Writing Our Stories of Transformation: May 5, 2024

Year B, Easter 6                                    Acts 10:44-48                                                            

        Recently I was contacted a by radio station that wanted to talk about the history of Christ Church.  Of course, I know many of the highlights and I got a tour of the church when I interviewed here, but I wanted to hear what stories our educators were regularly telling.  I contacted one of our educators and asked him what the go-to stories were. They were all from the 1700s.  I said, “Don’t you have any from the 1800s or 1900s?”  And he said, “Well, there are some, but we mostly stick to the 1700s.”  I understand that.  People come to Philadelphia because they want to hear about the start of our nation…which was in the 1700s. 

In some ways, we do the same thing when we tell the story of Christianity. The New Testament basically covers 100 years. In the Easter season, we emphasize this even more by replacing the Old Testament reading with readings from the Book of Acts.  We do this is partly to distinguish the Easter season from other seasons.  Something big happened on Easter, something that changed the world for everyone (whether they know it or not).  For these 50 days after Easter, we look ahead instead of behind.  The Book of Acts tells the story of the beginning of the Christian Church.  In doing so, it tells of transformation of individuals and groups.  It doesn’t just tell the story of what happened before, it gives us a template for our future story. 

            The Acts reading we have for today seems rather innocuous.  The Holy Spirit fell on some people and Peter decided to baptize them.  This is chapter 10 of Acts.  In just a few weeks we will hear the Pentecost story from the 2^nd chapter of Acts where the Holy Spirit fell on people in the form of fire.  People who did not even know the language that the disciples were speaking, could suddenly understand the disciples as if they were speaking their own language.  It was quite a scene.  Therefore the scene this week is well…boring in comparison.

            The problem is that we missed a few critical chapters between last week’s story of the baptism and conversion of the Ethiopian eunuch and this week’s story.  Therefore, to fully appreciate the drama of what happens in this text, let me share a little about what happened in the previous chapters, particularly with Peter.  As most of us know, Peter had some rough moments in the Gospels.  He did not come out looking like a star disciple. However, after the resurrection, Peter truly shined.  In chapter 9, we hear a story of Peter healing a paralyzed man, and then, as if that was not impressive enough, he brought someone back from the dead.   This undoubtedly gave Peter some confidence in his abilities, as well as his connection to God.

            After Peter raised someone from the dead we hear stories of two visions from God.  One is for Cornelius, a Roman officer, and one is for Peter.  Cornelius’s vision was simply a command to find Peter.  Peter’s vision was a little more complicated.  It involved a command from God to eat animals that were considered unclean by the Jews.  Peter initially insisted that he could not eat these animals because he would never eat anything considered profane or unclean by Jewish law.  Finally God responded, “What God has made clean, you must not call profane.” The God who raised Jesus from the dead had changed things.  God was telling Peter that it was time for him to change as well. 

            Shortly after this vision, Peter was called to the home of Cornelius, a Gentile and a Roman soldier.  Just the fact that Peter agreed to go to the home of a Gentile is remarkable.  There was something from that vision of the unclean animals---and perhaps even before that vision---that opened him up to this possibility. He met Cornelius, as well as Cornelius’ family and friends and heard the story of Cornelius’ vision from God.  Peter came to know Cornelius and his family as more than just Gentiles, but as people who God had called.

Peter proceeded to share this sermon: “I truly understand that God shows no partiality, but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him.”  This is a complete 180 from what Peter previously had thought.  Up until now, he had only preached to the Jews.  He had believed that only Jews could hear and receive the message of Jesus Christ.

            This turn around was partially due to the vision that God had sent, where he proclaimed that what God had made clean, no one could call profane.  But it also came from his interactions with Gentiles, the time he spent talking to them and eating with them. It was probably a more gradual change than it appears in these few chapters. It was no doubt a difficult change.  He didn’t just have a vision and fundamentally change his world view. He opened himself up to the movement of the Spirit.  He let down his guard enough to see that maybe things were not as clear as he once thought.

Wisps of the Holy Spirit had slowly whittled away at those beliefs that had been so sacred to him, so foundational to his faith.  It was not an easy transformation, as transformations rarely are.  But the transformation he made altered the course of history.  Without his willingness to be open to the Holy Spirit, we might not have a Christian faith today.

