Let God Do the Work

Reverend Debbie Cato
Mark 4:26-32
Fairfield Community Church
June 16,2-24

Let us pray:  Holy, Holy God. We pray that our time of worship this morning will transform our lives so that we can be all that you have called us to be.  O God, by your Spirit tell us what we need to hear this morning, and show us what we ought to do, to obey Jesus Christ our Lord.

 

  

Let God Do the Work

 

 

 

Mark's gospel tells us that Jesus chose to speak in parables. Some people find parables annoying. Why didn't Jesus come right out and say what he meant? Why did he leave behind all these cryptic sayings, loaded with innuendo, instead of a crisp code of laws or a stack of essays with titles like "How to Be a Good Disciple," or "A Brief Definition of the Kingdom of God" or "Seven Key Features of the Coming Kingdom and What This Means to You."   Checklists of things we need to know and things we need to do.  Or, maybe brochures that we could study and memorize with pictures that make them more interesting.  That way, we would know for sure what Jesus expected a good follower to look like or what in the world the Kingdom of God really means.  That would be helpful, wouldn’t it?

 

If you think Jesus would have gotten his points across better with hard and fast rules, try remembering the last time you sat down and really enjoyed reading Leviticus or the first few chapters of Numbers! 

 

I think God figured they tried that once and it hadn’t worked very well!  So, instead of how-to-manuals or a list of rules, we have collections of parables that are often confusing, hard-to-understand stories that Jesus told to his disciples and the crowds of people who gathered to hear him teach.  Jesus used things that were familiar to the people he was teaching; things from their culture – like farming and fishing, to teach them about the not so familiar Kingdom of God. 

 

Today we have two parables about seeds.  The first parable compares God’s kingdom to a feature of planting that is familiar to any gardener or farmer.  The gardener can put the seeds in the ground but cannot really do anything about them growing.  In fact, the gardener has so little to do with making the seeds grow that in the parable, the gardener sleeps through the process of sprouting and maturation.  It doesn’t matter.  The seeds sprout and grow anyway.[1] 

 

Now, just in case we did not quite get the message, Jesus offers a second parable.  This time, Jesus says that the Kingdom of God is like a mustard seed. Even though the mustard seed is the smallest of all seeds, it grows into a bush 10, sometimes 15 feet tall.[2]  In fact, the bush that grows from this tiny seed becomes so large and so lush that birds can make nests in its shade.  It’s amazing that something so tiny can become something so large that birds can find shelter from the hot sun in the strength of the branches.  (Here are mustard seeds and here’s a picture of a full grown mustard tree.)

 

You see, Jesus recognizes the importance of the imagination.  When you hear these parables, you can picture a garden or a field, can’t you?  Perhaps you can picture someone on their hands and knees, carefully planting seeds in the ground.  Can you imagine plants poking through the ground; squash ripening on the end of the end of the vines; tomatoes turning red in the hot sun, or pumpkins turning orange in the fall?  Perhaps you can see a mustard bush getting bigger and bigger as it reaches toward the sky. 

 

I’m a gardener.  Four years ago I lived in a mother-in-law apartment attached to my daughter’s house.  They had 4 large, raised beds that were waist high – perfect for my arthritic body. 

 

One year I was having foot surgery in May, and I was not going to be able to put weight on my foot for 2 months.  I had prepared the soil in the fall, and I did not want to go without a garden just because of my stupid foot!  So, before my surgery, I planted some extra strawberries plants, tomato starts, and I used seeds to plant bush peas, carrots, lettuce, and spinach.  I planted herb starts, and lots of flowers. I set up soaker hoses on a timer so everything would get watered.  Then I had foot surgery and for a month I couldn’t walk out to my garden.  No one was pulling weeds and fussing over the garden.  I couldn’t see what was happening.  I am a control freak, and this drove me crazy!!

