Sunday, September 3, 2023
Spirit of Hope Lutheran Church, Lincoln, NE
Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost (narrative lectionary)
watch this service online (readings start around 18:38; children’s sermon starts around 21:18; sermon starts around 28:03)
Readings: Acts 2:1-18, Matthew 28:17-20
In the children’s message this morning, we talked about being called to do things that scare us or that make us uncomfortable. Oftentimes these are things that stretch us and make us grow, and the very people who push us to do them are usually the ones who are there to support us. In our readings, the disciples are called to something new and scary that they’re not sure they’ll be able to do – but the Spirit gives them everything they need to be able to do it, and Jesus promises to be with them always.
In a way, the story of the Holy Spirit as we know it begins with an ending – and that’s not just because it’s featured in the last section of the creeds! These few verses from Matthew that we read today are the very last verses in Matthew’s gospel. Jesus has risen from the dead, the tomb is empty, his followers have seen and touched him, and now he calls them to gather once more in Galilee, to come full circle to the place where it all began. He declares his authority over all heaven and earth and he charges his disciples with a mission: “Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
It sounds very much like a happy ending, especially that last line – “Remember I am with you always, to the end of the age” – it sounds kind of like the bible’s version of “and they all lived happily ever after.”
And our reading from Acts has kind of that same vibe of a happily ever after. We have this joyful explosion of the Spirit at Pentecost, in which the disciples receive the gifts they need to carry out this mission that Jesus has given them. It’s such a wild and raucous and joyous occasion that Peter literally has to step in and try to convince people that the disciples aren’t all wasted at nine in the morning.
But in between these two readings, there’s some other stuff that happens. In fact, there’s a pretty significant event that we skipped over. What happened between the resurrection and Pentecost? The ascension! Right at the beginning of the book of Acts, in the chapter before this one, Jesus leaves his disciples and ascends into heaven.
And, man, these poor disciples – just imagine the emotional roller coaster they’ve been on, through the ups and downs of Jesus’ ministry, arrest, death, and resurrection. And finally, now that Jesus has fully recovered from a severe case of crucifixion, the disciples are all like, “Heck yeah! We’ve got our teacher back and nothing can stop us now! Time to overthrow those Roman jerkwads and reclaim our glorious homeland!” You can even read in the first chapter of Acts where they come to Jesus and ask him, “Lord, is now the time when you will restore the kingdom?”
But in response, Jesus is like, “Yeah… about that…” And before he can even finish that thought, he’s abruptly yanked up into the heavens, out of their sight – leaving his very confused disciples standing on a hill, staring into the sky, and wondering, “Well… now what do we do??”
The disciples are just left with this enormous mission and absolutely no idea how to even begin to carry it out. Acts doesn’t really tell us how they felt about this overwhelming task of trying to evangelize the whole world. But I imagine an anxious, slightly sick feeling in the pit of their stomachs – the feeling that (for me, at least) seems to be the hallmark that the Spirit is calling you into something meant to stretch you and make you grow.
Jesus’ time on earth is over, but his disciples’ story is only just beginning. And, of course, it begins with a bang! The disciples are all gathered together in one place at Pentecost when the Holy Spirit makes her big, dramatic, theatrical entrance with wind and flame. And all at once, several things immediately become clear to the disciples:
1) Wow, Jesus was not kidding when he said he’d send some kind of advocate to come help and guide us. The Advocate has arrived!
2) Holy crap, Peter’s right (for once) – this is exactly like what Joel and the other prophets were talking about generations ago. God promised that this exact thing would happen – that the Spirit would be poured out on God’s people and they would prophesy – and God kept that promise.
3) Dang, God’s vision for salvation is waaaaaaaaay broader than we ever believed or imagined. I mean, here we are, focused on the lost kingdom of Israel one minute, and in the next minute, we’re speaking in Arabic and Coptic and Latin and who knows what else – preaching the good news of God’s love and salvation in the many languages of our neighbors. When Jesus tells you that this message is for everybody, he means everybody.
So now the disciples have everything they need to actually carry out this mission. The Spirit has shown them the path and has equipped them for the work they’ll be doing. Now all that remains is… well, to actually go and do it. That in itself is still pretty daunting. As excited as they are by the new things God is doing, I can imagine that it’s still pretty heavily mixed with that same sick feeling in the pit of their stomachs.
And rightly so – because, as they’ll soon see, it does get messy, carrying out this evangelistic mission that Jesus has given them. It’s easy to talk about bringing together people from all nations – but when you start actually trying to put it into practice, things quickly get complicated. All throughout the New Testament, we see the early church going through these growing pains of figuring out how to be a church of Jews and Gentiles, a church of slave and free, of women and men. It raises all kinds of tricky questions, like: Which rules will we expect new converts to follow? Do they have to be circumcised? What do we do with members who are slave owners or members who are soldiers? How do women fit into all this in our patriarchal society?
God has not only called them to carry out this ludicrously broad mission, but the mission itself calls the early church to a lot of self-examination. It forces them to consider what things are truly central and what it is that truly unites them as a community.
In many ways, it’s a challenge the modern church is still living out — especially in a complex and pluralistic time like the 21st century, and especially in a welcoming church like the ELCA. Trying to be a “big tent” church that makes space for all different kinds of people is one of the hallmarks of our denomination, and yet it’s also one of the areas in which we struggle most. Because inevitably, we are called to be in community with people who are very different from us – often with some of the people we find hardest to love, whether that’s Democrats or Republicans, dentists or IRS auditors, Husker fans or Golden Gophers. (I made a sports joke! Enjoy it. 😜) The Spirit calls us to love’em all.
All this is absolutely peak Holy Spirit in action. The Spirit calls us to step out beyond the limits of our comfort zone — and especially calls us to step out of our comfort zone in a way that makes more space for others, in a way that broadens the circle of our love.
And at the same time, the Spirit is also the very thing that makes it possible for us to do this. As much as the Spirit pushes us and challenges us, the Spirit also has our back when the rubber of faith meets the road of real life. We see this, again, in the life of the early church, especially throughout the book of Acts. The Spirit continually guides early believers with wisdom and love as they carry out the mission Jesus gave them and together forge a new kind of community. Through the Spirit, they come to learn that the key to navigating this work is to keep themselves centered in what matters most – the most important commandment Jesus gave them – to love God, and to love their neighbor.
This is how the Spirit holds us and knits us together: by keeping us firmly anchored in Christlike love. With love at the center, everything else falls into its proper place. That’s what makes us the church, the body of Christ on earth. It isn’t that we all agree or that we all accept the same detailed set of theological ideas. It’s that the same love, the same Spirit, burns within each of us – the same Spirit that burned in the hearts of all the generations of believers who came before us.
Our story, like theirs, begins with endings. For us together here now, our story begins with the end of this congregation’s first called pastor’s time here. For the church more broadly, we are gradually coming to the end of a very long season in which the church has played a dominating role in our national culture. Younger generations in particular are trending away from organized religion; and for us who have always known the church in this way, that can seem pretty alarming. It can leave us with that sick and anxious feeling in the pits of our stomachs, looking at the numbers and wondering, “Now what do we do?”
But just as the Spirit faithfully guided and provided for the earliest disciples – and those who came after them – so the Spirit continues to do for us now. This time around, it probably won’t be quite as dramatic as wind and flame and lightning fast language courses (though never say never!). But we can trust that the same Spirit that pushes us to grow will show us the path forward – will keep the church united in love – and will sustain us always, to the end of the age.
This is the Day 
