God leads us in many ways. This week God led me to leave the lectionary texts behind and preach on the Pentecost text for my congregation. Dan and I recently announced that we have accepted new positions at Monmouth College in Monmouth, IL beginning in January. I will be the college chaplain and Dan will be teaching. We are excited and hopeful about this move, but we are also grieving the goodbyes that will soon need to be said to our friends, our colleagues, and our church. So in the midst of this congregational context, God led me to preach on our Pentecost text that offers the church, and the church’s people, a vision of hope.
“All Together in One Place”
Rev. Dr. Teri McDowell Ott
September 26th, 2010
It’s tough being the church. It always has been. Throughout our history as Christians who are called together to worship and serve, we have had some glorious moments and some not-so glorious moments. Some of our not-so-glorious moments might include the times when we misinterpreted God’s will by endorsing slavery, or when we forced indigenous people to accept Christ at the point of a sword, or when we subjugated women saying they had no right to speak and lead in the church. Some of our glorious moments, though, include when the Confessing Church courageously stood up to Hitler in Nazi Germany, when the African American churches led this country in a Civil Rights revolution, when the Protestant Reformation of the 16th century led us to affordable, public education for God’s children. We’ve had quite a history, we, the church. There have been low moments and high moments, dull moments and exciting moments, joyful moments and painful moments as we traversed through history as a group of fallible human beings trying to be faithful to our specific mission of BEING Christ’s body in the world. Such a mission brings difficult and unique challenges. Such a mission brings risks that we might not otherwise take if we were not called to be the church. Yes, it’s tough being the church. It always has been.
Today’s passage of our Pentecost story celebrates what we consider to be the birth of the church. In today’s scripture we hear of a disheveled and mournful band of disciples who gathered together for worship. They were a religious minority at the time, easily persecuted for their “strange” beliefs, easily eliminated had they not had each other. But they did. They gathered together in one place for support and for comfort and for accountability. They would remain faithful, they promised each other during worship. They would not let the Good News go unproclaimed.
We often bemoan the secularization of our society, the fact that more and more people are “unchurched,” that more and more people do not consider themselves the “religious” type. But rather than bemoaning this fact, I’d like to celebrate all the faithful people who gather together, week after week, month after month, in this community and around the world, to keep the mission and ministry of the church of Jesus Christ going. I’d like to celebrate this fact, because it is tough being the church. We have had our ups and downs over the course of history. But….we keep coming back. We keep gathering together. We, like those first disciples, keep gathering together in one place. Why? Many might ask. Well, first of all, because Jesus promised to meet us here.
Ronald Byars, in his book on worship, writes, “I know a couple who have a son who is developmentally disabled. The family is active in the church, and they seldom miss worship. One winter Sunday morning they awakened late and breakfast took longer than usual, and everything seemed a little off-balance. So the parents decided, for this one Sunday, to stay home from church. They told their son, who seemed to accept their decision. But after pondering this news for a while, he asked his father, “Won’t Jesus miss us?”
Byars continues, “I think this young son may have grasped something that many others have not quite grasped…that the Sunday assembly is about meeting the risen Lord.”[1]
Where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them.[2] Jesus meets us here, as promised, in the community of faith, in the Word read and proclaimed, in the bread broken and shared, in the water poured out like a never-ending stream. Jesus meets us here and even the children know it. They know it because here they are loved and here they too participate in rituals that bear the spiritual weight and spiritual significance of rituals that have been practiced for generations, for centuries, from the very birth of the church by faithful people who gathered together.
We gather together in one place because Jesus promised to meet us here and because the Holy Spirit promises to move us here. I know I’ve told you before that I consider it an awesome privilege and an incredible responsibility to stand up here and proclaim God’s Word. So I take great care in crafting these sermons. As I sermonize I think about you. I pray for you. I pray over a certain scriptural text. And then I write, and rewrite, and then I practice preaching my sermon in front of the mirror. On Saturday night, after the kids have gone to bed, I preach my sermon in front of the bathroom mirror with the bathwater running so Dan won’t complain about all my shouting…. I practice all of this. But you know what? It’s not the same. It’s not really a sermon until I preach it in front of you. And more often than not I get this feeling while I am preaching here, with you…it’s a feeling I don’t get when I’m preaching at home all by myself….I get this feeling of energy, and passion, and adrenalin that I know is the Holy Spirit. I know it in my heart. The Spirit promises to move us when we gather together. It’s not the same when we’re all alone. There’s something about gathering together, there’s something about assembling on Sunday mornings in the name of Christ that fosters the Holy Spirit’s work among us.
On that first birthday of the church, on that Pentecost day, the Holy Spirit arrived, as promised, and moved the faithful disciples who had gathered together. When we gather together in God’s house the Holy Spirit promises to move us through the words of a hymn or a prayer or a neighbor’s voice. The Holy Spirit promises to move us through an anthem that raises us up or through a word of scripture that hits the mark. In this place our hearts beat a little stronger. In this place our eyes get a little clearer. In this place our hands reach out a little easier because the Holy Spirit moves us here. And so we come.
We come, and we are met here by Jesus, and by the Holy Spirit, and by the God who ties it all together in a vision of hope.
In today’s text after the disciples had gathered, and after they had been moved by the Holy Spirit at work among them, Peter stood up to preach. For his text he chose the prophet Joel who reminds us of God’s promise to pour out God’s Spirit upon all flesh. Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy. Your young men shall see visions. Your old men shall dream dreams. Even upon my slaves, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit…and everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.
I imagine Peter standing there, preaching these words, sharing this vision with all the disciples and all of the Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia. I imagine Peter all full of energy, and passion, and adrenalin…I imagine Peter reminding his people of God’s vision of hope and…I know how he felt. I know how Peter felt because I feel it every Sunday with you. I feel it every Sunday when we gather in this place. I know how Peter felt because I know God’s hope for you, for me, for the church of Jesus Christ, and for Cameron Presbyterian Church.
I will admit, though, that I floundered a bit this week…I wasn’t sure what I should preach on this Lord’s day….but by about Wednesday it became pretty clear….it became pretty clear that God wanted me to remind us of all that is not changing in the face of all that is. And what is not changing is Jesus’ promise to meet us here, and the Spirit’s promise to move us here, and God’s promise to offer us hope here, in this place, when the people of faith gather together. Yes, it’s tough being the church. It always has been. There are highs and lows, exciting moments and dull moments, joyful moments and painful moments. But through it all the people have gathered, and gathered, and gathered because we know we do not gather alone.
Now to the God present with us in this place, be all honor and glory, thanksgiving and power, now and forevermore. Amen.
[1] Ronald P. Byars, The Future of Protestant Worship: Beyond the Worship Wars, Westminster John Knox Press, Louisville, KY, 2002), pg. 72.
[2] Matthew 18:20