 

Finally, after about a month, I was able to walk on my heel far enough to get

to the garden.  Honestly, I was amazed!  My garden was filling in and there were very few weeds after that month.  Pea bushes were shooting up and filling in.  My carrots were about an inch high.  Lettuce and spinach were growing.  Tomato plants had gotten taller and filled in and already had some flowers on them which would turn into tomatoes!  The strawberry plants had filled the planter and had flowers and even a couple of baby berries which my then 2 ½ year old granddaughter happily pointed out to me.  The flowers I planted were beautiful.  I had prepared the soil.  I planted the seeds and the starts.  But after that I had not done a thing. It was all happening without me.  Maybe all my fussing wasn’t necessary!  Maybe my garden had nothing to do with my superb gardening skills!

 

About 13 years ago, I served a church in Casper, Wyoming that was in a poor, underserved neighborhood.  There were no grocery stores in our neighborhood which made our community a food desert.  The church owned property next to our parking lot and it just sat vacant and was overgrown with weeds.  It was an eyesore.  After much discussion, and yes, a bit of begging on my part, we turned our empty lot into community gardens.  It was a lot of hard physical work.  We imagined a place where the neighbors could grow vegetables while having a place to build community and get to know one another. 

 

One Saturday, Henry, an elder and I were the last to leave after a day of work. It was after 6:00.  We were both exhausted.  We had just planted sod in front of the gardens where we had developed a park for people to sit and visit and for the children to play.  There were 3 families from the neighbor-hood, planting their garden plots.  They were laughing and talking to one another while they planted.  Henry and I stopped to talk with them.  I introduced myself to each of them, Mind you, I was filthy.  I was sweaty.  My hair was sticking out in all directions.  But I wanted them to know who I was and that I was so glad they were taking advantage of the community gardens.  They were planting tomatoes and peppers and corn and onionsand squash and cucumbers. “Thank you for doing this for our neighbor-hood!” they said. “We didn’t know each other before but now we are becoming friends,” they told me. I learned that one of families lived across the street; another just down the street; and the 3^rd lived on the next block.  “We are planting seeds,” I told the congregation the next morning.  “We don’t know what will grow, or how it will grow, or how big it will grow.  But we have prepared the soil.”

 

Jesus tells this parable to illustrate what the Kingdom of God is like—the scope of God’s peace and freedom and justice.  Despite the skepticism of many of Jesus’ enemies, He proclaims that God’s Kingdom has already become a reality through him.  Many looked around them and could not see any signs of His promised peace and freedom and justice and they rejected Jesus’ message.  In fact, some of them thought he was either crazy or demon-possessed, or maybe both! 

I think that’s why Jesus told them this parable.  He was reminding them that when it comes to understanding how God’s Kingdom works, we don’t get it.  We are clueless.  Just like the gardener who sleeps through the process of sprouting and growth and wakes up in time for the harvest.

 I think these parables are trying to tell us that it’s our job to keep persevering in the planting and tending of the gospel seeds of mercy and kindness and love.[3] I think all of this means that we must operate based on faith. We must keep on planting seeds even when we don’t see results.  We must recognize that we may never know what comes from the seeds we plant.  But because they are gospel seeds, they will bear fruit—in their own way and in their own time.  The harvest is God’s work.

 We must keep investing our lives in the church that seeks to bear witness to God’s realm of peace and freedom and justice.  It means our words and actions must come out of love and humbleness and mercy and not judgment or power or superiority.  It means we must have a spirit of listening and learning and not a spirit of “my way of thinking or knowing is the right way.”  It requires us to step out in faith and plant the seeds, trusting that even the smallest seeds will eventually bear fruit—even if we may not see it.  It means recognizing that we may not understand how the seeds we plant may grow but believing that we can trust that God is working in and through us constantly.

The growth of the church in the first century certainly confirmed the truth of Jesus' parable. Just like the mustard seed, which is small and insignificant, the first followers of Jesus are a bunch of ragged folks; full o doubts and fears, unable to comprehend much of what Jesus says or does. 

The reign of God bursting into history rests on them.  And yet look at what happens!   On the day of Pentecost, the 120 disciples grew to over 3,000 just on  continued to multiply.

 The little church in Casper, Wyoming that I told you about?  The community garden and park were an amazing success for the neighbor-hood.  But the Church didn’t want to change or grow.  They didn’t want “new people” in the congregation.  They chose to close their doors.  I closed the church.  You don’t learn how to do that in seminary.  It was heart-breaking. It’s not something you become a pastor to do. 

