The card got me to thinking about our Lutheran ancestors and what it took to get the ministry here off the ground. There was a group of German settlers who felt the need for spiritual nourishment and saw the potential for growing a church in Drakes Mills. They worked with a Pr. Nunnamaker who was active in various project in western Pa.

It took a sense of being called and a lot of commitment to develop and build this church. Those men and women from our past who worked hard and long each day just to survive in what was still in many ways the frontier, were equally committed to doing the Lord’s work. They understood that in baptism they were called to serve God and they counted such service a privilege.

Our forebearers knew "who ya gonna call" to help live out the vision God gave them. These were men and women of prayer who had a heritage of following the Spirit’s leadings.

This may sound like it has absolutely nothing to do with our lessons for today, but, in fact, it has everything to do with all three of them. There is a funny irony in this Sunday being called "The Baptism of our Lord" while using the Luke baptism story. There really is very little about Jesus’ baptism in Luke. All it says about baptism is, "...and when Jesus also had been baptized..." Luke includes none of the details about where the baptism took place or a dialog between Jesus and John. There is just this sort of sidebar that it had happen. Then the writer gets on with the important information. The focus actually is on what happened after the baptism: Jesus prayed, the Holy Spirit came and God named the One who would live out God’s vision for saving humanity.

Some people, particularly some Bible scholars, get into heavy debate over historical and theological details related to Jesus’ life, including whether He knew He was God’s Son before His baptism. While such ideas can be interesting they are really irrelevant. In fact, if we become too centered on the historical Jesus we risk losing our ability to live now under His Spirit’s power and guidance.

What is important is not how or why Jesus was baptized, but that afterward He was praying We don’t even know what the subject of His prayer was. We just know that He was in communication with God right from the beginning. According to Luke prayer was important in Jesus life right to the end. Luke mentions Jesus praying frequently. Also, only in Luke does Jesus tell parables about praying.

Since the Gospels were written with the needs of later followers in mind, we can see that prayer is to be very important to all faith communities. Since Jesus prays before starting in ministry, making decisions, doing healing or even answering a question, we can see the importance of talking to God about our ministry, decisions, ministry and even conversation with others. This communication is not just a perfunctory ritual or a telling God what we want. The prayer of the Spirit-led church includes listening for God’s direction.

For St. Paul’s to have survived over these 150 years and to have grown, there must have been a lot of praying going on. Therefore, as we contemplate this anniversary year and the expectation of many years to come, we know that the answer to "Who ya gonna call?" is the Holy Spirit who will lead us to even greater ministry and mission in Jesus name.

Of course, for our great expectations (and more to the point, God’s) to be met, will require commitment on all our parts. Baptism is our initiation into God’s service. It is every believers’ ordination into the ministry. As it was for Jesus and Christians of the first centuries, so it was for those who started St. Paul’s. And so it is still the way God calls and empowers us today. Each of us has been given gifts by God. God called each of us to serve Him, using our unique gifts in this time and place.

I can’t really imagine the excitement Jesus felt when He saw the Spirit descend like a dove and heard God’s words of affirmation and realized that His mission was now begun. I can imagine to some extent the excitement of those first members of St. Paul’s as they built this church on land given them by the Drakes. And I’ve heard Bill tell enough stories of the renovations done around a hundred years later, to get a sense of the excitement felt by members then. We too can experience that excitement that come when churches let the Spirit have free reign among them. We too can feel the life breathed into a group of people who commit themselves to follow the Spirit’s leadings.

We can rest assured that we too will hear God call us His beloved children. We have already been given this name and claimed by God. This happened not because of who we are or what we have or will do. God created us, formed us, redeemed us and then said to us, "I have called you by name, you are mine." In Bible times a son had to be named and claimed by His father to be legitimate, to be part of the family. This was demonstrated by Zechariah naming John, Joseph naming Jesus and in His baptism, God naming and claiming Jesus. It happened thereafter in every baptism of every Christian. No matter who the birth or adoptive parents, the baptized is named "Beloved" and claimed by God as HIS child. In that same moment we were empowered by the Holy Spirit just as Jesus was. With the help of that Spirit, we can live up to the confidence God places in us as He called us. With the help of the Spirit we can fulfill the mission to which we are called in this time and place.