May 7, 2006: Who Said You Could?
Acts 4:5-12, 1 John 3:16-24, Psalm 23
Eileen Parfrey         Springwater Presbyterian Church

My lectionary buddies unpacked for me one of my favorite bumper stickers. It's the one that asks, "What if the hokey-pokey is what it's all about?" Turns out, this is a deeply theological question, because "hokey-pokey" is slang for part of the Latin mass-hocus meus corpus-what the priest says as he raises the host above his head. "This is my body." Think about the song. You start by putting your right hand in, your right hand out, put it in and shake it all about, you do the hokey pokey and-if you believe the song -that's what it's all about. As the song continues, you do the same thing with your left hand (in and out, shaking and turning) then do your feet and head, until-and this is where it gets theological-you put your whole self in. You put your whole self out. You put your whole self in, and you shake it all about. Then you do the hokey-pokey and turn yourself about. That's what it's all about. Your whole self, committed, shaking off old habits and temptations, then metanoia (turn around, Greek for repent). Be transformed. And that's about it-what it's all about.

If the hokey-pokey is what it's all about, it begs the question, what's the hokey-pokey? In our market-driven era, it wouldn't hurt to reclaim this simple children's song. Most people choose their church, and their weekly decision about whether to go or not, based on "What's in it for me?" or "Does it meet my needs?" These questions were not part of Jesus' disciple recruitment program. Maybe the American church's obsession with personal salvation got us off the track of Jesus' approach, "What does the coming of God's kingdom ask of me?"

This sort of question requires community discernment, study and contemplation to answer. Not three easy steps nor even 7 highly effective habits, Jesus' call is not about getting individuals to heaven. From his first proclamation after baptism, to his crucifixion as King of the Jews, his message was, "The kingdom of God is at hand." Therefore, our faith question should be, "How am I part of God's kingdom?" And if that's really what we're asking, there's gonna be trouble.

Which is where Peter ran afoul of the religious authorities. Peter gets right to the point and asks, "You don't expect us to believe that you called us here because we did a good deed, do you?" He knows what they're upset about. If Peter and John are healing people through the so-called power of some dead guy's name-and if this power is real -things are never gonna be the same again around the Temple. They've staked their careers on dead-meaning-dead to manage a religious kingdom-one that gives them power over people's daily lives, even if they don't have political power. What if there is something to mystery and spirit and things you can't measure? What if God shared power with us?

Today's epistle reading could throw us into the arms of Peter's accusers when it says, "God is greater than our worried hearts and knows more about us than we ourselves do." If God is in charge and God's power leaks into the world through us, then it's only God who gets to "say." The kid question that establishes authority is, "Who said you could?" Baby-boomers used this question to challenge authority even after they grew up, launching the revolution behind Nike's "Just do it!" You remember, "if it feels good, do it." That's what's behind the cultural lie that says we have a right to always be happy and do what gives us the greatest self actualization. One of my colleagues just announced he's done with the Declaration of Independence. "Because," he said, "there is more to life than 'liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.'" The current question of medical ethics is, "Just because we can does that mean we should?" Just because we want to (or it makes us feel good), does that mean we should? The writer of 1 John says there's more at stake than our feelings. Love, he says, isn't how we feel, it's how we act.

This is where we make contact with Springwater's Mission Statement. You remember our Mission Statement-the six-point statement of who we are and what we're doing here that we developed over a year of communal discernment. The word "nurture" is in the Mission Statement twice, with good reason. The first nurture is about discipleship-our individual relationship with Christ. The second nurture is about community-acting out the gospel as a group. You can't have one without the other. "Nurture" is Biblish for hokey-pokey. We are so committed to the hokey-pokey that we say it twice, as if one implication of being a fellowship of believers is that we nurture each of us as a disciple of Jesus Christ. Another implication is that we nurture the community-a gospel community-for the sake of both now and the future.

The hokey-pokey is a group event, but allow me to clarify a detail. Neither "nurture" nor "community" means gossip, if by "gossip" you mean someone other than the affected parties talking about it. We're good at loving and supporting each other, but when someone hurts, we must give them the dignity and respect of controlling their own story, not calling each other and speculating about what's going on. When outsiders stay away from conclusions, it gives God room to act, just as it gives the persons involved freedom to receive God's redemption. We're not locking them in to what we think is the story.

Other than our fear of looking foolish when we start singing and dancing, what holds us back from whole-hearted hokey-pokey? Are we afraid of success? If we're a thriving community, strangers might start to worship with us and we might grow! What if they've got different ideas than we do about how many committees it takes to run a rural church! Or maybe what holds us back is fear of offending each other, fear that we won't be loved if we question a decision. Or fear that we'll be held accountable for our action or inaction. If I say I want a youth group, will I have to drive or bring my kids? Or maybe it's easier to challenge authority or what seems to crimp our personal freedom, rather than take responsibility for improving our relationships with God or each other or our children or spouse. Or maybe it's our preconceived notions of who we are. I don't know anything about the Bible, and I can't read it, so I can't teach it. I've already failed once at this, people will think I'm trashy if I fail again, so I'll just pretend this is working.

If the hokey-pokey is what it's all about, we have to avoid thinking it's personal. If the song is a solo, we can limit our faith involvement to two hours on Sunday and believe that we don't have to play by the rules that other folks do-an exception was made in my case. But if it's about the Kingdom, if it's about more than me, even if we put our whole self in, we have to live with the reality that the Kingdom is never complete, never arrived at, never fully accomplished. It's about "live as if," acting as if the Kingdom is as-good-as-here, so we may as well act as if we trust God for the happy ending, even when we're in the middle of the story, even when we're confused about our feelings and torn between different desires. Even when our heart and gut and head tell us totally different things, trusting that God does speak through community and others. Even if we're suspicious that God's way won't work, the hokey-pokey is about doing it anyhow.

That is the source of all the power Peter and John claim access to. Because the dead guy is alive. Resurrection of Jesus means our own resurrection, our own new life in the here-and-now. Not for our sake, but for God's kingdom. Believing that God loved us first, that God has already given us what we need and continues to give us what we need. The hokey-pokey is a life of whole-hearted discipleship, and the end goal is wholeness-for ourselves and for the world. We need each other to find that wholeness and do that discipleship. That's what it's all about.