This week in worship we read the story from Acts 2 of Pentecost. A little background for those of you who are not familiar, Pentecost was already a minor Jewish Feast. Jews from around the world came to Jerusalem for this celebration, 50 days after Passover. The Disciples, Jesus’ inner circle, were trying to figure out what now. Just about 50 days ago, their leader, Jesus, had been taken from them, violently. While he did rise from the dead, he was only occasionally reappearing. They were not sure what to do now. But, WOW, God sure did and God showed God’s presence that day.
The Holy Spirit, God’s presence in the world, came to the Disciples. The scripture describes it as a strong wind, a gale from nowhere. It was a force that filled the building. The Disciples were filled with a passion, a fire that spread like wildfire. They were put on fire for God.
The Assembled Jews, were from dozens of countries from around the area. They spoke dozens of languages. But as the Disciples spoke, they each heard them in their own language. Imagine, being at an international gathering, where everyone spoke in your language, but your neighbor heard them in their language too. Peter spoke to the crowd with a passion and a skill that few had seen out of him before. If the church has a birthday. This is it.
When you hear Christians talking about being on fire, filled with the Spirit, etc. This is where it came from. This is where the fuel to spread the good news or Gospel, came from. This is where the fuel for the movement to abolish slavery came from. This is the fire that fueled the Civil Rights Movement, the Women’s Rights Movement, etc. came from. From here, a few dozen followers became a few thousand in one day, and millions in the years that followed.
Imagine a movement, a great movement, premised on a great idea, but led by a screw up. Yes, I called Peter a screw up. The “Rock”, the man upon whom the post-Jesus church was built was a screw up. Look at what the Gospels (the four books of the new Testament - Matthew, Mark, Luke & John) say about Peter.
He was personally mentored by Jesus. He heard the words of Jesus first hand, not in a Sunday School class from another person; not in print, but from the man himself. Did he get it? NO!!!! Repeatedly Jesus tried to teach the Disciples in general, and Peter in particular a lesson. I can see Jesus shaking his head repeatedly. I am sure the human part of Jesus wondered whether they were ever going to get it.
Then, on the night of Jesus’ betrayal, Peter really screwed up. Jesus repeatedly taught love your enemies, do kindness to those who would harm you. When the chips are down, when the High Priests mob & Judas show up to snatch up Jesus, what does Peter do? He whips out his sword and lops off an ear. Jesus has to back Peter down and heal the wounded. So much for loving the enemy. Also, even after Jesus warns him about denying Jesus three times when he is pressured, Peter does just that. This is the “Rock upon which the church is to be built?”. The foundation of a movement? The new leader to take Jesus’ place as the head of the church?
But, then you add the power of the Spirit. Now, you’ve got something. Imagine adding skill to passion, God did both with Peter. BAM, 3,000 converts in a day, that’s right, the equivalent of a Mega-Church in one day. A wildfire is born that will spread across the world, bringing down the most powerful empire of the day and transforming history.
Once at The Village when we were talking about what we are passionate about, what is that thing in the world that we would do anything to change, Tianda said she wanted there to be a world where there are no “throw away children”. She wants every child to feel they are worth something. Cheri wants every child to live with the joy in the picture from our theme slide. With freedom and love and that almost wreck-less abandon that comes from knowing that one is safe and loved no matter what.
Cheri was reading a devotional this week. In the devotional, believed written by Eberhard Arnold, the author wrote that the dwelling place of God in our world belongs to children. God’s home is where children live. People with a childlike spirit are the ones that are the closest to God. Not childish, or immature, but what he calls a spirit of “confident trust” and a spirit that rejoices and loses itself in the object of its love: a spirit that is released from self-contemplation. The true child is never afraid. And this is why. Because the childlike spirit comes from the Holy Spirit. So, he writes “let us believe that this Spirit really exists and that we can receive it”.
So, where are we in Peter’s story? Are we ready to receive the Spirit? Our friend Laurie Swyers has just returned to church. Her friends, worriedly asked her “are you one of those holy rollers now?” So, she knows this moment. The question is whether to become Peter in the court yard or Peter on Pentecost. So, which would you be?
There are hurting folks out there, right. We’ve seen it time and time again. They need places where love is; where acceptance is. Just yesterday we experienced a little of that. Dozens of people dropped by our church parking lot when we did the simple act of playing some music and cooking some food. We had a homeless man stop by. We had residents of a group home. We hadd single moms, families, single people, gays, lesbians, transgendered, straight, immigrants, etc. We offered some basic hospitality and 85 people came by.
I think Eberard Arnold is onto something when he says in order to make a home for God’s spirit in our lives, we need to be more like children, we need to find that simple trust and courage to put our trust in something outside ourselves; to give ourselves into the freedom to trust goodness and joy.
There is power, friends, the message that good is stronger than evil; and compassion is a better way than selfishness. It really is that simple. And it really is that powerful. Children, in their purest, unrestrained form, get that. And they can teach us.
That’s what happened on the first Pentecost. The people were filled with God’s Spirit of Love. Some crazy miracle happened so that the preaching was simultaneously in the languages of the people from all sorts of countries. Words spoken by a bunch of simple, uneducated and not multilingual Galileans became a powerful message that transformed the world. That was the miracle of the day. The message that God loved us so much, God came and lived among us, died like us and rose from the dead, was given so much power, it had to spread around the world. The crowd was called by the former screw up, Peter, to “get out of this sick and stupid culture”. Then? The culture was sick and stupid then? We thought we only had that now.
Peter said that and the people at Pentecost listened and 3,000 of them left it behind. They committed themselves to the teachings of the disciples, the life of following Christ together, the common meal, and prayer. We had a little taste of that last night.
Like Pentecost, we had a big party for everyone. Our party included the homeless and affluent, suburban families; farmers and lawyers; Democrats and Republicans; the young and the old; the able bodied and the mentally and physically disabled; those without a high school diploma and several with multiple doctoral degrees. A group of people who would normally not be together were together in the same place for a couple of hours. They worked together, eat together and experienced God’s love together. You’ve got to think that made God smile Yesterday.
You see, our world is pretty broken right now; racism (yes, it’s alive and well), a broken economy; political division. People tend to socialize with folks like them. But we had lots of different folks working together. The church of Jesus is supposed to be one place where the Holy Spirit has the power to draw together we who are very different. It isn’t always true, but it was yesterday.
We have the power to change this sick and stupid culture, just like the early disciples did. We’re just a “baby church” as our coach Paul Nixon calls us. We have typically 60 people on Sundays. But in four months, we’re going to add a second service of about 50-80 people. And then 6-12 months later, a third service and a fourth after that. We know it sounds crazy, but at The Village, we dream dreams so big that only God can make them come true.
The World is pretty broken right now. There is pain to spare. There is fear to spare. There is hatred to spare. But starting at Central & Monroe, in the broken City of Toledo, Ohio, a city in economic depression, we are going to start. We may be crazy, but we have more disciples than Peter started with, and we are going to start changing the world. We’re screw ups too, but we’ve got the Spirit that’s been around for a few thousand years now. Wanna help change that world? Join us Sundays at 10:30, or next Sunday between 2-6 PM feeding the poor at St. Mark’s Church, or Saturday June 5th giving away free books & toys at the Old West End Festival.
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