Before we hear this mornings story of Pentecost from the book of Acts, hear these reflective words from Thomas Merton from his book called Opening the Bible: “The Message of the Bible is…that into the confusion of man’s world, with its divisions and hatred, has come a message of transforming power, and those who believe it will experience in themselves the love that makes for reconciliation and peace on earth.”

Reading of Acts 2:1-21

Nothing helps me to embrace the meaning of all this church stuff more than relationships. I see God made manifest and the face of Christ and the work of the Holy Spirit in the relationships I have with people, with nature and with the world in general. Friday morning I was driving blindly through a thin fog on a hilly, winding road, not really in any hurry to be anywhere, but certainly feeling anxious to get my day started. And at the bottom of a hill, a deer popped out of the trees next to the road, so I slowed down and waited to see what the deer would do. The deer didn’t freeze with fear at this car coming toward it out of the fog, nor did it change direction. It just kept moving forward, not looking at me, not speeding up. So, I sat back in the driver’s seat for a moment and accepted that I would just have to wait, and then I noticed something else coming out of the trees behind the deer: a little fawn. I sat up in my seat and saw this baby deer wobble its way across the street after its mother. Couldn’t have been taller than my knees. And when mother and child made their way across the street, I slowly passed them by and watched them disappear into the trees on the other side of the road.

I couldn’t deny that I had caught a glimpse of how God leads us; how helpless we are moving from forest to forest in the midst of a blinding fog; how this ever-present God doesn’t so much as acknowledge the threats of this world, so that God can persistently lead us through our toils and snares; and how we are in a relationship with this God. I drove a lot slower after that on Friday morning.

That presence of God that fills us, drives us and leads us is the gift of the Holy Spirit. Sometimes the Holy Spirit is made manifest in the form of questions we don’t want to face in our lives.

Recently I was in Austin with a colleague of mine, Mary Wilson, for an ecclesiastical Council hosted by The Brazos Association. Mary and I stood before the group of about 50 or 60 people, answering question after question about what certain things meant to us in our ministry. One of the most difficult questions came from a woman who stood up in the back. She asked "What is your biggest flaw or fear that you have about yourself that might be exposed publicly as a minister?"

Her question was actually very liberating. She asked a question that wasn’t the norm. It sounded like a hard question to answer, but when Mary and I took a moment to just be honest, the answers came easily and freely. The unorthodox question from this one person gave way to candor, reflection, and I’ll bet it gave everyone in that room something to think about that Sunday afternoon.

That is the work of the Holy Spirit. On Pentecost Sunday they gathered and received the gift of the Holy Spirit. God’s Spirit fell on them as different tongues of fire, and they all started speaking in different languages—languages that were different from one person to the next; yet, they understood what they were saying to each other “as the Spirit enabled them.”

Go back a moment and recall that Jesus’ ministry began with his baptism by John the Baptist, and remember that Jesus was baptized with the Holy Spirit. Some times we hear stories from Scripture that begin with the words, “Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit,” etc., etc., etc. So, put it in perspective: Jesus, the Son of God, was activated into ministry when he received the gift of God’s Holy Spirit. And Jesus, full of the Spirit, was enabled to perform miracles, to teach the true nature of God, to love everyone who cried out to him; and, by the power of the Holy Spirit, Jesus was able to keep his eye on the ball. Jesus never swayed or swaggered from his mission, even when he was questioned by the authoritative powers of the time, even when he was killed.

And on Pentecost Sunday, we, the Church gathered, receive the gift of God’s Holy Spirit. Today is a miraculous day. But hear this: we can live out Pentecost every day of our lives. Every day we can be Spirit-filled, Spirit-driven and Spirit-led. That Pentecost living starts in this gift of the Church that we receive on Pentecost Sunday, and it’s nurtured in the community we foster from that point on.

In his book, God in Search of Man: A Philosophy of Judaism, Abraham Joshua Heschel wrote, “Religion must be an altar upon which the fire of the soul may be kindled in holiness.” So, for us, our Christianity must be an altar upon which the fire of the soul may be kindled in holiness. As a symbol, does our altar accomplish that?

Or let me ask it this way: Does our church serve as a Pentecost environment where our children, youth and adults can ask the hard questions about their faith, where they can put their faith into action, and where they can live together in an authentic, shared sense of holiness? And if you want to get philosophical: Are we living as slaves to the church as an institution, or are we living by the Spirit that is alive in God’s gift of the Church? Are we living by human creed, or are we living by Divine faith?

