Foundry UMC DC: Sunday Sermons
Religion & Spirituality:Christianity
New Day, New Way
A sermon preached by Rev. Ginger Gaines-Cirelli for Foundry UMC May 3, 2020, the fourth Sunday of Easter. “Life Interrupted” series.
Text: Acts 2:42-47
Beloved, we are living through days unlike any we’ve seen before. The interruptions of our lives are significant, the unknowns many, the depth of the fallout at every level—personal, spiritual, economic, political, relational—not yet fully realized. What we are increasingly coming to understand is that things will never be the same. This is a life-, society-, and world-changing moment in history. And here we are in the middle of it.
Our spiritual tradition teaches that whenever there is an outbreak of challenge or change, there is an inbreaking of Holy Spirit. The book of Acts is one place this is clear. This book from which we read today is often called the “Acts of the Apostles”—but from start to finish, it’s really all about the acts of Holy Spirit empowering, emboldening, encouraging, stirring, guiding, challenging, and sending a new community of God’s people to be a living witness to love and justice in the wake of a moment of profound change in the world.
Some folk of the time didn’t realize there was any real change afoot. The corrupt powers of this world thought they had extinguished the hope rising among the citizens of the occupied territory of Palestine when they crucified the one called Jesus of Nazareth. They’d reset their overturned tables, returning to normal, the normal ways of injustice and usury, preparing a feast for themselves while leaving others to live on crumbs. They’d returned to the normal exclusion and neglect based on human constructs of tribe, purity, and policy. The power brokers of church and society, those responsible for the welfare of whole nations likely didn’t give the upstart Jesus movement another thought once they’d accomplished their manipulation of the mob to lynch the so-called King of the Jews.
But God was up to something new. When Jesus got up on that first Easter morning a new day dawned, a new way of being was born. A way that enabled people to trust the promise and power of God’s liberating love to bring life into every place that feels hopeless, courage into fearful hearts, and vision for how to live together in peace with justice.
This is the context for our short passage today, a passage that immediately follows
three key moments. The first is the pouring out of Holy Spirit upon the disciples at Pentecost. The second is the bold preaching of Peter among the diverse pilgrims gathered in Jerusalem. Peter proclaims the death and resurrection of Jesus and calls folks to receive the promise of forgiveness, new life, and the gift of the Holy Spirit so that they might be “saved from this corrupt generation.” (Acts 2:40) And this brings about the third key event, the conversion of 3,000 people.
These new converts—together with the 120 disciples of Jesus who were already together at Pentecost (Acts 1:15)—are the first congregation organized around the new Way of the risen Christ. It is a way of being in relationship and community guided by “the apostles’ teaching” and grounded in prayer (2:42). And to be very clear, the apostles’ teaching is the message of the Kin-dom of God they learned from their Rabbi Jesus (e.g. Acts 1:3). That message was always an invitation to turn from ways of being that hurt and destroy and toward ways that heal and bring new life. Kin-dom living has love of God and neighbor at the center, breaks down barriers, and crosses boundaries to draw the circle ever wider. It is marked by the wonder-working power of Spirit who anointed Jesus and all who follow his Way, to “bring good news to the poor…proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, and to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor (Jubilee!)” (Lk 4:18-19).
Formed in the teaching and example of Jesus, this new community seeks to practice the new Way. It is a marked by generosity, radical love and hospitality, mutuality, friendship, and care for neighbors. It is a community grounded in prayer, praise, and worship—both in the Temple/sanctuary and in their homes. The abundance they experience does not just set a bounteous feast on their own tables but flows into the places of need around them. They share what they have to sustain and fuel their life together. This new Way is Spirit-filled and Spirit-sustained. //
And it likely never happened in such an idyllic way. This vision—according to scholars—is likely just that: a vision statement for what the writer of Luke and Acts believed the church was called to be. But, even though not without the inherent messiness of human community, this early movement of Jesus followers must have been doing something right because people were drawn to them. “Day by day,” says the text, “the Lord added to their number those who were being saved.” (2:47) And saved from what? Peter’s sermon helps us understand—saved “from this corrupt generation.” (2:40)
You see, the new Way lived in opposition and resistance to the corrupt, unjust ways of the Roman Empire and the ways of some of the religious leaders who—as Jesus had taught—were more focused on the outward appearances and getting special treatment because of their office than on matters of justice or love of God and neighbor. (Lk 11:37-44) And people longed for justice, for a way to live in friendship and mutuality. In fact, this vision of human community was desired by many in the ancient world. One scholar writes, “Terminology in this passage echoes other Greek philosophical writings that describe an ethic of friendship and mutuality that can be realized through ideal social and political arrangements. Some elements of the text also recall promises made in the [Hebrew scriptures] about the just society that God longs to see established in Israel. Certainly, then, this passage paints an idealistic portrait, proposing to ancient readers that Christian community offers the path to such a desirable vision of human existence.”
