The spirit in the church (Acts 2.1-21, 41-47)

/in , /by

The Spirit in the church (Acts 2.1-21, 41-47)
Eastminster United Presbyterian Church, Pentecost C, June 9, 2019
Tom James
Some people call today “the birthday of the church,” and they celebrate it with banners and balloons. I don’t think that’s quite accurate, because the church has existed wherever and whenever the faithful have gathered. But there is a sense in which the day of Pentecost marks an incredible new beginning. All the hopes for what the church could be are given voice in these verses. The second chapter of the book of Acts is a celebration of the way that the spirit of the risen Christ enters the hearts of people. I don’t know if you can see it from where you’re sitting, but we put up a new sign in the hallway to your right saying “set our hearts on fire.” It’s from a popular church song, and a line from the song struck me this week as a Pentecost prayer. “Blaze, spirit, blaze: set our hearts on fire.”
For the group of disciples gathered in Jerusalem for the feast of Pentecost on that day, fifty days after the Passover, the blaze of the Spirit was a spectacular, and momentary, ability to communicate across the language barrier. This was significant, for a couple of reasons. First, people were gathered in Jerusalem from across much of the known world. They shared a faith but they spoke a wide variety of languages, and we can imagine that they had a lot of different cultural habits as well. These people were in the same place, but they were divided. And, as divided people, they were not very powerful but were under the control of an empire that forced its own language on them and its own culture.
There is a very interesting parallel in this story with the story of the tower of Babel. Perhaps you remember: in Genesis 11, people were scattered in small, nomadic tribes, but tried to unite together and engage in a massive building project that would allow them to scale to the heavens. But God sees the danger of pride in their collective power and scatters them by making them speak separate languages so that they can no longer understand each other. It was as if the dangers of empire, of being unified by a central power, of having a life that revolves around meeting the needs of a small ruling center, of conforming your opinions and your view of the world to the one approved by kings and emperors, were being warded off in advance, by a curse. But here, the curse of different languages is momentarily lifted. As if to say, now that we are already in a situation of empire, the worst has already happened, and, now, the only hope is to come together, to understand each other and to unite our thoughts and our prayers and our power. In the power of the spirit, maybe this world of darkness and violence can be turned upside down, and God’s dream can be fulfilled.
But, in some ways, the language issue isn’t the most important, or the most divisive. Acts Two is very up-to-date, for then and also for now, in recognizing that the main division in society that has to be overcome in order to realize God’s dream for humanity has to do not with language but with property. If we skip to the end of the chapter, after Peter has preached his remarkable sermon and many people (some three thousand, we are told) become followers of Jesus, we get a glimpse of what happens in a Spirit-filled church. They broke bread together, as we will do in a few moments. They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, which was not some centuries-old dogma to be preserved but a fresh and new vision of God setting the world on fire, bringing the dead to life and setting prisoners free. They rejoiced in each other’s company. They were charismatic in the sense that people around them noticed them, and they found favor with their neighbors. And, most importantly, they gave up the false god that enslaves people in every age: the god of wealth, the god of owning things, the god of property lines, because they realized that, in Christ, they were free to share in God’s abundance without regard to anyone’s merit or worth. The work of the Spirit was to unravel all the fixations with wealth by dissolving the anxiety that makes people feel like they always need a little more than the other person. In Christ, we have enough, not because we learn how to make do with less, but because we can rely on each other. In Christ, there is abundance. In Christ, divisions are healed, and we become invested in each other so that your need becomes my need, and your pain becomes my pain, and your joy becomes my joy.
There’s a myth that these verses in Acts 2 were quickly dismissed by the growing church. In fact, the spirit of this vision continued as the church exploded across Europe and beyond in its first few centuries. It was only when the church became a recognized and supported religion in the empire that it became invested in the empire and therefore began to accept its gods of materialism and militarism. It was then that the church began to own stuff, compiling great wealth in land and buildings and cash that made a mockery, perhaps, of this earliest, Spirit-filled moment. And so it has continued from there.
A real question for us, after this long history, is whether the spirit of Acts 2 still breathes fire into our souls today. Are we as free as those disciples who gathered to await the Spirit at the feast of Pentecost? Do we trust God’s provision enough to let go of our anxieties and our need to possess? If you are like me, you have trouble with it. We don’t come to our faith on our own, but in the context of a long history during which Christianity betrayed its faith, exchanging it for the security of a prominent place in society. And, so, probably, you and I have some worries left over, even after faith takes hold of us. We wonder if the Spirit is enough.
But let us receive this vision of the Spirit in the church on Pentecost not as a word of condemnation nor as a reminder that we don’t quite measure up. Let’s hear it as a call to freedom. Let us open ourselves to Pentecost once again, praying for the Spirit to come. Set our hearts on fire! Because the Spirit of Christ is still here, and still calls to us to freedom and to joy. Amen.

