Posts by Erich Grimm-Schmitt

There was an activity at camp where we handed out cups, upside down, to each of the campers on the field.  We turned on the sprinklers and hoses and told the campers to collect as much water as they could with their cups upside down and help each other fill their cups. Of course, they were a little confused and soaked as they ran around trying to figure out how to get water into their cup. It wasn’t until we had told them that this is kinda how we do life. We run around with our cups empty. It’s not until we consciously flip our cup and make room for God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit to enter into the cup and into our lives. 

This Sunday is Pentecost Sunday, a day that is recognized as the birthday of the church. This day typically gets overshadowed by other significant religious holidays, like Christmas and Easter, but today is a celebration nonetheless. In this week’s scripture reading on Acts 2: 1-21, God sends the Holy Spirit through Jesus gifting the disciples and everyone around a baptism through the Spirit.  God breaks the binary, otherness, in which language, nationality, gender, sexuality, race, culture, ability no longer holds us back from understanding one another,  and unites us so that we can be one in the Holy Spirit. This is the birth of a new church. A celebration in oneness.

This is the first Sunday after Epiphany! This is the Sunday where we celebrate new beginnings as Jesus, one without sin, gets baptized by John the Baptist.