 And yet I knew in my heart that we serve a God of the Resurrection, and I was sure He was not finished with that Church.  The neighborhood needed that church.  The neighborhood was rich for mission.  The seeds were planted.  I prayed to understand God’s will.

That was 13 years ago.  The church doesn’t exist anymore.  At least not as a traditional church.  But the denomination saw the work that God started.  They trusted.  It took 2 years after the church closed but the Holy Spirit breathed life into the closed building. It’s called the Winter Memorial Community Center. Today, the church building is alive with activity.   There are non-profit offices in the church and classes and workshops and resources.  Community meetings are held there.  There is a daycare center, a regional food bank, and community meals.  The park has playground equipment now.  The number of community garden plots have been doubled!  The neighborhood is a safer place to live and there is a true sense of community.  I didn’t get to see the harvest.  But I was there when the seeds were planted.

You have all planted seeds.  Some large.  Some small.  You may not have seen the harvest.  You may have been broken-hearted.  You may think your efforts are without fruit.  Take heart!   These parables are parables of hope.  Reminders that God works behind the scenes.  The end results, as well as the beginning, are God’s doing and not our own! 

 May you each let the vision of the littlest seed of all, the mustard seed. that grows into the “greatest of all shrubs” – inspire and inform your efforts today. May it push us to continue to do God’s will of pursuing peace and justice and kindness.   Small beginnings can yield great outcomes!  Amen.

 

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[1]  Feasting on the Word: Year B, Volume 3.  Wendy Farley.   P 140.
[2] William Hendricksen, Commentary on Matthew
[3] Cf. J. D. Crossan, “The Seed Parables of Jesus,” Journal of Biblical Literature 92 (June 1973): 266.  He says the parable is an image of “resolute and prudent action.”  Cf. also Barth, Church Dogmatics 4.3:850.

A Lame Man

Rev. Debbie Cato
Acts 3:1-26
Fairfield Community Church
June 9, 2024 

Let us pray:  Loving God.  Open up our minds and our hearts to hear your word.  Help us to understand what you want us to know and then live our lives in that way.  In Jesus name, Amen.

 

A Lame Man

 

Acts is probably the book in the Bible that reads most like a story.  You need to have the information from prior chapters before you read further into Acts.  The chapters build on each other.  To start his story, Luke recounts the promise of the Holy Spirit, the ascension of Christ and the replacement of Judas – so that there continues to be 12 disciples.  They choose Matthias by the way.   

On Pentecost Sunday, we began chapter 2 and were reminded of how the Holy Spirit came down that first Pentecost.  We were reminded how she arrived – with a vicious wind and tongues of fire.  We were reminded that she empowered the disciples – these men from Galilee – to speak in different languages so that everyone present could hear and understand the Good News.

Last week we finished chapter 2 , reading how that first group of believers who were converted and baptized grew by 3,000 people after Peter preaches the first sermon.  We read how that first church spent time together, they shared what they had, they broke bread, and they continued to praise God and listen to the apostle’s teachings.  We talked about how filled with the awe of God everyone was, and how we should feel the same today.

As John Stott says in his commentary on Acts, “Luke has painted an idyllic picture of the early Christian community in Jerusalem.  Its members, having received forgiveness and the Holy Spirit, were conscientious in their learning from the apostles, their worship of God, their care of one another and their witness to those as yet, outside their fellowship.  Everything was sweetness and light.  Love, joy, and peace reigned.  Commissioned by Christ and empowered by his Spirit, they stood on the threshold of the great missionary adventure which Luke is going to describe.  The good ship Christ-church was ready to catch the wind of the Spirit and to set sail on her voyage of spiritual conquest.  But almost immediately a perilous storm blew up, a storm of such ferocity that the church’s very existence was threatened.”[1]

We see that shift beginning already in chapter 3 – Peter heals a crippled beggar.  The shift happens because Peter performed this miracle.  This man, this lame beggar, had a congenital disability – he was born unable to walk.  In chapter 4, we learn he was over 40 years old, and he was so severely disabled that he had to be carried and put every day by the temple gate to beg from those going into the temple courts.  He begged for money to care for himself.

