"The Acts of the Holy Spirit" (sermon)

Two Rivers Pastoral Charge

Sunday May 21, 2023 – 7^th Sunday After Easter

Scripture:  Acts 1:6-14

 

 

Does anyone remember what the world was like, 3 years ago?  There was a global pandemic going on, for one thing.  We weren’t able to gather in-person to worship, so every Sunday Bertis, Ross, and I would meet up at Westfield to livestream a service.  Bible Study and meetings were happening over Webex.  At the beginning of each week, I flipped through the church phone lists and made myself a list of people I wanted to touch base with that week over the phone.  And it was around this time – late May – that we started gathering outside for our parking lot coffee hours so that we could see each other and have a conversation, even though our chairs had to be spread out.

 

And then there were the Facebook Live daily check-ins. Every day after lunch, just before 1pm I would go down to my basement and get my tablet set up, and hit the “Go Live” button on Facebook.  We would chat – me with my voice and everyone else using the comments section – as we waited for people to gather; then a few minutes after 1pm I would read a chapter of the bible, we would have a conversation about what we had read, and then we would pray together.  It was a great way to stay connected with each other and with God in a time when virtual gatherings were the most common way to gather.

 

We started in March reading our way through the Gospel of Matthew, which brought us up to Easter.  After Easter, we read the gospel of John, and then a poll on Facebook took us to Revelation for three weeks after that.  And just before Pentecost that year, we began to make our way through the book of Acts.

 

The full name of this book in the bible is The Acts of the Apostles.  It is a continuation of the story that began in the Gospel of Luke – if you were to read the very beginning of chapter 1, it references back to the first book which recorded Jesus’s life, death, and resurrection.  And so now volume 2 picks up the story after the resurrection with Jesus’s ascension, followed by Pentecost, and then the rest of the book is filled with Jesus’s apostles – those who knew him when he was alive, and those who only came to know Jesus after his resurrection – all of them together carrying the good news about Jesus all around the known world.

 

There are some great stories in this book, but as we read it together 3 years ago, I suggested that maybe a better title for the book, rather than the Acts of the Apostles, might be the Acts of the Holy Spirit working through the Apostles.  The Holy Spirit’s fingerprints are evident all the way through the stories, as she equipped those first apostles for the work that they were given to do.

 

The story from Acts that we heard today comes from the very beginning – it is the story of the Ascension.  40 days after the resurrection, after spending 40 days with his disciples, Jesus ascends into heaven, telling his disciples to wait in Jerusalem, for very soon they will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.  (And if you want to hear about that story, come back next week for the celebration of Pentecost!)

 

As a side note, if you want to see some entertaining art work, do a google search for images of the ascension – my favourites show Jesus’s feet dangling through the clouds.  But it brings up a real point – how can we, with words or with images, convey the mystery of God and how God works?

 

But back to the story.  Before leaving them to return to the one whom he calls Father, Jesus also tells his friends, “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”  In other words, all of the work that they are going to do to be witnesses to Jesus – the preaching, the healing, the miracles, the teaching – they aren’t going to be doing it under their own steam, but rather it will be the Holy Spirit working within them.

 

I don’t know about you, but I find this to be a very reassuring thought.  The idea of needing to depend on myself and my own abilities to witness to who Jesus is and what God is doing in the world terrifies me; but when I can trust that I’m not the one who has to do it, but rather God will be doing it through me by the Holy Spirit – this sounds more possible.

 

Going back to our daily check-ins 3 years ago, I suggested that a better name for this book in the bible might be “The Acts of the Holy Spirit Working Through the Apostles,” and I also wondered what book might be written titled, “The Acts of the Holy Spirit Working Through the People of Two Rivers Pastoral Charge.”

 

This year, 2023, marks the 25^th Anniversary of Two Rivers Pastoral Charge, even though I know that each of our three congregations has a much longer history than just 25 years.  If we were to look back on those 25 years with a lens of how has the Holy Spirit been working in us, what stories would we tell?  Would we tell the story of the time the Holy Spirit empowered us to become an Affirming pastoral charge? Would we tell the story of how the Holy Spirit inspired refugee partnership and sponsorship?  Would we tell the story of baptisms and communion services celebrated?  Would we tell the stories of the Saints who have left us, but whose whole lives were witnesses to the love of God?  Would we tell the stories of Official Board meetings and Church in the World committee meetings where the Holy Spirit nudged us to stand up for people who are vulnerable and oppressed and marginalized in our world?

 

Looking back over the past 25 years, what stories would we write in that book entitled, “The Acts of the Holy Spirit Working in the People of Two Rivers Pastoral Charge”?

 

But alongside looking backwards, it is also important to look forwards.  Last week at the Official Board Meeting, I invited the members of the Board to imagine Two Rivers Pastoral Charge 10 years from now, in 2033.  The world is likely going to be a very different place 10 years from now, just as the world is currently a different place than it was 10 years ago.  But I have every confidence that Two Rivers Pastoral Charge will still be here.  But how is the Holy Spirit going to lead us in the next 10 years?  What adventures will we be on together?  How is the Holy Spirit going to be inspiring the people of Two Rivers Pastoral Charge in 2033 to be witnesses to God’s love and to Jesus’s life and teachings?

