The More
Sermon
Sermons On The First Readings
Series I, Cycle B
In seminary there was a very popular saying. One church even had it written on a huge banner which hung directly beneath the pulpit. It read: "Jesus Christ came to comfort the disturbed/challenged, and to disturb/challenge the comfortable."
Let us pray: O God, this day we gather around your Word and sacrament, and some of us are feeling very disturbed by all of the struggles and challenges of this life. We pray that your Word and sacrament may comfort those of us who are disturbed this day. But God, some of us gathered here this day are much too comfortable. And so we pray that your Word and your sacraments would disturb those of us who are too comfortable -- would challenge us to grow more fully into the people you would have us be. In Christ our resurrected Lord, we pray. Amen.
It was new members Sunday. As usual, the church had a big celebration to welcome the new members, one of whom was a lovely young woman. This young woman's mother even came to visit that Sunday from out of state, to celebrate the day with her daughter. On the way out of church, the mother introduced herself to me, shook hands, then awkwardly gave me a hug, as she did so whispering into my ear, "Pastor, please call my daughter ... she's very sick ... cancer." I called. I then visited the young woman and her husband in their home. Clear-eyed and straightforward, she explained to me that she had cancer of the pancreas, for which there is no cure. It is terminal.
The young woman and her husband continued to attend worship together. But as the months went by, and her illness progressed, hospice called to let me know that the young woman had now entered the final stage of her illness, to ask if I would come to be with her in these final days, and to ask if some of the members of our church family could take shifts just being there with her when the other family members and hospice workers could not be there.
I went to see her. It was a gloriously sunny, warm day, all the signs of spring's new life bursting into bloom. I entered her room, and was taken aback to see this beautiful young woman now shrunken to half the size she had been ... lying in her bed.
Now you might think that because I am a pastor, I can walk into a room like that and know just what to say and do. That is not the case. In fact, I felt a lot like I imagine the prophet Ezekiel felt when he stood in that valley of bones. Like Ezekiel, I felt overwhelmed. Completely inadequate. Like Ezekiel I thought to myself, "What can I possibly say, possibly do?"
Ezekiel was called by God to preach to a people whose hope was as dried up as that valley of bones. Ezekiel was called to proclaim a message of resurrection, of new life, of something so much more to a people whose spirit had been crushed when they had been conquered by their most hated enemies, the Babylonians. Their enemies had destroyed Jerusalem, their holy city, had seized their holy vessels as booty, and had rounded up their leaders and marched them into captivity in Babylon, where they lived in exile some fifty years. When called by God to proclaim a message of new life to this defeated, hopeless people, Ezekiel felt as though he were preaching to a valley of dry bones.
That is how the struggles and defeats of this life so often feel.
That is how I felt when I entered that woman's room.
I asked myself, "What on earth can I say to this woman? What on earth can I do for her?" The answer is: nothing. There is nothing "on earth" we can say. Nothing "on earth" we can do. But one thing that I have learned in this daily walk -- this journey through life as a Christian -- is that as inadequate as we are, we have One who walks beside us, and within us, every step of the journey -- though we frequently fail to recognize it. We have One who leads us through that valley. We have with us One who does have something to say -- something to do -- which will share strength, comfort, and hope beyond our understanding. One who is powerful enough to bring Life even to dry bones.
So, in times like that I let the Creator of the Universe, the Spirit of Life, Jesus, take over. I sit there and I let the One who is the resurrection and the Life do his thing. I simply take out the Word and the Sacrament. I set the table, and let Jesus be the Host.
The Word I opened to was 2 Corinthians 4:
Therefore, since it is by God's mercy that we are engaged in this ministry, we do not lose heart ... But we have this treasure in clay jars [some older translations read "earthen vessels"], so that it may be clear that this extraordinary power belongs to God and does not come from us. We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying in our bodies the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be made visible in our bodies. For while we live we are always being given up to death for Jesus' sake, so that the life of Jesus may be made visible in our mortal flesh. So death is at work in us, but Life in you. So we do not lose heart. Even though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed day by day. For this [in comparison] slight momentary affliction is preparing us for an eternal weight of glory which is beyond all measure, because we look not at what is seen but at what cannot be seen; for what can be seen is temporary, but what cannot be seen is eternal. (parenthetical elements mine)
I was cut to the heart, my eyes were opened, and I recognized the resurrected Christ there in that room, in the young woman's luminous face nodding "Yes" to those words.
