What are people for?
Preacher: The Rev. Heidi Haverkamp
Preached on: June 12th, 2011
Audio:
No recordingScripture Text:
Acts 2:1-12
Sermon:
The Rev. Heidi Haverkamp
The Episcopal Church of St. Benedict
Pentecost Sunday – June 12, 2011
Acts 2:1-21, What are people for?
There’s a book title that grabbed me about fifteen years ago: What are people for? Except that the way the book jacket was designed, it seemed like you should say: What are people FOR?!? It’s a question you could ask: What are people for? Maybe when we’re in a church we also find ourselves asking: What is religion for? What is a church for?
The day of Pentecost is the birthday of the Church, and it’s a day we should be asking questions like that. What are people for? What is religion for? What is a church for? What is baptism for? The disciples might’ve been asking those same questions while they were hiding in a room together, after Jesus left earth and left them behind. We stood in the narthex together at the beginning of the service to recapture that feeling. “What’s next?” they must’ve wondered, “What will happen to us?” It might’ve seemed to the disciples that the Resurrection of Jesus was going to be “it.” The End of the Story. The experience nothing else could top. But God had something else in mind. And that something would answer the questions about what people, religion, and the Church are for.
The End of the Story wasn’t the Resurrection of Jesus. The disciples were hiding together and God, the Holy Spirit came among them. Flames of fire, wind, noise, inspiration, and a speaking in many languages. And suddenly, they couldn’t help but walk out from the safety of their little room and out into the streets. Among lots of strangers. And start talking to them. The Holy Spirit put the story right into their hands. The story of God isn’t just about Jesus and the Resurrection, it’s also about us. We’re part of the story.
In fact, we’re still telling the story.
Pentecost happened to an ordinary group of folks from Galilee – men and women who were plainspoken, who had probably never left their town until Jesus led them to the capital city of Jerusalem. They’re the plain old people of the gospels. So, whenever you hear about Galileans or disciples in the gospels, you can translate them into “me” and “us.” We are Galileans and disciples: ordinary people, who, even though we’ve had an experience of God in our lives, some way or another, even though we believe the love of God is real, we don’t always get it right, we don’t really understand what God’s up to, and yes, sometimes we have to hide ourselves away from the world and just close the door and watch some bad TV or play stupid games on our iPhones. We’re ordinary people, but we are the people God calls to be at the center of God’s story. We’re ordinary people, but we’ve been given all we need to take the love of God and share it in the world. And that’s the story God is telling.
The Bible is the story of God. The Bible isn’t a book we’re supposed to learn from; it’s not a text we’re supposed to let guide our lives, or fix us, or even inspire us. It’s a book we’re supposed to become a part of. That’s why we read so much of it every Sunday. It’s the story of who we have been, it’s the story of what we’ve living now, it’s a story we become part of when we’re baptized (as Anyssa will be today!), it’s a story we look up and find ourselves a part of: following in the way of Jesus, trying to have a relationship with God, looking around for glimpses of the Holy Spirit. We’re part of God’s story.
Jesus wasn’t the End of the Story. The Resurrection wasn’t the be-all-and-end-all. God the Holy Spirit and filled a group of ordinary people here on Earth with inspiration and courage and sent them to spread God’s Word: a Word about love, serving one another, praying, teaching, holding, caring, witnessing, healing.
That’s what we’re for. We’re part of God’s story. Religion, Church, worship – all those things are there to help us keep telling God’s story.
We so often hear we’re supposed to take charge of our lives, that we’re the captain of our own destinies. I find it much more freeing and full to accept that my life is part of something bigger. That my life isn’t just my own, hidden away in a room. That this church isn’t just a building standing by itself on Lily Cache Lane. We’re part of God’s story, we’re telling the story of God’s love in how we live our lives, every day.
That’s what we’re for.
Amen.
