Community Church Sermons
June 4, 2006
Acts 2:1-12
Today
is Pentecost Sunday, the day we Christians celebrate the coming of the Holy
Spirit to empower the Church in its mission to the world. I’ll get to that in a
few moments, but first, I want to tell you this story:
A
couple of years ago, I played on a Junior High basketball team. Okay, so it
wasn’t a couple of years ago! Anyway, this was a pretty good team. We
actually won the New England YMCA Junior Church League Championship! But we won
the title game in an odd sort of way. We won, because the other team forfeited!
I suppose we should have figured out something was
slightly amiss when the other team came out for warm-ups, and most of those
Junior High kids slam-dunked the basketball! And if that didn’t cause us to
wise up, we really should have noticed that some of them even had moustaches
and tattoos. And the little kid on the sidelines yelling to one of those Junior
High players, “Way to go, Daddy!” surely should have been a sign that
something was fishy! And, as it turned out, something WAS fishy! Our opponents
were not Junior High-aged kids. They were all 20-something-year-olds! They were
a bunch of ringers!
And they beat us something like 450-3!
Can you imagine a team of 20-something year olds
playing basketball against kids who are 12 and 13? Not very fair! And the worst
part of it is that this was a CHURCH team! Can you imagine a CHURCH putting
together a team full of ringers?
Well this one church did!
And in some respects, so has the Christian Church
over the centuries!
Listen to the question I want to ask you today on
Pentecost Sunday:
Was Jesus a ringer?
It was just after our first “back-to-the-Bible”
sermon last month that someone came and shared that they’d had an epiphany of
sorts. It was noted in that sermon that when Jesus lived among us, he lived
completely as a human being – just like you and me. Yes, Christian theology
believes that Jesus was divine, but as Paul writes in Philippians, Jesus -
though he was God - gave up the god-thing in order to live among us as we live.
As the Gospel of John says, “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us.”
The idea of Jesus being a real-life, flesh and blood
man really inspired this person. He said, “That means that when Jesus got up
in the morning, he had to figure out what to have for breakfast, and what shirt
he had to iron, and how to live through all the challenges the day would bring,
just like I do – without any special superhuman powers!”
“That’s right!” I said.
“Wow!” he said, “I can really relate to a Jesus like
that!”
What a wonderful discovery! He had found the answer
to that question I just posed to you. Was Jesus a real person like you
and me? Or was Jesus a ringer?
What do you think?
It is amazing to me how many Christian people don’t
understand what our own faith teaches about Jesus. One of my favorite questions
to ask my Bible students is, “When Jesus went into the wilderness and was
tempted by the Devil, do you think he was REALLY tempted? I mean, was there a
real possibility that he could succumb to the temptation and satisfy his hunger
by turning those stones into bread – like you and I probably would do? Was
Jesus actually tempted to go the Devil’s way instead of God’s way?”
And you should see my Bible students when I ask that
question! They get really fidgety! And yet this is SUCH an important question
because if Jesus wasn’t REALLY tempted, then it wasn’t a temptation and
the Bible is not telling the truth, and Jesus is a ringer! He’s not like you
and me.
On the other hand, if Jesus really was a human
person, and he was tempted just like you and me, we learn from him that we
human beings CAN be tempted in all sorts of ways, and yet stand up and say, “No!”
And in this world of ours where we and our children are constantly faced with
the need to know the difference between right and wrong, and the courage to
choose between the two, Jesus gives us hope and inspiration that people CAN
choose God’s way over the wrong way!
So what do you think? Was Jesus tempted or
not?
Or how about this one? On the night of his arrest,
when Jesus was crying and sweating blood in the Garden of Gethsemane, was he really
terrified of what lay ahead – like you and I would be facing the prospect of
our own death? Was he really trying to bargain with God to get out of
dying – like we humans do? Or was he just putting on a show because – after all
– he was the divine Son of God and knew what the outcome would be?
If Jesus was a ringer, he has nothing to offer us,
but if Jesus was flesh and blood like you and me, we discover in him that there
are times in our lives when what we want is not what the life gives us, and all
we can do is face those times by trusting our lives to God. And in the life of
the real man Jesus, we discover that God will not let us down!
Was Jesus a real person like us? Did he agonize over
life and death? Did he suffer with fear and uncertainty? Did he struggle trying
to figure out the difference between right and wrong, and how to get along with
rotten people?
Or was Jesus just a ringer?
The Bible teaches that Jesus was a real-life, flesh
and blood man just like you and me! And because he was a human being, his
incredibly beautiful life offers us a wonderful discovery about people!
In the human Jesus,, we see the glory of what real
human beings like us can be!
Now, if you grew up – as I did – in a Christian
culture that worked overtime at telling you what a dirty, rotten person you
are, and what a bunch of losers the human race is, this may sound awfully
strange to you! And you’re going to have to either go find yourself another
religion that specializes in denigrating people, or adjust your thinking to the
Good News of Jesus Christ!!
Contrary to even what the Church has often taught,
people are not losers. People are inherently GOOD and CAPABLE and BEAUTIFUL!
And in Jesus – the human - we see the full wonder of this creature that God
made in his own image. In Jesus, we see YOU – and ME – and all the rest of
God’s children as we have been created to be and can yet become through faith.
Now I suspect that there may be some folks here
today who right about now are thinking something like this: “Well that
sounds good saying that Jesus was just like us, but what about the mighty deeds
Jesus performed? People don’t have the power to perform miracles like that!”
Really? Are you sure?
