This is the riverside reading and reflection from the Pentecost baptisms…

 

On the last day of the festival, the great day, while Jesus was standing there, he cried out, "Let anyone who is thirsty come to me, and let the one who believes in me drink. As the scripture has said, 'Out of the believer's heart shall flow rivers of living water.'" Now he said this about the Spirit, which believers in him were to receive; for as yet there was no Spirit, because Jesus was not yet glorified.
 JOHN 7:37-39

 

It is Pentecost.

The day we remember the coming of the Holy Spirit in wind and fire.

Pentecost is a great day for baptisms.

Because baptism, like the Holy Spirit itself, is a gift.

It is not always an easy or comfortable gift. The Holy Spirit and the baptized life together have a way of turning things upside down and on their heads. However, they are wonderful gifts of blessing and grace from God’s own heart.

Madelyn, Ava and Matthew, baptism is something that you are choosing today. But even more importantly, it is God choosing you; naming, claiming, and calling you a beloved child.

You are God’s beloved child.

However, one of the most important things to remember is that these gifts – baptism and the Holy Spirit – are not to be jealously guarded, but shared.

The baptized life is not just for your good, it is for the blessing of the world, so that not just your thirst may be quenched but all the thirsty may find relief from the living waters flowing from your hearts.

Standing together, the community of the baptized, the Church, is to be a channel of God’s love to and for the world.

So, I pray for you, and for all the baptized:

Come, Holy Spirit,

Blow through us and stir us up like a mighty wind;

Burn like a fire in our courage and our consciences;  

And like rivers of living water, flow mightily from our hearts,

For the blessing of the world.

Happy Pentecost! Happy baptism day!

Thanks be to God!

CG+