We broke bread together, our hearts burned within us, and we recognized the risen Christ in the breaking of the bread.
The Church proclaims that God comes to us every step of the journey -- every moment of our Christian walk through this life -- in all things -- everything! But the Church also teaches that God -- God's grace -- comes to us most powerfully through two means: word and sacrament.
This is comforting. This is also disturbing -- challenging.
It is comforting because when we face that valley, when we lie in that bed, or sit beside that bed, we know that as inadequate as we are, all we have to do is take out God's Word, set the table for the sacramental meal, and Jesus takes over. God is with us. The Spirit breathes its Life into our dry bones.
It is challenging because ... if you are not breaking open the Word of God every day, throughout each and every day of your walk down this road of life, then you are not "on the road to Emmaus." You have taken a detour, fallen into a ditch, not on "the Way."
Every day in our Christian walk we are to live sacramentally. Luther says every morning when we wash our faces, we are to remember our baptisms -- to remember that every day we need to die with Christ to those things we know we need to die to, and rise with Christ to a new beginning -- a new way of life. Every day we are to live out our baptisms.
We also are to share in the sacrament of holy communion at every opportunity. Maybe we should offer it daily as the Catholic Church does: bread for the journey of that day. We need Jesus, the living bread's presence, each and every day.
I ask you this day, do you live daily in God's Word? Do you live sacramentally each and every day?
Today we celebrate the Feast of Pentecost. In ancient times Jews celebrated Pentecost, Pente meaning "five," on the fiftieth day after the Passover. The Passover commemorates the people of Israel's escape from slavery in Egypt, the angel of death "passing over" the lives of those whose homes were marked with the blood of the lamb, and their journey through the wilderness of this life -- toward the Promised Land. Jews from all over the ancient world gathered in Jerusalem to celebrate the giving of the Law (God's Word) to Moses atop Mount Sinai. In today's text, Acts, chapter 2, Peter preaches that Jesus is the fulfillment of this Word of God -- "This Jesus whom you crucified."
The people heard this Word of God and they were "cut to the heart." Disturbed. Challenged. Miraculously, they repented. The Greek word for repentance is metanoia, which literally means "had a change of mind, heart, lives," -- "turned" from sin and turned back toward God.
God came to them in this disturbing, challenging Word.
"What can we do?" they asked. Their eyes had been opened. "You can receive God in sacrament." We read that 3,000 were baptized that day.
God in Word and Sacrament.
If you look at the context for today's reading from Acts 2, you see that later, in verse 42, after the 3,000 were baptized, "They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching [Word] and fellowship [Greek "communion"], to the breaking of bread and the prayers [Greek, "Eucharist"]."
Word and Sacrament. That is how we grow into the people God desires us to be.
Recently I received a call from a member of the parish, who said he needed to make an appointment to speak with me. He said he'd take me to lunch. I became concerned. The man had a beautiful family, and I hoped nothing was wrong.
There we sat at lunch, and the man said to me, "Pastor, I've been thinking a lot about your recent pastoral letter to the congregation, the one with the headline, 'Challenge for Growth.' Well ... as you know, I responded to your challenge, making a commitment to grow in God's word by reading and praying with scripture daily. So every morning before work, I get up and read my Bible. I've been reading the Gospel of John. Then I pray with the scripture passage. Well ... the more I read God's Word and the more I pray, I feel ... I don't know how to explain it ... but I feel God calling me to something more. I don't know yet what the more is, but God is definitely calling me to more service, to grow more, to serve God and the people of God more."
A violent, mighty wind of the Holy Spirit blew through the Main Street Grille -- and the flame of the Holy Spirit ignited souls on fire as much as it did in Jerusalem 2,000 years ago!
That's what the Christian life is all about. When you are living in the Word of God, as the writer Annie Dillard says, you'd better put on your helmet and strap yourself in, because you are about to be launched into a life you never thought possible -- into the most exciting adventure -- into a journey beyond your wildest imagination -- into the more!
Saint Ignatius of Loyola, the founder of the Jesuit order, wrote a little book of what he calls "Spiritual Exercises." In these exercises Ignatius taught that if we call ourselves Christian, then our lives are always about the more. Always about growth.
