Community Church Sermons

Year A

May 15, 2011

Easter 4

The Pleasure of Finding Things Out

Acts 2:42-47

Rev. Martin C. Singley, III

LISTEN IN!

Our 8-month old granddaughter Avery had a wonderful experience last week. Her mother – our daughter Bethany – captured the moment on video and posted it to Facebook. So Sandy and I were able to share in the joyful moment. In the video, Avery is lying on her back on the floor with her legs up in the air. Somehow, she catches her little feet with her hands and starts drawing them back toward her face. Don’t any of you try this at home – especially if you have a new hip!

Well, Avery pulls those little tootsies closer and closer until finally they are within inches of her face and – with one last tug– she sticks those toes right into her mouth!

And then…becoming aware of the amazing feat she has just accomplished…Avery bursts out laughing! Oh, she laughs and laughs and laughs and laughs! And when she is done laughing, she sticks those little toes in her mouth once more, and starts laughing all over again!

Little Avery Angell Hayden is learning the joy of sticking your toes in your mouth!

And that’s just one small discovery in Avery’s new life of one of God’s most wonderful gifts to us – the pleasure of finding things out!

Sandy and I once owned a Ford Torino. It was a great car, but sometime in its later years it began to have difficulty going around corners. The engine would hiccup, or sometimes even stall. My local mechanic – Dan – told me the problem was the carburetor and he could fix it for me for something like 1.8 million dollars. You know how the auto repair business can be!

Well, I made two observations. One was that I didn’t have 1.8 million dollars. I didn’t even have a spare hundred dollars in those days. The second was that if Dan, who had never made it past the third grade in school - in Texas - could figure out how to fix a carburetor, surely I – with all my advanced degrees (in theology no less) could do the same. Now, perhaps I was “misunderestimating” this Texan as people sometimes do, but nonetheless, I went out and bought a Chilton’s Repair book, and went to the local auto parts store and picked up a carburetor rebuild kit. Then, armed with all this stuff, I went home to become a mechanic. Once I figured out where the engine was, and what part of it held the carburetor, I unbolted the thing, brought it inside the house and started working at the kitchen table. Sandy informed me that kitchen tables are for meals, not for rebuilding carburetors, so I was banished to the musty depths of the cellar. And there, I took the beast apart.

Carefully placing each disassembled piece in the divided sections of an ice cube tray, I broke down the carburetor, carefully cleaning the parts that could be kept, and replacing the float and other parts that had to be discarded. Then, with great care, I put all the parts together again, and despite the fact that there were still three or four thingy’s left over in the ice cube tray when all was said and done, I thought to myself, “What the heck!” and bolted the carburetor back onto the car.

The hood was closed, the key was turned, and do you know what happened?

VROOM! That baby started up like a charm, and it ran great for the rest of its life, despite missing a few parts!

Now, I will be the first to say that it was nice to have the good result, and a car that no longer stalled going around corners, and that I was at least as smart as someone who had only completed third grade – in Texas. That was good.

But the true joy I derived from the whole experience came simply from the pleasure of learning how to do it – the pleasure of finding the thing out!

That little catchphrase – the pleasure of finding things out – comes from the late physicist Richard Feynman. Feynman was awarded the 1965 Nobel Prize for his work in Quantum Physics. Feynman was once asked in an interview with the BBC if winning the Nobel Prize was worth it. Feynman’s answer surprised me.

He said, “I don’t know anything about the Nobel Prize. I don’t understand what it’s all about or what’s worth what…I don’t like honors…I don’t see that it makes any point that someone in the Swedish Academy decides that this work is noble enough to receive a prize…”

Then Feynman continued:

“I’ve already got the prize! The prize is the pleasure of finding the thing out…”

That’s the name of one of Feynman’s books – The Pleasure of Finding Things Out. And don’t those words resonate in your heart? There is a wisdom being spoken here about the meaning and purpose of life. One of the greatest joys any of us can experience is the pleasure of finding something out!

This is what following Jesus is all about!

Luke tells us in the second chapter of Acts that in the weeks and months following Christ’s resurrection large numbers of people flocked to join the disciples.

What do you suppose the disciples were doing that attracted others to want to come and join them? Why was this tiny church so appealing to the masses?

There was no big worship service every week. No Crafters group meeting on Monday mornings. No committee meetings. No Bible studies – there would not be anything even resembling the New Testament for at least another 300 years. So what was the draw?

Well, Acts 2 tells us that this little church of people had four main activities going on. They prayed. They shared the Lord’s Supper. They took care of each other.

And – most importantly of all – they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teachings.

I think that’s just another way of saying the early Christians were a community where people came to find things out – things about God – about each other - about life!

They were engaged in the pleasure of finding things out.

And the guide for this learning experience was the Good News the apostles shared about Jesus!

You know, the Good News – the Gospel – about Jesus is an amazing thing. Just like Avery discovering you can put your toes in your mouth, or me rebuilding a carburetor, or Richard Feynman probing the mysteries of Quantum Physics, the Gospel contains hidden treasures just waiting to be discovered!

