together in the city of Jerusalem when, suddenly, a sound like a mighty wind – like the winds we heard this week when that storm came through – shows up. And scripture tells us that these little images of flames seemed to float and land on each of Jesus’ friends heads. Once they landed on their head, they didn’t hurt them. Instead, these little flames of fire helped Jesus’ friends do something amazing. It let them tell about Jesus – about God – and how much Jesus loves them and the world – in such a way that people, from all over the world, heard that story in a language they understood. The little flames of fire helped these friends of Jesus, when they talked about Jesus to people they didn’t know, be understood. And those little flames of fire, that mighty wind, is a description of what the Holy Spirit can do. The Holy Spirit – this part of God that comes to us – inspires us – and fills us up – helps us share Jesus’ story that the people around us – our families, friends, neighbors, and even strangers – can understand just how much Jesus loves them.

But the Holy Spirit doesn’t only show up on a windy day or when a little flame of fire appears over our head. In fact, it’s probably already showed up to you. When do you think the Holy Spirit showed up to you? Accept answers. Those are great – but there’s one place where the Holy Spirit met you – and that’s here – light the baptismal font on fire.

When we were baptized, even if we don’t remember it, we were given a precious gift. We were given Jesus. We were made part of Jesus’ family. And we were given this Holy Spirit – this force, presence, and active part of God that inspires us to be like Jesus, to follow his teaching, and to share Jesus no matter if we’re 3 years old or 93. Our baptism is the fuel that feeds our faith, our relationship with God, and helps us be the kind, caring, loving, and Christian people God wants us to be.

So now look at the scene again. What do you see? Fire. The Holy Spirit. All of us, right now, are filled with the fire of the Spirit. And because you have that Spirit – each of you – and all of you out there – can share Jesus with everyone.

Thank you for being here and I hope you have a blessed week.

Each week, I share a reflection for all children of God. The written manuscript serves as a springboard for what I do. This is from Christ Lutheran Church’s Worship on Pentecost, 5/20/2018.