Renewal Series: The First Church

Sermon given at Sydenstricker UMC 1/21/18

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^NRS Acts 2:1 When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. ² And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. ³ Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. ⁴ All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability. ⁵ Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven living in Jerusalem. ⁶ And at this sound the crowd gathered and was bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in the native language of each. ⁷ Amazed and astonished, they asked, "Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? ⁸ And how is it that we hear, each of us, in our own native language? ⁹ Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, ¹⁰ Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes,

 ¹¹ Cretans and Arabs-- in our own languages we hear them speaking about God's deeds of power." ¹² All were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, "What does this mean?" ¹³ But others sneered and said, "They are filled with new wine." ¹⁴ But Peter, standing with the eleven, raised his voice and addressed them, "Men of Judea and all who live in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and listen to what I say. ¹⁵ Indeed, these are not drunk, as you suppose, for it is only nine o'clock in the morning.

 ¹⁶ No, this is what was spoken through the prophet Joel: ¹⁷ 'In the last days it will be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams. ¹⁸ Even upon my slaves, both men and women, in those days I will pour out my Spirit; and they shall prophesy. ¹⁹ And I will show portents in the heaven above and signs on the earth below, blood, and fire, and smoky mist. ²⁰ The sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon to blood, before the coming of the Lord's great and glorious day. ²¹ Then everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.'

 ²² "You that are Israelites, listen to what I have to say: Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with deeds of power, wonders, and signs that God did through him among you, as you yourselves know-- ²³ this man, handed over to you according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of those outside the law. ²⁴ But God raised him up, having freed him from death, because it was impossible for him to be held in its power… ³⁷ Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and to the other apostles, "Brothers, what should we do?" ³⁸ Peter said to them, "Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ so that your sins may be forgiven; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. ³⁹ For the promise is for you, for your children, and for all who are far away, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to him." ⁴⁰ And he testified with many other arguments and exhorted them, saying, "Save yourselves from this corrupt generation." ⁴¹ So those who welcomed his message were baptized, and that day about three thousand persons were added.

Welcome as we begin a five part series on renewal of faith, renewal of direction and renewal of the church. My desire for this series is that we can take away from these sermons some sense of the earliest movement of following Jesus, what was that like, what amazing things were the disciples capable of doing and how did it thrive in the midst of persecution and chaos. We start with the day of Pentecost even though we will not celebrate that in the church until May. Why? Because Pentecost is the moment that the church is truly launched by God. Why is that important? Because how God launched the church is how God intends the church to operate and understand this wonderful relationship with God. In order to get to this moment we will focus on several parts of this story. We will focus on the pre-story that which happened prior to this event that prepared this event to happen. We will explore the event itself from the standpoint of what God is doing in the event. Then we will explore what we are asked to do as a response to the event itself.

So let’s go back. In fact I want to go back to the beginning a do a quick timeline of God’s relationship with the world up to this point. God created us in God’s image. What does it mean to be in the image and likeness of God? You and everything in creation has as part of its makeup the divine DNA of God. It is an integral part of who we are. From the moment that we are conceived, God is within us even if we are yet unaware of that on the conscious level. I have often heard the image of God is Ruah, which means breath or air. Image for a moment that birth is happening. What is the first thing that new born does? It breathes. What if in that first breathe the Holy Spirit is coming in to welcome new life. In Genesis 2: 7, it says that God formed man from the dust of the earth and breathed life into his nostrils the breath of life and the man became a living being. So we come into this world being filled first with the breath of God. The last thing we will do on this earth is breath our last breath and that divine inspiration that is in us, God in us, will depart from our physical being. Awesome to think about isn’t it. So we are made in the image of God.

Then we are told we are made in the likeness of God. Now some would like to take this literally and argue that we look like God. But if that was the case, then God has too many physical personifications to imagine. Likeness refers to our personal and unique gifts and talents that make us who we are and those gifts and talents are the essence of God in us. John said we know Jesus because He is with us and in us. I believe that the likeness of God is the way we interact with people in love. Each of us brings unique gifts and talents to the world that allows us to become a body of Christ, a collection of unique talents and skills so that we can be the hands and feet of God to the world around us.