But church growth -- the more of the Christian life -- is not just about growing numerically. It is more about growing in God's Word and in sacramental and sacrificial living and giving. How do you receive that pastoral invitation to grow in God's word by reading scripture and praying daily? What is your response? If you think coming to worship once a week is all there is to the Christian life, think about it this way: you are eating just one meal a week. What would happen to your body if you ate just once a week? What would happen if you only saw your partner for an hour and fifteen minutes a week?
Jesus Christ came to challenge the comfortable.
Numerical church growth is great. But financial growth frequently lags way behind. Jesus Christ today challenges you who are too comfortable. To live, and give sacrificially.
Today Jesus Christ challenges you and me in Word and Sacrament to walk with him a path which is so much more.
Some 125 years ago 41 Swedish immigrants, some families, some individuals, gathered together as a church. They ministered to each other. They met in people's homes. They gathered around the Word of God. They fed each other with God's Word ... and the Holy Spirit blew in and among them in a mighty wind and the flame of the Holy Spirit kindled their hearts ... and they grew.
For the first seventeen years of their congregational life they were without a pastor, and they grew.
One hundred and twenty-five years later, as they celebrated their anniversary, they said to their newly called pastor, "Pastor, you should have seen us in the year before you came, when we were searching for a pastor. Wow! The Holy Spirit was among us. We followed right along in the footsteps of those original 41 members. We pulled together as a team, each one of us sharing our gifts of the Spirit, and we made it. But I think when you came, a lot of people sat back and said, 'Whew! Now we can relax and let the pastor do it all!' "
That's not what church growth is about. That's not what the more of Christian life is about.
Think of the growth that could take place if you continued, each person sharing the gifts of the Holy Spirit, with a pastor!
More and more church signs are reading: Ministers of this Church: ALL ITS MEMBERS. The pastor's job is not to be the church for you, but rather to feed the flock with Word and Sacrament so that you are nourished and strengthened for your ministries!
The gifts of the Spirit are given to all of us for the common good -- for the building up of the whole body of Christ (1 Corinthians 12:7).
Church growth -- the more of the Christian life -- is not about a bigger building. As churches grow numerically, there are always those who insist that we need a new building. Do we?
There is a possible alternative. In her book The Call to Commitment, Elizabeth O'Connor writes about an alternative model, the Church of the Savior in Washington, D.C. The Church of the Savior has no building. It meets in a house, maintaining a low overhead. The Church of the Savior has not relaxed its membership requirements to gain numerical growth. In fact, to join the church you have to be actively involved for at least a year. You have to be living in God's Word. You have to be tithing, or at least giving sacrificially. And you have to be an active part of a small group ministry/mission group. As a mission group gets strong, they send it off to start a new, committed community of faith. "As the Father has sent me, even so I send you" (John 20:21).
The Church of the Savior is a model of the Christian life that is disturbing. Challenging. Jesus Christ came to disturb the comfortable. Perhaps churches should think about the alternative of being intentionally small -- a caring family rather than a megachurch. Perhaps we could be the "Ben and Jerry's" or "Tom's of Maine" of churches.
Instead of expanding a building, how about expanding a ministry?
Instead of a $2,000,000 building campaign, how about a $2,000,000 ministry to people in need?
Unrealistic? You bet! Impossible? With God all things are possible!
When my marriage ended, I went through a time where I felt skeptical about marriage. I remember asking a friend, "Do you think marriage is really realistic? Do you think monogamy is even possible?"
I'll never forget his answer. He said. "Realistic? Absolutely not! Possible? Yes!"
He compared it to the ballet. He said when he goes to the ballet, he sits in awe and watches the human body fly through the air in leaps and pirouettes!
Is it realistic for the human body to attempt such things? Absolutely not!
Is it possible? You bet!
Sisters and brothers, on this day when we celebrate the Holy Spirit entering the valley of dry bones and breathing into them the breath of new life, on this day when we celebrate the Holy Spirit coming in a mighty wind and kindling the hearts of all present to go forth in mighty acts of power, on this day when we celebrate the Holy Spirit 125 years ago blowing in the lives of those 41 lay people, the founding fathers and mothers of our community of faith, and kindling their hearts to grow as the body of Christ, on this day when we remember the Word and sacrament burning within the hearts and lives of pastors and people, let us pray that the Holy Spirit will blow mightily among us, setting our hearts on fire, empowering us to grow in God's Word and sacraments, in ministry and mission, to grow into the more, together becoming unrealistic with God who makes all things possible! Amen!
