INTRODUCTION: Recently I have been reading a book titled The Speed of Trust. While reading this book I came across this interesting fact. I found interesting because it makes me think about the condition of the Christian church these days. I am trying to decide if people have lost trust in the church. Or if the church has lost trust in God. Either way it does not seem like there are a lot of people walking with the boldness and conviction that we see in today’s scripture reading.
Do you remember the LA Riots in 1992? Over 50 people were killed in those riots and approximately 2300 people were injured. Most of us can recall the images of Reginald Denny being dragged out of his truck and beaten. We also remember the quote from Rodney King, “Can’t we all just get along.” But did you know that during those riots, in the midst of everything that was happening. Not a single McDonald’s was touched. Over 1100 buildings were on fire or being destroyed, cars were being tipped over, windows were being smashed and stores being looted but not a single McDonald’s was touched.
People have asked how did the McDonald’s manage to get by untouched. The locals responded - McDonald’s had a reputation of supporting literacy initiatives and sports programs in the community. McDonald’s had always offered jobs to the youth in the area. What they were really saying, “We trust that McDonald’s has our back.”
When was the last time you heard someone from the community, not a member of this church, but just a random person from our community say, “We trust that First UMC has our back?”
Something happens when you come to a place of trust. In the midst of all the chaos and confusion trust allows you to see order and stability.
The disciples are walking in the midst of a firestorm. Jerusalem is getting ready to boil over with chaos and confusion. And God is positioning the disciples to be a source of trust and hope.
How about you? Do you feel like God is positioning you to be a source of trust and hope for someone in the midst of their chaos and confusion? Do you believe God is positioning our church to be a source of trust and hope for our community?
The religious leaders and the political leaders thought they had stopped the story of the resurrection, they thought they had terminated the talk of Jesus, but now in the very heart of the marketplace, in the wide open space for all the world to see - two disciples, Peter and John were talking about Jesus of Nazareth and no one was harming them, in fact, it appeared that the people were actually listening and believing them. It appeared that the people heard their story as a story of trust and hope.
BODY: The indwelling of the Spirit gives people a conviction to proclaim a truth even in the face of unrelenting persecution and pressure. In the military we have a saying - “What are you going to do shave my head and take away my birthday?” Meaning what else can you do to me that you haven’t already done. I have nothing to lose.
The disciples had witnessed the attempts to stop the story. They had seen Jesus beaten and crucified. They watched His body be placed in a cut out cave. They had fled Jerusalem believing that the story had been stopped. But then the Truth was revealed. Jesus stood in the midst of their chaos and confusion. They once again embraced the story, but this time they knew they would never run again. They knew there was no way to stop this story. They knew what Jesus meant when He said, “even the rocks will tell this story.
And so when the council of high priests, the very council who had surrendered Jesus to Pilate, ask the question, “What is this story that you are weaving in the streets of Jerusalem?” Peter and John tell the story! They are in effect saying, “We are going to tell you this story because even if you choose to kill us after telling this story it will still be told.”
Friends there is a saying, “You cannot put toothpaste back in the tube. You cannot saw sawdust and you cannot put spilt milk back in the bottle.” In other words you cannot put the body back in the tomb when the body is alive!
The religious leaders thought they could intimidate the disciples to silence the story, but God had determined that the story of trust and hope in the midst of chaos and confusion will be told. God had determined that nothing, not even death would stop the story from being told. Therefore the only way to stop the story is to prove the story false and for over 2,000 years no one has been able to disprove God’s story of love, forgiveness and grace. No one has been able to stop people from being sources of trust and hope in the midst of chaos and confusion. Nothing can stop the story especially when the story is standing right before their eyes (Acts 4:14)
You know as I was preparing this message I thought so what strategies do I need to present so that we might have the same boldness? I was trying to figure out how do you lead people to have the same boldness and conviction that the disciples had? Really what I was trying to do is figure out - How do I make this message a little longer - you know make a very simple truth more elaborate so that I sound like I graduated from seminary, or as some of you like to tease me, show that I worked my one hour this week :-). But the reality - there really is not a magic formula, there is no silver bullet. The source of the conviction, the courage, the call, is the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. You either have it or you don’t. There is no middle ground.
How do you know you have it?
Paul tells us in his writings to the Christians of Galatia - listen when you live God’s way, when you live under the control of the Holy Spirit you will discover that you have affection for others, you will have an exuberance about life, in the midst of chaos and confusion you have a certain serenity that others lack. When you encounter difficult projects, or difficult people, people whose hearts have become hardened because of deferred hope, because they have accepted a lie that they are not loved, you develop a willingness to stick with the story of love, grace and forgiveness, you do not give up. You are moved with compassion for those who are less fortunate than you are. You conduct yourself as if you were a mirror of Jesus, believing that you are an ambassador for Jesus. Finally you operate with a basic truth the story about God’s love, grace and forgiveness cannot be stopped and so you make a daily commitment to tell the story and to live the story. You appreciate that you do not have to force the story. You do not have to persuade people to believe the story because you know that the story can never be proven false. (Galatians 5:22-23).
CONCLUSION: In a few moments you are going to be invited to once again enter a community that is filled with chaos and confusion. There will be people tomorrow who will learn that they have cancer, that someone they love has died, someone will lose their job. People will wake up tomorrow and they will look into a mirror and they will be overcome with guilt and shame. There are people who will feel alone, abandoned, struck down, condemned. You have been sitting in a place of safety and refuge just like the disciples in the Upper Room, but then they prayed. They prayed - Our Father… Thy Kingdom Come…Thy will be done…ON EARTH AS IT IS IN HEAVEN… and they prayed it over and over getting louder and louder being filled with boldness and conviction. And then they were moved to get outside of their place of safety and refuge to go and tell the story of how Jesus pleaded our cause, how Jesus righted your wrong, how Jesus breaks the chains of chaos and confusion, how Jesus gave His life so that you would have a life of hope, they no longer asked, “How can this be?” They knew how it came to be and they knew there was no way the story could be stopped. I pray as you hear Jackie sing this song you too will be filled with the Holy Spirit and you will leave this place of safety and refuge ready to be a source of trust and hope to a person who is stuck in a world of chaos and confusion.
