Peace in our Souls

6th Sunday of Easter

John 14:15-27
May 2014, 25                                                                           
Elizabeth M. Deibert                                                                   

Today is not Pentecost, but it is a sort of prelude to Pentecost with the Gospel’s focus on the Spirit.   The Holy Spirit was around at creation, is mentioned as giving power or direction or filling Old Testament characters like Joseph, Moses, Saul, David, Samson, Elijah, Isaiah, Ezekiel, and Zechariah.    The Spirit was a key player in Jesus’ baptism and his ministry.   Sometimes we forget that the Spirit was around before the Day of Pentecost.   Certainly the Spirit has been the most neglected member of the Trinity, the quiet and mysterious person in the Godhead.    The Apostles’ Creed gives a two word mention of belief in the Holy Ghost.   The Nicene Creed provides four lines with much greater description of the nature and work of the Spirit.   But the Bible mentions the Holy Spirit hundreds of times.    Sometimes Holy Spirit, sometimes Spirit of God or Spirit of Christ or Spirit of the Lord.   In the 20th Century, perhaps spurred by Pentecostal Churches who emphasized the Spirit, the whole church began speaking more about the Holy Spirit.  Our more recent affirmations of faith like A Brief Statement in 1991, are much more Spirit-filled.
Today’s reading is one of Jesus’ promise of the Spirit, which he makes several times in the Gospel of John, chapters 14-17, in his Farewell Discourse.    This coming Thursday is Ascension Day, the 40th day of Easter, when we remember Jesus’ departure from earth, yet not a complete departure because his Spirit is still here.   Let us pray (singing):  Lord, give us peace like a river.   Give us peace like a river.   Give us peace like a river in our souls…..  

John 14:15-27

“If you love me, you will keep my commandments. 16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever. 17 This is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, because he abides with you, and he will be in you.

18 “I will not leave you orphaned; I am coming to you. 19 In a little while the world will no longer see me, but you will see me; because I live, you also will live. 20 On that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. 21 They who have my commandments and keep them are those who love me; and those who love me will be loved by my Father, and I will love them and reveal myself to them.” 22 Judas (not Iscariot) said to him, “Lord, how is it that you will reveal yourself to us, and not to the world?” 23 Jesus answered him, “Those who love me will keep my word, and my Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them. 24 Whoever does not love me does not keep my words; and the word that you hear is not mine, but is from the Father who sent me.

25 “I have said these things to you while I am still with you. 26 But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything, and remind you of all that I have said to you. 27 Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid.

The Spirit is our Advocate, someone who rises to our defense, who stands up to protect us, who has our back.   You know how wonderful it is to have a friend or family member or colleague or lawyer, who is an advocate? It is the one who always sees your side of the story, understands your perspective, appreciates what is good about you, even if he or she knows you’re not perfect.  An advocate speaks up for your value, your dignity.   The Spirit is there, not saying a word, with sighs too deep for words, praying with you, reminding you that if God is for you, who can be against you?   Advocacy.   Every human being, in order to thrive, needs to know the support of advocacy.   Those of us who were blessed with parents who were our advocates have been given a huge advantage in life.   Others have found friends, spouses, maybe a guardian ad litem or teacher or a pastor or counselor to be that advocate.   I think in adulthood, we all look for people to be our advocates because we know we function better when we have them.  When in the presence of a caring, listening friend or counselor, you can know have experienced the advocacy of the Spirit, if that person is a true advocate.  As Maya Angelou puts it, “people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”   The Spirit is there to make all human beings feel secured and protected.

