Christian

Easter 5A, 5/18/14
John 14:1-14; Acts 7:55-60; 1 Peter 2:2-10

Lord, let your face shine upon us, your servants, so that we might grow into salvation. Amen.

Today’s readings are written to Christians.

That might not seem so revolutionary to us now, but think about it.

Of the 66 books in the Bible, 39 of them – the entire Old Testament – were written to the Hebrew people, before Jesus was born.

Of the 27 books in the New Testament, several were written to groups that still considered themselves to be Jewish. Matthew’s Gospel, for example, paints Jesus as a new Moses. Moses wrote the five books of the Torah, Jesus gives five sermons in Matthew… Moses received the Law on Mount Sinai, Jesus gave his followers a new commandment in the Sermon on the Mount.

So of all the possible pages of Scripture that we could be reading, today we hear some passages from Acts, John, and First Peter that are specifically addressed to Christian communities.

This means that we can probably apply these readings to our own faith lives a little more directly than, say, most readings from the Old Testament. The passages we’re looking at this morning already assume a belief in Jesus as the Son of God, knowledge of his death, faith in his resurrection, and belief in his promise of eternal life.

These readings can teach us about what it means – or what it takes – to be a Christian. Belief in Jesus is assumed. But Christianity is about more than a belief. It’s a way of life. So let’s see what the Bible can teach us today.

Looking at First Peter, it is obvious that the first characteristic of Christianity is that it happens in community.

Every time the word “you” shows up in this reading, it’s plural. We can’t tell in English, but in the Greek, there’s a difference between a singular “you” and a plural “you all.” First Peter is written to “you all.”

And look at the instructions that the community gets. Together they are made into a spiritual house, a royal priesthood, a holy nation.

They’re not made into individual holy priests. But communally, they become a holy priesthood.

Any one member of the community on his or her own is just a stone, not very useful. But combine the members together, and the community becomes more than the sum of its parts.

One online Bible study summarizes the message of First Peter this way: When we live as the world calls us to live, we live as individuals. When we live in the way we are called by Christ to live, we live as one community.

(faithelement, http://faithelement.com/sessions/2014/5/14/becoming-a-people)

First Peter was written to a community of new converts who were living in Asia Minor, a part of the world is now in Turkey. This was far removed from ancient Palestine, where Christianity started. These converts would have been mostly Gentiles, non-Jews. They didn't know the Hebrew Bible or Jewish traditions. As such, they probably needed some direction in defining their identity. When you are surrounded by people who don’t know or appreciate your religious identity, it helps to look for something bigger than yourself to gain some direction.

This letter provides that identity for the people.

Christian community is rooted in Scripture.

In just this brief passage from First Peter, the author quotes from or alludes to at least three different Psalms, the book of Isaiah and the book of Hosea.

         Our identity as a Christian community comes from the Bible.

Just before the story from Acts today, Stephen had preached a sermon that was a whole chapter long, 50 verses, and virtually his entire sermon was quoting from or summarizing stories from the Old Testament.

Christianity is rooted in Scripture.

When we seek guidance on how to relate to God, how to treat other people, how to live faithful lives – Scripture is the unifying and identifying thing that we can turn to.

As an example, let me remind you of some of the overarching themes of the Bible and how they can inform our lives today.

God created the world and everything in it.

So to honor God, we should treat creation with respect, don’t litter, don’t be wasteful, don’t destroy creatures that God has made.

God rescues the people from slavery.

So to honor God, we can work for a just and fair economy, where all people are given a voice, making sure people receive fair compensation for their work, and are equipped with humane working conditions.

God allows suffering. From the capture and exile of the Hebrew people to the trials that Job had to endure, we know that suffering happens, even among the faithful.

So to honor God, we should withhold judgment from people who are suffering. Sit with them in their sorrow, love them, find ways to restore their health or their happiness, but know that God never abandons us even when that restoration doesn’t happen.

This is the next theme that we can learn from today’s readings, actually.

