Daily Devotions
This devotion pairs with this weekend’s Lutheran Hour sermon, which can be found at LHM.org.
People are often looking for the Holy Spirit in extraordinary things, like miracles, exorcisms, healings, and other great spiritual experiences. In the book of Acts, such great deeds of the Spirit are indeed present, especially among the apostles, but their role is penultimate or secondary in the broader story of God’s salvation. Their role is ultimately to draw attention to the preaching of the Word of God, which by the power of the Holy Spirit, brings sinners to faith in Christ and Baptism in His Name. As the apostle Peter reminds us, the Holy Spirit’s great manifestation on Pentecost was meant to call attention to God’s ordinary ways to bestow the same Holy Spirit on people of all nations, namely, through God’s Word and the Sacrament of Baptism. He says, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the Name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to Himself” (Acts 2:38b-39).
In the days of the reformer Martin Luther, many people thought of pilgrimages to shrines of virgins or saints as a means to becoming more spiritual. Instead of placing their hope in such extraordinary experiences, Luther advised the people to start looking for the Holy Spirit in ordinary things, to look for the Spirit in the ordinary ways in which God works for and among His people. In a treatise titled, “An Open Letter to the Christian Nobility,” Luther advised: “Let every man stay in his own parish. There he will find more than in all the shrines. In your own parish you will find Baptism, the Sacraments, preaching, and your neighbor.”
In Acts 2:42-47, Luke gives us a way to look for the Holy Spirit in those ordinary things through which God reliably works to draw us to Himself and to one another. The enduring fruit and lasting miracle of Pentecost in our lives is the fellowship of the Holy Spirit we share with one another in the church. Where then is the Holy Spirit? Where people gather around the apostolic Word of God, break bread together, pray for one another, there is the Holy Spirit. Where people worship together, share gifts and burdens with one another, there is the Spirit. Where people show generosity towards the needy, support the work of mission, and bear witness to Christ in word and deed, that’s where the Holy Spirit works every day to bind us in fellowship with Christ and each other.
WE PRAY: Holy Spirit, help us to be thankful for the ordinary ways You work in our lives. Amen.
This Daily Devotion was written by Rev. Dr. Leopoldo A. Sánchez.
Reflection Questions:
1. Why do people often look for the Holy Spirit’s work in extraordinary things and not ordinary?
2. Do you know churches that function like the example given in Acts 2?
3. Have you ever been on a pilgrimage to some holy or sacred place? If so, how was that experience?