EASTMINSTER UNITED PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH

June 9, 2019 – 10:00-A.M.
Reverend Thomas James
Pentecost
As we join together today to offer worship to God, we welcome all who share this worship with us.  If you are here for the first time we invite you to return again.  Please take a moment to fill out a welcome card that may be found in the cardholder at the back of the pew.
CONCERNS OF THE CONGREGATION          
If you have concerns, prayer requests, or need to convey information to the Session or Deacons please use welcome card in the pew.
PASSING OF THE PEACE
Now, let us greet each other saying: “The Peace of the Lord be with you” and Response: “And also with you.”
PRELUDE  
*CALL TO WORSHIP
Leader:       How amazing are your works, O God!
People:     In wisdom you have made them all; the earth is full of
                 your creatures.
Leader:      You send forth your spirit, and they are created;
People:     and so you renew the face of the earth.
Leader:      I will sing to God as long as I live;
People:     I will praise my God while I have breath.
*HYMN…………..…….”Come Sing, O Church in Joy!”…….….…………..……305
*PRAYER OF CONFESSION
Without your power, O God, we are lost. We have done the things we would avoid, and what you desire, we have not done. By your purifying fire transform our lives; guide us into honesty and compassion so that, filled with your peace, our dreams and visions may be one with yours; through Jesus Christ, who came to make us alive. AMEN.
*ASSURANCE OF GOD’S FORGIVENESS
*GLORIA PATRI (#581)
NEW TESTAMENT (Pg. 948)…..…..………………………….…..Acts 2:1-21, 41-47                           Response: “Thanks be to God”
SERMON.  .  .  .  .  .  .   .   .   .   .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .    “The Spirit in the church”
*AFFIRMATION OF FAITH
*HYMN.……..…………………”Breathe on Me, Breath of God”………………..…286
PRAYERS OF THE PEOPLE & THE LORD’S PRAYER
OFFERTORY
*DOXOLOGY (#606)
*PRAYER OF DEDICATION
 COMMUNION
*HYMN……….…….……..……”Spirit, Spirit of Gentleness”……….…..……..……291
*PASTORAL BENEDICTION
*CONGREGATIONAL BENEDICTION.  .   .   .   .   .   .   . “Tune of Edelweiss”
May the Lord, Mighty God, Bless and Keep you Forever,
Grant you Peace, Perfect Peace, Perfect in Every Endeavor.
Lift up Your Eyes and See His Face, And His Grace Forever.
May the Lord, Mighty God, Bless and Keep you Forever.
UPCOMING DATES AND INFORMATION:
June 9 – June 16
 Sunday June 9 ………………………………………………….………….Worship @ 10am
   Communion
 Wednesday June 12……………………………………………..PW Luncheon @ noon
 Program………………………….……………………………….Anne Jenkins on Quilting                   
 Sunday June 16……………………………………………………………Worship @ 10am
Thursday June 20………………..………….Strategic Planning Meeting @ 6pm
____________________________________________________________
A special Thank You to the congregation for their donations to
                                    “You and Me” camp!
SAVE THE DATE
Eastminster’s 125th Anniversary Homecoming on Sunday,           September 29, 2019.  More details will be forthcoming.
Counters for May/June
        THIS WEEK – June 9
          Holzhauer Team
   NEXT WEEK – June 16
         VanGorder Team
                              HEAD GREETER FOR JUNE
                                          CRAIG GALE                                                                                                                                                                            
         CHURCH FAMILY                                  PRAYER CHAIN
Looking for a church family?  
We would love to have you here at Eastminster. Please call our Secretary Jenny, and she will be happy to help.  419-691-4867.
Are You in Need of prayer? Please call our Secretary Jenny, and she will see your “Prayer Requests” are answered. 419-691-4867
Rev. James has started a blog with sermons and other
information from the church. You can check out the information at https://eastminstertoledosermons.blogspot.com
If you need to contact Rev. James you can do so by either e-mail (tomjames811@gmail.com) or his cell 1-248-990-3041.

