Sermon: Why does the church still struggle?
PentecostC.07
Herb Palmer
Faith Lutheran Church, Bellaire
May 27, 2007
Acts 2:1-20
Title: Why does the church struggle?
There are times in our lives when it becomes clearer to us what really is important in life. We might call those times “defining moments”. Sometimes this defining moment will come because of a tragedy, sometimes it is because something happens and this moment that is at hand… is our moment... and we need to do something… and it changes our life.
There has been a defining moment for the church. Everything since that moment has been the details of what the church has done with it. That defining moment for the church is Pentecost. It is the turning point. When that moment came for Pentecost to begin it was a decisive moment. For those who were present when Pentecost began, their perspective about what was important becomes clear.
The people who were followers of Jesus at that time were all together in a room. The Bible tells us there were 120 of them. Among them were the 11 disciples, with some women, the brothers of Jesus, and other followers, including Matthias whom they commissioned to replace Judas.
Up until this time their life together had been about the people who were in that room. They had grown to be friends. They shared a common past. They knew their stories. They were together through the ministry of Jesus. They were together after his death and together when he was raised from the dead. Life together was about their tight community. In fact, it doesn’t seem like anyone new had been added to their tight community for a long time. A defining moment was about to happen when that would all be changed. This small group experienced a 180-degree turn.
When that turn took place it was no longer about the people who had gathered together in this room that was the focus of their attention, but it was about who was not in the room. What these Christ followers said and did from that moment was for the benefit of the people on the outside.
People on the outside of the room noticed and they were confused.
They asked: “What is going on?” And the people in the room came out of the room into the larger community and said that what is going on is from God. They said: “God has a plan to bless your life today and God is using us to tell you that.”
This defining moment changed everything for them. As the story continues to be told about this group of Christ-followers they are scattered because of persecution, yet, even when threatened and scattered, they continued to be organized for the sake of the people who were outside.
What was it that made the difference in what these people in that room were doing? What was so powerful about their defining moment? What was it that turned this group of people around so that the focus of what they were doing was no longer about who was in the room but it was for the sake of the people outside the room?
Clearly the change came because it was God bringing that change. The Spirit of God was upon them. Notice what happened as a result. “Everyone present was filled with the Holy Spirit and they all began speaking for the sake of other people.”
We as the church should, after all these years, have no problem with clearly seeing what is important. But we do. The church has problems seeing what is important. We have to ask ourselves, then: Why? Why, after all these years, is it still not clear to us about what the Spirit is doing to the church? Why does the church struggle? If the church has had its defining moment, why does it struggle to live it?
I am going to take a stab at this with two reasons why I think the church struggles. There are many more reasons, but here are two.
First of all, sin and evil are still at work. Just as we are working to make a difference, there are forces at work that are destructive, working against what God wants for the creation. The church struggles because it gets discouraged and tired.
And, as a result, here is what happens: the tendency is to find greater satisfaction in just managing what we have and the church turns inward. It is rare that the church will strategize and focus resources for the sake of those who are outside the church. The church will not totally give up, however. It will usually hang on to the hope that if anyone is looking for God, they can look us up, and they are welcome to come in. We must recognize when this happens among us and name it for what it is. We cannot make our own peace with the forces that are contrary to the work of God in us.
Here is a second reason why the church struggles.
Call it human nature, but we have what seems to be a natural drift away from tending to what is important. That happens in relationships, parenting, education, and work. The more we are at it, the longer we are involved, we have a natural drift away from tending to what is important. Passion wanes. That is why when there is a crisis we re-center, make some correctives and re-assess what is important. This natural drift also comes into our relationship with God.
Let’s take a look, for example, at something specific. This month our theme, the faith value we want to lift up, the Mark of Discipleship we want to teach, is INVITE. We are talking about inviting others into a relationship with Jesus. We hold this Mark of Discipleship as a high value in the church. The people around us, as we know is true for ourselves, hunger to have meaning and hope in their life. Nothing compares to the meaning and hope that comes with knowing Christ.
We value inviting others; inviting makes it into every congregation’s mission statement to share Christ; but for most of the church, the defining moment has lost its passion and it is rare for anyone to invite anyone else to know Christ. We have this natural drift in another direction that typically takes us to turn in on ourselves, choosing to invest ourselves in knowing one another who are already gathered and who share a common story. We drift away from the value to invite.
We must be diligent in our efforts to recognize when this natural drift is at work; and guard ourselves against it. We don’t have to settle for this natural drift; and we don’t have to resign ourselves to believe that sin is winning the battle and we might as well retreat to isolation from the world. This is not the work of God in us.
How was it for the church when Pentecost became a defining moment that they made that turn to move outside and it continued to define who they are, regardless of the obstacles?
The best I can tell is they expected God to show up and do something. They took action to prepare them for God so that they would be ready for what God was about to do. And then, when God showed up, they were not surprised. They were not taken off guard. All of them got in the game.
The community was surprised about what was going on among the followers of Jesus. The community came running to see what was going on. The community was bewildered, and beside themselves with wonder. But not the church. The church was prepared to allow God to work through them. They expected God to show up and they were not disappointed.
Maybe something might happen, redefine the moment for the church today, if we expected God to show up with a power that will come upon us. We don’t need another Pentecost for that to happen. The Spirit is showing up to give us a voice, to renew passion, and to empower a mission. May we prepare ourselves and be diligent in our expectation for God to do something.
