Readings for the Day:
Sermon:
Original Manuscript:
This is an interactive manuscript. To follow links, click the highlighted words below.
But when I think back to all these moments, there’s one thread that makes its way through all these events: my confirmation. It was during my confirmation when Bishop Parsley put his hands on me that I felt the presence of the Holy Spirit in a deep and intimate way for the first time in my life. That experience made me want to study the Bible. It made me want to get more involved in Outreach, which eventually led me to City Year. It made me want to become an acolyte. It made me want to deepen my relationship with my fellow Christians and God, which led to me going on that pilgrimage with the Diocese. That led me to discernment, which led me to want the well-rounded education that St. John’s provided me.
When I look back on my life, that moment of letting the Holy Spirit in led to everything else that has followed. That is my defining moment in life. It’s a moment that cut to the core of my being.
That is what our reading from Acts is talking about this morning. We hear that those listening to Peter were “cut to the heart.” It’s not that their minds were changed or influenced by hearing Peter’s words. It isn’t about merely changing their position. It’s not about going after something just because it seems like it might be a good idea or a smart gamble. Something fundamental changed in them in the core of their being such that they would never be the same again.
This change is the kind of change that we see in the physical presence of Jesus. When He appears to His followers on the Road to Emmaus, as we discussed on the Wednesday of Easter Week, they don’t immediately recognize Jesus. There is something different and new about Jesus post-Resurrection. This is a sign of the fundamental change that we will experience in our own Resurrected Life.
Our experience of meeting God is one that fundamentally changes us. It cuts to our hearts, and we are never the same again after it. This isn’t just a decision we make because it seems right or a good idea, it is something new and different that God forms inside us. It changes who we are. It resurrects us.
I was asked recently how we stay relevant as the church in today’s world. This is the answer: we show people that we as Christians have been cut to the heart, that the change in us is deeper than anything else that could ever happen to us otherwise. I believe we are seeing this relevancy now. People are struggling and looking for answers, and because of the change in us, the hope and trust we have in our Lord Jesus, we are able to provide the comfort that people desperately need at this time.
If we can hold on to that comfort, if we can continue to provide support and hope in this struggling world, then we can and will remain relevant to the world. If we can remain open the presence of God that has cut us to heart in our lives and allow the Lord to continue to grow and change us, then we can provide the world what it needs. Be open to the presence of God cutting you to the heart because if you are, then others will experience that same cutting to the heart that those listening to Peter did and that we have experienced in our lives in Christ too.