 

It is interesting to look back on what has happened in the past, but I think that it is even more exciting to think about and imagine where we might go in the future.  For even though we haven’t celebrated Pentecost yet this year, we are living in Pentecost times.  The Holy Spirit is living and moving in the church, and equipping us for the work that we are called to do – equipping us for the work of being witnesses of Jesus Christ.  And may our ears be ever attentive to her voice; and may our lives be ever willing to follow her where she leads.  Amen.

 

 

One of the Parking Lot Coffee Hours in 2020

"Doing the Hard Things" (sermon)

Two Rivers Pastoral Charge

Sunday May 14 – 6^th Sunday of Easter

Scripture Reading:  John 14:15-21

 

 

Can you think of a time when you learned how to do something that was hard?  Maybe you remember learning how to ride a bicycle for the first time.  Or maybe you remember learning how to swim, the first time you kept your face out of the water without panicking.  Or maybe you have learned to play a musical instrument, or maybe you have learned a new language.

 

When you think about learning something new, you probably didn’t do it all by yourself.  You didn’t decide one day that you were going to teach yourself how to play the piano, and a year later, with no help and no feedback from anyone go on a concert tour playing the complete Chopin preludes.

 

I remember learning how to quilt.  When I was in high school, my mother decided that she wanted to learn to quilt, so she signed herself up for a quilting course at the local fabric store, and then she shared what she was learning with me, and together we made my first quilt.  I still have that quilt, and I still love it, even though there are things about it that I would do very differently if I were to make it again today.  Then when I was on internship in BC, I brought a quilt I was working on with me, thinking that it would be a project to occupy my evenings; and when I got there I discovered that the community quilting guild met at the church every Tuesday during the day to work on their projects, and I was invited to join them. They were happy to share their knowledge and their wisdom with me to help me get better at cutting and piecing the fabric together to make the top of a quilt.  And now I get to sit around the quilt with the Summerville quilters, where people like Martha and Sue and Sandra have helped me to get better at hand quilting with rows and rows of tiny stitches… though I don’t think that I will ever be able to make as tiny stitches as Sue Gamble does!

 

I have had so many people to teach me about quilting and help me get better at it – the Summerville quilters, the Chetwynd quilting guild, my mother, my mother’s teachers…

 

Jesus, in his life, spent a lot of time teaching his disciples – teaching them about God’s love, teaching them how to love one another and love the world, showing them and teaching them all about healing, and feeding people who are hungry, and overturning tables of injustice.

 

The reading that _____ shared with us today, just like last week’s reading, comes from Jesus’s farewell discourse.  We are literally in Maundy Thursday at this point in Jesus’s story.  He and his disciples have celebrated the Passover meal together, Jesus has washed their feet, he has told them to do likewise, and he has given them a new commandment to love one another as he has loved them.

 

You get a really strong sense when you read the story that Jesus knows what is coming next.  He knows that he likely isn’t going to be able to leave Jerusalem alive.  He really is saying goodbye to his friends at this point.

 

And he knows that he has given them, given us, a mission – to carry on the work that he began, to abide in God.  But he knows that, like with all hard things, they, we, aren’t going to be able to do it alone.  Jesus’s disciples are going to need some help.

 

And so Jesus promises them, “I will not leave you orphaned.”  Jesus promises them the paraclete – an Advocate, a Companion, a Comforter, a Counselor, a Helper, a Friend.  This paraclete, this Holy Spirit, is going to be who accompanies all of Jesus’s disciples as they, as we, continue the work that Jesus began.  This Holy Spirit is going to be abiding in us and in all of creation; and because the Holy Spirit abides in us, we abide in God.

 

For the Holy Spirit is always transforming us into who God created us to be.  It is because of the Holy Spirit that we are able to say “yes” when God calls us.  It is because of the Holy Spirit that we are able to do the hard things that we are called to do.  God reaches into humanity in the person of Jesus; but then the Holy Spirit is almost like a bungee cord that Jesus attaches to us, that pulls us into the life of God, that pulls us into the dance of the Trinity.

 

God does ask us to do hard things.  Feed the hungry.  Be bringers of healing.  Overturn tables of injustice.  Be peace-makers.  We are called to do hard things, but we don’t have to do them alone.  The Holy Spirit who abides in all of us equips us and empowers us to do the work that we are called to do.

 

The Holy Spirit is always there, and we are continually getting little micro-doses, little infusions of the Holy Spirit.  It happens in our baptism.  It happens when we worship together.  It happens when we share the bread and the cup.  It happens when we pray together.  It happens when we accompany another through difficult times.  We have so many opportunities to be freshly infused with the Holy Spirit, so that we can continue the work we are called to do.

 

And that is my prayer for all of us – that we might not despair at the challenge of the work that God has given to us, but rather that we might trust in the Spirit’s abiding presence, for that is how we abide in God, and that is how we can do the work.  And may it be so.  Amen.

