Epiphany
Celebration of God
Manifested in the World
January 9, 2015

 Scripture Reading: Acts 19:1-7

On hearing this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. When Paul had laid his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came upon them, and they spoke in tongues and prophesied— altogether there were about twelve of them.  — Acts 19:5-7

 Many years ago my church challenged each of the Sunday School Classes, adult and children, to make a banner for advent. It was surprising how everyone, young and old, got into the project. We planned to hang them across the wall in front of our balcony at the back of the church. On the day the crew arrived to put them up, we all got a good laugh out of the one done by the first grade class. They had done a three-D picture of a pregnant Mary with the words, Mary was found to be pregnant by the Holy Sprit. Someone had left one of the “I’s” out of the Spirit.

We hung the banner anyway. It was pretty, but it also had an inadvertent message. A sprit is actually a word defined as a spar that crosses a fore-and-aft sail diagonally from the mast near the tack of the sail to the upper aftmost corner that it extends and elevates*. A most apt description of the Holy Spirit don’t you think for it has to do with using the wind for power and guidance. Even more important is the message that if we leave ourselves out of the equation of our relationship with God through the Holy Spirit, we have already missed the boat.

We may be like those first graders who are still at the stage of life where everything is real, concrete to them. The Holy Spirit for most of us is the ultimate in abstraction. The Holy Spirit is like love, we may or may not be able to see it, but we know it when we experience it.

Prayer:
Holy Spirit, truth divine,
 Dawn upon this soul of mine;
 Word of God and inward light
 Wake my spirit, clear my sight. 

Holy Spirit, love divine,
 Glow within this heart of mine;
 Kindle every high desire;
 Perish self in Thy pure fire.**Amen.

* http://unabridged.merriam-webster.com/unabridged/sprit
**From Hymn Holy Spirit, Love Divine, words by Samuel Longfellow

All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of American. Used by permission. All rights reserved.