Listen to what Jesus himself said to his followers
about the miracles he performed: “I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith
in me will do what I have been doing. He or she will even do greater things
than these because I’m going to the Father.”[1]
You and I are capable of so much more good than we
realize! There are embedded in our lives gifts and capabilities for helping
others and making the world better than we can possibly imagine! One of the truly great gifts of our
Christian Faith to the world is the conviction that when you look at the person
of Jesus and the beautiful life he lived, you are looking into a mirror
reflecting back the person God created YOU to be!
PEOPLE have the power to love in life-transforming
ways, just like Jesus! PEOPLE have the power to bring healing to the sick and
broken, just like Jesus! PEOPLE have the power to reconcile enemies and
establish peace, just like Jesus! PEOPLE have the power to create justice, and
set others free, just like Jesus! PEOPLE have the power to transform society
into something that looks like the Kingdom of heaven, just like Jesus!
How do we know that? We know it because when we look
at Jesus, we are looking at a REAL LIFE
FLESH AND BLOOD HUMAN PERSON just like you and me, and not a ringer.
And we know it because we see it at work all around
us.
There are two members of our church who often remind
me of Jesus – not because they preach about Jesus, or even talk about religion,
but because of the Jesus-like gifts they bring to others. Both of these folks
have experienced a great deal of pain in their lives – pain from personal
tragedies as well as pain from illness and frailty.
Out of their personal experiences with pain and
trying to find ways to alleviate it, these two people have discovered that
there are lots of others in our world who contend with pain every day, too.
And, in true “love your neighbor as yourself” fashion, each of them in their own
way has reached out to help. One of these beautiful people often goes to the
bedside of people suffering with pain, and spends time with them praying,
massaging, meditating, teaching spiritual disciplines and rituals that she
herself has found helpful. The other beautiful person has formed a group for
people who suffer with chronic pain. He researches everything and anything that
has some pain-relieving benefit, and shares what he learns.
And here’s the most wonderful part – many of the
people these two reach out to report that they find relief from their pain!
Do PEOPLE have the power to heal? Of course they do!
Doctors and nurses who learn the skills of medicine, people like our two church
members who learn the gifts of spirituality, and many others who have
discovered the simple power of prayer for others. Yes, human beings have the
power to heal just like Jesus!
I think little Christopher was just three or four
years old when he was severely injured. He was with his parents in a store that
had two levels and the shopping carts were moved from floor to floor on a
conveyor system. Christopher and his family were waiting for their cart to come
down to the first floor when it broke free. It came crashing down into Chris,
leaving him badly injured and terribly disfigured.
There were several operations to heal the injuries
and disfigurements. But what could not be fixed was little Christopher’s heart.
He was so traumatized that he was afraid to go to sleep at night, and when he
did fall asleep, Chris experienced severe night terrors.
One evening, Christopher’s parents invited their
parish priest to the house to seek guidance about what to do. As they were
talking, the little boy crawled up onto the priest’s lap and fell asleep. When
the priest left, his mom and dad carried him up to bed, making sure to leave
the light on. But Christopher said, “It’s okay, you can turn the light off.
I don’t have to be afraid anymore.”
His mom and dad looked at their son, puzzled. “You
won’t be afraid anymore?”
“No,” said Christopher, “Jesus told me he would watch
over me at night so I don’t have to be afraid.”
“When did Jesus tell you this?” his father asked.
Christopher answered, “When Father John held me I
went up to heaven and that’s when Jesus told me I don’t have to be afraid
anymore.”
And little Christopher never had another nightmare
again.
Do ordinary people like Father John possess gifts
for healing and doing good like we see in Jesus’ life?
Oh, yes, we do! That’s what Jesus taught! And not
just gifts of healing! Is there anyone here who has not been impressed by Bob
Puckett’s amazing gift for making friends? Or Tom Broniecki and Chuck Braun’s
gift for organizing help for people in need? Or Judy Stiles’ gift for feeding
multitudes with a few fishes and loaves through the Friendship Kitchen?
All around us are people who, like Jesus, accomplish
incredible goodness! They perform miracles!
But how do you get to these gifts? How do you get
them to come alive?
Well, here’s what Jesus said: “If you love me,
you’ll keep my commandments…” – and we all know that Jesus’ commandments
are to love God and love our neighbor as ourselves, so – “If you love me,
you’ll love your neighbor, and as you do the Holy Spirit will come and give you
power you need!”
Do you see what the parish priest, and the two
members of our church, and Bob Puckett, and Tom and Chuck, and Judy Stiles, and
Jesus all have in common?
They are all people who work really hard at loving
their neighbors. And as they do, the Holy Spirit comes, and they receive POWER
– and discover gifts – and get creative ideas – and find new energy to work the
same kinds of miracles Jesus did!
Back to Pentecost Sunday. This is the day we
celebrate the coming of the Holy Spirit to the followers of Jesus. Sometimes we
say that Pentecost is the birthday of the Church, but that makes it sound as if
the Holy Spirit was given to an organization. Really, the Holy Spirit is poured
out on people – ordinary humans like us who commit their lives to loving their
neighbors as Jesus did.
And when we do, the Spirit comes, and we start to
discover the POWER OF BEING FULLY HUMAN – as fully human as Jesus was!!
So what do you think? Was Jesus a real life
person who, in dedicating himself to loving his neighbors, was empowered by the
Holy Spirit to do remarkable things?
Or was Jesus just a ringer like those
20-something-year-old Junior High basketball players?
More importantly, which kind of person are you?
Go this week, and love your neighbor in Jesus’ name!