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.
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.
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