Resurrection OF THE DEAD
June 17 , 2007
Acts 4:1-4
We’re going to begin today’s preaching moment by watching a video put out by the United Church of Christ on behalf of our 50th Anniversary. Today’s portion is a small group of UCC “twenty-somethings” talking about what the church is to them and where we need to go. Run video…
We are in an incredible moment as the United Church of Christ. We are in a moment where enough has been lost that it seems we might be ready for a conversion experience. We are finally in that moment with Peter standing outside the temple. We’ve gone back to the basic message…Hey! Does your job kick your butt? Hey! Do you feel dead at the end of the day? Hey! Are you finding the same old routine is sucking the life out of you? Hey! Is this church just about meetings and social activity which leaves you more empty than when you got here? We’ve got something for you. We’ve got resurrection of the dead. That’s right. You don’t need to feel dead. You don’t need to give the living away. You don’t need to be enslaved anymore. You are welcome to come as you are and be refreshed, renewed, nurtured and supported! Because our God says death is not the end of the story.
Peter spoke to the people, right where they were. Peter gripped the people because he understood them and could talk to them about where they were. He wasn’t afraid to say who he was, and how he heard the Still Speaking God calling to him. He got it so right that 5,000 people changed their lives.
During those days joining up wasn’t just five promises in front of us. Joining up meant selling everything, giving it to the common pot, moving in with one another and being in community. This meant, you joined and your whole world changed. The way you thought about money, the way you thought about stuff, the place you lived, how you organized shelter and food…It all changed. It all changed to support a new way of being together. Transformation by the Still Speaking God is nothing if you don’t have community. Because every one needs nurture, support, challenge and guidance. Without community these things could not happen, did not happen. And, some even suggest without community, conversion doesn’t matter because then, you’re right back an hour and a half later in your same life with the same bills and the same problems that propelled you to the church in the first place. Community is needed to begin again, forge new pathways and have hope.
We in the United Church of Christ we have this same opportunity. Because we’re 50 years old. Because the denomination along with others are dying at an alarming rate. We’re all standing outside the temple of our institution wondering…what really matters, and what are we going to do about it. Peter cries out to us from the steps. God wants you to have a conversion experience! It doesn’t matter if it’s Genesis or Revelation…God wants you to have a conversion experience. God wants you to change how you live…Live together not apart. God calls you to live with one another, in community, nurturing, supporting, sharing what you have that all are without need. And when you have these bold proclamations of faith…The empire will be watching. The empire doesn’t want the establishment to change. The establishment, the way of doing things, keeps them in business. What if we just had enough faith to say, we’ve had enough. We’re doing things differently. And, we embraced change. This God that says, change, have a moment with me that changes your life. Allow that change to change the world around you, how you see it, how you interact with it, how you impact it. Change. Allow us to be so wrapped up in God Still Speaking voice that we are not cowering under the power of the empire, but creating a movement.
I love the young women who is the environmental activist in the film today. She says we don’t have some magic panacea of what the church needs to be. Just think about why you’re bored. Why it doesn’t work for you. And, she says later this work we’re doing isn’t the patronizing work of doing it for people, we’ve got to do church with people.
Peter stood on the steps of the People and cried out to them, Hey! Let’s change. Let’s go with God into new life. Let’s celebrate living a new life. And then, they took one another and began again, literally, physically, economically…they began again. We are right there in the United Church of Christ.
How is it that we are asking people to transform their living? How are we transforming the living and then nurturing and supporting the change? Are we in ministry for people or with people. As we work on discernment this summer I pray we ask these questions over and over again. Hallelujah! It’s Pentecost and we are being asked to change. To be bold. And to follow a different voice than the empire. Who’s willing to sign up? Let us pray.