Who's In and Who's Out
After the stoning of Stephen the apostles spread out to share the good news. Peter continued in Jesus' ministry and stays with the outcast, Simon the Tanner. Peter also sees a vision three times of a sheet full of what the Jews considered to be unclean animals and he's told to kill and eat. He's perplexed and doesn't understand what God is trying to tell him. But by the time he makes it to Cornelius' house, he gets that the four corners of the sheet mark the fact that the gospel is for the four corners of the earth.
Acts 10:34 So Peter opened his mouth and said: “Truly I understand that God shows no partiality, 35 but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him. 36 As for the word that he sent to Israel, preaching good news of peace through Jesus Christ (he is Lord of all), 37 you yourselves know what happened throughout all Judea, beginning from Galilee after the baptism that John proclaimed: 38 how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power. He went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him. 39 And we are witnesses of all that he did both in the country of the Jews and in Jerusalem. They put him to death by hanging him on a tree, 40 but God raised him on the third day and made him to appear, 41 not to all the people but to us who had been chosen by God as witnesses, who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead. 42 And he commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one appointed by God to be judge of the living and the dead. 43 To him all the prophets bear witness that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.”
Freedom to Be Wrong
There are certainly some uncanny similarities between current headlines and our story of Saul's conversion in Acts 9. Just as God was working mightily in Saul's life and in his time, he continues to work miracles in our lives as well.
Continuing our concentration on freedom, Saul could have chosen to remain blind, but he recognized how wrong he'd been about almost everything and began to see the truth that Christ was revealing to him.
Paul wasn't the only one that was wrong, however. The wary, frightened church in Damascus was probably praying more for protection than for Saul's conversion. They were wrong. Ananias wanted to remind God just what a terrible man Saul was. He was wrong, too.
Where would we all be without God's grace?
"Marvelous, infinite, matchless grace, Freely bestowed on all who believe, [...] Grace that will pardon and cleanse within; [...] Grace that is greater than all our sin" (Julia H. Johnston, 1849-1919).
Freedom from Fear
Was Stephen crazy? Suicidal? Surely he knew how his listeners would react to his message? (Acts 6:8-8:1)
The reality was that people had grown to love their religion more than they loved God, and when confronted with this fact, they reacted with outrage and indignation.
Thinking about our day and age, what if the Church reacted in our freedom in Christ instead of fear to things like the Mideast refugee situation?
We never know what God has in store: just as Saul, the Christ-enemy, church-hater, stood smugly by and held coats as others stoned Stephen, but was later transformed, perhaps thousands of people at their most vulnerable might have their hearts turned to the Truth as well.
Growing Pains: A Test of Christian Freedom
Our guest proclaimer, Grace Pouch, continued our look at the early church as we considered Acts 6:1-7. Growth, usually seen as something positive, meant that with the new people, there were more diverse backgrounds, more needs, more misunderstandings, and several people began to grumble.
The church was faced with some real dilemmas. These dilemmas could have caused some real disgruntled infighting, some long-term damage, or even a split, but the apostles reacted with wisdom and the Holy Spirit was allowed to work. In the end, the problems were ironed out and God continued to add to their number. Unity, though fragile and often elusive among people, was maintained by the work of the Spirit.
The apostles realized the church was a body of believers, each uniquely gifted by the Spirit to build up the church in unique ways. As a result of this truth, they let the people choose additional new leaders among them The apostles didn't have to be everything to everybody, they could continue concentrating on teaching and proclaiming the Word and these "new" leaders could exercise their gifts of service in their own ways.
This agape, this unity, this koinonia set them apart from the world -- "being church" was actually the same as "doing evangelism."
For Freedom
The coming of the Holy Spirit as recorded in Acts was just as important as the coming of Jesus.
We've been considering the staying power of the early church and now we're following the church as it grows from former Jewish congregations to now congregations made up mostly of gentiles, or non-Jews.
We read about Barnabas in Acts 4 and his generous gift after selling some land. And then in Acts 5 comes the shocking story of Ananias and Sapphira: Satan had already begun to weasel his way into peoples' hearts and tergiversation wasn't far behind. They literally dropped dead after lying to "the Holy Spirit" and the congregation; God just wouldn't allow evil in his baby church.
Paul tells the early church in Galatia: "For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery" (Gal. 5:1). How will we use that freedom? To be a Barnabas or an Ananias and Sapphira? The choice is clear.
Lord, help us guard our hearts and stay true to you.
Who's Responsible for Church Growth?
