The Spirit's New Creation

My sermon yesterday focused not on the fire that danced upon the heads of the disciples on that first Pentecost, but on the wind that filled the room before the fire appeared. What was that wind, anyway?

The disciples assumed that everything was about to be resolved. After a shameful death on a cross, their Lord had been resurrected; and they had seen him with their own eyes! His resurrection proved that Jesus was God’s Messiah, so surely he would now restore Israel’s political power. That was, after all, what everyone expected the Messiah to do. But when Jesus’ disciples asked him, “Lord, are you going to restore the kingdom to Israel now?” he answered, “Don’t worry about that. You just sit tight and wait for the Spirit.” (Acts 1:6-9)

The disciples must have been very confused! One minute, the resurrected Christ was standing in their midst; and the next minute, he was ascending into heaven without taking any political power at all. In fact, he had only given them some vague instructions about waiting for “the Spirit.” What did that mean, anyway? What were they supposed to do now? Wait… on what? All they could do was to get together and try to understand what had just happened. They probably wondered how they could possibly go on without Jesus to lead them, and teach them, and inspire them? And then the wind blew in (Acts 2:1-4).

Imagine, for a moment, that you have just settled into the porch swing on a fine summer day with the morning newspaper, ready to tackle the daily crossword puzzle. The newspaper is in your lap and the pencil is on the table in front of you as you take one last sip of coffee. But before you can start with “1 across,” a wind kicks up. It comes out of a clear, blue sky, with no warning whatsoever: a gusty wind that sends your paper, your pencil, and your plans flying into next week. This wind isn’t just a summer breeze that fans your cheek, gently rustling the leaves on the trees. Oh, no – this wind is powerful! That’s the kind of wind that blew in on that first Pentecost.

We know that wind! We’ve seen it before. That same wind blew over the waters of chaos when the cosmos was formless and void, and God called creation into being. That wind blew into the dry bones that Ezekiel saw in a vision, and all those bones came rattling to life. Many years later, that wind blew into the womb of a young girl in Nazareth, and the Messiah was conceived. This wind is the wind of God’s Spirit; and it blows away old things and creates new ones! When it gusted into the house where Jesus’ disciples were gathered, it blew away all their expectations that Jesus would set up any kind of political kingdom. Instead, it created a new kind of community that was based not on the power of oppression and fear, but on the power of love.

That community is still with us. It includes people of every race, gender, language, and culture. Its people care not only about themselves, but about every other human being. And the only power that counts in this kingdom is the power to help others to become who God intended them to be! We call it the Church of Jesus Christ: created by God, redeemed by Jesus Christ, and re-created through the power of the Holy Spirit. And thanks be to God! The wind of the Spirit that blew the Church into existence is still blowing! It blows into old, stale congregations and breathes new life into them. It blows people out of established careers into the ministry of Jesus Christ. It blows the love of others into hearts that have cared only for themselves, and sets those hearts on fire for mission. The Church is a brand new kind of community based on love: God loves us, and through the Spirit, God has given us the ability to love one another. What a miracle this day has brought! Let’s all celebrate that miracle on this day of Pentecost!

Footnotes

It is an unhappy truth that most women who have influenced the church during its nearly 2,000 year existence are still historical footnotes regardless of their accomplishments. This sermon that was written for our annual Gifts of Women Sunday explores that fact, beginning with a woman who was nearly erased from the New Testament altogether! If you are interested in her story, read on...

Paul’s Christmas card list must have been enormous! Look at how many people he says “hello” to in the few verses of Romans that I just read (Romans 16:1-7). Just these seven verses include four women and three men; and his list goes on for a total of sixteen verses! He eventually greets nearly 30 men and women. They are all leaders in the church of Paul’s day: deacons, people who host worship in their home, church workers of various kinds, and even two “apostles.” This morning, I want to focus on just one of those people: Junia, who is mentioned in Romans 16:7. I’ve singled out Junia not because we know a lot about her. Actually, we know very little about her. Just about all that we do know is that Junia had been Jewish before she became a Christian; that she became a Christian even before Paul did; and that she was imprisoned for her Christian activities. Oh, and that she was a woman. That little bit of information has caused all kinds of problems because Paul refers to Junia as an “apostle.” Listen again to what Paul says about her: “Greet Andronicus and Junia, my fellow Jews who have been in prison with me. They are outstanding among the apostles, and they were in Christ before I was.”