The Spirit is defined by truth and repelled or silenced in falsehood.  In awareness of the dwelling of the Spirit, our Advocate, we become our truest selves. Our false selves are insecure, pompous, victimized, braggadocios, withdrawn, or hyper-critical.   Our true selves are confident and humble, honest and kind, resilient and courageous, always speaking the truth in love, as it says in Ephesians 4:15.  When we are functioning with full awareness of the Spirit in us, then we too are defined by the truth about us, not the lies.   We see others as their truest selves, not according to shallow stereotypes and first impressions and immature judgments.   Speaking the truth in love is challenging.   I heard a fellow pastor at presbytery say, that truth without love is cruelty, and love without truth is hypocrisy.   Do you err toward cruelty or hypocrisy?   The truth about all of us that the Spirit of truth is quietly trying to plant in our souls is that we belong to God and are valuable and called to be a blessing to others.   Nothing more, nothing less.

The Spirit is the one who lives with us and in us.   We have to train our ears to hear and our souls to feel the Spirit.  Daughter Catherine has been shadowing a speech pathologist at Pinnacle Academy, a school and therapy center for children with significant disabilities.   She tells us of all tricks the speech pathologist has for making children who have difficulty with language and with focusing get in touch their tongues and their lips.   She puts her fingers in their mouths to feel what is happening there.  She puts their fingers there.   Awareness has to be taught.  We can learn to ignore the Spirit, if we do not practice listening to the Spirit.   Richard’s alarm goes off every morning at least an hour or two before I get up.    The only day I hear his alarm is the day that I am keenly aware of my need to rise early – Sunday.   Otherwise, being a deep sleeper, once I fall asleep, I have learned to ignore his alarm.   The same is true when I need to work on a sermon.   For so many years, I have written sermons at home with young children and teens around.   So I can ignore the voices and activity when I am writing.   Now ignoring Richard’s alarm and the activity of my house while writing a sermon is healthy.   But ignoring the nudges of the Holy Spirit living in you, guiding you to make good and right choices – not good.

The Spirit will teach us everything and remind us of all Jesus has said.   For the Spirit to remind us, it is helpful to develop our ability to hear through active listening.   It is also helpful to be acquainted with the words and life of Jesus and the sacraments that he gave us to remember him.   The disciples had lived day by day with him in person.   We have the Word and the Sacraments, the witnesses and the testimonies of those who went before us, the stories of faithful Christians through the centuries.   But we do not spend enough time in them.   This week one of you told me about your father who had stopped formal education at an early age but read the Bible so regularly that he could quote it well.  

I wish that you had the same pressure I have to study the lectionary texts every week because that discipline is a gift.  It’s like eating right and drinking water, and getting exercise and sleep is good for me.   Sometimes one or two of you will let me know that you are reading the scriptures with me and whether or not you send your thoughts or questions does not matter, but that you are reading scripture with discipline does very much matter.  It doesn’t have to be the lectionary texts.   You can read any daily devotional or just read a book of the Bible.  You can set up scriptural devotions to come into your email box.   You can be part of a prayer or Bible study group.   There are any number of ways to make scripture reading part of your life.   The Spirit wants to remind you of what you know of Jesus.  You know Jesus by worship in the community of faith and worship in personal devotional time.   And then the Spirit works in you to remind you of those truths, which lead you to peace.

The Spirit fills our souls with peace, the peace of Jesus Christ who lived and died and was raised for the healing of our souls.   In that peace of Christ, the peace that passes all understanding, as Paul says to the Philippians, that we can rest secure.   It is in that peace and only in that peace that we are able to bear Christ’s light to the world, to love one another, as he has commanded us.   Having this peace is a matter of trust in a relationship, not a body of knowledge.   Stay connected to the Spirit bringing peace to your soul, so that you are not just responding intellectually to what you hear about God or about Christ, but are expecting the Spirit to transform   Cultivate your ability to recognize the Spirit of God in you and you will be changed.   Your inner being will become more peaceful. I have watched it happen with people in this congregation.   It is not an overnight experience for any of us.    It takes time and lots of practice.   It helps to have a whole team of people practicing with you.   That’s what the church is – a team working on being spirit-filled together.

