This is the day of Pentecost, when we celebrate the gift of the Holy Spirit. In honor of this, I decided to not prepare a sermon today. Instead, I’m just going to stand here and let the Holy Spirit tell me what to say. Uh....

As Christians, we are not to become empty-headed ventriloquist dummies sitting on the Holy Spirit’s lap: we need to continue to use our God-given minds. Some would disagree with this, believing that the Holy Spirit works solely through the emotions. The Holy Spirit thus becomes the “Holy Spouter.” From this perspective, one can tell when people are in the throes of the Holy Spirit because it just comes gushing from them. If you don’t experience outbursts of religious ecstasy, you’re not really in touch with the Holy Spirit.

We Lutherans and many others in the mainli…