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Baptism of the Spirit                  I John 4: 1-13              August 12, 2007

This has been an interesting week.  As we have already mentioned, tomorrow is the first day of our annual five-day Vacation Bible School Extravaganza, and the past week (actually, the past two weeks, but particularly this past week) has been a pretty remarkable example of hard work, determination and teamwork of the first order.

What you see here before you is more than the tip of the proverbial iceberg, but there is more.  In addition to the transformation of this Sanctuary, accomplished by the work of many, but particularly through the efforts of Harry Buzard and Jack Schetler; in addition, the basement downstairs in this building and virtually every one of the available rooms in Hahle Hall have also been converted into program spaces that support our “Take the Plunge” theme.

And, perhaps most important of all, Lori Zataveski, our capable VBS director, has assembled a veritable sea of adult and teen volunteers, many of whom will be taking vacation time and spending it teaching and serving the expected crowd of kids that will spend every morning here between tomorrow and Friday.

To say I am impressed with this effort would be a major understatement.  The picture of literally dozens of our number, working, night after night, will stay with me for a long time.  It is participation in the life of our church – with a capital “P.”

Now, I recognize that this same thing has happened here each summer for quite some time, but since, as most of you know, this is the first time I’ve experienced this event, you can understand my reaction. 

Anyway, it is fitting, I think, that our annual August 13^th Festival Communion be celebrated right at the midpoint of our Vacation Bible School experience – following our preparation and right before we set the whole event into motion.

August 13^th, you see, is the anniversary of the rebirth of the Moravian Church – 280 years ago this week.

Briefly, the background for this event is this:  Following the martyrdom of John Hus in 1415 and the establishment of the Unity in 1457, the early Moravians suffered all sorts of persecution – as did all Protestants in central Europe.  Finally, after decades of existence as an underground movement, meeting in houses and hiding their Bibles under floorboards in fear of discovery, a group of these dedicated Christians fled to Germany and settled at Herrnhut, the estate of Count Nicholas von Zinzendorf. 

And it was there, following a period of intensive prayer and study, that a special celebration took place.  The community gathered together on the 13^th of August in 1727 for Communion – a Communion service that would change their lives forever.

Those who took part in that service found it difficult to describe their experience, but all agreed that they had received, that day, a Baptism of the Holy Spirit.  They all knew that God had been among them during their communion celebration – and would remain among them as they set out to live out the message of the Gospel around the world.

Through their Baptism, Gianna and Olivia Potts entered into the life of our Church today.  Through our worship together, we embraced them and connected them to a community of Christians who, along with Sharon and Tom, will help them experience what it means to be in communion with God – to be, in fact, all that they were created to be.  Their baptism is the starting point in a lifetime of worship – a lifetime in which they will know what it means to be surrounded by the love of God.

The author of our New Testament Lesson for this morning talks about what it means to be a part of this Christian community:  “By this we know that we abide in Him and He in us,” he writes, “because He has given us of His Spirit.”

The meal we are about to share together is the primary liturgical event that has defined worship for the Christian Church through the ages.  It combines the act of eating and drinking together with the acknowledgement of the receipt of the ultimate gift of God, who re-enters our life as we celebrate and remember the sacrifice of our Lord.  It opens the door to the possibility of the Baptism of the Holy Spirit for all of us.

When the early Moravians shared this same meal on August 13^th, 1727, they sensed the presence of the Spirit of God in a powerful way.  They knew, beyond any doubt, that, as our Lesson for today reminds us, “they were in God and God was in them.” 

They were empowered.  They accomplished remarkable things.  Indeed, we would not be sitting here, in this place, today, were it not for their accomplishments.

What remains, then, is God’s standing offer for us to experience this same Baptism of the Spirit today.

The question is, how can that happen?

Well, my friends, the way for us to experience Spirit Baptism today is exactly the same way our forbearers experienced it. The early Moravians knew the Spirit was present with them in their communion service because they were “possessed” by peace, “possessed” by forgiveness and “possessed ”by brotherly and sisterly love.  To put it differently, they knew the Spirit was present because they allowed the Spirit to work in them and through them.

They were changed, that day, and ready to do the work of God as never before.

If we fast-forward to the present, we find our Communion celebration today occurring at a high point in the life of our congregation.  At a time when our congregation has come together to prepare a gift for this community – an opportunity for more than a hundred young people to experience, firsthand, the love of God. 

And the best possible way to celebrate that effort, and thereby allow the Spirit which brought so many of us together to cooperate in that effort – the best way to allow that Spirit to fill us, today, with the magnificence of God’s love – is to gather around this Holy table.

So come, brothers and sisters, celebrate a new beginning.  Not just the beginning of a week of Vacation Bible School, but a new beginning in the life of our congregation.                                      

AMEN