At the presbytery meeting on Thursday, in our small groups, we were reflecting on an ancient prayer by St Philaret of Moscow, thanks to Bill Clough’s leadership.   I want to end with a slightly edited version of that prayer: 

Holy Spirit of Christ, grant me to greet the coming day in peace.  Help me in all things to rely upon Your holy will.  In every hour of the day reveal Your will to me.  Bless my dealings with all who surround me.  Teach me to treat all that comes to me throughout the day with peace of soul, and with the firm conviction that Your will governs all.  In all my deeds and words guide my thoughts and feelings. In unforeseen events let me not forget that all are sent by You things work together for good to those who love you.  Teach me to act firmly and wisely, without embittering or embarrassing others.  Give me strength to bear the fatigue of this coming day with all that it will bring.  Direct my will, teach me to pray, pray You Yourself in me. Amen.  

Be Particular but Not Partial

5^th Sunday in Easter

18 May 2014
John 14:1-14                                                                       
Elizabeth M. Deibert                                                         

The first funeral that I ever conducted by myself was for the dear old aunt of a church member.   As we drove together a couple of hours to the family cemetery plot in rural Alabama, I heard stories of this aunt, who according to her three nieces, always said to them, when they said good-bye, “Be particular.”   By that she meant, be real, be yourself, be selective, don’t try to please everyone.  I have always remembered that line as good advice to teenagers and all others who might try to just blend in with the crowd – Be particular.  

Be particular but not partial.   In one of the earliest sermons of the church, Peter announces that he has learned that God shows no partiality but in every place those do his will are acceptable.    The Spirit of Christ has told us to be impartial and not to judge others.  

It is hard to be particular and not partial because we have been guided to believe through centuries of religious conflict that being particular requires that we be partial to our faith tradition and even opposed to other faiths.   People have quoted verses like John 14:6 to make arrogant claims about the faith, leading us as Christians to be quite different from our Savior Jesus Christ.

It is important to remember that Jesus has just washed the disciples’ feet and told them to love one another as he has loved them.    They are feeling anxious as he is speaking of departure.   Into that context come these words of reassurance.

John 14:1-14

 “Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me. ² In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you ³ And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, so that where I am, there you may be also. ⁴ And you know the way to the place where I am going.” ⁵ Thomas said to him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” ⁶ Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. ⁷ If you know me, you will know my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.”

⁸ Philip said to him, “Lord, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied.” ⁹ Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and you still do not know me? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? ¹⁰ Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own; but the Father who dwells in me does his works. ¹¹ Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; but if you do not, then believe me because of the works themselves. ¹² Very truly, I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these, because I am going to the Father. ¹³ I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. ¹⁴ If in my name you ask me for anything, I will do it.

It is important to pay attention to the all the references to oneness between God the Father and God the Son.   Especially note that if we know Christ, then we know God.   If you want to know more about God, look at Christ.   And Karl Barth said, “If you want to know the destiny of any human being, look at the destiny of The Human Being.”    So the beauty of Christ is his oneness with God and his oneness with humanity.

It is that which makes this “I am the way, the truth, and the life” a reality.   When he articulates, no one comes to the Father but by me, he is communicating not the gate to an an exclusive club, to which only followers of Christ may belong.   No he is communicating the oneness created by Christ’s union with God and with humanity, a particular claim that no other religion makes.   A particular claim that shows no partiality.   This truth, we believe, has radically altered the shape of human life forever.   

C.S. Lewis wrote these words in Mere Christianity, “We know that no one can come to the Father except through Christ.   What we don’t know is that only those who know Christ, will come to God through Christ.”  

Brian McClaren in his book, Why Did Jesus, Moses, the Buddha, and Mohammed Cross the Road challenges us to see that we do not have to have live in the following continuum:   on the right pole, we have strong, evangelical Christian faith that is intolerant of other faiths.   On the left pole, we have weak, timid Christian faith that is tolerant and relativistic.   No, we can and in fact, if we truly follow Jesus, we must hold to a strong particular Christian faith while being generous, tolerant, and appreciative of others faiths.