Hmmm… That doesn’t sound right. Nobody named Junia – or Andronicus, for that matter – are listed among the twelve apostles. But that can be explained. There were more than just twelve “apostles” in the early church. An “apostle” is a technical term for someone who saw the risen Christ and then did mission work for the early Christian church. The word “apostle” literally means “someone who is sent out.” Although there were only twelve “Capital A Apostles,” there were many more “Small A apostles” who helped to spread the good news of Jesus Christ all over the Roman Empire! Junia was apparently one of these. So, what’s the problem? The problem is that Junia was a woman. That didn’t seem to bother the early Christian church at all. Christian art found in the Roman catacombs dating from the first century shows women leading worship and presiding at the sacrament of Holy Communion. But it didn’t take long for those women to be erased from the scene. By the third century, the church fathers had decided that women weren’t permitted to preach or to lead worship; and they certainly couldn’t officiate at Holy Communion!

But what were they to do with Junia? There she sat, fat and sassy, in the book of Romans, with Paul himself calling her an “apostle.” She was a real thorn in the sides of all the men who wanted to deny women a leadership role in the church! So the church fathers came up with a really creative solution. They decided that Paul must have written down the wrong name! Instead of “Junia,” (a woman’s name), he must have meant “Junius” (a man’s name). Now, there isn’t a single man named Junius in all the ancient Greek texts that exist, and there are tons of women named Junia! But that didn’t stop church leaders from removing the woman Junia from the book of Romans, and replacing her with the man Junius. And that was the way that things stayed for another 2,000 years. Junius was in, and Junia was out! Fast forward to today. Modern biblical scholars finally took a good look at Junia, they decided that she might belong in the book of Romans after all; so a footnote appeared in some Bibles (although not all) that said, “This name might be Junia instead of Junius.” Nowadays, many Bibles restore Junia to her rightful place in the book of Romans; but she still drags along a footnote at the bottom of the page that reads “the name might be Junius.” I look forward to the day when Junia has no footnote attached to her name at all. Paul clearly says that she was an apostle, and she should get the credit that she deserves for doing such an important job!

So I ask you: why has it been so hard to admit that a woman could have been a leader in the early Christian church? If history is any indicator, women have been vital for the growth of the church over the centuries. We seldom hear about them, though. They have themselves become footnotes in history books; and although their leadership has led to some great things, we almost never recognize them for what they have done. Let me give you just two examples of important women who have become footnotes. How many of you have heard of Katherine Haack? She was the first woman to be ordained as a deaconess in the Evangelical Church (one of the ancestors of our own United Church of Christ) back in 1889. She was ordained to organize and train women of the St. Louis area to care for poor people who needed medical care. A wealthy widow donated funds to rent and renovate a large home in the city. Women from all over the area helped to get that home ready to receive patients. It became the very first Deaconess Hospital. Today, Deaconess hospitals all around the country serve the needs of those who are ill – and all because of the leadership of Katherine Haack and the generosity of the women who helped her.

I’ll bet that you’ve never heard of Mary Webb, either. Mary was a member of a congregational church (another of our UCC ancestors) who lived in Boston in the early 1800s. Her heart was in mission; and she didn’t think that the church of her time was doing enough of it. So she got some women together and organized the Boston Female Society for Missionary Purposes. They were inspired by the gospel story of the widow who put one tiny coin called a “mite” into the poor box in the Temple; so each woman decided to save one cent each week to donate to missions. Pretty soon, women all over the area were joining “female cent societies” to raise money for missions; and they did! They raised lots and lots of money; and every cent went to mission work! The women of our own United Mites Fellowship are their spiritual daughters.

Maybe it’s time to move Junia, and Katherine Haack, and Mary Webb, and hundreds of women like them out of the footnotes of history. We know about all the contributions that men have made to the Church; and it’s past time that we heard about the women, too! The reality is that women and men have worked together for 2,000 years to do the work of the church. If the women flew under the radar, it was because they had to; but despite their being considered incapable or unworthy or unacceptable, women have used their gifts in service to Jesus Christ from Junia’s time until today. This morning, I invite you to give thanks for our mothers in the faith, whose love and compassion and hard work have made them far more than footnotes in the kingdom of God. Their faith is the foundation of ours.

Superglued

How tightly does God hold on to us? Does God have a good grip on us, or is there some wiggle room? Paul claims that not only is God's grip on us tight, we are superglued into God's arms! (Well, OK... Paul doesn't use EXACTLY those terms...) Now, that is really good news! Read my sermon if you would like to explore this in more detail!

A little over 5 years ago, a pastor named Rob Bell wrote a book about Christianity that caused quite a stir. People who read the book either loved it or hated it. Those who hated it claimed that Bell’s thinking wasn’t biblical. His harsher critics even accused him of being a heretic. That book led to Bell’s removal from the Mars Hill Bible Church, the church that he had founded in a suburb of Grand Rapids, Michigan and pastored for over 10 years. Despite the fact that under his leadership, that church had grown to a membership of nearly 10,000 people, many of its members decided that because of what Bell wrote in his book, he was not fit to lead a Christian congregation. What did Rob Bell write that caused such a ruckus? Did he deny that Christ was divine? No. Did he say that the Holy Spirit isn’t really a part of God? No. Did he claim that he was a new Messiah? No. Well, then, what in the world did he write? In his book Love Wins, he wrote that God loves us, and that nothing in this world can ever separate us from that love.

