Today we are celebrating commitments. We are giving thanks
for the times when God’s spirit has been so amazing we have been blown away by
God’s love. We’re asking the Holy Spirit
to come to us, once again, like a powerful wind, and to sweep us off our feet,
so we might live as disciples filled with passion to serve God.
So, first of all, will you tell me, if you were here last
week you received $5. We asked you to do
something generous with it. What did you
do?
· Some
of you put it in the offering plate last Sunday; that is fine. We will use it
to care for our Village kids and to provide for great music to feed us in our
worship
· I
gave mine to someone who asked; I put it with my own money and gave to fight
arthritis for a child who has arthritis
· Jamie
is going to give to the 6th grade trip at the school he is not even
going to next year. I think that is really generous for 10 year old.
These may all seem like simple things but remember we said “being
generous is something to practice.” With
each act, being generous becomes a habit. We learn how to say “yes” to generosity and
“no” to holding on to what we have. We
begin to feel lighter and more free. It’s a good feeling.
Well, in our scripture for today, it says that the first
followers of Jesus practiced generosity by taking care of one another’s needs. “They sold whatever they owned and pooled
their resources so that each person’s need was met.” This is not really something that many
Christians practice to the extreme anymore, although you will find groups of
people living in Christian community here and there. I run across these people every now and then.
Such an idea sounds appealing to me right now. Kurt and I live in the Old West End, in a
house that is a little more than 100 years old. It is fun to live in a house with so much
history. Until it comes to the repairs. On Thursday, I had a masonry expert come look
at the foundation on our porch. Kurt and
I have been watching it for a few years now.
The huge set of stone steps is dragging the rest of the porch down. The
brick is bowing out. Matthias came and
measured. He talked with me about what
he would need to do. He said he would email
me over the weekend with an estimate. So
now we are waiting for the bad news. We
will be blown away, if by some miracle, the number he gives us matches the
number that we have in a savings account we have set aside for home repairs. Or, we would be equally blown away, if, when
we get the number and we don’t have enough money, we lived in a world where
people who had more would help those who live in 100 year old houses, and just
spread the money around so that we can all take care of our houses. That would
blow me away.
But you know, here at The Village, we actually are doing
just such a thing for one of our families, a family where they really do need help,
way more than Kurt and I. And I would much rather donate to this project. Yesterday, 7 people put in a total of 55
people hours working on Rock and Beth’s house as a part of our R and B Blues
project. In fact, so far we have put in 455
hours total; we’ve raised about $3500.
We’ve been fixing a whole house from top to bottom. The house had no insulation. Yesterday, the volunteers put in 2 new
windows because the rain had been coming in.
And, there is so much more to do.
Sometimes, we dream dreams so big only God can make them come true. Back in January, we thought, “We have people
in this church who know how to fix things,” but it has gotten harder. We don’t have any money left in the fund. But we have done so much.
I think this is how the disciples felt on that first
Pentecost. I think they probably felt
like they were not sure they could really do the task that Jesus had put before
them.
Here is how the story goes: It was about 50 days after the death and
resurrection of Jesus. Lots of Jewish
people traveled from countries all around, to their religious center, in
Jerusalem, to celebrate a Jewish festival called Pentecost. So on this day, Jerusalem just happened to be
filled with a high number of visitors speaking many languages.
The disciples were sitting in a room, secluded, and still a
bit stunned by the death and resurrection of Jesus, not sure how to carry on
the mission of the church without their leader.
They were pretty discouraged. Then something amazing happened. You see, Jesus had promised that the spirit of
God would come to guide them and give them what they needed. And on that day, it happened. SOMETHING
happened. Witnesses described it like
fire and wind, a power like none other. They were blown away.
Have you ever had an experience that blew you off your feet,
literally or figuratively? Maybe you
have been in a tornado or a strong wind. Or maybe God has done something to really get
your attention.