            That is what brings us to today’s reading.   He was at Cornelius’ house and a crowd formed.  It was a crowd of Gentiles.  Peter told the crowd the story of his vision and experience with Cornelius.  While Peter was speaking to these Gentiles, proclaiming the good news, the Holy Spirit fell upon every person who was listening to this good news. I love that the text says, “While Peter was still speaking…” The Holy Spirit interrupted Peter. It’s like it could not wait any longer. The Holy Spirit swept in and fell upon these Gentiles.  Surely Peter’s words had something to do with their transformation, but the text proves that there is something unpredictable about the Spirit, even to super apostles like Peter.  

While the Holy Spirit surprised Peter a little, it shocked the Jews who were the companions of Peter. They could not believe that the Holy Spirit would be poured onto these unbelievers, these Gentiles.  It is understandable that they were shocked.  After all, the Holy Spirit had been working on Peter for a while now.  He had seen visions. He had gotten to know faithful Gentiles.  But for Peter’s companions, this was new and shocking. 

Peter could have said, well, let’s prayerfully discern this. We can have some listening sessions, form a task force—then in a year or so we can decide whether we should start baptizing Gentiles. Nope, he simply asked the Jews in his midst, “Can anyone withhold the water for baptizing these people who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have.”  No one could.  They could have said no. They could have grumbled and said things under their breath (which they probably did).  But no one was willing to withhold water from people who had already received the Holy Spirit. 

            The Book of Acts does not merely tell us the history of the beginning of the church.  It tells us our purpose.  It tells us our potential as people of the risen Christ. Sometimes in the church, we focus far too much on what has happened as opposed to what can happen. We focus on stories that have already been told.  That is understandable as we have a lot of great stories. But we cheat ourselves when we act like our faith is one of history and not a story of how we live today and tomorrow. 

The only way that we can move forward as people of faith and as a congregation is if we ask ourselves where the Holy Spirit is moving us now…what change might be on the horizon? What walls can we break down? Who are the Gentiles today? Sometimes it seems like it’s anyone we don’t agree with because we have gotten so bad at seeing the humanity in the people who we perceive as wrong or not as enlightened as we are. There are so many opportunities for connection and transformation.

            Imagine if there were no stories of transformation in the Bible.  It is impossible to imagine because it would be mind numbingly boring.  So why is it that we do think we can live on the transformation of people who have come before us?  We can’t.  The stories of the Acts of the Apostles are 2000 years old. We need new stories.  That’s up to us.  Let’s make sure that when an educator gives a tour in 100 years, they are talking about not just the 1700s (or even the 1800s), but the 21^st century.  We can build those stories of transformation now.   

Claim the Spirit: March 26, 2023

Year A, Lent 5                              Ezekiel 37:1-14                                                            

           Some of you may know that our lectionary rotates on a cycle.  That means that our readings repeat every three years.  So the readings we heard today were last heard in March of 2020.  Now this will shock you, but I don’t usually remember what I preached three years ago.  Sometimes I don’t remember what I preached 2 weeks ago.  But when I looked at this reading from Ezekiel, I thought, I definitely preached this three years ago.  I didn’t remember it word for word, but I remembered those dry bones. 

            When I preached the Ezekiel sermon 3 years ago, it was to a mostly empty church and a video camera.  We were about 2 weeks into our national quarantine.  I think it was around the time we realized this was going to last more than 2 weeks, but we had no idea we would be dealing with this for years. I reread the sermon from 3 years ago as I was preparing today’s and I thought, man, that was kind of depressing.  In my defense, it was a depressing time.  It’s amazing how different these words from Ezekiel look three years later.

            Ezekiel was a priest and prophet who lived about 500 years before Jesus was born.  He lived in a critical time--- when the majority of the Hebrew people were forcibly exiled to Babylon.  He was one of the people exiled.  The primary audience for the reading we heard today were the people who were displaced, cut off from their homeland for generations.  They were people who would not live to see their homes.  They would die in a foreign land.  Some of their descendants might return, but many would not. The exile lasted approximately 70 years.   

            When I preached this text 3 years ago, I identified with those displaced people.  At the time, we all knew what it was to be cut off from family, friends and our faith community.  I identified with the bones who spoke near the end of our reading.  They said, “Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost; we are cut off completely.”  But here is the thing about this dramatic and vivid reading.  It’s not about the bones or even about what the bones represent—which is the Hebrew people who were displaced.  It’s not even about the prophet Ezekiel. It’s about what God can do for these bones. 

