SETTING THE CONTEXT

An ordinary day became quite extraordinary for the disciples and the people of Jerusalem. They all were gathering together for the harvest celebration of Shavuot which we call Pentecost. The Holy Spirit came upon the disciples in a very tangible way. As the crowds gathered to see what was happening, Peter took the opportunity to preach to them about Jesus with the new-found courage and power of the Holy Spirit. As the day began with the blessing and empowering of the disciples, it ended with the reconciliation of those who stood on the outside and the church was born.

Read Acts 2:36-47

The first letter of Peter was written to Jewish exiles living among the Gentiles in the North and Western portions of Asia Minor (Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia.) They were suffering through persistent local harassment and persecution. The body of Christ was expanding beyond the bounds of Israel even in the face of adversity.

Read 1 Peter 1:21-23

THE SERMON

We live in a very individualistic society. This individualism has even spread to our spirituality. There is a country western song that speaks about “me and God.”^[i] How many times do we hear people talk about their personal salvation? While receiving the gift of God’s love must be done by every individual, the body of Christ after Jesus ascended was never meant to be an individual person’s body. As scholar, Rev Barbara Brown Taylor said the problem for the disciples was to translate the voltage of the Holy Spirit into a lasting way of life otherwise the Christ event would only touch those first few followers. She said, “What Peter and the others had to do was turn the Easter story into an Easter community whose life together would be a sign of Christ’s ongoing life in the world.”^[ii] This is what the vital church continues to be today an Easter community whose life together is a sign of Christ’s ongoing life in the world. So what does that look like?

Today’s reading helps us to catch a glimpse of the church at its birth. I’d like to look at the lessons this first church ever can teach us about how to be a church. Please keep in mind that they were not formal churches at that time. They didn’t have any committees or mortgages that came later, but they had the purpose we still share today gathering to be touched by the Spirit of God through Jesus Christ and then being scattered to engage the world and spread the good news of Christ.

The community that Luke shows us fired up by the Holy Spirit embodies its purpose in four ways: through the apostles’ teaching, fellowship, the breaking of the bread and prayers. We must grow in Christ to share Christ. Sharing the apostles’ teaching happens in worship through reading the Scripture, preaching and singing. While some pastors worry about the theology of some of our hymns and songs, different ones touch us deeply as we verbalize our faith. My heart swells when I sing “Great is thy faithfulness! Great is thy faithfulness! Morning by morning new mercies I see; all I have needed thy hand hath provided; great is thy faithfulness, Lord, unto to me!”^[iii] or when I sing “Lift high the cross, the love of Christ proclaim till all the world adore his sacred name.”^[iv] Hopefully our worship provides many opportunities for us to be touched by the Holy Spirit and fed by the Word of God. Apostolic teaching happens in Bible study and other classes about God’s Word for folks of all ages from Godly Play for a 2-3 year old to a study for a 90+ year old. Teaching happens in small groups where we start with devotionals including the Word and a sharing of how that Word touches our lives. We need to know the Gospel story to share it and we need to know it to grow in Christ.

The second way the first church embodied their community was through fellowship. This fellowship involved more than just getting together and hanging out. This fellowship involved selling off all their possessions and pooling their resources together so everyone had what they needed. Whoa, you might say that sounds like a cult! And the truth is that some cults have practiced this radical sharing, but I think this practice of these first converts came from a deep understanding that all they possessed came from God. It is an attitude or spirituality that understands that our resources are not ours, but are gifts from God to be used for God’s purposes. This understanding is still vital for our discipleship today. The old statistic that 20% of the church community contributes 80% of the costs of ministry is a sign of disease; as our first brothers and sisters show us 100% of the community should be sharing their resources for the work of God. For us as relatively affluent yet consumeristic people this may be our most difficult spiritual practice - to share our resources with joy and generosity.

The third way the first church embodies the gospel was through the breaking of the bread. The breaking of the bread is important for several reasons. We have often talked about how eating with someone in ancient times was a sign to them and the community that they were acceptable to you. While it is not as formalized today, it continues to offer the same message. As I have shared before, one of the most meaningful times of Holy Communion for me was in Ethiopia a couple of years ago when we shared it with the Christians there and the street children. Those children who slept in gutters were shone in a very tangible way that we, the body of Christ from two continents honored them and Christ himself honored them at his table. More than any other time in my life, the children who received the large chunks of bread I gave them hungered for that food; it was a meal for them. Here we truly embodied the good news in the breaking of the bread. As we share Holy Communion together it is a sign of our unity. We are “one with Christ, one with each other, and one in ministry to all the world.” I really don’t understand why Communion Sabbath is a traditionally lower attended service. Jesus said, “Remember me in the breaking of the bread and the sharing of the cup.” How can we fail to practice this mystery of re-connection and re-experience? Once I had a very quiet and shy little 3 year old girl named Maggie in my Godly Play class. We shared Holy Communion in our class every week. One Sunday morning on the first week of the month she came into our Godly Play room and cried out in this loud voice, “Where’s the bread?” We assured her that we would be sharing the bread with the grown-ups that week. She knew that something very important was missing.

The breaking of the bread however was not limited to the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper that ancient ritual that we continue to practice; it included the sharing of other meals. As Bishop William Willimon said, “In good Jewish fashion, when the blessing is said at the table, the table becomes a holy place and eating together a sacred activity.”^[v] It would be good to remember that in our homes. The traditional Methodist potluck practices this belief and so does our Wonderful Wednesday meals and Dining Out Together. By sitting down at table with each other we come to know each other much better, to connect to each other in deeper ways. We would make that connection even deeper by sharing meals in each other’s homes. Last year our church’s staff met at someone’s home a couple of times for a potluck. Not only did we have a good time together but you could feel the difference in the Spirit among us in the weeks following. Breaking bread together as Holy Communion and as regular meals binds us together.

The fourth way the first church ever practiced faithful community was in the prayers. As Bishop Willimon pointed out even in the midst of their newness the community did not neglect the tradition of their ancestors.^[vi] They went to the temple daily and spent much time there. We keep the tradition of our ancestors through the praying of the Lord’s Prayer and keeping the rhythm of the church year. I can’t tell you how important it is to me that we pray each other’s prayer concerns. When I talked to my sister-in-law last week about the ordeal of her stroke and hospitalization, I told her that we prayed for her on that Easter Sabbath and that about 800 people prayed for her. First she said, “Really?” Then she got choked up and said, “You can’t know what that means to me.” The first time we went to see our grandson, Riley when he was in the hospital with RSV and pneumonia he was covered with the prayer quilt that you gave him upon his birth. He was literally covered in your prayers. Lifting each other up in agape love is a powerful way we live out our trust in God. It is also important to pray for guidance and direction for us as a community as well as for us as individuals. I read a book recently on 12-Step spirituality.^[vii] The eleventh step the author says is to pray that we may come to know the will of God and to have the strength to do the will of God. He verbalized my daily prayer and now I pray that prayer every time I am in my morning prayer and meditation. I pray that God would show me God’s will for me that day and help me live it out. Prayer connects us to God to hear what God wants to say to us and to say to God what we want God to hear. Praying is essential to our life as a community of faith.

As you can see from the lessons of the first church ever, we need every one of us to be fully engaged to be a vital church. We need the high voltage power of the Holy Spirit working through us to be that “Easter community whose life together is a sign of Christ’s ongoing life in the world.” We gather to grow in Christ through teaching, fellowship, breaking of bread, and prayers and we scatter to serve by engaging the world and pointing others to his life transforming power. Amen.

Sermon delived by Rev. Nancy Cushman on April 13, 2008.