Dealing with people is so very difficult, this week on Thursday as I was working on my sermon for today, my computer system went down. I was no longer able to connect to the internet, I was studying for the sermon and I was no longer able to do so. I called the folks at Wild Blue and told them what the problem was and they began to research it from their end. To my surprise they told me that they had canceled my account because I had told them I was moving on June 11th. Now, that would be fine if this were June 10th but this is 2 ½ weeks away from my move. So I began the arduous task of dealing with one person then another, and found out that it would take 2 weeks to re-activate my account at my present location, then another two weeks to shut it down again. Needless to say I was not a very happy person by this time. I told the customer service rep that what they had done was wrong, because I had followed their instructions, and she said that this was true, but, too bad.
At this point I decided that it was time to end the conversation, I told her I was not pleased with the customer service that I felt I was not receiving, and then said that I would appreciate her telling that to her superiors, and that I wished that she would have a good day. So, I ended the call without raising my voice, although I am sure there was some tension apparent by the time I did so. Yvonne said to me as I told her I was going to have to go to Lampasas to arrange for dial up service, “did you pray?” I had to laugh at myself at that point for I had not prayed. As I did so, my anger began to dissipate and I began to feel my tension ease. I suppose that my blood pressure had become elevated as well and in prayer the Lord was able to work to calm that problem as well. I know that this whole moving thing has become a very difficult time for both Yvonne and I, yet it is also a time of prayer and of letting the Spirit work.
That’s what happened in the upper room on that day so long ago, the men and women had come together in that upper room, they were in prayer waiting upon the Lord when the Spirit came upon them. It says there was a sound like a mighty rushing wind and then tongues as of flame appeared upon each of them and they began to speak in other languages as the Spirit gave them utterance.
It amazes me that the crowds could be so obtuse as to say the things that they did, accusing the disciples of being drunk at 9:00 in the morning. How did getting drunk give one the ability to speak in a foreign language?
However, let us go back a bit to see that in the upper room was a force already assembled. This was a unified body, in this group of people there was already a unity of purpose and a unity of expectation. These folks all 120 of them came together, it was not to hide out nor was it any longer to cower in fear, it was a coming together to worship, to pray, to fellowship. Just as the temple held the Jewish people together, this upper room had become a sacred place for the followers of the Way. This place had been sanctified by the Last Supper, and by the times of meeting for prayer and the meetings with Jesus who was the sanctifier. Whatever their individual pursuits, be it fishing or wine making, they were one in their waiting for the coming that had been told to them, they were one in their devotion to one another and to their Lord.
Oh that the church today could act in like manner, waiting upon the pleasure of God instead of going off in all directions. How many of the people of the way today take time to pray. As I have already said, I am guilty of letting myself be taken over by the things of the world, forgetting that these things are not really all that important. What is important is that God’s people wait upon His pleasure not our own.
We see too the unity of the body of Christ in what happened in that upper room. The Spirit did not just alight upon the Apostles, it came upon every one of them, the whole church was anointed with the presence of the Holy Spirit, and they began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them the ability to do. This is how God looks upon the church, not as different denominations, not as clergy and laity, not as individuals but as the body of Christ, all equal no matter the task assigned, all with a ministry to be engaged in, all moving in one accord.
There is a joke that I and many others tell from time to time, it is about a person who dies and gets to heaven. There is an angel there to take him on a tour of the place to show him or her where everything is so to speak. They come to an open door and inside is a man in robes and he is speaking to people in the pews. The place reeks of incense and the atmosphere is very formal, the question is asked; “who are they?” The angel replies, “these are the Catholics, very formal in their worship.” They move on and find another open door, the sound of loud music and people shouting, the man looks in and sees folks jumping up and down, some singing others swaying to the music, he looks at the angel and is told, “Pentecostals, very enthusiastic in their worship.” Then they come to a closed door and the man reaches out to open it, the angel says, “Oh no, don’t open that door, that’s Church of Christ, they think they are the only ones up here.”