We can be particular but not partial or prejudiced.   We can be secure enough in our Christian identity that we do not need to define ourselves in opposition to other faiths, as if our rightness depends on their wrongness, as if our security depends on our dominating, assimilating, or exterminating them.   Sadly, too much of our history is filled with violence and harm done to those of different religious beliefs.   But none of that violence is true to the faith.   In our case as Christians, we are unfaithful to Christ when we do not welcome all people warmly, as if they are Christ himself.   The generosity of spirit that we have when we follow in Christ’s way, truth, and life is that we truly listen and care about the perspectives of others, but without denying our own faith.  

We do not need to live as if diversity compels division.   All goodness comes from God, whom we see so clearly in Christ.   So there is no threat in sharing life, country, and even this chapel with peaceful, loving persons of other faiths.   The measure of our Christ-likeness is not in keeping ourselves separated from persons of other faiths, but in building bridges with people of other faiths with the kind of loving interest Christ showed to all people when he walked this earth.  

Having said that, I do not believe we are called to give up our own Christian faith in order to accommodate the faith of others, but simply to be respectful.  I do not believe that being respectful means I have to blend some of what I believe with some of what they believe in order to get the right mix of tolerance and inter- faith.   We attended a family wedding this summer conducted by a Methodist minister who has given up his ordination in that church, in order to be inter-faith.    He would say, “There are many ways, many truths, many means to life.”   He might even say they are all equal and that we should seek to blend them in a way that seems best to us.   He and I talked at the wedding reception.   I did not argue with him.   I looked for points of agreement, and there were quite a few.    But where we differ is this:  I still believe that it is not only possible but right for us to hold to a strong Christian identity, even while we are consummate peacemakers with persons of all true faith. Whether they are Muslim or Jew or Buddhist or Hindu or persons of very different kinds of Christian faith, we can learn from them, and grow by being in relationship with them.

But we do not need to water down our beliefs, finding the lowest common denominator in order to be in community.   When we give up the authenticity of our own faith, we found that our weakened Christian identity is swallowed up by the dominant culture of consumerism, sports, entertainment, and temporary pleasures of an increasingly agnostic world.   When we live with such a weak faith, we inoculate the world with such a small dose of Christianity that they become immune to the real thing.

Our Christian faith is rooted in the belief that God became one of us, Jesus Christ, in order to unite all of us fully with God’s Spirit.   That’s why Jesus can say, “Ask anything in my name and the Father will give it to you.”   In Biblical times, to do something in someone’s name was to be unified with that person in purpose.  

So if we are unified with Christ in purpose, then we could not ask God the Father for anything that Christ would not ask.    We have misunderstood when we think we can get whatever we want by tacking on to our request, “in Jesus name” without being utterly devoted to Christ’s will and purposes.

When we understand both the particularity of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the impartiality of the love of God, then we are secure in our faith and able to share it in humility and respect for all humanity whom God loves.   Sharing the love of Christ is the sharing of a transforming relationship.    Authentic relationships are not coercive nor dishonest.   Love does not insist on its own way.   Jesus is not insisting on his own way when he says, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.”   He is simply announcing his unity with God and inviting, not coercing all people, to join him in that communion with God.

Pastoral, Providing Presence

4th Easter – Mother’s Day

Psalm 23                                                                              

11 May 2014

Elizabeth M. Deibert                                                        

My week was filled with interesting conversations about how we see God at work in the significant problems of this world – poverty and homelessness, child abuse and neglect, and mental illness.  What does compassion look like and what is God’s justice in such situations?     Where do we see God’s love at work and how do we hang on to hope in such circumstances?   How can we make a difference?   How can we inspire hope in those who seem to have no hope?   Psalm 23 is one answer to those questions.

Harold Kushner is the rabbi who in 1981 wrote the very popular book “When Bad Things Happen to Good People” when his three year-old son was diagnosed with a degenerative disease that would end his life in his teens.   Kushner wrote another book, “The Lord is My Shepherd,” just after 9/11 when he was struggling again with the unfairness of life and how God doesn’t promise us an easy path, but a loving and restoring presence with us on the path of life.   I recommend it to you, even as I recommend that you meditate on two phrases of this psalm each day for the next week.