The United Church of Christ established a statement of faith, not a creed, to proclaim its position on the Church and Christianity. The UCC did this because they acknowledged from the beginning that a creed puts us in a box where we feel like we can never change, never grow and never become. That is Ecclesiastical slavery. By instead compiling a statement of faith, the UCC is able to embrace changes that come along in God’s world; changes we can never predict with our human minds in our human time and our human context.

This past semester I took an independent study that was initially titled A Theology of Confirmation. The purpose of the study was simply for me to gain as much knowledge as I could about confirmation in the United Church of Christ and other traditions so that I wouldn’t lead our kids astray when I led confirmation classes at our church. In my research, however, I discovered that there’s no one way to do confirmation. There’s no one-size-fits-all confirmation. And that’s certainly true for our eclectic mix of six confirmands at Friends.

Augustine insisted that babies needed to be saved, so along came infant baptism followed by confirmation during the child’s teenage years. Then the Anabaptists said that you needed to have an informed faith where you made a decision to be saved or it was inauthentic, so along came believer’s baptism and confirmation served no purpose. In the United Church of Christ we recognize baptism no matter its origin: infant baptism or believers baptism—sprinkling, pouring or dunking. So, how do we define confirmation in this environment?

Before answering that question, let me say that this church is a microcosm of our culture. Friends Congregational Church is a candid example of the direction Mainline Christianity is heading in our present age: less denominationalism and more ecumenism. In our world, it is becoming less and less relevant in the minds of Christians whether you are or were Lutheran, Baptist, Episcopalian, Presbyterian, Catholic, Mennonite, Pentecostal, Methodist, Disciples of Christ or Church of Christ. What is more and more relevant is our shared faith and our shared understanding that God loves all of God’s children in the midst of ever-changing diversity.

Friends is a United Church of Christ congregation. Well, about 15% of our church members were born and reared UCC. The rest of us are a mixed bag of faith traditions and church histories. The pastor before me was a meticulous Methodist and I was raised Baptist (by the grace of God). And we bring these faith traditions and church histories and the very stories of our lives together into this place and this time in this community at Friends Congregational Church, UCC, College Station, USA.

This church is indeed a microcosm of our world, and it can be a place where we live out Pentecost every time we gather in the presence of God and in the name of Christ. The Holy Spirit is not something you figure out or control. The Holy Spirit is something that fills you, drives you and leads you. You may not be able to love your neighbor by your human will—we’d all be in trouble if that were the case—but you can love your neighbor, no matter who they are, by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Receive that power at this altar where the fire of your soul can be kindled in holiness. As they all spoke different languages on that day of Pentecost, yet were able to understand each other, let us share our perspectives of God’s Word alive and working in our lives so that our church can be kindled in that holiness. This is a place where you can ask questions about your faith, where you are encouraged to be yourself, because anything short of that is compromise to the Body of Christ and to the life-changing power of the gospel. If you are honest about who you are, if you face your limitations and embrace your gifts, if you bring your all to this shared altar, and if you embrace the Holy Spirit that lives in you—the Spirit that is a gift freely given to you—then God can change your life in amazing, joy-filled ways.

My independent study changed into a reformed theology of confirmation, and the proposal was simply this: We cannot assume in our churches that one size fits all per confirmation. Therefore, confirmation cannot simply be a rite of passage; rather, confirmation is a series of confirming moments in the life of our church where we do exactly what the word confirm means: we say ‘yes’ to God, ‘yes’ to Christ, ‘yes’ to the Holy Spirit, ‘yes’ to our church, and ‘yes’ to our faith, but not without asking the tough questions.

Today our confirmands have come forward leading us in a confirming moment in the life of Friends Church. They have been about a process of asking the tough questions, wrestling with that angel of the Lord until they got their blessing. And, in a language all their own, they have come before this church family on Pentecost Sunday to share their statement of faith: a statement of where they are right now in their journey with our God.

In today’s confirming moment, we are reminded that we are called to be Spirit-filled, Spirit-driven and Spirit-led. Thank you, Brian, Wes, Dillon, Cassie, Cristina and Kalena for reminding us of that calling we all share. Thank you for reminding us that when it comes to this thing called faith, none of us have it all figured out. And thank you for reminding us that on the day we assume we do have it all figured out, that is the day we lose our faith. And thank you for reminding us of our Good News: that even if we lose our faith, Christ is with us always, our Rock and our Redeemer. Thanks be to God on this day of Pentecost.