Peter and John were about to enter the temple when the man stopped them and asked them for money.  The apostles stopped and looked straight at him.  (I imagine most people pretended they didn’t see him.)  Looking straight at him, Peter gave him two commands.  First, “Look at us!”  So naturally, the man, whose eyes were normally downward, looked up at them, expecting that they were going to give him some money.  But then Peter gave him the second command.  “Silver or gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you.  In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk.”  (Remember, this man was forty years old and had never been able to walk.)

Peter does not stand back and watch the man struggle to his feet; he leans forward and “taking him by the right hand, he helped him up.” Peter helped him up with the power of the Holy Spirit.  Instantly – it didn’t take any time.  Instantly, the man’s feet and ankles became strong – so strong and agile that he jumped to his feet and began to walk.  Can you imagine what that would have been like?  This was the first time in his life he had walked!  The man follows the apostles into the temple courts, all the time walking and jumping, and praising God.”  A crowd gathers because everyone recognizes him as the same man who for decades, sat outside the temple and begged.  Verse 10 tells us that ‘they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him.”  

 Peter seizes the opportunity to preach.  This was his second sermon. After all – a crowd had gathered.  Peter redirects their gaze from he and John who were getting all the credit, to Jesus by whose powerful name the miracle took place.  “It wasn’t us!” he says.  It was through the power of Christ given to us by his Holy Spirit that this man is healed. 

Peter is bold.  He is outspoken describing the dishonor which the inhabitants of Jerusalem had shown Jesus. 

1.      You handed him over to be killed, he says.

2.     You disowned him before Pilate.

3.     You disowned the Holy and Righteous One and asked that a murderer be released rather than Jesus – who was innocent, Peter proclaims.

4.     You killed the author of life. 

But God reversed their four-fold rejection of Jesus by raising him from the dead. He and John were witnesses,[2] he told them.

So – Peter says, it is by faith in the name of Jesus that this man whom you see and know was made strong.  It wasn’t me or John who healed this man.  It was Jesus the Christ.

Notice how Christ-centered Peter’s sermon is.  He directed the crowd’s attention away from both the healed man and the apostles, to Christ, whom people disowned by killing him.  But God was vindicated by raising him, and whose name, having been taken hold of by faith, was strong enough to completely heal the man.   Throughout his speech, Peter gives Jesus four different significant titles – “Jesus Christ of Nazareth,” “the Holy and Righteous One,” the prophet foretold by Moses,” and Servant and Christ, Holy One and source of life” 

Peter truly exalted the name of Jesus and he ends his sermon by challenging his audience – “fellow Israelites”  - with the need for and the blessings of repentance.  “I know you acted out of ignorance, as did your leaders,” Peter tells them.  You didn’t know any better – Peter says.  But now you do.  “Repent and turn to God.”  There are huge benefits if you do this.  There are the Christ-centered promises of total forgiveness, spiritual refreshment, and universal restoration as foretold in the Old Testament when you repent and believe.

 You might be surprised (or not) to learn that Peter’s bold speech in the temple after healing the lame beggar, stirs up the Sanhedrin. (Read the first 22 verses of chapter 4 to learn the details).  The wealthy aristocrats of the Jews are not happy.  Peter and John will have repercussions for speaking out – and John was just a spectator! 

Again, we are reminded of the power of the Holy Spirit.  We think those miracles are past.  We think miracles of healing were just during Bible times.  They are just for stories like the one we read today.  But I often wonder – what if we believed in the power of the Holy Spirit as strongly as those people at the first Pentecost?  What if we truly believed – deep within our hearts the promises Christ made? What if we really believed that the Holy Spirit changed us, that it gave us power and strength and hope?

See I think we aren’t as changed by the Spirit, by the knowledge that the Holy Spirit lives in us.  I think we don’t believe the power extends to us today because we don’t have to.  We don’t have to believe.  We can rely on ourselves for what we need.  We have our jobs and our checking accounts, our  cupboards are full of food to eat, we have all the toys we accumulate, we have all our stuff.  We have more than we need. We are all affluent even though we may not feel we are.  We have been raised to be self-sufficient, to be independent.  To take care of ourselves.  We have control.   Maybe I’m just speaking for myself, but I don’t think we believe we need God in our lives as much as the people during Peter’s time believed. 