All through this week, as Mother’s Day was approaching, I could not help but think of Bobby McFerrin’s version of this psalm, in which he sings all the parts, layering his recording.   Bobby had two parents who were professional singers and grew up in church.   He says, “The 23rd Psalm is dedicated to my mother. She was the driving force in my religious and spiritual education, and I have so many memories of her singing in church. But I wrote it because I'd been reading the Bible one morning, and I was thinking about God's unconditional love, about how we crave it but have so much trouble believing we can trust it, and how we can't fully understand it. And then I left my reading and spent time with my wife and our children. Watching her with them, the way she loved them, I realized one of the ways we're shown a glimpse of how God loves us is through our mothers. They cherish our spirits, they demand that we become our best selves, and they take care of us.”  (Bobby McFerrin)

Listen to McFerrin’s Psalm 23, on this Mother’s Day, as he takes the Psalm in a decidedly feminine direction.   As you hear it, give thanks for the women in your life who helped you to appreciate the shepherding care of God.

Now please recite with me the Psalm.

                                                                        Psalm 23

The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.

² He makes me to lie down in green pastures;

He leads me beside the still waters.

³ He restores my soul;

He leads me in the paths of righteousness

For His name's sake.

⁴ Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil;

For You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.

⁵ You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies;

You anoint my head with oil;

My cup runs over.

⁶ Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me

All the days of my life;

And I will dwell in the house of the LORD Forever.

(New King James Version)

Why do we love this psalm more than the others?   Why do so many people turn to it in difficult times?    Why did Mickey and Emily Miller write their own psalm to get themselves through the pain of watching their own young son face his mortality?   This psalm is hopeful without being triumphalistic.   It reminds us that God is present and providing for us, even though we have to face enemies and grief.   It teaches us to look to God for this presence and provision, to trust that God’s goodness and mercy will follow us, even though we live in an imperfect world.   It gives us not just reassuring words, but comforting images of protection and provision – of green pastures and still waters, of overflowing cups and soothing oils.  It speaks of getting us to the right places and in the right spirit of contentment with what we need, trusting in God, knowing that we belong to God.  

There is a sense in which proclaiming the Lord is my Shepherd I shall not want becomes faith-building more than faith-declaring because even though a person may have much to long for, physically, emotionally, spiritually, the expression of gratitude that God gives us everything we need leads us to be more content, coveting less the things that others have.   So even if I am struggling to be content with my life/my relationship with  family or friends/my job/my health, I become more content when I teach myself to believe that I shall never lack what I need. It’s what’s called a self-fulfilling prophecy in psychology.  

So whether you live in the wealthier global north or poorer global south, whether you live in a happy family life or you are lonely or recovering from a painful broken relationship, whether you are the picture of perfect health or whether you have a disability that severely limits choices – you have everything you need.    But we can only speak for ourselves.   Notice the psalm does not teach us to tell others to be content, but to be content ourselves.   I do not recommend telling a poor person or a grieving person that they should just be content with their situation.

Now one of the most overlooked but meaningful phrases in this psalm is this:   He restores my soul.   There is a Jewish prayer of thanksgiving in the morning that gives thanks to God for restoring our souls within us.    Through sleep, God restores our souls.   When someone dies, we say, “God rest her soul.”   For all of us, no matter what grief or loss or burden of family life, or busyness at work depletes us, God promises to restore our souls.     There were some people on Safari in Africa who had been traveling, and their guides insisted on the third day that they must stop and rest.   The young travelers, eager to see more, said, “Why must we stop?   We are not tired.”  The guides said, “We have traveled far and fast.   We must wait for our souls to catch up.”   (story found in Kushner’s book) Sometimes we lose our souls in traveling too far or at too fast a pace in life.   Sometimes we do harmful things to others when we have lost our souls.   But God promises to restore our souls, and that is very good news for us and for others.   God’s restoration of our souls is what brings us back to life, when either our sin and its consequences or the valley of the shadow of death or their enemies have taken the life out of us.  