Of course there are multiple layers to any important question, but the Bible makes it clear that, in the end, God is the One responsible for church growth: "And day by day the Lord added to their number those whom he was saving" (Act 2:47b). God added members to the early church by converting souls.
What are we to do then? Using the early church again as our example: they were meeting faithfully and breaking bread together and praying together, they knew the importance of good teaching, and they were sharing. "A sense of awe was everywhere" and they shared meals with "unaffected joy."
Authentic people being church together is what it's all about.
In a recent conversation, St. Joseph's headmaster, Keith Kiser, in true ecumenical fashion, admonished us to read some of what Pope Francis is saying about evangelism. His thoughts parallel Acts: "We evangelize not with grand words, or complicated concepts, but with 'the joy of the Gospel', which 'fills the hearts and lives of all who encounter Jesus, for those who accept his offer of salvation are set free from sin, sorrow, inner emptiness and loneliness.'”
Solitude for the Sake of Others
Ephesians 4: 15-16: "Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped,when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love."
Our sermon today centered on an article, "Solitude: In God for the World," by Ruth Haley Barton. She notes that so many of us are starving these days for real nourishment in our spiritual walk and yet, many of us don't even realize we hungry.
Barton writes:
There is something about the process of having our emptiness filled in solitude that eventually enables us to engage with those around us on the basis of fullness rather than need. If we relax and trust God’s initiative in the spiritual process, eventually something new begins to shimmer around the edges of our lives and relationships.
A different capacity for being present to others in love comes upon us, almost imperceptibly at first. Far beyond the familiar territory of “ought” and “should” we might notice a spontaneous and surprising desire to find a way to bring some of what we are experiencing in God’s presence to others. There is no fanfare to herald such profound inner changes, just the willingness to give ourselves to it.
She has much to say, but one important point is that our time alone with God is meant to strengthen us and equip us to be, in turn, in community with others.
What are the implications of this message for each one of us? For us as the body of Christ?
A recurring theme in Sunday School, our sermons, and even our prayer meetings lately has been what was the early church like, how can we break free from our cultural norms and return to the essentials, what's the vision for our church. As we consider what Barton has to say about solitude, she has some excellent thoughts, too, about the next steps. What happens when we return to community?
Listen to her truly astounding thoughts about authentic, transformative community and the "choice to walk with others:"
And as we think about out next steps as a church, consider these thoughts -- she's talking about leaders, but her words apply to all of us:
Trinity Church is unique. What is God doing here and how can we be involved? Take some time to consider these questions in silence and solitude. And then later, may our conversations be such that, like the one on the road to Emmaus, Jesus will want to come and be a part of it.
Celebrating the Spirit in Koinonia
God's mercy and grace made it so our pastor could be back with us on this special Lord's Day!
Continuing our series on the Staying Power of the early church, we considered the work of the Holy Spirit. This Person of the Trinity wants to fill us with no less than the reality of God with all God's Life and Power and Love. If that indwelling is absent in us, the cause lies within, we are in the way, we are blocking the way.
Acts 2:42 doesn't merely list practices of the early church, but commitments. They were not just going through the motions and checking off activities each week -- they were wholeheartedly committed to the work of the Gospel and to each other.
"Koinonia" is one of those rich, Greek words that contains several layers of meanings that we might miss if we cursorily consider that they had everything "in common." The phrase has nothing to do with having similar backgrounds, similar goals, similar outlooks, etc. On the contrary, we, with all our varied backgrounds, come together in koinonia by the grace of the Spirit in our common life in Christ. Agape love set the early church apart from their wider communities.
Are we known by our enthusiastic fellowship and extravagant love?
Making Noise or Truly Loving?
The Reverend Barbara Brown was our guest proclaimer, and Minister Larry Taylor also led us in musical worship on his electronic saxophone. It was a beautiful morning to be in God's house today!
The sermon text was from John 13; even with the cross looming, Jesus was concerned about his disciples and stressed: "34 A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. 35 By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another" (ESV).
Several times we were confronted with the question: "Are you committed to love?" "Are we committed to loving like Christ does?"
When we just speak the words and don't really mean it, we're just ugly noise -- some obnoxious gong or clashing cymbal. We live in a messed up world and what the world desperately needs is love -- real, Christian love.
Dionne Warwick's song from the late 1960's sums it up nicely: we don't need another mountain or meadow, i.e. some excuse or hurdle not to love -- we just need to love. That's the answer.
(Here's Warwick with some visuals someone added...)
