we are the collective voice of God

Saturday January 19^th, Luke 3:  21 When all the people were being baptized, Jesus was baptized too. And as he was praying, heaven was opened 22 and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven: "You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased."  In Luke, the bodily descent of the dove as a representative of the Holy Spirit is meant to represent the permanence and the physical presence of the Holy Spirit.  It is not just some ethereal thing that is here today and gone tomorrow, it is a real thing that is here today and here tomorrow and the tomorrow after that and the tomorrow after that.  Last Sunday I had the joy of baptizing my twin grandchildren. As they were brought into the midst of the congregation during a baptismal service, the people of the congregation came forward and there hands are placed on these children, and then as this community said, “we welcome you to the Lord’s family; we receive you as a fellow member of the Body of Christ and worker with us in the Kingdom of God.  We are the collective voice of God saying, You are our children, whom we love; with you we are well pleased, and with you we will journey through life together, brothers and sisters in Christ. We welcome you as a fellow sojourner as we live out God’s calling for our lives at this time through our combined ministries at Christ Our Savior Lutheran Church.”  God is there with each of us as we are called to be with each and every baptized, Called, Enlightened, Sanctified, for the work of Jesus Christ.  And God is with us also, in our daily walk, our journey guided by the love of Christ.