We can continue to rely on ourselves, on the stuff we have and the things we know.  But the world is crumbling around us.  Our government is imploding. Housing is in a crisis and more and more hardworking families and individuals are finding themselves homeless because they can’t even afford to rent.  More and more hardworking families are experiencing food instability for the first time – they can’t afford to feed their families without help from foodbanks.  Our medical system, I believe thanks to insurance companies, is broken and good doctors and good nurses are retiring early.  A medical emergency is a financial burden for the best of us.  It doesn’t matter what your politics are – you have to admit things are not as good as we like to think.  This is where self-sufficiency and independence have brought us. 

I propose that we need the Holy Spirit.  We need to believe like we’ve never believed before that we need the Holy Spirit and the Spirit makes a difference.  We need the promises of total forgiveness, spiritual refreshment, and universal restoration just as much today as the crowd listening to Peter that day.  I propose we all need healing just like that 40-year-old lame beggar so many years ago. 

Like the song goes, “Come Holy Spirit, fall on me now.  We need your anointing, come in your power.” [3]   Amen.

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[1] The Message of Acts.  John W. Stott.  InterVarsity Press.  Downers Grove, IL.  2020.  P. 70.
[2] The Message of Acts.  John W. Stott.  InterVarsity Press.  Downers Grove, IL.  2020.  P. 74..
[3] Song lyric “Come Holy Spirit.”  Released in 2015.  Kids Praise 2003 by Spring Harvest.

Cut to the Heart

Rev. Debbie Cato
Joel 2:23-32 and Acts 2:41-47
Fairfield Community Church
June 2, 2024 

Let us pray:  Gracious Savior, you have the words of eternal life. As the Scripture is read and preached in this hour, empower us to hear it with humility and openness, so that hearing it, we may respond with courage and conviction. Amen.

 

Cut to the Heart

 

Two weeks ago, we celebrated Pentecost Sunday –the coming of the Holy Spirit.  We celebrated the birth of the Christian Church; the pouring out of the Holy Spirit on Jesus’ disciples and their companions.  We read how a violent, roaring wind filled the room and how tongues of fire rested on each of the believers that first Day of Pentecost.  We talked about how the gift of the Holy Spirit empowered the 120 believers to speak other languages – languages that the thousands of Jews from many nations that were gathered in Jerusalem for a religious festival could understand.  

People in the crowds were amazed that these people from Galilee were speaking in languages they understood.  “How can it be that we hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own language!” They exclaimed, asking one another, “What does this mean?” 

Often our teaching around the Holy Spirit stops here.  We spend one Sunday a year – Pentecost Sunday talking about the gift of the Holy Spirit and then, that’s sort of it.  Our red paraments are gone.  Most of us mainline Christians leave the Holy Spirit for the Charismatics.  Yet, we claim that we believe in a Triune God – Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  Interesting, isn’t it?

 See, I think we need to look deeper into this story.  Did the Holy Spirit make any difference in the lives of the disciples and their companions?  Yes, it gave them supernatural powers.  Yes, it gave them new life and filled them with joy.  But it didn’t end there.  It also gave them freedom and boldness and power.  So, what did they do with this gift?  Did the Holy Spirit make any difference in those first Christians and should it make a difference in our lives – us Christians 2,000 years later? 

Something incredibly important happens after the disciples receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.  They don’t just go about their day as usual.  No.  Peter – a fisherman - stands up and in front of thousands of people, he preaches a sermon.  The first sermon ever preached! 

Peter hadn’t ever preached before. He hadn’t gone to seminary.  He hadn’t taken any preaching classes.  In fact, in the past when Peter spoke it was generally with his foot in his mouth!  He misunderstood Jesus’ mission.  He promised things he couldn’t follow through on.  Three times he even denied that he knew Jesus.  But filled with the Holy Spirit, Peter stands up and preaches a sermon.  The words he speaks – the Word of God - is so convicting that 3,000 people believe that Jesus Christ is LORD and they are baptized and are filled with the Holy Spirit.  3,000 people!  Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit speaks the truth to a crowd and 3,000 people believe.  Wow!  The Christian church is born because an uneducated fisherman uses the power of the Holy Spirit to speak the truth.

