What inspired Schweitzer to change course? In his words, it was simply his effort to serve the love preached by Jesus.

Throughout history, we honor the story of those people who have been touched and transformed by the spirit of God to do amazing things for the world or for their community. Our favorite Biblical characters fall into this category, as do well-known heroes like Martin Luther King, Jr. and Mother Teresa.

But if we think of Gods call as something for the few, the precious, the supremely gifted, then we have missed the point.

In todays text from Acts, we hear a story about baptism and the Holy Spirit. Liturgically speaking, today is known as Baptism of the Lord Sunday. The gospel reading for the day, had we read it, would have told us the story of Jesus baptism, when the heavens opened and the Spirit descended on him like a dove. But I was struck by the other passages assigned to this same topic: the beginning of the creation story and the almost comical tale of the disciples who didn't know about the Holy Spirit.

In Acts, Paul runs across some new disciples of Jesus in his travels. He asks them if they have received the Holy Spirit. They respond, Holy Spirit? What Holy Spirit? Nobody told us anything about a Holy Spirit. So Paul asks, Well, how were you baptized? And they said, In John's baptism, meaning, of course, the same kind of baptism which John the Baptist offered. If you remember anything about John, he was concerned primarily that people repent. So his baptism was primarily about the idea of being cleansed, forgiven, made whole again.

So Paul suggests to these folks in Ephesus that maybe they should be baptized in the name of Jesus, because Jesus is the one whom John was trying to prepare folks for. They get baptized by Paul, who prays for them to receive the Holy Spirit, and they do!

Now this tale could raise all sorts of questions for us about baptism and re-baptism, which Presbyterians dont do, by the way. About baptism by water versus baptism by the Holy Spirit, which some churches separate out as two separate events. But what Paul is clearly trying to convey to these folks is that to be in Jesus is to be filled with the same spirit which Jesus received at his baptism. And that spirit is a powerful spirit. A spirit which brings new gifts, new insights, new possibilities into our lives.

This spirit is not something new, though, as the inclusion of the Genesis text in today's lectionary reminds us. It is the same spirit which moved over the face of the waters at the beginning of time and brought order out of chaos. The spirit which brooded over the unformed creation and declared, Let there be light! And there was light.

In other words, this spirit, which Paul says we get whenever we receive baptism in Jesus name, is the Spirit of God which holds within it the power of creation, the power of transformation, the power of life.

I think many of us, however, are a bit like those hapless disciples in Ephesus: Holy Spirit? What Holy Spirit? Nobody told us about a Holy Spirit.

I'm not sure many of us really expect to be gifted with a spirit that can change our lives, change our directions, change our world.

We don't think that by praying in Jesus' name we'll suddenly become Albert Schweitzers or Mother Teresas. Well, we won't. But we can become us. The us that God intended at our creation, the us that God has gifted for a purpose, the us that is called to serve the love that Jesus preached, as Schweitzer said.

Now, lest we think that only by leaving our careers and heading to a distant port, can we live out such a spiritual transformation, let me remind you that John Calvin, the founder of Presbyterianism, was a strong believer that all jobs that need to be done for the good of society are part of God's vocation: business and maintenance and building and teaching and preaching and governing. He believed them all to be high callings, if they were in fact, our callings and done to the glory of God.

But, in fact, sometimes people are called to leave behind perfectly acceptable careers in order to pursue the love of Jesus. I can look out at today's congregation and name two immediately: my husband, Ric Zeller, left a lucrative career in corporate America as an engineer, when it became clear to him that his calling was to serve God's creation in some other way than producing sun glasses. And so he took one-quarter of his previous pay to go to work for Greenpeace. To do so he needed to sell his house, his boat, his truck and move into a Christian community serving the urban poor. And he did so gladly, because the spirit had moved him and he found enormous peace in his new life.

Many of you know Mike Tidwell, a local activist for Climate Change. Mike also gave up a writing career he loved and had spent 20 years building when he became clear that he needed to take leadership on the issue that most concerned him for the future of our planet and all its inhabitants. Mike's faith led him to believe that he could no longer travel the world in pursuit of interesting stories to write, while watching the globe heat up exponentially because of human activities which could be changed.

Any number of you, if you were willing, could also stand up and give testimony to hard changes you have made -- or decisions that may look hard to those of us on the outside, but were inevitable and even wonderful, for you on the inside. Changes you have made because a Spirit within you kept poking and prodding until you heard it and answered.

Others of you could give testimony not to mid-life changes, but to early decisions to move in one direction rather than another, because a Spirit within you opened your eyes early on.

And that spirit -- that prodding voice that won't let go -- is not just any spirit. It is the very spirit of God. And it is the Spirit promised in our baptism to be available to each of us as we need it. And as our world needs it.

Some days I find myself in profound denial about all the needs in the world: the hunger, the homelessness, the disease, the injustice, the violence, the greed, the destruction to our planet. I know I can't do it all and I dont know which one to work on, which issue to grab hold of, so I just read the comics instead or bury myself in the mundane.

But on my better days, I believe that God's spirit is calling me. And if I keep my ears open, my eyes open, my heart open, my options open, the way will become clear.

Because I have been baptized in the name of Jesus. And in my baptism, the same spirit that brooded over the waters to bring order out of chaos has been promised to me. The same power that called forth light, the same grace that declared Jesus the beloved child, the same joy that filled the new disciples of Christ, that Spirit is Holy and profound.

What Holy Spirit? God's Holy Spirit. It is real and it is here.