Filled with Grace by the Holy Spirit

“All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit.”  Acts 2:4

Dear People of St. David’s,

I hope and pray that you and yours are well and enjoying these beautiful spring days. I also hope that you are making plans to join in our worship this Pentecost Sunday. Our lives are busy, and we have a long weekend ahead, but I also know that growing in grace happens most powerfully when we are together in one place.

That’s what happened for Jesus’ early followers on the Day of Pentecost. They were together in one place awaiting the coming of the Holy Spirit that Jesus had promised them. When the Holy Spirit came, it empowered them as individuals and as a community so their lives would be about God’s grace, love, and forgiveness. Jesus’ followers received the Spirit so they could build a community that reflected that grace and love. They received the Holy Spirit so they would be empowered to show and tell the world about the Risen Christ, and the promise of life in God, now and beyond the door of death.

The same Spirit that came upon Jesus’ first followers to change the world is available and coming to us for our lives and for our community. We don’t live this Christian life on our own, thanks be to God. We live in the power of the Spirit who comes to all who are touched by God’s grace and seeking to follow Jesus in our lives.

When you and I are afraid and a peace not of our own making comes over us, that is the Spirit. When we’re not sure how to pray because our cares have outgrown our faith, the Holy Spirit prays for us. It is the Holy Spirit when we are not quite sure what to do next and start to become filled with a sense of direction; when we are using some of the gifts God has given us and some amazing things start happening around us; when we feel a deep sense that we are loved by God; when we are able to love someone we don’t necessarily like; when we notice that God has given us gifts that are beyond our physical gifts or experience in life; when we feel an urge to pray, sing, or to give thanks to God; when we feel a deep sense of God’s presence in our hearts; and when we are called to share our faith, that’s the Spirit opening the way for others to know the love, grace, and power we are coming to know.

Pay attention to your life with God in a special way today. Invite the Holy Spirit to work in you and through you. The Spirit is already with you, but your conscious invitation opens the way for the Spirit to free you and fill your life.

See you in church and please wear something red in honor of the fire of the Spirit.

Grace and Peace,

The Rev. W. Frank Allen
Rector