Can you imagine what this would have been like?  Imagine this church without chairs; without furniture actually.  People standing shoulder to shoulder packed into our sanctuary and into our fellowship area.  People crowding into the basement, into the kitchen and hallway.  Every room filled with people, straining to hear Peter speak.  There’s no room to move.   People spilling out the doors, standing outside.  People are crowded into the street, the parking lot, spilling into the neighborhood.  And everyone is listening to the gospel being preached for the very first time.   It gives me chills.

Peter starts with Old Testament scripture; he starts with the prophet Joel, and he tells the story of God.  The Jews in the crowd know the story of God.  The Jews know what scripture says.  Peter gains credibility; the Jews continue to listen.  He tells them about Jesus the Christ – the Son of God.  He explains the crucifixion.  He tells the people that Jesus had died and been buried – for three days.  He tells them that Jesus rose from the dead.  The disciples were witnesses to his resurrection.  They saw him, they talked to him; they saw the wounds on his hands, in his side.  Peter tells them that Jesus ascended into heaven but before he did, he promised that His holy presence - His very Spirit would fill them and never leave them.  He tells them that the wind, the tongues of fire, even the ability to speak in other languages came through the power of the Holy Spirit when it descended on them that day.  Peter tells them all these things. 

Standing among a crowd of questioning people, some cynical, some merely skeptical and some truly seeking, Peter lays out the best formulation of what we cannot really comprehend. He does not rely upon his own ability to devise an interpretation that will convince the crowd.  Instead, he offers God’s truth, a story that has captured his own heart and mind. Peter’s story is an account that describes not so much what we can understand, but rather that God understands us and provides for our salvation.  Three thousand people listen to every word Peter the fisherman has to say.  And how do they react?  “They are cut to the heart.”

The Greek word that’s used here is actually stronger than cut – it means to be pierced or to be stabbed.  The words they hear Peter say stab them in the heart.  They are convinced by the evidence Peter gives them.  Jesus is the Messiah.  Jesus the Christ is LORD.  And they are convicted of their sin.  They are cut to the heart.  Something changes in them. Something happens.  They are different.  And they ask the only question they could ask, “What shall we do?”  What shall we do with this good news?

After Peter is done talking, people don’t go home.  They can’t.  The Word of God has cut them to the heart.  All these Jews – 3,000 of them - accept Christ as their Lord and Savior, they repent of their sin and their prior way of being and they are baptized.  On the spot.  And like the disciples and their companions, these 3,000 new Christians are filled with the Holy Spirit.  They are cut to the heart and they make a decision right then to change their life.

I have wonderful memories of being a young child in kindergarten.  I loved story time the best.  We all sat on the floor in a semi-circle and listened to the teacher read to us.  She would hold the book open so that we could see the pages.  I loved being read to.  I don’t think I would move a muscle.  I couldn’t wait to hear what happened next in the story.  I couldn’t wait to see the next picture in the book.  I was fully engaged and I didn’t want the book to end.  I always wanted her to read one more book.  Just one more book. 

This is what I think of when I read that after they are baptized and filled with the Holy Spirit, these 3,000 people - these first Christians don’t go home.  They stay in Jerusalem.  They are changed people and their lives reflect it.  They devote themselves to the apostles’ teaching.  

We could probably say that the Holy Spirit opened a school in Jerusalem that day; its teachers were the disciples and there were 3,000 pupils in  kindergarten!  I can picture them sitting at the disciples’ feet, hungry to receive instruction, fully engaged eager to learn all they could.   These 3,000 converts soaked up knowledge about Christ.  They soaked up knowledge about scripture and their new faith. They weren’t satisfied with only what Peter had taught them.  They wanted to know more.  The Holy Spirit brought a yearning – a hunger to learn about Christ; to know Christ. 

