Our first lesson vividly describes the baptism with the “Holy Spirit and with fire” that John the Baptist proclaimed would come from the Anointed One (Mt. 3:11). The crowd that gathered around the disciples, scripture tells us, was “bewildered, amazed and astonished” by what was happening. I suspect the disciples were too. According to Luke, the evangelist, they had remained in Jerusalem as Jesus had directed: “And see, I am sending upon you what my Father promised; so stay here in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high.”(24:49) They were filled with expectation, trusting Jesus’ promise, but having no idea how they would be “clothed with power from on high.” Yet when the Holy Spirit came upon them, what we celebrate today as Pentecost, they must have been as bewildered, amazed and astonished as the gathering crowd. Anointed by the Spirit, they were changed from cowering disciples to powerful apostles ready to carry Jesus’ story to the world.

Bewildered, amazed and astonished tends to be our reaction today when we become aware of the Holy Spirit at work in the world around us. Some years ago, Bishop Steven Charleston was the speaker at our Diocesan Women’s Conference. There was no doubt he was “full of the Spirit.” You could see it in his eyes, hear it in his voice, feel it in the air as he bounced up and down the aisle in our midst. At one point, a woman two seats on my right was so overcome by the Spirit, she fell off her chair as she broke forth in glossolalia. The whole room was stunned—bewildered, amazed and astonished—as Bishop Charleston calmly walked over, gently touched her head, and went on with his presentation as he explained what had happened to her. Her friend, sitting beside her, was present to her as she slowly recovered her composure.

Whenever, however, we experience the Holy Spirit working in our lives, we are being called to move past our amazement and to witness to God’s transforming Love here and now, as did those first disciples.