Christianity happens in community.

Christianity is rooted in Scripture.

Christian life might include suffering.

Just look at the example of Stephen.

As a reward for his inspiring, impassioned preaching in Acts chapter 7, Stephen is put to death by the crowds.

Choosing to follow Jesus does not guarantee our health or prosperity, or even our safety.

The church in Asia Minor, the audience for First Peter, needed comforting. They were probably being ostracized from society since they had begun this strange new religious sect that the people around them didn’t understand.

But instead of calling for vengeance, the letter tells the Christian community that they are precious in God’s sight even when they have to endure suffering.

Christianity isn’t always easy, but God is always present nonetheless.

And just because things are a certain way now, does not mean that things will always remain that way.

In Christian life, change is possible.

Those early Christians may have had to endure suffering, but just a couple hundred years later their religion was the official religion of the whole region. It took a few generations, but once Christianity took hold of society at large, it took hold in a big way! For over 1500 years, Christianity was the religion of the majority.

         Things changed.

Saul may have started out his career as a persecutor of Christians, standing idly by while Stephen became the first Christian martyr.

But things changed. Jesus appeared to him in a dramatic conversion experience, and Saul – or Paul, as we more often call him – ended up being responsible for the spread of Christianity to places far and wide.

No matter what our life circumstances… no matter how much suffering we experience… no matter what kind of unpleasant people you have to relate to… things can change.

In Christian life, change is possible.

Christian life might include suffering.

Christianity is rooted in Scripture.

Christianity happens in community.

And finally, Christian life requires living out Jesus’ commands.

Very truly, I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these (John 14:12).

Jesus is going to heaven. He was crucified, died and was buried, on the third day he rose again, and he ascended into heaven.

But Jesus is leaving us with some pretty amazing potential. Jesus gave his disciples the ability to do his work in the world – Jesus entrusts Christians with the responsibility of creating a little bit of heaven right here on earth.

One colleague of mine wrote, “we don’t have to wait
until the end times to experience 
the fullness of God’s love, 
the power of God’s realm.
 It’s available for us here; it’s present for us NOW.” 

(Kris Lewis, http://ammaruns.wordpress.com/2014/05/17/rooms-to-spare/)

Or, as Tracy Chapman sang almost 20 years ago, “Heaven’s Here On Earth.”

Jesus describes a reality in which, yes, there is a room waiting for us in our eternal home, a home that we will get to someday when we join Jesus in being resurrected from death.

But that reality also includes the opportunity for us to experience a little bit of that heaven right now. By doing the things that Jesus commands us to do – just five verses before today’s reading begins, Jesus commanded his disciples to love one another – by doing that, we can start to build a spiritual house right here and right now.

Heaven exists in this life just as much as it does in the life to come.

And we can experience heaven by doing what Jesus commands.

We can grow closer to God by listening carefully to all the instructions that the various Bible readings have given us today.

Christianity happens in community.

Christianity is rooted in Scripture.

Christian life might include suffering.

In Christian life, change is possible.

Christian life requires living out Jesus’ commands.

Following the example of Jesus’ disciples, of Stephen, and of the church in ancient Turkey, I pray that our church community would grow, be changed, be challenged, and learn how to share our faith with others.

In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Life Abundant

Easter 4A, 5/11/14
Acts 2:42-47; John 10:1-10; Psalm 23

Oh Lord our shepherd, restore our souls through the teaching and fellowship, breaking of bread, and prayers of this community. Amen.

One of my favorite lines in all of Scripture shows up in the Gospel reading today.

I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.

Jesus wants us not just to have breath, but to have life.

As a hospital chaplain I’ve seen a lot of people at the margins of life. The ability to breathe, a heartbeat, some brainwaves… these are the things that medically define life. These are the causes for argument among family members when one biological sign of life is absent and another is present.

That’s not what Christian life is like.

As followers of Jesus, we aren’t supposed to just go through the motions of our daily lives, we are supposed to enjoy life and everything that it has to offer. We are meant to use our bodies and our minds, to enjoy the good creation that God has placed around us.