That day in Jerusalem, SOMETHING happened. The Spirit of God
filled the disciples. With every breath
they took, they were filled with God. Actually,
the word in Greek for breath is the same word as spirit so it is as if every
time we breathe we are breathing in God’s spirit. We’re told they went out into the streets and
started preaching in every language of all the people who were there from all
those countries, even though they could not possibly have known those
languages. That’s the Pentecost miracle.
Peter stood up to preach about Jesus and 3000 people were converted.
They were baptized and joined the Jesus movement. It was a revival, like no revival you’ve ever
seen!
And here is what those first 3000 people did:
· committed themselves to
the teaching of the apostles
· Shared meals together
· Prayed
· Sold whatever they owned and pooled their
resources so that each person’s need was met.
· Worshipped together
daily in the Temple
This
was the result:
Every day their number grew as God added those who were saved. Everybody wanted the spirit in them. I am sure they would have taken on a project
like Rock and Beth’s house. If they got
discouraged half way through the project, they would have prayed and called for
reinforcements, and just kept pressing forward, putting their trust in God, and
breathing in the breath of the Holy Spirit.
2000 years later, this is what we still
try to do together as a church. We have
several people who are joining The Village as members today. We are asking them
to make commitments. This is what we ask you to do as faithful members of The
Village: Will
you commit to pray for The Village Church and will you be present here with
this community on a regular basis; will you serve God with us and give your
resources to support the ministries of The Village Church in the world? And
finally, will you witness to the message of Jesus Christ in the world?
Some of you have already made
these commitments formally. Some of you
will make them today. Some of you make
these commitments informally. This is what it means for us to be The Village
Church.
Perhaps we are not as radical as
those first century disciples who worshipped together every day, and who sold
their belongings and pooled their money in order to be sure that everyone had
their needs met. There is always more we could do.
But we take baby steps to be
better disciples.
We are all here today. That is
something.
We can pray any time and I hope
we do.
We all have a chance to make a
financial commitment to The Village today. This village church is one piece of
God’s work. It is not the only piece but
it is something that we are a part of. Our work together is important. Many of you wouldn’t be in church in Toledo
if The Village Church didn’t exist. We
know that there are people here who did not have a church home before The
Village opened our doors. We have a
unique ministry. It takes money to do
this ministry. We all have some money that
comes to us from God. The Village is a good place to give a portion of our
money back in order to do God’s work in the world.
We can also serve together with
The Village. There were 7 people at Rock and Beth’s house yesterday, but more
of us can help. You may think you don’t have
skills to help. Jodi and Kelly keep
telling us they can find things for those of us to do who don’t have skills. In January, we committed to rehab this home
for two of our members and we are not done yet. If every one of us gave one Saturday to this
project in the next three months, it would make such a difference. And if we all invited one friend who is not
here today, that would make an even bigger difference. We can change the world.
We can also make a difference by
going to the Old West End Festival and the other community festivals this
summer. When we go to these events, we
have a chance to talk to hundreds of people about The Village. You just never know who might be looking for a
church home. It is one of the easiest
ways to touch lots of people and just be present in the world and offer some
hospitality. We just go and hang out and
have fun and wear our “no perfect people allowed” t-shirts. When people see us having fun they see that
Christians are regular people just like them and they think “Maybe I could give
that church a try.”
It may feel like it’s outside
your comfort zone to go to a community festival and invite people to The
Village, but this is what it means to be changed by the Holy Spirit in a
Pentecost sort of way – to be blown away by God. Nobody has died yet by helping at these
festivals. When we give up a Saturday to
go to one of these things, we allow God to change us, to breathe new life into
us – and to move us to order our lives around God’s desires for us.
Will we do it? Today, on THIS
Pentecost, will we take a deep breath, and breathe in God’s Spirit and be
changed? I want to be changed. I want to live more deeply in the way of God. Isn’t that what we are hoping for? Let’s be blown away. Let’s allow God to breathe new life into us. We will never be the same. Let it be so!
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