Let us pray: O God, this day we gather around your Word and sacrament, and some of us are feeling very disturbed by all of the struggles and challenges of this life. We pray that your Word and sacrament may comfort those of us who are disturbed this day. But God, some of us gathered here this day are much too comfortable. And so we pray that your Word and your sacraments would disturb those of us who are too comfortable -- would challenge us to grow more fully into the people you would have us be. In Christ our resurrected Lord, we pray. Amen.
It was new members Sunday. As usual, the church had a big celebration to welcome the new members, one of whom was a lovely young woman. This young woman's mother even came to visit that Sunday from out of state, to celebrate the day with her daughter. On the way out of church, the mother introduced herself to me, shook hands, then awkwardly gave me a hug, as she did so whispering into my ear, "Pastor, please call my daughter ... she's very sick ... cancer." I called. I then visited the young woman and her husband in their home. Clear-eyed and straightforward, she explained to me that she had cancer of the pancreas, for which there is no cure. It is terminal.
The young woman and her husband continued to attend worship together. But as the months went by, and her illness progressed, hospice called to let me know that the young woman had now entered the final stage of her illness, to ask if I would come to be with her in these final days, and to ask if some of the members of our church family could take shifts just being there with her when the other family members and hospice workers could not be there.
I went to see her. It was a gloriously sunny, warm day, all the signs of spring's new life bursting into bloom. I entered her room, and was taken aback to see this beautiful young woman now shrunken to half the size she had been ... lying in her bed.
Now you might think that because I am a pastor, I can walk into a room like that and know just what to say and do. That is not the case. In fact, I felt a lot like I imagine the prophet Ezekiel felt when he stood in that valley of bones. Like Ezekiel, I felt overwhelmed. Completely inadequate. Like Ezekiel I thought to myself, "What can I possibly say, possibly do?"
Ezekiel was called by God to preach to a people whose hope was as dried up as that valley of bones. Ezekiel was called to proclaim a message of resurrection, of new life, of something so much more to a people whose spirit had been crushed when they had been conquered by their most hated enemies, the Babylonians. Their enemies had destroyed Jerusalem, their holy city, had seized their holy vessels as booty, and had rounded up their leaders and marched them into captivity in Babylon, where they lived in exile some fifty years. When called by God to proclaim a message of new life to this defeated, hopeless people, Ezekiel felt as though he were preaching to a valley of dry bones.
That is how the struggles and defeats of this life so often feel.
That is how I felt when I entered that woman's room.
I asked myself, "What on earth can I say to this woman? What on earth can I do for her?" The answer is: nothing. There is nothing "on earth" we can say. Nothing "on earth" we can do. But one thing that I have learned in this daily walk -- this journey through life as a Christian -- is that as inadequate as we are, we have One who walks beside us, and within us, every step of the journey -- though we frequently fail to recognize it. We have One who leads us through that valley. We have with us One who does have something to say -- something to do -- which will share strength, comfort, and hope beyond our understanding. One who is powerful enough to bring Life even to dry bones.
So, in times like that I let the Creator of the Universe, the Spirit of Life, Jesus, take over. I sit there and I let the One who is the resurrection and the Life do his thing. I simply take out the Word and the Sacrament. I set the table, and let Jesus be the Host.
The Word I opened to was 2 Corinthians 4:
Therefore, since it is by God's mercy that we are engaged in this ministry, we do not lose heart ... But we have this treasure in clay jars [some older translations read "earthen vessels"], so that it may be clear that this extraordinary power belongs to God and does not come from us. We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying in our bodies the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be made visible in our bodies. For while we live we are always being given up to death for Jesus' sake, so that the life of Jesus may be made visible in our mortal flesh. So death is at work in us, but Life in you. So we do not lose heart. Even though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed day by day. For this [in comparison] slight momentary affliction is preparing us for an eternal weight of glory which is beyond all measure, because we look not at what is seen but at what cannot be seen; for what can be seen is temporary, but what cannot be seen is eternal. (parenthetical elements mine)
I was cut to the heart, my eyes were opened, and I recognized the resurrected Christ there in that room, in the young woman's luminous face nodding "Yes" to those words.