Abundant life is richer, fuller, more vibrant than a simple medical definition of life. This life is part of our calling of Christians.

Abundant life is    why    Jesus    came.

Christ has given us the gift of life abundant.

OK, so what does that mean?

Sometimes it’s easier to define something by gaining a clear understanding of what it is not.

The opposite of abundance is scarcity.

So when we live our lives controlled by scarcity, always fearful that there will not be enough money, food, time, people… whatever to go around, we are denying Jesus’ gift of life abundant.

When we live with a mindset of scarcity, we are ruled by fear.

When we live with an attitude of abundance, we are ruled by Christ.

If fear and scarcity rule our lives, we’ve missed the entire purpose of Christian life.

It’s like being so focused on the heart rate and the levels of oxygenation in the bloodstream that we forget about the life of the person lying there on the ICU bed. Their life is so much more than a heart rate or a breath or a brain wave. When a loved one dies, it’s not their beating heart that we miss – it’s their voice, their touch, their sense of humor, their vivacity.

We miss our loved ones when they die because they helped us to live our lives more abundantly.

Their life was more than numbers on a screen.

And so is ours.

I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.

This assertion works for us as individual people of faith, and it also works for us as a community of faith.

Our life together is so much more than numbers on the membership roll or in the annual budget.

Jesus came to give us – the church – life abundant.

Every time one of us says, our church is dying… we don’t have enough money… we don’t have enough young people… we can’t afford that…

Each time that we let our decisions be controlled by fear and scarcity, we are denying Christ’s gift of abundant life. We are denying the purpose of the incarnation.

Jesus says today that his coming to earth was for the purpose of our life!

He’s not just talking about heaven here, folks. He’s talking about life on this earth.

Jesus came so that we may live life abundantly!

Not so that we may live in fear of scarcity.

Let’s take a look at how this could play out in real life.

The book of Acts gives us example of a church that lived with an attitude of abundance. And God blessed them and added to their number those who were being saved.

So what was the secret to success for this early Christian community?

In a word: faith.

The first Christians were guided by their faith in Jesus and his promises.

They weren’t guided by a particular political or denominational ideology, and I’m pretty sure they never used a church constitution. They had some leaders, sure, but everyone in the community served the cause wholeheartedly.

The early Christian church made their calling from God their first priority, and they thrived because of it.

They must have done, right?

If the first Christians didn’t follow Jesus’ call to life abundant – if they hadn’t prioritized their faith – then Christianity would have died with that first generation and we wouldn’t be here today.

But we are here today.

We are here because of the faith of those earliest Christians.

They lived out their faith by devoting themselves to the apostles’ teaching, to fellowship, to the breaking of bread, to prayer, and to sharing all their possessions with one another.

These are the characteristics of a church that accepts and honors Jesus’ gift of abundant life.

Let’s take this one step at a time.

Faithful living is based on the teaching of the apostles.

This meant, at the time, literally listening to the words spoken by the people who had followed Jesus throughout his ministry.

For the church today, devoting ourselves to the teaching of the apostles means coming to worship. Hear the Word of God read in community. Listen to the sermon. Attend Bible study. Open up the Bible at home and get acquainted with it on your own. Learn more about the Scriptures that define your religious tradition. This is how we can devote ourselves to the teaching of the apostles.

Faithful living focuses on fellowship.

One women’s clergy group that I’m a part of uses the word “gal-ship” instead.

Fellowship – or galship – means hanging out with other people in your community, men and women. Get to know them. Share some coffee and conversation.

For early Christians, this may have meant leaving behind their families who didn’t understand this newfangled religious movement, and getting to know a group of strangers over a cooking fire outside the Temple.

For us it might mean skipping a school play or a community play or choir rehearsal in order to prioritize the relationships we have with other members of this congregation, on Sundays at coffee hour after worship, or at any time during the week over quilting squares or paint cans or someone’s kitchen table.