God loves us? We all know that! Isn’t that the good news of the gospel? It sure is! Don’t we Christians proclaim that as the very foundation of our faith? We sure do! Didn’t Jesus die for us because God loves us so much? He sure did! So, then… what’s the problem? The problem is this: Rob Bell claims that God doesn’t just love us here and now. He believes that God will love us forever, regardless of who we are or what we have done, or said, or thought. In particular, he rejects any beliefs that include scenes like The Last Judgement that Michelangelo painted on the wall above the altar of the Sistine Chapel. In the very center of the painting is Christ judging everyone who has ever lived. Above Christ are the redeemed who are ascending into heaven; while below him, the souls of the lost are sinking down into hell. It’s hard to miss the message of this painting: God’s grace won’t last forever. There will be a time when God’s love for some people runs out; and when it does… well, they’re out of luck. Some people will be eternally “in,” while others will be condemned to eternal punishment.

This, then, is what all the ruckus was about. Rob Bell would say that although images like Michelangelo’s Last Judgement may be fine art, they don’t reflect reality. This, he says, is the reality: that God embraces us with arms of love today, tomorrow, and forever. God loves us; Jesus died for us; and his resurrection proves God’s love for us! And nothing at all can ever separate us from that love. God will never condemn us, because God loves us! And Rob Bell didn’t make that up. He got it from none other than St. Paul himself, who wrote in the book of Romans (Romans 8:31-39): “Nothing in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” We are superglued to God forever through Jesus Christ, who died and was resurrected for everyone who ever lived and who ever will live!

Most of us, though, don’t really believe that. We condemn all kinds of people without hesitation because we can’t believe that God loves them. We don’t believe that God’s grace covers people like drug dealers, gang members, human traffickers, child abusers, mass murderers, and terrorists. We all wonder, “What about people like Adolf Hitler or Osama Bin Laden? What about the terrorists who committed the attacks against the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on 9/11? Surely God doesn’t love them!” That question deserves consideration; so here’s my answer (which is, by the way, firmly grounded in scripture). There is no doubt that the world is full of evil. But we have to be careful not confuse Evil (with a capital E) with the people who commit evils (with a small e). God hates Evil; but God loves even the people who commit evils. In fact, I believe that God pities them. What if, when all of our questions are answered in the next life, we find out that people we judge to be evil are really captives to Evil? What if Evil has such a hold on them that they have no other choice but to commit evils? And what if, in the Last Judgement that we imagine in such gruesome detail, what God condemns to hell is not people, but the Evil that held them captive? It is revealing that in the gospel stories, the only people who Jesus condemned were the religious leaders who were so ready to condemn others! Do you remember the story from the Gospel of John when Jesus was confronted with a woman who had been caught in the act of adultery (John 8:3-11)? The religious leaders wanted to stone her. After all, that was what justice required! But Jesus told her accusers, “Sure, go ahead, throw a stone at her – if you’ve never committed a sin yourself.” The uncomfortable truth – and it is, indeed, very uncomfortable – is that God is far more loving, merciful, and full of grace than we will ever be!

But let’s get back to ordinary people like us. None of us are Evil (with a capital E). We aren’t drug dealers or mass murderers. We live fairly good lives most of the time. We know God loves us, and we are certain that eternal life awaits us when we pass out of this world and into the next. And we’re right! But we’re filled with doubts about other folks – especially folks that we care about. What about my friend Carl? He’s an atheist. Does God love him? What about my Aunt Tillie, who thinks that religion is a bunch of nonsense? Will God condemn her? And what about my neighbor, who is a Jew… or a Muslim… or a Buddhist… or a Hindu? Is God’s grace big enough to embrace them, too? My answer is simply to repeat what St. Paul said so eloquently in the book of Romans: “Nothing in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” No matter what we do or say or think, all of us are permanently glued into God’s loving embrace.

“Blessed is the one who doesn’t take offense at me,” Jesus said. (Matthew 11:6) Blessed, indeed, are the ones who are not offended that we don’t get what deserve. Blessed are the ones who rejoice that all of us are embraced by a love that none of us deserve! God loves us beyond all reason. Maybe, in the end, that’s the whole point. We can’t understand God’s love through reason. All that we can do is to accept it, and give thanks for it, and to marvel at the miracle of grace. God is love – for you, and for me, and for everyone, everywhere, forever! Thanks be to God!

Everyday Excellence

Most of us know the "love chapter" from I Corinthians. That's the one that begins, "If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal." Paul didn't write that text only for newly-weds. It's supposed to apply to all of us! Imagine what the world would be like if we practiced Paul's advice...