No time for paitence? (Revelation 22.12-21)

/in , /by

No Time for Patience? (Revelation 22.12-21)

Eastminster United Presbyterian Church, Easter 7C/May 8, 2016
Tom James


About ten years ago, there was a video clip that went viral. It was of a woman who had come out of her house, I believe because of a fire. In the course of her telling about her experience, she said a line that would become internet-famous. She said, “Ain’t nobody got time for that!” I can’t remember much about the original context, but the expression caught fire because there are so, so many contexts in which those words are perfect, especially for kids. Homework? “Ain’t nobody got time for that.” Chores? Ain’t nobody got time for that!
The sage of the biblical book of Ecclesiastes famously writes that there are times and seasons for every kind of thing. You may remember the words from Ecclesiastes, or you may remember them from the Byrds’ song, “Turn Turn Turn,” from 1965. The song was actually written by Pete Seeger in the late 1950’s. To quote Seeger and the Byrds,
To everything, turn, turn, turn.
There is a season, turn, turn, turn.
And a time to every purpose under heaven.
A time to be born, a time to die.
A time to plant, a time to reap.
A time to kill, a time to heal.
A time to laugh, a time to weep.

To everything, turn, turn, turn.
There is a season, turn, turn, turn.
And a time to every purpose under heaven.
A time to build up, a time to break down.
A time to dance, a time to mourn.
A time to cast away stones.
A time to gather stones together.