What God can do for these bones is the impossible, or at least the thing that should be impossible.  God can bring new life to these dried up, displaced, utterly hopeless bones.  God will not only give them new life, God will bring them back to Israel, back to their home.  This reading isn’t just about new life, it’s about homecoming and how closely homecoming and life is connected. 

            One of the things that initially drew me to St. John’s was the history, primality through the lens of one our historians Jim Tormey.  We know that this church was founded in 1610 and some assume that there was a fairly smooth trajectory from then to now. Of course that’s not true. There were some rocky times in the 1600s and 1700s, but I want to talk mostly about the period between 1780 and 1880. 

            After the American Revolution, the church faced significant financial hardship as the British were no longer supporting us financially.  We could not even afford a minister.  By the time the War of 1812 came, the church was in a free fall and the building had deteriorated.  Unfortunately the British then took up residence in the church during the Battle of Hampton and by the time they left, the church was intact, but barely.  It was virtually ruined. Fortunately the people of the church rallied and rebuilt.  By 1830 they were whole again.  By 1840, they had 30 communicants and that doubled by 1860. 

However, it was short reprieve because the Civil War had a huge impact on the church.  The rector reported in 1861, “Congregation broken up, some families are gone, we fear, to return no more.”  That was three months before the whole town was burned.  It would be 10 years before the church was habitable again.  Between 1780 and 1880, there were 3 periods of near hopelessness within and outside these walls, 3 periods of time that people were convinced the church would never survive—after the revolution, after the War of 1812, and after the Civil War.  3 times when the church was a pile of stones, dry bones. Yet each time, the people rallied and rebuilt.   They met in different buildings, often without a priest.  They never gave up.  In 1890, 20 years after they rebuilt the church for the 2^nd time, there were 230 communicants, which is pretty close to what we have now.   

            I could point you to about 100 articles on what COVID has done to our churches.  Many people have hypothesized that churches will never recover from this.  And there are moments, I feel this too.  But then I remember the story of St. John’s Church and the story of the whole Christian Church.  I remember what God told Ezekiel at the end of our reading: “you shall know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves, and bring you up from your graves, O my people. I will put my spirit within you, and you shall live, and I will place you on your own soil; then you shall know that I, the Lord, have spoken and will act.”

            I bet this story from Ezekiel would have worked just as well if there was just one skeleton rather than a valley of bones.  I mean, just brining one skeleton to life would have made the point that God can do whatever God wants.  So why a valley?  Was it purely for dramatic purposes?  No. There was a valley of bones because this story isn’t about how God breathes new life into individuals, it’s about how an entire community can be resurrected.

            Today the buildings and grounds of St. John’s are in great shape, thanks to volunteers, staff, the generosity of each of you, and our endowments.  However, that doesn’t mean that our community doesn’t need God’s spirit.  It doesn’t mean that we don’t have rebuilding to do.  And it’s not just because of the pandemic, it’s because the church as a whole has become complacent and comfortable.  The pandemic accelerated what was already happening.  The church has been declining since the 1970s. But it’s only become obvious in the last 10-20 years.  We can blame the decline on any number of things, but I think what it comes down to is that people who don’t know the church don’t perceive it as relevant.  To them, it’s just a bag of dead bones.  It’s dead.

It’s up to us, to convince them that it’s not dead—that we are still alive.  And we can’t do that by trying the latest greatest fad. I think it’s quite simple actually.  We need to start believing what we say on Sundays.  We need to believe that if God can resurrect a valley of dry bones, if Jesus Christ can rise from the dead after 3 days, if this church can live through three wars and still thrive…then we too can claim that the spirit of God lives in this place.  Because that spirit of God never left us, not once.  But the spirit of God needs the people of God to rise up and not just reclaim what we had, but claim what we have never had, bring new life into this beautiful old church.

If you are wondering how that happens, it’s all about participation, not just in worship, but it a lot of different parts of the church.  Soon we will be looking for volunteers for an initiative called Invite, Welcome and Connect—which is all about bringing new life into the church. If this church can recover from 3 wars in its church yard, surely we can rise up and claim the spirit once again.

 *All historical information about the church from How Firm a Foundation by Jim Tormey.