Here is a story about a good man killed by an evil, oppressive government, but he doesn’t stay dead! Three days later, he is raised back to life! And not only that, but this Good News about Jesus claims that we too will be raised from the dead. And that Good News becomes a catalyst for you and me to re-think and probe our current ideas of what will happen to us when WE die, and change how we must live TODAY to prepare for our own life beyond the grave. Like George Burns is reported to have said, “If I’d known I was going to live this long, I’d have taken better care of myself.”

George Burns didn’t really say that, but it’s a good saying. The Good News about Jesus tells us how we can take better care of ourselves today in preparation for life beyond death.

You see Jesus taught that heaven is not a celestial “bounce-house” way “up there” that we go to when we die. No, the kingdom of heaven, Jesus taught, is everywhere that God’s way is lived out. The kingdom of heaven is “here”, Jesus said. And it is “there.” The kingdom of heaven embraces all of creation. Heaven is everywhere – including beyond the grave.

So we prepare for our future life and the future of the world by living out today the values of God’s heavenly kingdom.

What are some of these values the apostles taught the people of their day?

Well, one thing they taught them was that Jesus saw the good in people. Jesus saw the GOOD in people. Listen to that again: Jesus saw the GOOD in people. And following Jesus means learning to see the good in ourselves and others, too. There is nothing bad in the kingdom of heaven. There is only good. So to prepare ourselves for living in the kingdom of heaven, we have to learn all about goodness. And what a pleasure it is to discover goodness!

Let me ask you, “What do you see when you look into the mirror in the morning?”

I’ll tell you what I see. Wrinkles. Hairs that grow out places they shouldn’t grow out of. White hair. Not even gray, but white. And less and less of it! When I look in the mirror in the morning, I see an old man. By the time I get done looking at myself, I’m so discouraged I feel like I may as well come to church and buy a niche in the Columbarium.

What do you see when you look in the mirror?

Some people see their failures, the sin they committed last night, the problem that’s been dogging them and pulling them down. Some people see their flaws, the nose that’s too big, they eyes that are too small, the pimples that won’t go away.

That first look in the mirror in the morning reveals a lot about how we see ourselves.

But here’s what the Good News about Jesus says about what God sees when you look in the mirror. God sees BEAUTY! God sees a GOOD person – a GOOD person capable of doing GOOD things – a GOOD person capable of doing GOOD things and bringing great GOODNESS into the world around you!

This is what the apostles taught the people of their day, and the people so desperately needed to hear that because they – like us – lived in a world where religion, and culture, and social institutions constantly bombarded people with messages about how WORTHLESS and INCONSEQUENTIAL and BAD they are! And with that self-understanding, the religious authorities, the political leaders, and the powers-that-be gained and exerted almost complete CONTROL over their lives. You don’t dare question the church if you believe you’re going to hell if you do. You don’t dare stand up to injustice in government if you think it’s being unpatriotic to do so. You don’t dare do anything but conform to society’s values if you believe that going against the flow makes you a bad person.

If you believe the message of original badness, they have got you by the throat!

But there in that little Jerusalem church, people were hearing a different message. I think it went something like this: “When God created you, He declared you GOOD and God blessed you. Read Genesis 1! And God proved it in this time and place by sending Jesus to tell us that we are GOOD and WORTHY OF LOVE and capable of GREAT GOODNESS. And in fact, you are good enough that Jesus was willing to die to defend you against your accusers. And you are good enough that God raised Jesus as a promise to you that GOODNESS will win out in the end – even over death.

And people came from near and far to hear that GOOD news message. And they joined this movement of people who went back to their homes and communities to do GOOD! And over the years they started hospitals – and schools – and other centers of GOODNESS that looked like the kingdom of heaven. Listen to how Luke describes it here in Acts 2: “All the believers were together and had everything in common. Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone who had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.”

Wow! What a joyful discovery – the pleasure of finding out they are GOOD PEOPLE CAPABLE OF GREAT GOODNESS through the love of God in Jesus Christ!

Do you think it makes a difference in how you live each day whether you know yourself as a bad person or a good person? Does it make a difference in how you relate with others? Does it make a difference in how you speak, where you commit your time, how you look at the future?

Don’t look in the mirror and see an old man or woman, a foolish boy or girl, a worthless sinful soul God could never love.

No, see yourself as God sees you – made in God’s image, full of goodness, capable of bringing incalculable goodness into the world around you each day.

In fact, that’s the exercise I want to give you to take home and try out starting tomorrow morning. When you stumble into the bathroom, and get that first horrifying glimpse of yourself in the mirror, I challenge you to do this: look yourself straight in the eye and say, “There is a GOOD person who God LOVES! God made me a good person. And today I’m going to bring goodness to the world.”

That’s how they live in the kingdom of heaven, you see! Heaven is a place of perfect goodness. And that’s how you can prepare for heaven today.

A while ago, someone who is new to our church came up to me and said something wonderful. He said, “This is the first time I’ve ever gone to a church where I wasn’t made to feel worse about myself than I already do!”

I think that was a compliment from someone who experienced the pleasure of finding out something they didn’t know before.

That he is a GOOD person.

Loved by God.

And full of goodness to share with others.

Oh, the pleasure of finding things out!

Next week, we’ll find out more about the hidden treasures to be found in the GOOD NEWS about Jesus Christ!