Original Manuscript:
I still remember the first conversation one of our priests, The Rev. Tom Hotchkiss, had with us as we prepared for Confirmation. He told us that the decision to be confirmed was not our parents or anyone else but ourselves.
Now this was still in the day and age when 12 was considered the norm to be confirmed, that is to make a mature public affirmation of our faith. Some in our group were young enough to not dare go against their parents’ wishes. Others were old enough, but still young enough, not to care.
However, some of us listened to Canon Hotchkiss’ words, and they thankfully had a great impact. For myself, even though I had grown up in a house of Sunday School teachers, I took the task of preparing for Confirmation on myself, and took it seriously.
Then the Bishop came and laid his hands on all of us. Thinking about it now, I still get that same sense I did then some times. It was a feeling I do not remember ever feeling before, but I have thankfully felt many times sense. The best I can describe it is as a presence, this lighting up, of the front of my forehead. I grew to understand that this feeling was my cognizance of God’s presence with me. It has helped comfort me in times of need. It has helped me know when I am on the right path.
This also marked a before and after in my life. While God had been present in my life from Baptism on, thanks to all those around me in the Christian Community, God wasn’t a personal abiding presence for me personally until this moment. I sought God and sought after Him after this point in a completely different way. It was this point that my life completely changed. It was only at this point that I truly gave myself over to God in the way we are all called to do as Christians.
This moment of transition where nothing remains the same is what we celebrate today. Today we celebrate the transformation that comes into our lives through the ever-abiding presence of God in our lives through the gift of the Holy Spirit.
We see this first in the Apostles. Although they had known Jesus, it was not until our Lord ascended from this world that they were able to experience God’s abiding and teaching presence with them, as Jesus foretells in His Final Discourse with them before His death and Resurrection. They experienced God right in front of them, though they did not always know it, as Jesus often points out in the Gospels. At this moment of Pentecost, though, the Spirit enters the Apostles and fills them.
Because of the Spirit, the Apostles are forever changed. We see this in Peter, who before had denied Jesus and hid with the other Apostles out of fear of the authorities. Now he comes forth, raising his voice to speak to the people, and declares the Truth and Good News of all that has happened to them concerning our Lord Jesus. Before Peter was timid, if only in this time surrounding the crucifixion. Now he is bold.
Paul even speaks to this change in us. The Spirit doesn’t come into us so that we can remain slaves to sin and all that came before with us in our lives. The Spirit comes in so that we may cry out to the Lord as adopted children of God.
There is a clear change, a clear before and after, when God enters us through the gift of the Holy Spirit. The question we must always ask ourselves is can we follow Paul’s words and leave behind our slavery to sin, darkness, and the world and accept the new gift of kinship in the family of God? Will we move from our shame and timidness to be great orators and speakers of the Gospel, like Peter? Can we mark a clear change in our lives from the moment God intimately and nearly entered our very being? How will we honor the gift God gave when He entered into our lives to change them for the better forever?