Let us pray: Come, Holy Spirit, Come. Fill your church with your power. Define this moment for the church and send us out.Amen
Herb Palmer
Faith Lutheran Church, Bellaire
May 27, 2007
Acts 2:1-20
Title: Why does the church struggle?
There are times in our lives when it becomes clearer to us what really is important in life. We might call those times “defining moments”. Sometimes this defining moment will come because of a tragedy, sometimes it is because something happens and this moment that is at hand… is our moment... and we need to do something… and it changes our life.
There has been a defining moment for the church. Everything since that moment has been the details of what the church has done with it. That defining moment for the church is Pentecost. It is the turning point. When that moment came for Pentecost to begin it was a decisive moment. For those who were present when Pentecost began, their perspective about what was important becomes clear.
The people who were followers of Jesus at that time were all together in a room. The Bible tells us there were 120 of them. Among them were the 11 disciples, with some women, the brothers of Jesus, and other followers, including Matthias whom they commissioned to replace Judas.
Up until this time their life together had been about the people who were in that room. They had grown to be friends. They shared a common past. They knew their stories. They were together through the ministry of Jesus. They were together after his death and together when he was raised from the dead. Life together was about their tight community. In fact, it doesn’t seem like anyone new had been added to their tight community for a long time. A defining moment was about to happen when that would all be changed. This small group experienced a 180-degree turn.
When that turn took place it was no longer about the people who had gathered together in this room that was the focus of their attention, but it was about who was not in the room. What these Christ followers said and did from that moment was for the benefit of the people on the outside.
People on the outside of the room noticed and they were confused.
They asked: “What is going on?” And the people in the room came out of the room into the larger community and said that what is going on is from God. They said: “God has a plan to bless your life today and God is using us to tell you that.”
This defining moment changed everything for them. As the story continues to be told about this group of Christ-followers they are scattered because of persecution, yet, even when threatened and scattered, they continued to be organized for the sake of the people who were outside.
What was it that made the difference in what these people in that room were doing? What was so powerful about their defining moment? What was it that turned this group of people around so that the focus of what they were doing was no longer about who was in the room but it was for the sake of the people outside the room?
Clearly the change came because it was God bringing that change. The Spirit of God was upon them. Notice what happened as a result. “Everyone present was filled with the Holy Spirit and they all began speaking for the sake of other people.”
We as the church should, after all these years, have no problem with clearly seeing what is important. But we do. The church has problems seeing what is important. We have to ask ourselves, then: Why? Why, after all these years, is it still not clear to us about what the Spirit is doing to the church? Why does the church struggle? If the church has had its defining moment, why does it struggle to live it?
I am going to take a stab at this with two reasons why I think the church struggles. There are many more reasons, but here are two.
First of all, sin and evil are still at work. Just as we are working to make a difference, there are forces at work that are destructive, working against what God wants for the creation. The church struggles because it gets discouraged and tired.
And, as a result, here is what happens: the tendency is to find greater satisfaction in just managing what we have and the church turns inward. It is rare that the church will strategize and focus resources for the sake of those who are outside the church. The church will not totally give up, however. It will usually hang on to the hope that if anyone is looking for God, they can look us up, and they are welcome to come in. We must recognize when this happens among us and name it for what it is. We cannot make our own peace with the forces that are contrary to the work of God in us.
Here is a second reason why the church struggles.
Call it human nature, but we have what seems to be a natural drift away from tending to what is important. That happens in relationships, parenting, education, and work. The more we are at it, the longer we are involved, we have a natural drift away from tending to what is important. Passion wanes. That is why when there is a crisis we re-center, make some correctives and re-assess what is important. This natural drift also comes into our relationship with God.
Let’s take a look, for example, at something specific. This month our theme, the faith value we want to lift up, the Mark of Discipleship we want to teach, is INVITE. We are talking about inviting others into a relationship with Jesus. We hold this Mark of Discipleship as a high value in the church. The people around us, as we know is true for ourselves, hunger to have meaning and hope in their life. Nothing compares to the meaning and hope that comes with knowing Christ.
We value inviting others; inviting makes it into every congregation’s mission statement to share Christ; but for most of the church, the defining moment has lost its passion and it is rare for anyone to invite anyone else to know Christ. We have this natural drift in another direction that typically takes us to turn in on ourselves, choosing to invest ourselves in knowing one another who are already gathered and who share a common story. We drift away from the value to invite.
We must be diligent in our efforts to recognize when this natural drift is at work; and guard ourselves against it. We don’t have to settle for this natural drift; and we don’t have to resign ourselves to believe that sin is winning the battle and we might as well retreat to isolation from the world. This is not the work of God in us.
How was it for the church when Pentecost became a defining moment that they made that turn to move outside and it continued to define who they are, regardless of the obstacles?
The best I can tell is they expected God to show up and do something. They took action to prepare them for God so that they would be ready for what God was about to do. And then, when God showed up, they were not surprised. They were not taken off guard. All of them got in the game.
The community was surprised about what was going on among the followers of Jesus. The community came running to see what was going on. The community was bewildered, and beside themselves with wonder. But not the church. The church was prepared to allow God to work through them. They expected God to show up and they were not disappointed.
Maybe something might happen, redefine the moment for the church today, if we expected God to show up with a power that will come upon us. We don’t need another Pentecost for that to happen. The Spirit is showing up to give us a voice, to renew passion, and to empower a mission. May we prepare ourselves and be diligent in our expectation for God to do something.
Let us pray: Come, Holy Spirit, Come. Fill your church with your power. Define this moment for the church and send us out.Amen
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