Community Church Sermons
Second Sunday After Pentecost, Year C – June 17, 2001
"Everyone Was Amazed! – Part Three”
Luke 7:36-8:3; Acts 2:43-47
When you stop to think about, it’s such a marvelous picture that Luke paints here in the 7th chapter of his gospel book.
A woman, described only as a sinner, is forgiven. Grace touches her life, and she is set free to begin living again. And the only way she knows to respond to this beautiful gift is by seeking out Jesus. And when she finds him at a dinner party at the home of a Pharisee named Simon, she crashes the party. Timidly, the forgiven woman comes up behind Jesus. Weeping, she falls to her knees, and her tears bathe his feet. She takes the long strands of her own flowing hair, and dries them, covering Jesus’ feet with kisses. And then she anoints his feet with a precious ointment – probably her most prized possession.
Such a tender and beautiful image – a woman draped over the feet of another person, pouring out her tears, her gifts, her life, her love!
But this is much more than a picture of a certain woman who lived in a certain city in a certain time long ago. Oh no, it is much more than that! For this image of someone pouring out their soul over the feet of another is intended to be a picture of US!
You and me! The Church! Jesus’ living representatives on earth!
How interesting it is that the New Testament never once portrays the Church has the Teacher of Truth, the Fountain of Faith, the Defender of Doctrine. Not once does the Bible describe us as Christian soldiers, marching off to war, or as God’s enforcers of righteousness.
No, the New Testament describes us and our work together as the Church not in any of those terms. Instead, it describes us as forgiven sinners, responding to the gift of God’s gracious love by seeking out Christ-among-us in neighbors and strangers alike, and kneeling at their feet to bathe them with our tears, our gifts, our lives, our love!
We are to be like the woman of
Luke, chapter 7! SHE is a picture of what WE are called to become!
Now, since Pentecost Sunday, we’ve been talking about the power of the Holy Spirit. We’ve been examining a little passage in Luke’s other book – the book of Acts. It’s in chapter 2, and verse 43, and it describes what happened to those first Christians when the Holy Spirit came. Luke writes:
Here, in the most practical terms, we have described for us how the early Christians lived. And it just strikes me as I read this passage that the people of that first church were working very hard at becoming precisely the kind of people described in the story of that woman in Luke, chapter 7!
They show us a practical, down-to-earth, real-life application of faith - grateful people, leaning over the feet of their world, pouring out their tears, their possessions, their love!
So come with me today, and let’s take a very simple look at how this worked for them. And let me break it down into four very simple practices described in this passage.
First, they practiced the art of togetherness.
You may remember the daring experiment done some time ago at a major research university. A giant cage was built and into it was placed a number of wild animals known to be natural enemies – a lion, a lamb, a fox, a rabbit, a snake, some mice, and a few others. Cameras recorded what happened. At first, the animals were quite edgy, and it appeared they might devour each other. But surprisingly, they didn’t. Each one eventually settled down into it’s own corner of the habitat and pretty much coexisted in peace with the others.
Then the scientists opened the door of the habitat and introduced people – Asians, Europeans, people from North and South America, Africans, and others. The scientists held their collective breath. But nothing bad happened. Living in such a small space, the people learned to rise up above their differences, and live in peace.
Then the scientists took one more step. They opened the cage once more and let in a Methodist, a Baptist, a Lutheran and a Catholic – and in ten minutes, there was not a living thing left in that cage!
Why do we Christians hate each other so? Why do we have more denominations than we have people? Why do we conduct witch hunts, inquisitions, and crusades? Why do we not recognize each other’s faith? Each other’s baptisms? Why do we not welcome each other to the communion table? Why do we so often denounce each other, and waste precious resources by going off to serve God all by ourselves as though we are the only true believers?
We Christians are not very good at sticking together.
And it is precisely this inability to get along within our own family that makes it impossible for us to have any credibility at all when we speak about the gift of Jesus Christ and his power to bring the world together in love. Do you think anybody really believes that from what they see in the Church today? If our faith can’t bring together ELCA Lutherans and Missouri Synod Lutherans, Presbyterian USA’s and National Presbyterians, American Baptists and Southern Baptists, then how in the world is our faith going to bring together the rest of humankind?
And yet, just before he died, Jesus gave us a new commandment. He commanded us to love one another as he loved us. And a short while later Jesus prayed that all his followers would be one in the bond of love.
Funny, when I was a kid growing up in the church, I heard on more than one occasion that Christian people are to put lustful thoughts out of their mind. And being a dirty-minded kid, that requirement really haunted me. Still does! Faith seemed to be so much about containing sexual behavior – lustful thoughts, adulterous acts, sexual perversion. Why even today, the lightening rod issue attracting all the sparks in the church is what? Homosexuality. We make it seem as though God is more interested in sex than almost anything else.
But no one ever told me growing up that sexual ethics don’t even come close in importance to Jesus’ teaching that we are obligated to find a way to get along with our fellow Christians. It is the new number one commandment! Looking at his disciples and not at the world, Jesus mandated, “Love one another as I have loved you!”
Do you want to experience the
power of the Holy Spirit in your life? Then commit yourself to getting along
with other Christians. Commit yourself to learning how to disagree without
being disagreeable. Commit yourself to listening to the other side so you can
truly understand. Commit yourself to unity – no matter what the personal
cost!
And when you kneel at the feet of your sisters and brothers in a spirit of unified togetherness, pouring out the kind of love necessary to achieve it, believe me, you will need the Holy Spirit’s power! They practiced the art of Christian togetherness!
Second, these early Christians practiced the art of caring for the needs of each other, and their neighbors.