God gives us green pastures and still waters.   For sheep and those in arid lands, that means food and drink, precious commodities.   Green pastures and blue, still waters.  Did you know that blues and greens are the most soothing colors?   Still waters, not chaotic waters.   Jesus calmed the storm on the sea and walked on water.    In the creation, God gave the chaotic waters boundaries, and when those boundaries break, when there are floods or tsunamis, we know better than ever, the value of still waters on the earth and still waters in our souls.

I would venture to say that the most important thing this psalm does is pay attention to the valley of the shadow of death and the very present enemies.   Think of how different it would feel, if the psalmist said, “Because you carry me into life, I fear no evil.”   Or if it said, “Because God prepares a table for me, I have no enemies or my enemies disappear.”   No, that would not be real.   There is still death, and there are still enemies.   There is depression and there is disease and and there is disability.   We do not get to avoid them.  We walk through them with God, which appears to be where we learn that goodness and mercy are chasing us.   Often times, it is not in the valley or in the presence of enemies that we have the perspective of being surrounded by goodness and mercy.   It is in retrospect that we see those.   It was William Barclay who said that he imagined goodness and mercy to be the Good Shepherd’s dogs who are running back and forth, constantly pursuing the flock.

The psalm beautifully divides itself into the three scenes of our lives.   Most of us begin in youthful trust, needing to affirm that God will provide everything we need.   In the middle of the psalm and the middle of life, we have experiences that threaten to undo us, but we learn to trust God, even in the valley and in the presence of enemies.   Lastly we come into an enduring and tested relationship in God’s house, surrounded by the goodness and mercy that we can see better in retrospect, as we learn to dwell with God forever, knowing that the Lord our Loving Shepherd is the only One who will never leave us.    

Being a Dynamic Church

3rd Sunday of Easter

Acts 2:14, 32-33; 36-47                                                   

4 May 2014

Elizabeth M. Deibert                                                        

They went quickly from being a frightened and doubting little group of Christ-followers to a dynamic church.   Remember how overwhelmed Mary Magdalene was when she realized the gardener was Jesus.   Remember how their hearts burned within them when Christ broke the bread, and Cleopas and his companion realized who he was.   Remember in the upper room that Christ appeared and they were startled and joyful, yet disbelieving and wondering.    It was not long before Christ had ascended and the Holy Spirit came upon them like the rush of wind and fire, and the church was born.   These are the words that follow the story of the Spirit’s rush upon the church.   These are the words that describe the character and practices of the early church.   These are words that to this day describe the character and practices of any faithful, dynamic church.   The word “dynamic” originates with the Greek word, “dunamis” meaning power.

Let us pray:   O Holy Spirit of power, fill us as you filled the early church that we might add to our number many who are being saved, transformed, healed by your grace and peace.   We are here for your purposes.   Open us now to be changed and renewed.

Acts 2:14, 32-33, 36-47

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.

 ³²This Jesus God raised up, and of that all of us are witnesses. ³³ Being therefore exalted at the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this that you both see and hear.

 ³⁶Therefore let the entire house of Israel know with certainty that God has made him both Lord and Messiah this Jesus whom you crucified.”

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. ⁴² They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.

⁴³ Awe came upon everyone, because many wonders and signs were being done by the apostles. ⁴⁴ All who believed were together and had all things in common; ⁴⁵ they would sell their possessions and goods and distribute the proceeds to all, as any had need. ⁴⁶ Day by day, as they spent much time together in the temple, they broke bread at home and ate their food with glad and generous hearts. ⁴⁷ praising God and having the goodwill of all the people. And day by day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved.   (NRSV)

When our daughter Emily was at Davidson College, very small Presbyterian college, less than 2000 students, the basketball team, led by guard Stephen Curry, now playing for the NBA Golden State Warriors, made it to the Elite 8.   When this happened, someone on the Board of Trustees was so enthusiastic, he or she paid for busloads of students to attend the game.