We all want to be the best, don’t we? I guess that’s just human nature. It’s true that some people enjoy competition more than others; but let’s face it: given a choice of coming in first or settling for second, not one of us would choose to be anywhere but in the winner’s circle. After all, who remembers a second-place finisher? We all know who Michael Phelps is, the great swimmer who won a total of 23 gold medals during the course of four Olympic games. Does anybody know who came in second in all those races? I bet you don’t. I know that we could look it up, but… I don’t really care. In an athletic competition, if you come in second, you might as well come in forty-second! First place is the place that really counts. Now, that attitude is great in athletic events. In fact, that’s what athletic events are all about – finishing in first place. The trouble is, though, that this spirit of competition that is so necessary in sports tends to sneak into places where it just doesn’t belong. Everything in life isn’t a competition! In fact, competition can ruin some things. I know adult siblings who have never liked one another because they have competed with one another their whole lives. Their relationship has been consumed with worries about which one was more successful, more intelligent, or more loved. Where relationships are concerned, a little competition goes a long way.

That kind of competition can even creep into the church; and when it does, a congregation can start to rot from the inside out. Instead of working as a team to minster to do the work of Jesus Christ, conflicts take root as church members start comparing themselves to one another. “My idea was better than his was,” someone grumbles; while another complains, “I do more work than she does! Why wasn’t I asked to be the chair of that committee?” That kind of competition can spread like an infection; and no church congregation is immune to its effects. Even Paul had to contend with this kind of unhealthy competition in the churches that he started in ancient Greece and Asia Minor. Judging from some of his letters, the church in Corinth seemed to be especially fertile soil for the growth of competition weeds. In I Corinthians, Paul scolds some of the Corinthian church members for always wanting to be the center of attention. The problem was that each person wanted to have a spiritual gift that would make him look better than everybody else! In the part of his letter that I read this morning (I Corinthians 12:27-13:13), Paul lists a whole slew of spiritual gifts: prophecy, discipleship, teaching, healing, helping, and guidance. But nobody cared about those gifts, because everybody wanted to speak in tongues! Speaking in tongues was a flashy gift that set anyone apart from all the other church members. If someone spoke in tongues, that person won the competition for having the best spiritual gift! All the other spiritual gifts came in a distant second.

Paul had a few words to say about that! He reminded the church in Corinth that they all had to work together to do the work that they had been called by God to do. He reminded them that all their spiritual gifts were necessary to the ministry of the church, from the most eloquent preacher all the way down to the person who set the dinner plates on the table. And then, Paul said something surprising. He said that all the spiritual gifts that everybody wanted so badly weren’t worth anything unless those gifts had something else behind them. And that something else is love. Then Paul wrote the portion of I Corinthians that everybody knows. It’s the chapter that preachers read at nearly every wedding that they perform.  It begins, “If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.” As you read those words, you probably envision a misty-eyed bride walking up a church aisle, while her nervous groom waits for her at the altar. That text is certainly appropriate for a wedding, since it speaks of love and of the joy that it brings! But Paul didn’t write that text to be read only at weddings. He wrote it for every single church member, and expected them to put his words into practice every single day! Patience. Kindness. Humility. Trust. Hope. Perseverance. Paul wanted his congregation to practice these virtues not just with a spouse or a cherished friend, but with every single person that they encountered!

We all know what it’s like when we expect to encounter love but run head-on into its opposite. Isn’t it disappointing to meet someone who is intelligent and gifted, but who isn’t loving? You finally meet someone that you respect highly for their talent or for their accomplishments; and you are excited to be able to meet them in person at last! But when you do meet that person… well, he’s a jerk. He may be talented and accomplished; but he is also rude and self-centered and thoughtless. What a disappointment! “If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.” There are an awful lot of clanging cymbals out there with lots of show but nothing underneath. Paul wanted every one of his congregation to put their money where their mouths were. If they claimed to have spiritual gifts, great! But if the love in their lives didn’t lay a foundation for those spiritual gifts, they weren’t worth anything at all.

What it all comes down to is this: whatever good things you do are hollow if you don’t have love as their foundation. If you don’t have love at the center of your life, you’re like a beautifully decorated porcelain egg. It looks great from the outside; but if you were to crack it open, you’d find nothing inside it. But if you love… if you love, then you are like a real egg that’s filled with the potential for life and growth! That egg may be plain white or brown, but what it looks like really doesn’t matter, because it’s what inside that counts! That’s what Paul was trying to tell all the members of the Corinthian church who were so worried about whose spiritual gifts were the best. It’s what inside that counts! In the end, you don’t need to worry about which spiritual gift you have, because being a Christian isn’t a competition. Besides, if love is the foundation of everything that you do, in any “best Christian” competition, you’re already a winner.