Sermon for May 7, 2017

Easter 4A- May 7

Acts 2:42-47

            I think part of the human condition means loving a good origin story. There are numerous websites that want to help people trace their genealogy—to find out where their family roots lie.

The book of Acts is the church's equivalent of a genealogy. In it, we go all the way back to find out about the 1^st days of the church, what happened at the very beginning of it all for us as Christians.

            And there’s some unbelievably amazing action in this book! The very 1st "Gospel revival” happens right before our passage today. It’s described in big, wild words--about a wind that blows through, tongues of fire, the scary Holy Spirit. People are bewildered & amazed & perplexed as Peter, who just weeks before had denied Jesus & then hid in fear, stands up & gives the kind of sermon that most of us can only dream of giving. He weaves in the Hebrew Scriptures with Jesus' life, & 3000 people join the young Christian community. This is wild stuff.

            But it doesn't end with a mad, emotional revival. The passage we read this morning describes the Christian community as it begins; & oh my goodness, it is beautiful. They’re doing theology; they’re living together; they’re eating together; they’re praying together. This is a kind of community that most church leaders would give anything for. And while this part of the story isn’t as noisy as the revival part, it has its own reckless beauty--the new Christians are literally giving away everything that they have so that no one will be hungry or homeless; & they’re doing it all with gladness & joy--& the community just keeps growing every single day.

            This story of the beginning of the Church is glorious. This is the Church alive. This is the Church on the move. This is the Church as the bride of Christ. But I'm going to take a minute to be really honest. This isn’t how I have experienced the Church. And when I look around to my brothers & sisters who have been cut out or left behind or excluded from the church, I can see that they haven't had that experience either.

            When we think about the Church on the move, we don't usually think about good news proclaimed to the poor or giving away all that we have. Historically, we look back at a church that has committed systematic genocide against indigenous people, that has participated in power struggles, that has often wrapped itself up in the power of the state & has often not used that in the name of God.

            And for many of us, it's more personal than that. Maybe it happened in our individual church community--the moment that the pastor said that women could do Sunday school, but they certainly couldn’t preach. Or the time the congregation chose sides & fought their sisters & brothers, using the Bible as a weapon, until one day half of them took their toys & went home. We have been part of churches full of gossip & backbiting, churches that have told us they loved us & then silenced our voices because of our economic position or our gender or race or sexual orientation.

            The Church is supposed to be the answer to our woundedness; but instead, for many of us, the Church is the reason we are wounded. The bad news is that we have failed at living into the unity that seemed to exist in the church of Acts chapter 2--& we will continue to fail, every single one of us. Someone will enter our church; & they’ll be messy in a way that we can’t cope with--or maybe beautiful in a way that our ugly & our messy can't handle. Every single one of us will come face to face with the person that we will refuse to love.

            But the news doesn’t end with the bad news, folks. It never ends with Good Friday, does it? Because, as I said on Easter, “It may be Friday, but Sunday’s coming!” Or more aptly, Sunday is here! You see, the Good News is that it is not up to us. We don’t need to be perfect for God to work in the Church. We don’t need to have our stuff together before God starts to move in our midst. God is still working. The Spirit is at work when other people fail us & when we fail other people.

            Because here's the thing. We go back to that beautiful, inspiring passage from Acts; & then we step back & look at the whole story in Acts of the early church. And yeah—it’s exciting & it’s a wild ride of a young Church just leaping off into the world empowered by the Spirit & loving people & preaching the Good News of Jesus; but Acts is also full of stories of embezzlement, church conflict, racial exclusion, leadership failures, congregational self-destruction, & infighting.

            And yet. And yet. Here we are today. We are still moving. The Church is still moving. The Spirit is still moving. The horrible, heartbreaking failures of the early Church didn't stop the Spirit from continuing to move & spread the Good News for nearly 2000 years. Our current heartbreaking failures cannot stop the grace of Jesus Christ from continuing to move in us & between us.

            Because the main character in the book of Acts isn’t Peter--even with his fantastic preaching, & it isn’t Paul--even with his radical missionary work, & it isn’t even the Church--with her radical expansion. The main character of the Book of Acts is the Holy Spirit & the way that the Spirit sweeps through our lives, whether we want it to or not, & sweeps through our churches even when we can't see a way that things can be made new. It is the Holy Spirt that even the gates of hell cannot stop.

            And so our good news is tremendous news; it is the best news of all: that Christ cannot be stopped by our sin & our failures, whether those sins are communal or individual. And the good news is that we are all welcome in all our messiness & diversity. This is us. This is the Church. One body, different parts. And while we mourn the pain the Church has caused us & others, here we are again, through Christ & in the Spirit, creating a place for others & ourselves where we can serve & love in all our beautiful messiness. Amen.