When your children get married, you are so excited, you spend thousands of dollars hosting a rehearsal dinner and wedding reception, giving everyone invited a free meal.

When this church was trying to find a home, having learned that we could not extend our lease at the Realtors’ building, within three months’ time, you came up with $1 million dollars in gifts and pledges.  

What do these stories have to do with this scripture?   Well, the early church had just shared a phenomenal experience together.  The Holy Spirit had come upon them in a way they could barely understand, much less describe.   They were caught up in the power of that experience.   Those who are overwhelmed by a positive experience usually are extravagantly generous.

So don’t get put off by the verse that says they sold their possessions and shared everything in common.   We shared a budget in common with each other.   We all contribute to it.    We have a representative group (the session) with ultimate responsibility to manage that money well, guided by the work of the Admin Team, who carefully oversees the budget, and makes sure we have diligent and trustworthy people in place to handle all financial matters.

That shared budget allows us to do more together than we could do separately.   How much better it is that many of you have helped Jenny and Rebecca to go on mission trips, so even though you are not going yourself, you are going vicariously through them.   Those of you who did not go to Mission Beth-El on Thursdays are still participating in the work there by your gifts of money.  You may not go to N. Florida to help with the flooding damage there, but your money given to the One Great Hour of Sharing helps.

What we are talking about is Responsive Stewardship, one of Peace’s five goals.  

And let’s see the other goals and work our way to the top of the list.

Notice on the left we have Robert Schnase’s Five Practices of Fruitful Congregations alongside Peace five goals.   His first book was this title, and his second book was called Five Practice of Fruitful Living, which spells this out for our personal discipleship.   I recommend these books to you, even as I recommend your participation in our shared vision work around these goals.    Seems like Schnase and Peace Church arrived at nearly the same conclusions about what really matters, what makes a church healthy.    Look at the similarity of goals/practices.   We wrote ours in 2005 – everything but the Stewardship part.    It was only after reading his 2007 book that I realized we had left off a key goal.   We are called by God to be responsive to all the blessings we have received, to share what we have been given, to faithfully manage or steward what we hold in common.    That’s what happens when our Building Vision Team gathers on Monday to look at a first draft of a sanctuary plan for this property.    They will be seeking to faithfully manage the resources given to the building fund.   That’s what was happening yesterday when six of us gathered to prune and plant in the rain, to respond to God’s gracious gift of this building and land by doing all we can to keep it beautiful, along with the Property Team.   

That’s what happens when the Gratitude Team reads a book called “Not Your Parents’ Offering Plate” and learns that people in this current generation want to be more involved in giving to particularly projects, in being responsive not just to God, in ways that we can better understand where our money is going.

Responsive Stewardship is just one of the five goals of Peace that is addressed in this text.   Notice that Peter says the promise is for you, for your children, for those who are far away, all whom the Lord our God calls.    Compassionate Outreach.   Many of the early Christians, like Peter, were Jewish.   The message now from Christ is that God’s gift of grace is for all – not just the Jews.   God’s covenant has been opened to all.    And so they distributed goods to all.   And so they had the goodwill of all in mind, while they were praising God.    They were generous.    No longer was one born into the faith, the faith was reaching out.    To 3000 new people in one day – so transforming was this experience, so full of spiritual power was this new community of faith.   Day by day, the Lord added to their number.   Compassionate Outreach means that all this blessing is not just for us.   We have a Mission Team that from day one at Peace was engaged with the work of Beth-El, caring about farmworkers and their families in our area, who need food and clothing and education and a community of faith.    From day one, the Mission Team of Peace was encouraging you to remember others, to drive to Arcadia to rebuild after Hurricane Charley, to go to Summerfield Park to teach peacemaking skills to school children on teacher workdays, to give generously to all the special offerings out of compassion for those in great crisis, in dire need.   And the Outreach Team was working to help us find ways to connect with those in our own neighborhoods who need a message of peace in this our own corrupt generation, stuck in materialism and judgmentalism, with our relationships ripped asunder by bitterness, greed, prejudice, and infidelity.   And we offer Christ’s peace and grace and call to faithfulness.

