I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh,
and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,
and your young men shall see visions,
and your old men shall dream dreams. Acts 2:17

This Sunday we celebrate the confirmations of Ahbasi Lattin at Faith and Isaac Fritz at St. Paul. I’m excited for them and hope you are too.

We have been meeting in intensive sessions over the past few months, reviewing the Small Catechism of Martin Luther. Both of them have matured wonderfully and have highly supportive families that put the life of faith central in their households.

We should appreciate this moment. The growing population of young adults report not having any feeling or desire for God. Either they have grown up in families without a faith tradition or, perhaps worse, families with a negative faith experience. Recent studies of the Dones (those who are done with religion) indicate that many of them still have a feeling for God but lack a community for expressing it.

As we celebrate Pentecost this Sunday, let us note these two things: it’s about an experience of God’s overwhelming welcome within a community that doesn’t require passports. God’s Spirit (breath and wind are other ways of translating the word for spirit) is available to everyone, whether they’ve won the birth lottery or have status in society. Rather they are connected to community by the power to speak from their own context about how God lifts up everyone to a life of flourishing well. Jesus is raised from the dead so that even those all but dead in society are chosen for well-being by God. This well-being begins now among us who are the church today and spreads to the whole creation until that day God becomes All in all.

Ahbasi and Issac are voices of God’s great promise in Jesus. Hear how they tell of what the Spirit says to all.

Grace and peace,

Pr. Russell Meyer