The breaking of bread.

There are two obvious meanings to this. First, share meals together. There is something special about eating with other people, recognizing our shared humanity and need for food. Like people in the early church, we can connect with others when we sit at table with them.

The second meaning, of course, is to break bread at the Lord’s Table. Share Communion together, as Jesus commanded, and as Christians have done forever. This is a way to live as faithful Christians, and it is an introduction to life abundant.

Prayer.

This is the simplest concept but can be the most difficult practice. Ask God to help other people. You don’t need fancy words – though if you are stuck on what to say, I’d recommend turning to the Psalms for a little inspiration. When we wish for the best for other people – when we want them to have abundant life – we will turn to God on their behalf and ask for his help for them.

Sometimes your mind will wander when you try to pray. That’s OK. Since God first made humankind, sometimes we’ve been good at prayer and sometimes we haven’t. But the blessing is that God is always there to listen – and our prayers will never hurt, even if we offer them later than planned or in some illogical order.

Sharing all things in common.

This is where it gets really idealistic. This practice of the early church is what makes most of us shrink back and say, OK. That sounds nice for those people at that time. But really, God doesn’t expect that kind of behavior from us now, right? Are we really supposed to sell what we own and offer it up for the good of the community?

The short answer is, yes.

Do you trust in God? Do you believe Jesus’ promise for abundant life?

Then what do you have to fear?

What could possibly go wrong by giving all your possessions to the church? According to the Acts passage today, it seems that the worst that could happen is that you’d end up unable to care for yourself… and then the church community would care for you out of shared resources.

That’s not so bad, is it?

This is where American individualism and Christian ideology conflict with one another.

According to our secular culture, each of us should be self-sufficient, able to take care of ourselves. Any possessions that we own are ours because we’ve earned them.

But according to our sacred texts, we need one another. We are dependent on one another. This dependency is necessary to the abundant life promised by Jesus. Our possessions belong to God first, to the community second, and to us third, if at all.

You can come up with your own interpretation of how we might follow the example of the early church. As one of my seminary professors puts it:

The description given in Acts 2:42-47 suggests what the Holy Spirit can do. These verses do not lay down rules or specific structures for Christian living [today, but] they indicate that… the life and work of a Christian community can reflect--even if only dimly--the reign of God that Jesus proclaimed while on earth and secured through his death, resurrection, and exaltation.

(Matthew Skinner http://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=52)

So take the example of the early church.

Find a way to apply it to your own life and our own community so that we can live that abundant life that Jesus promises.

Think about how we evaluate life – a person’s life.

When someone we love has died, no one tells stories about how their heart rate went down from 80 beats per minute to 60 to 40 to finally the doctor not being able to find a pulse at all.

When you’ve lost a loved one, you share stories and feelings and memories that you will carry with you forever.  You talk about how this person made a difference in your life.

Are you afraid that your church is dying?

Don’t focus on the numbers. Don’t spend your energy comparing budgets and average weekly worship attendance over the past ten years.

Tell the story of the church. Talk about your memories, but also talk about what a difference the church has made in your life.

Devote yourself to the teaching of the apostles, fellowship, the breaking of bread and prayer.

And share your possessions with others in the community who have less than you do.

This is how we as a church are able to live life abundantly.

Or, as a popular Lutheran pastor puts it – yes, there are popular Lutheran pastors out there – as this particular pastor puts it:

Let me be the first to say, if in your congregation, regardless of size, prestige or property, if the Word is preached and the Eucharist shared and water poured and forgiveness of sins received, then congratulations, your congregation is a success.

(Nadia Bolz-Weber http://www.patheos.com/blogs/nadiabolzweber/2014/05/stop-saying-the-church-is-dying-a-sermon-for-the-rocky-mountain-synod-assembly/)

Let’s pray.

Jesus, help us to follow your guidance as our shepherd. Help us to live abundantly. Thank you for the gift of abundant life. Amen.