We broke bread together, our hearts burned within us, and we recognized the risen Christ in the breaking of the bread.
The Church proclaims that God comes to us every step of the journey -- every moment of our Christian walk through this life -- in all things -- everything! But the Church also teaches that God -- God's grace -- comes to us most powerfully through two means: word and sacrament.
This is comforting. This is also disturbing -- challenging.
It is comforting because when we face that valley, when we lie in that bed, or sit beside that bed, we know that as inadequate as we are, all we have to do is take out God's Word, set the table for the sacramental meal, and Jesus takes over. God is with us. The Spirit breathes its Life into our dry bones.
It is challenging because ... if you are not breaking open the Word of God every day, throughout each and every day of your walk down this road of life, then you are not "on the road to Emmaus." You have taken a detour, fallen into a ditch, not on "the Way."
Every day in our Christian walk we are to live sacramentally. Luther says every morning when we wash our faces, we are to remember our baptisms -- to remember that every day we need to die with Christ to those things we know we need to die to, and rise with Christ to a new beginning -- a new way of life. Every day we are to live out our baptisms.
We also are to share in the sacrament of holy communion at every opportunity. Maybe we should offer it daily as the Catholic Church does: bread for the journey of that day. We need Jesus, the living bread's presence, each and every day.
I ask you this day, do you live daily in God's Word? Do you live sacramentally each and every day?
Today we celebrate the Feast of Pentecost. In ancient times Jews celebrated Pentecost, Pente meaning "five," on the fiftieth day after the Passover. The Passover commemorates the people of Israel's escape from slavery in Egypt, the angel of death "passing over" the lives of those whose homes were marked with the blood of the lamb, and their journey through the wilderness of this life -- toward the Promised Land. Jews from all over the ancient world gathered in Jerusalem to celebrate the giving of the Law (God's Word) to Moses atop Mount Sinai. In today's text, Acts, chapter 2, Peter preaches that Jesus is the fulfillment of this Word of God -- "This Jesus whom you crucified."
The people heard this Word of God and they were "cut to the heart." Disturbed. Challenged. Miraculously, they repented. The Greek word for repentance is metanoia, which literally means "had a change of mind, heart, lives," -- "turned" from sin and turned back toward God.
God came to them in this disturbing, challenging Word.
"What can we do?" they asked. Their eyes had been opened. "You can receive God in sacrament." We read that 3,000 were baptized that day.
God in Word and Sacrament.
If you look at the context for today's reading from Acts 2, you see that later, in verse 42, after the 3,000 were baptized, "They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching [Word] and fellowship [Greek "communion"], to the breaking of bread and the prayers [Greek, "Eucharist"]."
Word and Sacrament. That is how we grow into the people God desires us to be.
Recently I received a call from a member of the parish, who said he needed to make an appointment to speak with me. He said he'd take me to lunch. I became concerned. The man had a beautiful family, and I hoped nothing was wrong.
There we sat at lunch, and the man said to me, "Pastor, I've been thinking a lot about your recent pastoral letter to the congregation, the one with the headline, 'Challenge for Growth.' Well ... as you know, I responded to your challenge, making a commitment to grow in God's word by reading and praying with scripture daily. So every morning before work, I get up and read my Bible. I've been reading the Gospel of John. Then I pray with the scripture passage. Well ... the more I read God's Word and the more I pray, I feel ... I don't know how to explain it ... but I feel God calling me to something more. I don't know yet what the more is, but God is definitely calling me to more service, to grow more, to serve God and the people of God more."
A violent, mighty wind of the Holy Spirit blew through the Main Street Grille -- and the flame of the Holy Spirit ignited souls on fire as much as it did in Jerusalem 2,000 years ago!
That's what the Christian life is all about. When you are living in the Word of God, as the writer Annie Dillard says, you'd better put on your helmet and strap yourself in, because you are about to be launched into a life you never thought possible -- into the most exciting adventure -- into a journey beyond your wildest imagination -- into the more!
Saint Ignatius of Loyola, the founder of the Jesuit order, wrote a little book of what he calls "Spiritual Exercises." In these exercises Ignatius taught that if we call ourselves Christian, then our lives are always about the more. Always about growth.
