Scripture: Luke 3:15-17, 21-22
Now it happened that when all the people had been baptized and while Jesus, after his own baptism, was at prayer, heaven opened and the Holy Spirit descended on him in a physical form, like a dove. And a voice came from heaven, "You are my son; today I have fathered you."
What a rich scripture this is! How to connect the Holy Spirit, baptism, the baptism of the Lord and Jesus' entry into his ministry as a model of the incarnation of the Word?
This announcement from heaven "You are my child; today I have fathered you." shows me God's overwhelming love for mankind. We are formed in God's image and Jesus showed us how that image appears in incarnate, human form.
Baptism reconnects us with God and we are baptised in the name of God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. If we see Christianity as the way of love in action then at our baptism, we commit ourselves to a life of service of witness to and demonstartion of Love.
Initiation into the Holy Spirit is through the laying on of hands. At baptism we are baptised with water and with the Holy Spirit; the water is the symbol of washing away our sin of separation from God.
In the Anglican church we are baptised as babies, supported in the cradle of the Holy Trinity, enveloped in the presence of the Holy Spirit. As young adults we return for the next rite in our initiation into a life of service as witness to Christ. A bishop performs the ceremony of the laying on of hands and is a channel for the Holy Spirit to infuse the life of the apostle being confirmed.
As we continue our life of service and witness, we always have the wisdom of the Holy Spirit available to us.
In this passage, we hear again how Jesus models for us that the Holy Spirit appears in times of prayer and meditation, quiet and contemplation.
Come Holy Spirit, come!
