This Sunday will be a solemn and sacred celebration as about 45 people join ASD through the service of Confirmation across four services. As your bishop, I will be laying hands and anointing with oil those who come forward, calling upon the Holy Spirit in their lives. Friends and family of these confirmands are invited, and the congregation will join in this sacred tradition through prayer and worship.

My sermon will focus on the role of the Holy Spirit in our lives, drawn from our lectionary reading in Acts 2:36–47. We will see that as Peter preaches, people are cut to the heart and ask, “What shall we do?” Peter replies to them, and to us, “Repent…be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is to you and your children…as many as the Lord our God will call” (Acts 2:38–39). The beginning of the Church follows with the teaching of the apostles, fellowship, the breaking of bread, and the prayers, and many wonders and signs are done through the apostles.

The essence of the Christian life following Jesus is that God places the Holy Spirit in those who choose to receive Him, inclining them to obey Him and, through them, to bear witness to the world today with signs, wonders, miracles, and many other gifts distributed according to His will (Hebrews 2:4). Scripture goes on to say that people were filled with awe, and about 3,000 were added to the Church that day.

Please hear me clearly: people today are hungry for the transcendent reality of faith, for witness, and for the hope that the Holy Spirit brings. It is not normal for the Christian Church to be powerless. It is part of the Church’s calling to make the supernatural a natural part of our lives. Daily, we learn to yield to the Lord and welcome the Holy Spirit into our lives. The Holy Spirit is not in all people, because not all are in relationship with God the Father through Christ. But Jesus promises that He will place the Holy Spirit within us as we seek Him, a mark of the new covenant.

I know we teach often about the Holy Spirit at ASD, because He is the power and the Person within us who brings about a life that is both natural and supernatural. I also know that some have not heard much about the Holy Spirit, and some feel uneasy when we speak about this. There is a balance we call the three streams, Scripture, Sacrament, and Spirit, that brings all three to life within us.

So I invite you to come this Sunday. Bring friends, and experience the joy and presence of Jesus lifted up.

Come and see.

+Philip