But this rather accepting and tolerant view of time, and of life under the rule of time, sometimes gives way to something else. Sometimes, we find that we cannot accept the wheel of time that puts everything in its place as it “turns, turns, turns,” and we cannot accept the so-called wisdom of waiting for the wheel to turn, bringing perhaps more favorable circumstances. A situation can become intolerable and even unsurvivable—a fire in your home, to take an obvious example—and patient waiting is not the order of the day. And then we don’t hum the Byrds—instead, we say something very much like, “Ain’t nobody got time for that!”
I think it can be uncomfortable for those of us with some measure of means and creature comforts to admit that things have reached that pitch. Patience, for us, is often the easier course, because for the most part things are not really that bad. So when we hear words like those from the book of Revelation, they strike us as a note from another world altogether. It is interesting that the church-approved reading for today actually skips over some of the more evocative verses in our passage—the ones about the “sorcerers” and “idolators” and “murderers” and even “dogs” on the outside, for example. The ramped-up rhetoric seems perhaps too divisive, too intolerant, too angry, for our mainline, moderate, well-to-do, polite sensibilities.
But these verses that would rather not have to deal with are actually crucial to the meaning of the text because their context has to do with a desperate struggle for survival in the face of a cruel and oppressive empire. The promise of Jesus to come quickly, and the cries of the faithful for the Lord to come, and the angry condemnations of the pagan world empire, are words that come out of a situation of intense persecution and deeply felt fragility. They come from an experience of having no more time for patience. Suffering can reach a pitch where waiting doesn’t teach us patience, but only fuels the fire for Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “fierce urgency of now.”
Dr. King’s “Letter from a Birmingham Jail” was written to fellow clergy members who were counseling patience in the struggle for civil rights in the South. Many of these who were calling for patience were progressively minded white clergy. They agreed with Dr. King’s message about equality, for the most part. They were preachers and teachers of the gospel who heard in the words of Jesus and read in the New Testament a message of hope for the marginalized, and who, with Dr. King, longed for a world of racial reconciliation. But we have to be patient, they said, and allow the culture to evolve slowly and without too much acrimony or discord. We have to let our politicians and our courts do their jobs, bringing the best of our American democratic traditions to bear on the legacy of segregation and Jim Crow.
But the theme of Dr. King’s letter is that we cannot wait. One is tempted to say that, for these white clergy, patience may have made a lot of sense because, for them, life wasn’t all that bad. Sure, they hated to see what was going on in the South. It was depressing and morally offensive to see so many of their neighbors being deprived of civil rights. But there is perhaps a great gulf between being morally offended and being abused and pushed to the limit by forces that you cannot control. And perhaps that gulf is “patience.” We can afford to be patient when we are morally offended. But can we be patient, or should we be, if we are being pushed to the limit?
The greatest saints of the early church, the legendary heroes whose memory was treated with such reverence, were the martyrs. “Martyr” is from a Greek word meaning “witness.” The church’s “witnesses” were those who died confessing that Jesus’ imperial reign had come and thus that there was no more room for Caesar. They were giving witness that God had weighed the empire in the balance of justice and found it wanting. They were giving witness to the face an imperial domination system that favored aristocratic elites and used military power to crush opposition, that enforced crippling requirements for tribute that robbed peasants and small landowners of their security and their livelihood, could not stand. They are the ones who had no time for waiting for the empire to crumble under its own weight, as surely it would, because it was already crushing them, now. Ain’t nobody got time for that. In other words, Come, Lord Jesus.
What about our “now?” Is there a “fierce urgency” to it? I suggest that we can only experience time the way it is so often experienced in the Bible, as an urgent call to faithfulness—we can only experience it that way when we make ourselves neighbors and friends of those who are being crushed by the wheel of time, those most vulnerable, who are the losers in our society. Unless we do that, we are too complacent, too patience, to feel the urgency of the moment. Unless we do that, we are like the well-intentioned clergy Dr. King wrote who were putting themselves on the wrong side of the civil rights struggle in the name of patience. Or worse, we are like those who were too comfortable in the Empire, too awash in its prerogatives, not to fall into Revelation’s condemnations of the “outsiders” in relation to the reign of God. Goodness, can we be the “dogs?”
As much as I like dogs, as much as I’m a “dog person,” I don’t believe God is consigning us to the “dogs.” Rather, I believe that God is calling us in this moment to hear Jesus’ invitation to discipleship with new ears and to give witness. The challenges our communities face in this moment create a fierce urgency for many, and therefore for us who are their neighbors. Two and half million Americans are in prison. That’s more than any other industrialized nation by far. There are kids in our schools who cannot read  and will grow up to face a job market that demands diplomas and degrees. People are drowning in debt. Infrastructure is crumbling. Local governments are cutting staff and services, throwing the needy upon the care of churches.
We’re small, so I don’t believe that for us giving faithful witness means solving all these problems. But it does mean confessing Jesus, giving witness to his reign in these circumstances. It means refusing to wait for someone else to help or for the wheel of history to turn, but instead to help where we are able. There are prisoners to visit. There are kids who need tutors. There are families who need a bag or two of groceries. There are debts to forgive. What all of these things amount to is that there are people who need people: people to march with them, to eat with them, to pray with them, to stand with them, to be with them.
I’ll go further. Jesus said that where two or three are gathered together in his name, he is there. What could this mean but that it is when we become allied with our neighbor in his or her struggle for a decent life, our prayer for the coming of the Lord is answered? For what is reign of God, if not the beloved community? “The Spirit and the bride say, “Come.” And let everyone who hears say, “Come.” And let everyone who is thirsty come. Let anyone who wishes take the water of life as a gift.” Even so, come Lord Jesus. Amen.

