St. Mary's Episcopal Church

Epiphany 1c: The Confirmation of our Lord (Luke 3. 15-16, 21-22))

The Holy Spirit did something extraordinary at St. Mary's yesterday.
I'm not talking about +James' ordination to the priesthood.
Although that was pretty extraordinary.
No, what I'm talking about happened at 5:00 pm, before the ordination.
The extraordinary thing that the Holy Spirit did was to be invited to act in a new and powerful way in the lives of Cassie and Penny.
Before the ordination we had two confirmations.
Cassie and Penny had been given the Holy Spirit at their baptism years ago, but they had not confirmed before the Church their adult profession of faith and that they wanted the Holy Spirit to empower all that they did in their lives.
They had prepared to be confirmed with Bishop Buchanan last spring.
In fact, they were here waiting to be confirmed, when they received a phone call that Mike, their husband and father, had been rushed to the hospital.
So they, of course, went to be with him.
We'd been looking for another time when a bishop could confirm them, but didn't have the opportunity until yesterday when we had Bishop Wimberly here to ordain James.
Since we had the confirming hands, before the Bishop ordained James, he confirmed Penny and Cassie before a group of 50 or so folks.
Penny and Cassie have already done much for God and God's Kingdom.
But I wonder what they will do now that the Holy Spirit's action in their lives and has been confirmed and set free.
In God's kingdom, the most important moment in our lives is the day of our baptism-when we are welcomed into God's family, are given Christ's Spirit, receive forgiveness of sin, and the promise of eternal life.
The next most important moment is when we, as adults, confirm that we have received on the day of our Baptism at our Confirmation, like Cassie and Penny.
Having confirmed what we have received, the Holy Spirit is let loose to empower us to do all sorts of ministry for God's kingdom.
One of the ways that James lived out that important event of his baptism and confirmation was to become a priest.
But in God's kingdom, James becoming a priest is no more and no less important than whatever God empowers Cassie, and Penny, and each and every one of us to do.
That empowering by the Holy Spirit is what our Gospel from Luke today describes happening in Jesus' life.
John the Baptist has been baptizing in the area of the River Jordan.
Baptizing repentant sinners was part of John's exhortation for people to undergo an ethical change in their lives. To ask God to forgive their sins.
To receive that forgiveness, and to recommit themselves to following the way of God.
John's baptism was a kind of purification through water.
John's baptism was about turning one's life to God.
John's baptism was life-changing to those who receive it.
It was a baptism that prepared the person for what God had to offer.
But Luke talks about another kind of baptism.
The baptism Jesus experiences and that we all can experience, too.
Yes, Jesus was already fully the Son of God.
But something happened to him after his baptism
The way something indeed happened to Penny and Cassie and to all of us when we invited the Holy Spirit to be front and center of our lives at our confirmation.
For Luke's account of the baptism of Jesus is really a non-account.
In Luke's version of Jesus' baptism, there is no meeting or exchange between Jesus and John.
There is no mention of the place where the event happened.
There is no mention of the one who baptized Jesus.
In fact, John has been arrested by Herod and is in prison when our Gospel from Luke mentions that Jesus has been baptized.
Jesus is mentioned as part of a crowd that has been baptized
Instead, Luke's account of Jesus' baptism emphasizes what happens after Jesus is baptized.
Jesus' post-baptismal experience.
Perhaps more parallel to our confirmation than baptism.
For as Luke recounts it, it's not the baptism itself that is so significant, it's what happens afterwards.
What is the difference between the baptism John offered, the one Jesus received, and the one that, through Jesus, is open to all of us?
The answer can be found in what Jesus experiences after his baptism.
First the heavens are opened.
There is no space between God's world and ours.
It's all one world.
Then the Holy Spirit, in a form like a dove, the Holy Spirit in a tangible, real way comes into Jesus' life.
Jesus is already God's son.
But now he has the power of God present in a way to do what God has created him to do.
Before his baptism, did Jesus do good works?
I'm certain Jesus did.
But after Jesus' baptism a whole new way of ministry, the ministry of a well-loved Messiah was possible.
Have Penny and Cassie done good works before their confirmation?
Of course they have!
But now God's Spirit is present and active in their lives in a way that it wasn't before the prayers and laying on of hands of confirmation yesterday.
Something happened! Something changed!
Finally, after Jesus' baptism we hear the voice of God:
"You are my Son, my beloved. I am very well-pleased with you."
God made clear God's relationship with God's son Jesus.
As a father, like a mother to a son.
Full of love. Full of parental pride.
The same relationship God wants to have with each of us.
The same relationship that God wants us to have with one another.
Sons, daughters, brothers, sisters all.
Grounded in love. Giving and receiving love.
Finally, for Luke, this gift of the Holy Spirit is what happens when Jesus' prays.
Throughout the gospel according to Luke and the second volume of his gospel, the Acts of the Apostles, prayer is front and center.
For Luke prayer places us in a condition for us to be receptive to God's actions.
So, in Luke, Jesus, our model, prays, and then God acts.
Jesus prays, and he receives a dramatic affirmation of his call to be the Christ.
Jesus prays, and the answer is twelve men who are called to be his disciples.
Jesus prays, and the answer to that prayer is that he is filled with light and talks with Moses and Elijah on the Mount of Transfiguration, and God chimes in with his own good word.
And so on.
Luke continues to describe the action of prayer in second volume, the Acts of the Apostles.
But this time it's about what happens when Jesus' disciples pray.
For example, early in Acts, Jesus' disciples pray and the answer is wind and fire and their own gift of the Holy Spirit.

For the past year, just about every time we've gathered together to worship we've prayed the prayer of discernment.
You may have it memorized.
Our God,
The time is now and we are here.
We know you have always called people to do special tasks when the time was ready and the need was great.
What would you have us do now?
How can we serve you best by using the gifts and talents you have given us?
Show us how you want us to serve the people of God who cry for peace and justice, who lack life's necessities.
Please help us know what you are calling us to do here and now.
We are listening, God.
AMEN
(Written by Sister Jeanne Voges, OSB, Our Lady of Grace Monastery, Beech Grove, Indiana)
One person this week told me that she finds herself praying it through out the week.
You may wonder how much longer we're going to keep praying it.
I'm not sure, because we're in God's time frame, not ours.
It's clear to some of us that we're still receiving answers the answer to that prayer, so we'll keep praying it.
Because in praying it we are not making God do something.
Rather, praying that prayer seems to be making us ready for what God wants to do through us.
What have we heard?
A reaffirmation of our ministry to those who because of physical condition cannot come to church-a very active lay Eucharistic visitor ministry with more people requesting that we take communion to their home-based loved ones.
A reaffirmation of our ministry to those who need God's healing prayer.
Through the daily prayers of our Daughters of the King.
Through our prayer blanket and prayer shawl ministry.
And now starting this week a once monthly Wednesday daytime healing Eucharist.
A reaffirmation of our call for us to go do mission work.
Our adult led mission to New Orleans March.
Our youth led mission to Mexico this summer.

What have you heard?
What is the Holy Spirit stirring within you?
We are still listening.
AMEN