 

 

That first quilt, not long after it was completed.

Photo Credit:  John Edwards (aka my Grandad, who was

very proud of what his granddaughter had done)

"Our Map to God" (sermon)

Two Rivers Pastoral Charge

Sunday May 7, 2023 (5^th Sunday of Easter)

Scripture Reading:  John 14:1-14

 

(In our Story for All Ages, we talked about maps. Maps show us how to find a place. Just before his death, Jesus told his friends that they/we would know the way to the place he was going. How can we find our way if there is no such thing as a map to God? Jesus says, "I am the way." Jesus is our map. By looking at Jesus and by doing what he teaches us to do - love God and love our neighbour - we will find our way to God.)

I don’t know about you, but to me this bible passage is most familiar from funerals.  John, chapter 14 is probably tied with 1 Corinthians 13 (“the love chapter”) and the 23^rd Psalm for the most-requested passage to be read at funerals.  And so to me, it is a bit strange to dive into this chapter at a not-funeral setting.

 

This passage comes from Jesus’s “Farewell Discourse” in John’s gospel.  John is structured a bit differently than Matthew, Mark, and Luke, because Jesus spends 4 chapters here towards the end of John’s gospel saying goodbye to his disciples, and leaving them with his final teachings.  We are literally days away from Good Friday at this point in the story, and Jesus seems to know that this is going to be his last opportunity to get his message across to his disciples.

 

Jesus’s disciples tend to have a reputation of not being able to understand what Jesus is all about – when we read through the gospel of Mark in bible study, the refrain that we kept coming back to was “Do you get it yet?”  We hear a bit of it in the reading that we heard today – Philip asks Jesus a question and Jesus responds with, “Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and still you do not know me?”

 

But I have to confess that I have a sneaking sympathy with Jesus’s disciples.  Especially with this reading!  This reading leaves me with more questions than it answers.

 

For example:  Jesus says, “I will do whatever you ask in my name.”  But what about all of the prayers that seem to go unanswered, or prayers where the answer is no.  Should Jesus’s promise have come with an additional clause? “I will do whatever you ask in my name… as long as it’s something that I was already going to do.”

 

And then there’s Jesus’s statement:  “The one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these.”  Um, Jesus, you walked on water and raised the dead and multiplied the loaves and fish.  I don’t think that I’m able to do any of these things, and yet you say that if I believe in you then I would be able to do all this and more?  Because I can't walk on water, does that mean that my faith isn't enough?

 

And finally, there is the way that this passage has been used to exclude people.  Jesus said, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”  And there are times when people have twisted these words to mean that unless you believe exactly the way that I believe, then you can’t get into heaven.

 

But I can’t believe that this is what Jesus intended with these words.  After all, he says that in his Father’s house there are many dwelling places. (Or “in my Father’s house are many mansions” or “My Father’s house has room to spare” or “There is plenty of room for you in my Father’s home” depending on what translation you read.) There is lots of room in God’s home for everyone, an abundance of room!  There is room enough for everyone who wants to be there.

 

I wish that I could offer neat and simple answers to all of the questions that I have for this text, but I’m afraid that I can’t.  I’ve heard it said that as soon as we think that we can understand God, then we don’t understand God.  For God is mystery.  Jesus reveals God to us, but there is still mystery.  I don’t understand why some prayers seem to go unanswered, and I probably won’t understand in this life.  I don’t understand the miracles of Jesus, and how all of Jesus’s followers are to do the same.  I don’t understand how Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life.

 

But I trust that Jesus is the Way.  Just as we read last week about how Jesus is the gate into the sheepfold, that we pass through Jesus into the community of God’s people, Jesus is our Way to God.  Jesus is our map to God.  I don’t understand how this Way works for other people, but I have to trust that the Way to God is there for all people; because, after all, there is room for all in God’s house.  And as for me, what I need to do is keep myself grounded in Jesus – the Way that he shows to us – for he is our Way to God.

 

Did anyone else get up early yesterday to watch the coronation?  I was watching it through my church geek lenses, because the Church of England does liturgy and ritual so very well.  And did you notice how the service began?  A child welcomed the king “in the name of the King of Kings” to which King Charles replied, “In his name and after his example, I come not to be served but to serve.”

 

No matter your feelings about the coronation or the monarchy, I thought that it was a powerful reminder that all of us, no matter who you are, whether you are a king sitting on a throne in London or whether you are sitting here today, all of us are called to ground ourselves in Christ, who is the giver of life and the way to God.  For this same God became human in Jesus, and the Holy Spirit is nudging us, drawing us, accompanying all of us along the Way of Jesus so that we all become part of the life of God.

 

And may all of us be grounded in the Way of Jesus, so that we can serve the world as he did, so that we might put our trust in the truth of God, and so that we might be drawn into the life of God.  Amen.

 

 

 

“I welcome you in the name of the King of Kings.”
“In his name and after his example, I come not to be served but to serve.”