EASTMINSTER UNITED PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH

June 2, 2019 – 10:00-A.M.
Reverend Thomas James
7th Sunday of Easter
As we join together today to offer worship to God, we welcome all who share this worship with us.  If you are here for the first time we invite you to return again.  Please take a moment to fill out a welcome card that may be found in the cardholder at the back of the pew.
CONCERNS OF THE CONGREGATION          
If you have concerns, prayer requests, or need to convey information to the Session or Deacons please use welcome card in the pew.
PASSING OF THE PEACE
Now, let us greet each other saying: “The Peace of the Lord be with you” and Response: “And also with you.”
PRELUDE  
*CALL TO WORSHIP
Leader:       The Spirit and the bride say, “Come.”
People:     Let everyone who is thirsty come.
Leader:      Let everyone who hears say, “Come.”
People:     Let everyone who is thirsty come.
Leader:      Let anyone who wishes take the water of life as a gift.
People:     Let everyone who is thirsty come.
Leader:      Come to the tree of life, the Alpha and the Omega.
People:     Amen. Come, Lord Jesus.
*HYMN…………………..…….”Come, Thou Almighty King”…….….…………..……2
*PRAYER OF CONFESSION
Gracious Power, you call us to your everlasting springs to be drenched and reformed, but we fail to heed you. We do not turn with love to our neighbors to ourselves, or to you, Forgive us for our failings, shield us from our due, and guide us into unity with all for the sake of the whole world. AMEN.
*ASSURANCE OF GOD’S FORGIVENESS
*GLORIA PATRI (#581)
NEW TESTAMENT (Pg. 1086)…..………..Revelation 22:12-14, 15-17, 20-21                              Response: “Thanks be to God”
MUSICAL MESSAGE
GOSPEL (Pg. 941)……………………………………………..…….………..John 17: 20-26
                                    Response:“Thanks be to God”
SERMON.  .  .  .  .  .  .   .   .   .   .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .    “No time for patience”
*THE APOSTLES’ CREED (Pg. 35)
*HYMN.……………………”Glorious Things of Thee Are Spoken”……………….81
PRAYERS OF THE PEOPLE & THE LORD’S PRAYER
OFFERTORY
*DOXOLOGY (#606)
*PRAYER OF DEDICATION
*HYMN……….…….….……”Will You Come and Follow Me”………..……..……726
*PASTORAL BENEDICTION
*CONGREGATIONAL BENEDICTION.  .   .   .   .   .   .   . “Tune of Edelweiss”
Lord of life, Lord of love walk forever beside us.                         Day by day, show the way with your vision to guide us.
Striving to follow your will and way nothing can divide us.              Lord of life, Lord of love walk forever beside us.

UPCOMING DATES AND INFORMATION:
June 2 – June 9
 Sunday June 2 ………………………………………………….………….Worship @ 10am
Session Meeting after service.
                              
 Sunday June 9………………………………………………………………Worship @ 10am
Communion
Wednesday June 12………….………………………………PW Luncheon @ noon.
____________________________________________________________
Flowers on the Altar are in memory of Sadie Bossler from the Holzhauer family.
SAVE THE DATE
Eastminster’s 125th Anniversary Homecoming on Sunday,           September 29, 2019.  More details will be forthcoming.
Counters for May/June
        THIS WEEK – June 2
          Sutphin Team
   NEXT WEEK – June 9
         Holzhauer Team
                              HEAD GREETER FOR JUNE
                                          CRAIG GALE                                                                                                                                                                            
         CHURCH FAMILY                                  PRAYER CHAIN
Looking for a church family?  
We would love to have you here at Eastminster. Please call our Secretary Jenny, and she will be happy to help.  419-691-4867.
Are You in Need of prayer? Please call our Secretary Jenny, and she will see your “Prayer Requests” are answered. 419-691-4867
Rev. James has started a blog with sermons and other
information from the church. You can check out the information at https://eastminstertoledosermons.blogspot.com
If you need to contact Rev. James you can do so by either e-mail (tomjames811@gmail.com) or his cell 1-248-990-3041.