Today being Mission Sunday it is fitting to have before our eyes the image of a person kneeling at the feet of another, pouring out tears, pouring out love, and pouring out precious possessions to meet the needs of the other person. I hope that’s how we see ourselves in relation to Loudon County. I hope that’s how we see ourselves in relation to the whole world.
A few weeks ago, I had the opportunity to fly with Dick Willyoung on one of his Angel Flights. This is a program where aircraft owners donate their time and equipment to transporting sick people to medical facilities they otherwise wouldn’t be able to get to. They do it for free, out of the goodness of their hearts.
Our flight was the third leg of a young couple’s journey that day from south central Florida to Indianapolis. He was just 32-years old. Testicular cancer. It had metastasized before it was even diagnosed. After radiation, chemotherapy and even a bone marrow transplant, there was no progress. Now a tumor was wrapped around the young man’s aorta. He was pretty frail.
No sooner than we took off, the young man got sick. He filled up a plastic bag or two, and then slumped back in the rear seat to try to sleep. We felt so badly for him.
Meanwhile, Dick flew the airplane up to altitude and set course for Indianapolis. Over the intercom, he talked with the young man’s wife. In a very soothing and comforting way, Dick got her to tell the whole story, about what they’d been through since the cancer came. Their battle with it seemed to occupy their whole lives. He helped her to talk about some of her anxieties and concerns for the future. And Dick witnessed to her about his own faith in God – sharing about how God has always been there for him – even in the darkest times. She seemed very appreciative of his words.
After we dropped them off in Indy and started back home, Dick and I talked about how we will probably never know how things turn out for that young family. And yet, we agreed, what is most important is not what we know about the future. What is important is that this precious man and woman were given a small cup of God’s love as they journeyed on their way to whatever the future holds. And I believe Dick’s gift made a difference!
I cannot count the number of people in our church who leave this sanctuary every week to go out to share God’s love with others by meeting the human needs they encounter in the community. And I cannot count the number of times they have told me about how the power of the Holy Spirit came to help them find the way, the words, the means to meet the need.
My hope is that, one day, every one of us who is a part of this church family will consider themselves a missionary to humanity, and that God will lead each of us to the people or the project where we are needed to pour out our love in practical ways for others.
Practicing the art of being together, and of caring for other’s needs. It takes the power of the Holy Spirit to do such things!
And then there is a third thing we discover about the early Christians. They practiced the art of being happy!
Now, I don’t know about you, but I know a lot of grumpy Christians. In fact, I know some folks who sort of take the position that grumpiness is a Christian trait! But it’s not!
The Psalms tell us to make a joyful noise to the Lord! The New Testament reminds us to rejoice in the Lord always! And then it reminds us a second time to rejoice!
Christians are to practice the art of happiness!
And yet, you might ask, how can you be happy if you’ve got cancer? How can you be happy if things aren’t going your way? How can you be happy when you’re on the golf course tomorrow, lining up your fourth putt?
A minister I know returned once from a hospital in Boston where he had been all day with a close family member who was dying. He had to leave in order to be with another family whose baby was going to be baptized. He wished he didn’t have to leave the bedside. He wished he could just reschedule the baptism. But he couldn’t.
So he drove back to the church. The tragedy of his own loss was very much on his shoulders as he went into his office to get ready. He put on his robe, and got out his service book. Then he went down to the Chapel to meet the family. He remembers forcing himself to put a smile on his face as he came through the Chapel door. He recalls acting as though what was going on with this baptismal family was the most important thing in the world. They had a lovely ceremony, and when it was over, they even took pictures. And he was in every one, smiling away.
When he returned to the study, his own pending tragedy caught up to him, and he burst into tears. Later, he told some of us, “I’d never before thought about it, but sometimes we just have to rise up above our own pain to offer happiness as a gift to another.”
And I think that’s so true. Happiness is not always something you feel. But it is always a gift you can give! But it takes the power of the Holy Spirit to be able to give it!
Now we are told that the early
Christians praised God with glad and generous hearts. And that’s how you
and I can face the dark times. Because you see, it may well be that there is an
illness in our lives. But we have a loving God with us who will help us face
that illness! It may well be that tragedy will come. But God will be
faithful and secure our lives! It may well be that things are falling apart
in your family, or your neighborhood, or your world. But God is at work in
the background, preparing hearts for healing, making broken things whole!
And sometimes you and I have to make a choice: to either give our lives over to the problem and all its misery, or to entrust our lives to God in a spirit of gladness that God is always good, and can be trusted with our lives! Making that choice, and practicing that art takes the power of the Holy Spirit!
Now the final thing we see
practiced in this passage is the art of building goodwill with those who
don’t yet believe.
What a wonderful thing Luke describes: they had the good will of ALL the people!
You see, to share the Good News of Jesus with others, you have to earn their good will. And good will does not come by preaching at people, or browbeating them, or trying to scare them to faith. Good will comes from building a relationship of trust.
I’m so impressed with some of the stories you tell about how you came to Jesus out of doubt, or skepticism, or some kind of agnosticism. In almost every case, there was a person in your life who loved you for who you were, who validated your search for truth, and who respected your ideas and values.
Dan Maguire, the Christian ethicist from Marquette says that when you sit down with people from other religious perspectives, don’t talk theology. Instead, talk about how the hungry can be fed, the poor can be lifted, and God’s justice can prevail in the community. And join together in working for those things. For when you do, you earn their good will, and you eventually get to the place where you can share your faith.
To earn the good will of those who don’t think and believe like us takes a lot of work. Those who practice it, need the power of the Holy Spirit.
So there they were – practicing togetherness, caring for the needs of their neighbors, spreading happiness into the world, and building bridges to everyone! That’s what the Church looks like!
Like a grateful woman kneeling at the feet of another, pouring out her tears, her possessions, her love, her all!
Friends, go and do likewise!