Responsive Stewardship and Compassionate Outreach are not the only goals of Peace that are mentioned in this passage.  There is also Nurturing Discipleship.   How does one become a faithful disciple of Christ except by hearing the teaching of the apostles of Jesus, by hearing Peter interpret the events of Pentecost, by hearing the story, the scripture that makes us who were are – people of Christ’s way, people made new by Christ’s love, people who are claimed by the Holy Spirit in baptism.    And our two Education Teams – one focusing on nurturing the faith of adults, and the other focusing on nurturing the faith of children, youth, and families – work hard to provide meaningful opportunities for Bible study, for growth in prayer, for having a good time building relationships across generations, so that we all hear the stories that make us Christian, so that our lives are shaped by these narratives and this love, instead of the narratives that we see on television where many are arguing and disrespectful and cynical about life.

Discipleship is not adequately nurtured apart from the building of Authentic Relationships, and Authentic Relationships are another core value for Peace.   We aim to build them with one another and with those beyond these walls.   Through the wonderful hospitality provided by our Fellowship Team, through the welcome of our Greeters, and the caring attention of our Congregational Care Team and the extra care given in difficult times by our Stephen Ministers, we aim to establish relationships with a depth unmatched in other places.    We aim to welcome you just as you are, to affirm who you are and seek to understand why you are who you are.   We want to listen carefully to you, to weep with you and laugh with you, to invite your personal growth not by trying to “fix” you which never works anyway, but to invite you to discover God’s call in your life, by being a model of the love of Christ for you, and welcoming the love that Christ gives you to share with others.    We want to respect differences, and recognize that by giving room for people to be real, we take risks in our communal life.   We dare to stand secure in our peaceful relationships even if we are not united at every turn, because we trust in the larger relationship with Christ and the Church that holds us all together in a sacramental union, that cannot be broken by disagreement, that compels kindness and patience and forgiveness.

So our goals are Responsive Stewardship, Compassionate Outreach, Nurturing Discipleship, Authentic Relationships, and one more… Inspiring Worship, which seem to be at the heart of this scripture.   Awe had come upon them when the Holy Spirit descended.   We will focus more on this Holy Spirit event on June 8, the day of Pentecost, the day our Sharing the Vision culminates.   But we note in this passage that follows the story of Pentecost, that the people gathered were cut to the heart.   They were overwhelmed and wondered what they should do.  Peter says in this first sermon, just what Jesus said in his first sermon, “Repent and be baptized.”  Can you hear the call to repent with gentleness?   To repent is to work at change, to repent is to turn in the right direction.   To repent is to make a resolution.    Repent is not a negative.   It is a great word.   Repent and be baptized.   Be marked as one of Christ’s own people.   Make a decision to intentionally be part of the Christian community.   Find in that sacrament not magic but mystical change in your soul as you are filled with the Holy Spirit and empowered to be like Christ.   Remember the day, find your own day of baptism and celebrate it as a life marker.    Celebrate it each Sunday as you hear the water in the font and are reminded that you belong to God forever.   And keep becoming who you really are.

And the baptized, those who are marked as Christ’s own, gather together regularly to hear the scriptures (apostles’ teaching), to enjoy koinonia, the Greek word meaning intense, meaningful fellowship, to break the bread, and to pray.  Then they passed the plate to share what they have with one another and to be generous toward all.  

I believe people are transformed by being part of churches that seek to live according to these five goals or practices.   Holding all five of these in harmony with one another is what makes us faithful Christians and a dynamic Church.   Notice Schnase’s extreme adjectives – Radical, Passionate, Intentional, Risk-taking, Extravagant.    Keep growing in these five ways, my companions in Christ.   Be a healthy and strong church, filled with Holy Spirit.