We laugh at the joke and go on, but the truth of the matter is that we all behave as if we are going to be the only ones up there, and every one else is wrong. Yet, in the beginning as the church was beginning in that upper room, there was one body, not many bodies. Just as man has split into many different groups and fight among themselves, so too have we splintered the body.
We have taken the grace of God that was issued forth in the person of Christ for all who would come, and we have added our own rules and made it much more difficult for people to worship together. We call ourselves New Testament Christians, or Calvinists, or Wesleyan’s, or Lutherans, or Roman Catholic, or Orthodox Catholic, or a hundred other names that have nothing to do with Christ or with the gospel. We have man made rules and man made walls that have been built up over the centuries, so as to separate us from that upper room. Each of us claims “apostolic succession” but the truth is I doubt very much that the apostles, nor any of the followers of the way, would recognize what we have become.
This unity of the believers was made even more manifest when we realize that their goal, their sole purpose was to bring all mankind under one belief, one family and that was evidenced by the power of the Holy Spirit acting through them to bring the good news of Jesus Christ to all who would listen. To unify all men and women under the banner of the Most High God, not as followers of Peter or of John or of Matthew, or of Mary, but as followers of the Way of Christ. The message was of the glorious works of God, the message was of the truth that God welcomed all races into one family. God was looking to do what has not happened, even though the Spirit comes upon all who come to Christ, the church has splintered into fragments. It is no longer the Way of Christ, it is rather the way of men with a little bit of religion to color it to look like Christ.
It is the role of those who follow Christ, to be exclusively inclusive, all are welcome to come and be a part of the fellowship of God. Those who wish to become a part of the kingdom, are required to repent of their sin and accept the Lordship of Jesus Christ.
Our biggest problem is that we insist on “interpreting” the word of God for our time, our place, and our people. God doesn’t change, God is still the God of Justice and Mercy, both of them perfect in Him. The one thing I love about Wesley and his teaching is the idea that all who would follow Christ, are to strive to become perfected in love in this life, not in the one to come. That is that we are all to act out of love, and that love is to be the same love we have received from the Father. We need to keep before ourselves the truth that, “God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever would believe on Him would have eternal life.” St. Paul reminds us of the simple truth of the gospel in Romans 6:23 “the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
The truth is that God loves you and will come to you where you are, but, He loves you too much to leave you there. God’s grace comes to all who will receive it, for those who refuse it, there is the outer darkness where there is wailing and gnashing of teeth. It is the choice of the individual, not of men, each of us has been given the ability to think and to reason, and each of us makes our own choices. Do we want the unity of the Spirit, or the discord of the outer darkness.
It is in waiting upon the Lord, that we find our way, not in chasing about doing for the sake of doing. Not in program after endless program, but in prayer, and in worship, and in doing that which is unifying for the body of Christ, not in unifying of one man, but the unification that comes when all are in one accord. That is the meaning of the Greek in today’s reading in Acts 2, that they were all in agreement together. I don’t think in today’s church we can get 10 people together in one accord.
If we do there will be 10 others ready to be upset about what the first 10 decide to do. It is the truth of the church that we no longer come together in our meetings and pray together, we are in too much of a hurry to get to the rest of our lives. If we would take the time to pray together what could we accomplish, what would happen if we, the members of the kingdom of God came together, in one accord, to pray and wait upon the Lord? What changes would happen right here in our place?
There is a book called “Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire” written about the Brooklyn Tabernacle Church. It speaks of a meeting when the pastor had reached the end of his ability, he could not think of a thing to say to the assembled group of people. So he called them to prayer, and it was in prayer that the Spirit of God was able to begin to move in that church. Today there are 3 or more Campuses of that congregation, their choir is famous all over the world, and they started with a dead church in a rundown area of New York City. Where would we be if we took the time to pray? What would our congregation look like in 5 years, what does unity really look like? Unity?