Being filled with the Holy Spirit caused these first Christians to live a radically different life.  It changed the very core of their being.  Filled with the Holy Spirit, these first Christians devoted themselves … to fellowship – to Koinonia. These first Christians spent time together.  The Holy Spirit caused them to care about one another in new ways.  If someone was in need, they shared what they had with one another.  They took care of one another.  They broke bread in their homes together – sharing a meal together in fellowship as Christian brothers and sisters. 

Fellowship is an important part of Christian living.  When God saves us, He puts us together physically with other Christians called the Church. He puts us together to experience Koinonia.  We are united in our faith, and we are united through the power of the Holy Spirit that fills us individually and dwells in our church.   God calls us to live out our faith in community and the presence of the Holy Spirit makes it possible.  None of these things comes naturally – or easily.  But these are all things that we are able to do because the Holy Spirit – the very Spirit of God lives in us giving us the ability to care for one another with the love of Christ. The church is called the Body of Christ because we are called to be in community – called to live out our faith in community. 

But they don’t just spend time together in fellowship.  It doesn’t stop at caring for one another, relationships with one another.  Filled with the Holy Spirit, these first Christians spend time praising God.   As a community, they devote themselves to praising God.

These new believers are focused on a relationship with Christ; being in communion with God.  They are described as having glad and sincere hearts.  Everyone is filled with awe.  They bow down before God in humility and wonder and reverence.  They worship God with joy.  God is in their midst, and they know it.

They don’t worship because it’s Sunday and that is their custom.  They look for opportunities to praise God.  They worship God because they are in awe of God.  They are amazed with what they hear; with what they learn.  They are amazed by the wonders and signs being done by the apostles.  They are filled with joy that they – people from all over the known world – can have unity in the Spirit and have everything in common.   They worship God in the temple and they worship God in their homes.  They worship God because they have been cut to the heart. 

The Jews who gathered together for the Festival of Harvest got more than they expected.  They heard a fisherman from Galilee preach a sermon that cut them to the heart and it changed them forever.  These Jews gathered from “every nation under heaven” believed the message of the Gospel, confessed their sins, were baptized, and filled with the Holy Spirit.  And as changed people, they stayed together in fellowship and unity, they devoted themselves to the apostles teachings, and they spent time praising God.  And the Christian church began and grew in number – “and day by day, the Lord added to their number those who were being saved.”  This is our beginning.  This is our story.

What about you?  Why did you come to church today?  Were you expecting to find God?  To hear good news?  To be changed?  Did you come with a sense of awe and reverence and joy?  God is in our midst – right here, right now.  You see, we really shouldn’t be much different from that first church in Jerusalem.  

Even though we weren’t in Jerusalem that first Pentecost, even though we didn’t hear Peter speaking to that crowd of 3,000, we have the benefit of his teaching.  It’s called the Bible.   We can and should be cut to the heart by the Word of God.  We can and should be transformed - our lives changed by the teachings of the Holy Scriptures.

The Holy Spirit came on the Day of Pentecost over 2,000 years ago and has never left her church.   We can live each day confident in the power and authority of the presence of the Holy Spirit.  The Spirit of God lives in us. Does the presence and power of God’s own Spirit make a difference in your life?  In the life of this Church?  It made a difference in the lives of those 3,000 new Christians 2,000 years ago. 

Peter’s first sermon is a proclamation of a set of beliefs about Jesus that grew out the experience of the emerging Christian community. This set of beliefs — Jesus was crucified, died and was buried, God raised him from the dead and he is now exalted — form one of the earliest creeds of the Christian church.   Let’s stand and together, as the Body of Christ, let’s say the Apostle’s Creed with conviction and let’s allow these words to cut us to the heart. 

 

I believe in God, the Father Almighty,
    the Maker of heaven and earth,
    and in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord:

Who was conceived by the Holy Ghost,
    born of the virgin Mary,
    suffered under Pontius Pilate,
    was crucified, dead, and was buried;

He descended to the dead.

On the third day He arose again from the dead;

He ascended into heaven, and is seated at the right hand of
God the Father Almighty;
    and he will come to judge the living and the dead.

I believe in the Holy Ghost;
    the holy catholic church; the communion of saints; the forgiveness of sins; the resurrection of the body; and the life everlasting.   Amen.