Sharing Christ
We began our time together this morning with a Call to Worship composed by Grace Pouch:
Create in me a clean heart, O God, And put a new and right spirit within me.*
...a spirit that is willing and able to sacrifice my priorities, preferences, and
comforts in order to devote my full attention to You in this time of worship.
Whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.*
YOU, Lord Jesus, are the most excellent—worthy of all our praise. We set our gaze on You.
O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare your praise.*
Help my soul and my mind and my body to respond to Your greatness with expressions of Your worthiness
We join as one Body to love and adore You:
Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor
and power and might be to our God forever and ever! Amen.*
(G.P. 2015 *Excerpts from Psalm 51:10 and 15, Philippians 4:8, and Rev. 7:12)
And then we heard from Todd Wilklow about what the E4 Project is doing in Gabon and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Click here to learn more about their mission and how you can help!
The Kingdom of God
Dr. Tom LeGrand was our guest proclaimer today. One thing we can be sure of is that the kingdom of God doesn't look just like us. God's idea of His kingdom is as diverse as the people He's created, including all classes, colors, cultures...
As Paul brings his letter to the Philippians to a close, he admonishes Euodia and Syntyche "to agree in the Lord" (ESV). And then he includes the imperative for them all "to rejoice in the Lord." The answer to any conflict -- and conflict is just about bound to come anywhere two or more people are involved -- is to rejoice in the Lord, to pray, to remember and dwell on what's good, true, and lovely.
We pray that we would be numbered in God's kingdom and that the "God of peace" would be with us.
Signs and Wonders Among Us
This Sunday we continued our series about the staying power of the early church and considered Acts 2: 43: "And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles." What might be understood as a prescriptive list for the Church in verse 42, turns into a descriptive trait in verse 43. In other words, we can emphasize good teaching, encourage meaningful fellowship, devote ourselves to prayer, but we cannot insist that each member experience awe in worship or in our daily lives.
Too often, awe, or fear, wonder, amazement, reverential fear doesn't really fit into our modern mindset. Are "signs and wonders" -- natural and supernatural events -- still a part of our modern Church? Hallelujah, yes! Surely this descriptor will apply to each of us as well if only we'll stop to enumerate all that God has done and is doing in our midst! Great is His Faithfulness.
Getting away from it all...
Trinity headed for the hills this Sunday and had a beautiful time of worship and fellowship.
Staying Power: The House of Prayer
This week we continued to consider how the early church maintained its staying power. Meeting faithfully, sound teaching, committed fellowship, regular breaking of the bread were all characteristics of the young ecclesia. Today we continued with a discussion of how vital prayer was to their endeavors.
Consider the roadside church sign: "Prayer is not an option, it's a necessity." There are several ways to interpret this aphorism, but when you get right down to it, prayer IS an option. God doesn't force us to do anything and whether or not we talk to Him is up to us. According to our understanding, however, prayer is indeed a necessity.
One of the most treasured parts of our service is our prayer time. Even in our individualized requests and corporate prayer, though, we only scratch the surface of our needs and praises. It is abundantly clear that there are so many needs among our congregation, in our city, in our state, in our world -- yes, prayer is a necessity. And joining with our brothers and sisters across the nation, we remembered the Mother Emanuel martyrs and their families. (And following their beautiful, Christ-like examples, we pray for the perpetrator's soul.)
We continued our insightful study of Mark in Sunday School. Today we delved into Mark 7 and studied how the people were teaching "as doctrines the commandments of men" and neglecting "the commandment of God, in order to maintain the tradition of men" (NEB). When our explanations and traditions get in the way of God's commands, we need to be diligent to chisel away what's getting in the way. Please read Mark 8:1-9:13 for next week.
While You Were Sleeping
How do we stay upbeat in a downbeat world? How do we keep our joy? Joy comes from within and is not determined by the outside world.
Stephen Clyborne notes: "There are times when it seems that God is doing less than we had hoped, but God is always doing more than we know." In Mark 4, Jesus says, "how shall I describe the kingdom of God? The kingdom of God is like this. A man scatters seed on the ground; he goes to bed at night and gets up in the morning, and meanwhile the seed sprouts and grows -- how he does not know. The ground produces a crop by itself, first the blade, then the ear; but as soon as the crop is right, he starts reaping, because harvest time has come."
We need to do what we're called to do and leave the rest up to God. Trinity Church is not our church -- it's God's church. We need to let God be God. Only with eyes of faith can we see God's kingdom. In Psalm 29:10 we are told: "The Lord sits enthroned as king forever." And in Revelation 11:15, we read the proclamation: "Sovereignty over the world has passed to our Lord and his Christ, and he shall reign forever." And we shall reap all to the glory of God.
