Ordinary Time

Pause

God is calling us to listen. God wants us to see what God is doing. Today whether for the first time or the thousandth time, we need to hear Christ inviting us to follow.

Listen

When word reached the apostles in Jerusalem that Samaria had accepted God’s word, they commissioned Peter and John to go to Samaria. Peter and John went down to Samaria where they prayed that the new believers would receive the Holy Spirit. (This was because the Holy Spirit had not yet fallen on any of them; they had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.) So Peter and John laid their hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit.

Acts 8:14-17

Think

The first person I baptized was a third grader. Keith and I talked about his baptism a half dozen times. I went over it with Keith’s parents. We discussed every imaginable possibility — or so I thought.

They all somehow managed to forget to mention Keith’s fear of water. I did not find out about this fear until I saw it in his eyes as he stood at the edge of the baptistery. I led him down the steps slowly. I spoke the words of baptism, put my hand on his back, and waited for him to lean back. He had no plans to move. I put my left hand on his shoulder to ever so gently push him under. He did not want to be pushed ever so gently under. A small spot on the top of Keith’s head never got wet.

Most people, like Keith and the Samaritan Christians in Acts 8, learn the meaning of their baptisms after their baptisms. People discover what baptism means each day of their lives.

Brett Younger

Pray

God of my beginning, God of my journey, God who waits at the end of it all, help me to listen and learn. Amen.

Go

Remember who you are. You are God’s child.

Live with God’s compassion, God’s hope, God’s joy, God’s love, God’s blessing.