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May
8, 2005: Is It Time Yet?
Luke, the writer of Acts, is like your 7th-grade math teacher preparing you for a test. There are a couple things that need to be made perfectly clear. First, Luke wants us to know that all the disciples waited together for the promised empowering by the Holy Spirit-men and women. Giving the names of most of the men, he mentions the women in passing, taking pains, however, to mention Jesus' very first disciple by name-his mother, Mary. Then, to show how they waited for empowerment, Luke says the disciples "constantly devoted themselves to prayer." They had been commissioned as witnesses-they knew what they were supposed to do-but they didn't set off until they had the power to do so. Finally, Luke wants us to know that everyone had been reconciled and was unified around the mission Jesus gave them. Springwater would do well to take these three points, as we both engage in a congregational mission study and as we discern outreach missions. In other words, we (all of us) must be united in prayer, actively preparing for both insights and empowering into our mission. This time of the church year, the lectionary texts turn from Jesus (his ministry, his death and resurrection) to the Church. Today, Jesus literally "gets out of the way," making room for the Church to form. The disciples are thinking, "political restoration" for when Jesus comes back, and they just need to know when. Jesus' response is, "Don't worry about what you can't know; what is of immediate importance is the coming Holy Spirit." Which makes their immediate job, preparation to receive this gift and the work for which it equips them. Jesus' final message to his disciples in Acts gives the Church to the Holy Spirit. Which is a little different from what we read in the gospel of John today. In this prayer, Jesus gives the Church to God. Try to understand, this is not Biblical contradiction. We don't need to figure out whether Jesus intended the Church to belong to Father God or to the Holy Spirit. That's not a meaningful question. Acts and John are written to different audiences for different purposes. Besides, if your understanding of God is at all "Trinitarian," you will know that it's silly to pit Father God against Holy Spirit God. What we need to know today about Jesus' concerns for the Church, as well as the Holy Spirit's role in its empowering, is that active discipleship is how we prepare to receive the Holy Spirit (which is what empowers us to do our mission). In preparing ourselves-this congregation-for Pentecost, our first concern is to know who we are. One of my lectionary group buddies shared one way of saying who we are as a congregation. You have to get in the mindset of Westerns-as in TV show and movie Westerns. When a congregation thinks of itself as "settlers," the Church is the courthouse where important transactions are recorded. God (the mayor) keeps his office on the top floor, while Jesus (the sheriff) enforces the law. The Holy Spirit is the saloon girl who keeps everyone happy and satisfied. The minister is the town banker, who cherishes and keeps the town valuables. Christians, of course, are the settlers. When a congregation thinks of itself as "pioneers," the Church is a wagon train, always on the move, not really belonging in any particular place. God is the trail boss who disciplines and encourages the travelers on their way. Jesus is the scout, checking out the terrain ahead. The Holy Spirit is the buffalo hunter who occasionally scares the liver out of the townspeople, but who brings food to the pilgrims. The minister is the cook, preparing what the Holy Spirit/buffalo hunter brings in. Christians are pilgrims. What do you think? Are we settlers or pioneers? Maybe Western imagery doesn't work for you. After all, we're a long ways from wagon trains and sod busting. The mission study committee is going to help us ask (and answer) who we are and what we're doing here. The mission outreach committee will help us wonder if we are doers of good deeds (because it feels better than being selfish), or whether we are witnesses (which presupposes that we've experienced something). So maybe we need to think of something more relevant to 21st century Americans. Sometimes it seems as if our whole culture is based on consumerism. Can we compare Christian disciples to consumers? As consumers, Christians think of worship in terms of "what do I get out of worship or the sermon?" Disciples think of worship in terms of praising and blessing God-and how they might be inspired to do God's work. That's a subtle difference-what do I get out of this versus wanting to be inspired. That's a little abstract. Since today is Mother's Day, what if we made this concrete using mothers as an example? Which kind of mother gets nominated for Mother of the Year? The kind who thinks of her children in terms of the credit or status or admiration she gets because of them? Or the kind who understands her children as God's gift for a time, hers to nurture toward maturity, to whom she might reveal God? For some people, church is more than just Sunday morning. Church experts call this "programming"-what it is that invites people to more-than-Sunday-church. Consumer Christians think of church program in terms of getting more participation-numbers. Disciple Christians think of church program in terms of what is most faithful to Christ's mission for this time and place. Again illustrating with mothers, there is one type of mother who wonders how many after-school activities she can fit into her child's life. There is another type who tries to raise her children to be the kind of adults God would have them be. In the inevitable times when things don't go the way we think they ought to go, consumer Christians decide, "God didn't do what I wanted or needed, so I'm not going to believe in God." Disciple Christians, involved as they are in relationship with God, may pray, "You didn't do what I wanted, didn't give me what I needed. Why?" Even Jesus prayed, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" This is a dialogical relationship, one that not only believes God hears, but which believes God answers. It's the difference between the mother who complains to her adult children, "You never call me anymore!" and the mother whose concern for a good relationship with her children leads her to ask, "How can I improve how things are between us?" By virtue
of our claiming the title "Christian," by virtue
of our baptisms, we announce to ourselves and to the world
that we are "disciples" of Jesus Christ. But
we don't always act like disciples. Disciples are actively
engaged in relationship with the one whose name they take-with
Jesus. Disciples act as if God invites them to continue
co-creating with God. As far as Luke is concerned, Easter
doesn't end with the resurrection. Easter doesn't even
end with Pentecost. Easter is in the process of ending
as we live into our calling as Church. Even Jesus, in
today's prayer from John, puts the responsibility for
completing God's work on our shoulders. We are now the
incarnation, the en-fleshing, the making-real-in-the-here-and-now,
of God's reign. We're called to put into action God's
mission of salvation for the world. We already know what
we're supposed to do. We already know we've been commissioned
to be witnesses-to be the experience for other people
of what we've already experienced. Our commission is to
be God's love to our families, our neighborhoods, our
schools and work, wherever we go in the world. We know
this. We have also been given the power to do this. If
only we will. May God be praised and blessed and made
real through us. |
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