Power and mission

June newsletter for the churches (which will bear some resemblance to the upcoming Sunday's sermon, I suspect, since it was inspired by the Acts text on which I'll preach).


Jesus told his disciples, “you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now….you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:5, 8). Then the Holy Spirit came upon the church on the day of Pentecost, with the rush of a mighty wind, with divided tongues of fire, and with a miracle of language (Acts 2:1-13).

That same Spirit was poured out on you in your own baptism: the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord, the Spirit of joy in God’s presence (LBW baptism service, from Isaiah 11:2).

This means that, along with the disciples, you have been commissioned to be witnesses to the risen Christ in all the ends of the earth! And, along with the disciples, you have been equipped to fulfill that commission with the Spirit’s own power! The Holy Spirit gives us words when words otherwise fail us (Mark 13:11) and intercedes for us when we cannot even manage to pray (Romans 8:26).

So you need not doubt your ability to fulfill Christ’s command to proclaim the good news of God’s love and mercy. Instead, you can trust that the Holy Spirit will guide you to show forth Christ in both words and deeds.