But church growth -- the more of the Christian life -- is not just about growing numerically. It is more about growing in God's Word and in sacramental and sacrificial living and giving. How do you receive that pastoral invitation to grow in God's word by reading scripture and praying daily? What is your response? If you think coming to worship once a week is all there is to the Christian life, think about it this way: you are eating just one meal a week. What would happen to your body if you ate just once a week? What would happen if you only saw your partner for an hour and fifteen minutes a week?
Jesus Christ came to challenge the comfortable.
Numerical church growth is great. But financial growth frequently lags way behind. Jesus Christ today challenges you who are too comfortable. To live, and give sacrificially.
Today Jesus Christ challenges you and me in Word and Sacrament to walk with him a path which is so much more.
Some 125 years ago 41 Swedish immigrants, some families, some individuals, gathered together as a church. They ministered to each other. They met in people's homes. They gathered around the Word of God. They fed each other with God's Word ... and the Holy Spirit blew in and among them in a mighty wind and the flame of the Holy Spirit kindled their hearts ... and they grew.
For the first seventeen years of their congregational life they were without a pastor, and they grew.
One hundred and twenty-five years later, as they celebrated their anniversary, they said to their newly called pastor, "Pastor, you should have seen us in the year before you came, when we were searching for a pastor. Wow! The Holy Spirit was among us. We followed right along in the footsteps of those original 41 members. We pulled together as a team, each one of us sharing our gifts of the Spirit, and we made it. But I think when you came, a lot of people sat back and said, 'Whew! Now we can relax and let the pastor do it all!' "
That's not what church growth is about. That's not what the more of Christian life is about.
Think of the growth that could take place if you continued, each person sharing the gifts of the Holy Spirit, with a pastor!
More and more church signs are reading: Ministers of this Church: ALL ITS MEMBERS. The pastor's job is not to be the church for you, but rather to feed the flock with Word and Sacrament so that you are nourished and strengthened for your ministries!
The gifts of the Spirit are given to all of us for the common good -- for the building up of the whole body of Christ (1 Corinthians 12:7).
Church growth -- the more of the Christian life -- is not about a bigger building. As churches grow numerically, there are always those who insist that we need a new building. Do we?
There is a possible alternative. In her book The Call to Commitment, Elizabeth O'Connor writes about an alternative model, the Church of the Savior in Washington, D.C. The Church of the Savior has no building. It meets in a house, maintaining a low overhead. The Church of the Savior has not relaxed its membership requirements to gain numerical growth. In fact, to join the church you have to be actively involved for at least a year. You have to be living in God's Word. You have to be tithing, or at least giving sacrificially. And you have to be an active part of a small group ministry/mission group. As a mission group gets strong, they send it off to start a new, committed community of faith. "As the Father has sent me, even so I send you" (John 20:21).
The Church of the Savior is a model of the Christian life that is disturbing. Challenging. Jesus Christ came to disturb the comfortable. Perhaps churches should think about the alternative of being intentionally small -- a caring family rather than a megachurch. Perhaps we could be the "Ben and Jerry's" or "Tom's of Maine" of churches.
Instead of expanding a building, how about expanding a ministry?
Instead of a $2,000,000 building campaign, how about a $2,000,000 ministry to people in need?
Unrealistic? You bet! Impossible? With God all things are possible!
When my marriage ended, I went through a time where I felt skeptical about marriage. I remember asking a friend, "Do you think marriage is really realistic? Do you think monogamy is even possible?"
I'll never forget his answer. He said. "Realistic? Absolutely not! Possible? Yes!"
He compared it to the ballet. He said when he goes to the ballet, he sits in awe and watches the human body fly through the air in leaps and pirouettes!
Is it realistic for the human body to attempt such things? Absolutely not!
Is it possible? You bet!
Sisters and brothers, on this day when we celebrate the Holy Spirit entering the valley of dry bones and breathing into them the breath of new life, on this day when we celebrate the Holy Spirit coming in a mighty wind and kindling the hearts of all present to go forth in mighty acts of power, on this day when we celebrate the Holy Spirit 125 years ago blowing in the lives of those 41 lay people, the founding fathers and mothers of our community of faith, and kindling their hearts to grow as the body of Christ, on this day when we remember the Word and sacrament burning within the hearts and lives of pastors and people, let us pray that the Holy Spirit will blow mightily among us, setting our hearts on fire, empowering us to grow in God's Word and sacraments, in ministry and mission, to grow into the more, together becoming unrealistic with God who makes all things possible! Amen!
