Isaiah 43:1-7; Acts 8:14-17; Luke 3:15-17, 21-22

The Reverend Paul D. Allick, St. George’s Episcopal Church, January 10, 2010

It’s one thing to be baptized; it’s quite another to be set on fire by the Holy Spirit. It’s one thing to confess the faith of Jesus Christ; quite another to confirm that faith and to have the Holy Spirit warm our hearts and strengthen our confession of Jesus Christ as Lord.

John the Baptist points out to the people that while he baptizes them with water, for the forgiveness of sins, One is coming that will baptize them with the Holy Spirit and fire. Baptism is the beginning of our life with Christ. In Baptism we are cleansed from sin, confess our faith and are adopted as children of God. But then what do we do with that faith and that confession?

After Jesus is baptized He is confirmed, “The Holy Spirit descended upon him in bodily form like a dove.” Then a voice from heaven proclaims Him the beloved Son of God.

I was baptized as an infant in the Roman Catholic Communion. As a young child, after the family had left the Roman Church, I was baptized in a Baptist congregation. Then I lost my faith for sometime. When I came out of that wilderness I knew I wanted to practice the Catholic Faith. Like most of us I thought the Catholic Faith was only expressed in the Roman Communion. So I returned there and was confirmed. In college I discovered the other communions of the Catholic Faith: the Orthodox, the Lutheran and the Anglican. I chose the Anglican and then was received into this part of Christ’s One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church.

Through all of that journey I was being initiated into different Christian communities looking for a place to belong. But all of those ceremon I was again set on fire with Christ-love.

It was these two experiences that opened my heart to the unknowable; opened my heart to trust God. It opened the eyes of my soul to receive visions of Jesus and the saints that have carried me through every obstacle in my life.

Mother Church has given us sacraments to live out this process of baptism into the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ and then to have that faith confirmed in the power of the Holy Spirit.

We read in the Book of Acts that a community of Samaritans had been baptized into the Faith of Christ but had not yet received the Holy Spirit. In other words they needed a spiritual power shake. We read, “Then Peter and John laid their hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit.” These apostles are the foreshadowing, the foundation of what we now call bishops.

Our Catechism teaches us that in the Sacrament of Confirmation we express a mature commitment  to Christ and then receive strength from the Holy Spirit through prayer and the laying on of hands by a bishop. (Book of Common Prayer, p. 860)

I believe that I had those amazing encounters with the Holy Spirit, and the subsequent experiences with Jesus and the saints, because of my baptism(s) and confirmation. Whether I meant it or not, I opened a door that would never be shut again.

We all know that we can get caught up in going through the motions of our religion. We can get stuck in the institutionalism of it all: worrying about procedures, rules, and who’s in charge of what. Those things are all important but they are not where we find salvation. They are not going to open the doors to our hearts to let the Spirit enter in.

Its one thing to get baptized, confirmed and even to sign up with a parish; its quite another to be set on fire by the Holy Spirit. It’s one thing to run the institutional Church and quite another to live in the world as the Church, the Body of Christ.