God’s activity in Jesus Christ and through Spirit’s power gives shape and life to a new thing, a longed-for thing—then and now: a community that is organized around principles and practices that reject any “return to normal”—because the “normal” thing is unjust and broken. I am struck right now by some beautiful and powerful pieces of writing that capture a longing of the human family around the world, a longing to step out of this moment having really learned something that changes the way we live. I’m also struck right now by the disturbing, violent, rage-filled images of unmasked, overwhelmingly white, U.S. citizens with guns screaming in the faces of security officers because they disagree with the actions of their elected governor. This moment highlights the existing clashes between values, the ways that different perspectives and experiences are not honored and considered, but rather used as opportunities for blame, rage, and violence. Our human family knows that things are not as they should be—and people are getting pulled all over the place, fed images and messages from God knows where, messages intended to stir distrust, resentment, fear, and all the reptilian parts of our nature. People are responding in all sorts of ways—some more helpful than others.
In this outbreak of challenge, suffering, brokenness, and struggle, there is an inbreaking of Holy Spirit doing something new. And, we know something NEW is needed for reasons we’ll be pondering together for many weeks to come. The world longs for that newness—for a vision and leadership and community with integrity, whose principles and values are not just spoken but lived, whose outrage is not focused on themselves—either selfishly or self-righteously—but rather focused on the powers and policies that systematically deny the needs, dignity, and value of whole swaths of the human family, whose core principle is love of God and love of neighbor and walking gently upon the earth.
And here we are in the middle of it all. Unable to all be together in our “temple” our sanctuary and building (likely for months to come) but filled with Spirit’s wonder-working power to be part of a new thing, a new way of offering the world an alternative vision for what life together can be, a new way of being advocates for and witnesses to the love and justice of Jesus Christ.
We begin right where we are, thinking together about what Acts 2 has to say to us today. We see that it’s Holy Spirit who creates and sustains the church, regardless of where or how we gather—in temple or in homes. I imagine that over the coming months as it becomes safe to gather in small groups of 10-20, we may begin to form “house churches” throughout our neighborhoods, with hosts who will welcome people in, using safe practices, for worship “watch parties” and follow-up discussion, fellowship, prayer, and support. As in the Acts 2 vision, we continue to pool our resources to care for the vulnerable neighbors in our region. Servant leaders skilled in public health and medical care are providing leadership for us to plan a multi-step re-entry that is not only safe but also grounded in our core values as a congregation. We are in the process of visioning an online campus for worship, learning, and small group connection that will extend our witness and invitation to those near and far for whom that way of being in community works best even after we are able to resume the full range of activity at 16th and P Street, NW. We are providing ways to reach out in loving kindness to isolated neighbors through making phone calls. We are offering messages from our pastors Monday through Friday that extend our message of love, justice, and inclusive community to the wider world. And we are continuing—even now—our advocacy and social justice work, including critical work to assess the ways Foundry can identify and address obstacles in our becoming a truly beloved community that practices equity and justice for our black and brown siblings and celebrates and multiplies the gifts received from our increasingly racially diverse community.
And you are all continuing to be witnesses to how to live with purpose, faith, hope, love, creativity, generosity, care, and good humor—as you share words, images, stories, and practices not only with other Foundry folks but with your friends, colleagues, and families through emails, texts, Zoom gatherings, social media posts, and phone calls. You extend the vision and values of the new ways we are called to be in community together through your acts of love, compassion, generosity, and justice. (#ThisIsHowIFoundry)
We are all experiencing a range of emotions, and are all over the map in terms of where we are on coming to terms with the current realities in our world. But the good news today is that God is up to something new and that means that while things will be unsettling and some will be lost, the good news is that, just as Jesus got up and moved out into a new day and a new way of life, that day is coming for us. Let’s pray for Spirit to get us up and ready to participate now and then in something that is truly new—and better than we could ever imagine.
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