Sixth Sunday of Easter

Acts 10: 44-end John 15: 9-17

It is strange how things take place which we cannot account for. Something unexpected and which we can find no reason for it happening. We are at a loss to understand. Today’s reading from the Acts of the Apostles relates to us another one of these happenings, and as ever, Peter is in the middle of everything.

Peter was speaking to an assembly of Jewish believers. Not just Jewish believers but there were also some Gentiles present too. As Peter spoke to all who were gathered there the Holy Spirit descended upon them all. Not just to the Jewish believers but to the Gentiles too. The Jews were amazed to hear the Gentiles speaking in tongues. Not just general conversation but they were glorifying God. Here, if anything more was needed, was proof of God bestowing upon all people his love and the gift of the Holy Spirit.

The Gentiles were baptised there and then by Peter. They were being baptised into the Christian Church by the Christian Church. Peter was not acting as an individual but as the Church in receiving these new converts. The same is happening today as people approach the font to be baptised. It is not the vicar or priest who is receiving the child, or even adult, into the congregation. They are being received by the whole Christian Church on behalf of Jesus Christ.

Adults who come forward to be baptised into the church are frequently encouraged to go one step further and follow up their baptism by Confirmation. They have received the gift of the Holy Spirit through baptism but in confirmation the Holy Spirit is strengthened.

The preparation to confirmation is a series of confirmation classes. Through these classes the various elements of the church are looked at, parts of the Bible are explained, the place of the Christian in the church is expounded. In many instances the newly initiated seeks to continue their exploration of the Christian faith. It is as if the Holy Spirit grabs them and directs them along their pathway. In the gospel reading we read of just this happening.

After the baptism of the assembled crowd they did not want to leave it just as that. Peter was invited to stay with them for several days. The reason must be to hear more about their faith. Just as our newly confirmed clamour to learn more so too did the newly baptised all those years go.

To seek for knowledge is only natural, and what can be more natural than to seek to learn more about our Maker. As the early Christians, newly baptised, asked Peter to stay with them in order to learn more, so too do the newly confirmed. They have realised that, by taking on this church membership it is not the culmination of a desire to be baptised, but it is the start of a new road. It is the beginning of this stage of the growth of the faith that we hold in our hearts.

Collect for the Sixth Sunday of Easter

God our redeemer,

you have delivered us from the power of darkness

and brought us into the kingdom of your Son:

grant, that as by his death he has recalled us to life,

so by his continual presence in us he may raise us to eternal joy;

through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,

who is alive and reigns with you,

in the unity of the Holy Spirit,

one God, now and for ever.