Will Trinity Church Last?
We continued in Acts 2 this morning and considered the early church, who described themselves as the "ecclesia" or those whom God called out, called from death to life, from sin to wholeness. The Holy Spirit empowered this group and equipped them to spread the Gospel to the ends of the earth.
What kept their worship from getting old? Where did their staying power originate?
We often hone in on "the Lord's adding to their number," but that is noticeably the last thing that happened to the church in this passage and for good reason.
Breaking down these verses, we thought today about how the church "devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread..." Teaching is a given and thanks to our Sunday School teacher and pastor, we are in good hands. Celebrating communion is crucial to our corporate remembrance of Christ's sacrifice on our behalf and we come together monthly.
Devoting ourselves to our fellowship needs to be something each of us takes seriously. Fellowship is the glue that holds us together and we must all be steadfastly committed to friendship. Are you fully committed? Ask the Holy Spirit to strengthen our stick-to-itiveness, our steadfastness, our staying power!
Trinity Sunday
On this important Sunday in the Church year, we considered the doctrine of the Trinity, specifically how to read 1 John 5:7. We thought about what an important role scribes have played down through the ages as they scrupulously copied Holy Scripture so that our manuscripts today are virtually identical to those of the first century. This particular verse, though, poses some different possibilities. The King James Version uses Erasmus' and reads: "For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these there are one." However, the New International Version goes back to earlier manuscripts and chose more literally to read: "For there are three that testify: the Spirit, the water and the blood; and the three are in agreement." How do reconcile the discrepancy? Can we reconcile them?
Our witness to non-Christians might be made easier if we had texts that clearly spell out the Trinity, but on the other hand, we know that is is a mystery whose nature is made manifest only in our experience. It is a holy mystery that we accept and understand only by faith. In other words, we could never have enough texts to explain the Trinity in any logically satisfying way.
Our Call to Worship included two verses from Prudentius' "Of the Father's Love Begotten" (usually sung, appropriately enough, to the tune "Divinum Mysterium"):
"Christ, to Thee with God the Father, And, O Holy Ghost, to Thee,
Hymn and chant and high thanksgiving And unwearied praises be: Honor, glory, and dominion, And eternal victory, Evermore and evermore!"
Whitsunday
The Church celebrated Pentecost today. This was the day that Jerusalem was filled to the brim with people celebrating the Feast of Weeks, which remembered Moses' receiving the Ten Commandments seven weeks after Passover. Fifteen centuries later, Luke was recording how the disciples were powerless and waiting, but obedient! in an upper room in the city that day. They could do nothing without the Holy Spirit, and so they waited.
While they waited, they prayed constantly. And when the Spirit came in His glory and power, they were quickened, sharpened, and strengthened. The knowledge in their heads was now augmented by the experience of their hearts.
One of our prayers was a contemporary hymn:
"Come, Holy Spirit, come; I have need of Your healing grace.
Come, make me pure within; all my sins erase.
Let them, like bonds set free, nevermore my captors be.
Humbly to You I bow; Come, Holy Spirit, now."
(Marian Wood Chaplin; hymntune: CHAPLIN)
Why Ascension Matters
"Hail the day that sees Him rise, ALLELUIA!"
If we're not careful, we run into that mindset that plagued even the first disciples: if only Jesus were here among us, if only we could look into His eyes, see His wounds, hear His voice, belief would be so much easier. But now we know, with the help of the Holy Spirit, that God's plan was best, that the ascended Christ is ruling at the right hand of the Father and through the Spirit can be with each one of us, no matter where we are.
Philippians 2: 5-11:
Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, 6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. 9 Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (ESV)
We caravaned out to the Pate sculpture, "The Ascending Christ," (at the St. Francis Cancer Treatment Center), where we completed our service as our pastor admonished us with these words from Paul and said our benediction.
In moments like these we are reminded of the importance of artists in our lives and especially in the life of the Church. Gordon T. Smith , president of Ambrose University, explains how artists remind us that all we see around us is not all there is. Artists lead us in worship when they create works of beauty that become the means by which the Spirit is revealed to us. The sense of the transcendence that artists like Charles and Charlie evoke remind us of how dependent we are on them to help our gaze to be fixed on the hope we have in Christ and not to get bogged down in the things of this world.
Deo Gratias
Our worship this week was through song: wonderful melodies giving voice to texts of praise, thanksgiving, and petitions. Our hymn singing was accompanied by treasured memories of our moms and grandmoms and their influence on our lives. To God Be the Glory!