From that moment of creation, we as human beings have been disobedient to the creator. We have gone our own way, we have failed at loving one another and we have determined our will over the will of God. Over and over again, the stories in the Bible clearly indicate a human will. I like to believe that many of the difficult stories of conquering and inhumanity are nothing more than our own desire to justify our actions by saying that God said it. I saw the other day someone had posted that the Jaguars had won because God was on their side. Now if that ended up in a history book a thousand years from now someone would be questioning why would God side with one team over the other. God is love and it seems counter to that theme. Maybe in that simple phrase we have an explanation for some of the difficult stories in the Old Testament. God looked upon the world and saw that we were having difficulty understanding this whole concept of image and likeness. So God sent Jesus into the world.

Now most of our understandings argue that Jesus came for salvation alone and to be a sacrifice in atonement for our salvation. But what if, Jesus came into the world to show us how to live into the image and likeness of God? What if the life of Jesus is meant to show us how to live into this divine nature that is breathed into us at birth and then allows us to be the hands and feet of God in the world? Wasn’t that the essence of who Jesus was? Moreover, these disciples spent three years with him struggling with learning how to be the image and likeness of God. So it is no surprise then that we also struggle with it. It is easier when we say God is this being somewhere else rather than within us. It is easier to define God and ourselves as completely separate entities. Isn’t it?

So the disciples live with, learn from and follow Jesus. Who is crucified, died and buried and three days later is resurrected. Think about that. What profound influence did that have on these disciples? So they enter into a place of prayer and preparation. Preparing for the future without really knowing what that future is. But they do it by making themselves humbled before God. They do it by allowing God to fill them with the spirit of God. So in order to do that, they first have to empty themselves. Paul does it. Read his story in Acts where he goes through a time of transformation, blinded and empting of whom he is in order to allow God to fill him. So here is a moment. If we truly want to understand this thing called discipleship, we have to listen carefully to this story. We must empty ourselves of well, our will, our determination to be in control, our desires of flesh and worldly things. In order to truly follow Jesus we must put ourselves in a place where we have total trust and obedience to God. It’s hard! But Jesus showed us it’s also possible.  In that moment when we achieve it through prayer, through fasting and through desire to be a follower of Christ, the Holy Spirit descends and dwells within us. We may not hear the rushing wind as God did at Pentecost. But none the less the Holy Spirit will come and transform us. Our hearts will change! Our attitudes will change! Will it be hard to continue on that path? You bet it will! But God will be with us every step of the way.

God brought the Holy Spirit in a dramatic way to tell us the story of God’s love. God could have filled each disciple individually, quietly and sent them out into the world. But God needed the world to know that God is God and God is working in the Holy Mystery of the spirit. So God did it in a very dramatic way. I would love to have been there in that moment when the wind moved and fire appeared and people starting speaking in languages they did not know. In that moment, the disciples had God clearly within them and they became one with God. Would it last? Not completely as the disciples then would go on to argue doctrine even among those who felt the spirit the greatest. But they would all go out into the world to change it. They all went out into the world and became disciples who had Christ in them as they shared the story of God’s love.

So that brings us to you and me. The scripture tells us they were cut to the heart and they asked the disciples what must we do. Peter told them, you must empty yourself, repent of your nature and allow the Holy Spirit to baptize you in the power of God from above. And thousands did! And thousands did! What would happen if we had a Pentecostal moment here in this church? What would happen if we all went into a time of preparation and prayer over the next five weeks asking for God to come? What would happen if you recognized the unique person that God has created in you and acknowledged the uniqueness in those beside you and all of us became the Body of Christ? What would happen if we decided to follow Jesus by becoming Jesus to the world?

This weekend we have young people who have recently walked Emmaus. They will likely tell you they had an experience of feeling God’s presence, of being filled with that spirit and they are floating higher than we can imagine. I will tell you that you don’t need to go to Emmaus, Chrysalis, or any other Christian retreat to experience that kind of love. If we are to be the Body of Christ, that kind of love should be felt here every time we gather. That kind of love should be experienced as we reach out to our community, our neighbors to fulfill the needs of the hungry, the poor, the cold and the marginalized. Small groups of you should begin to think about forming to share those experiences and hold each other accountable to this living breath within us. The scripture tells us that this promise if for you, for your children, for those who live here and far away. But in order to receive it, we must open ourselves to the breath of God. Let us renew ourselves by spending the next five weeks in prayer and preparation for what God is going to use us for. Let us prepare ourselves for the Holy Spirit. Will all of you come? Sadly no. But all are invited. Let us repent and be counted among the thousands.