Last week during our conversation after the service, we talked about the Creeds. One of the things we said that is important to notice is that our articles of faith, summarized in the Creeds, are always based on the Scriptures, they are always based on the story. And so, instead of being there to tell us “This is what you need to believe“, maybe the Creeds are here to help us enter the mysteries of the Scriptures and invite us to see how God has acted for and through God’s people in our history.
This is certainly true with one of the authors of the New Testament, Luke. Of Luke, we all know the Gospel, but we may not all be aware that he is also the author of the book of Acts. If you’re curious and want to have a closer look at that, I invite you to open your Bible at home and to read the first few verses of the Gospel according to Luke, and then the first few verses of Acts. You will realize that, both times, the author is writing to a certain Theophilus, to give him “(…) an account of the events that have been fulfilled among [them]“, investigating the testimonies of the witnesses, those who have known Jesus, and then, in Acts, Luke retells all that happened after Jesus has departed and sent the Holy Spirit to the Apostles. What is important is to understand this: If the Gospel is the story of Jesus, Acts is the story of the Apostles or rather, the story of the Spirit acting through the Apostles. Before telling us who the Holy Spirit is and what we should believe about the Holy Spirit(after all, the Holy Spirit is hard to describe, being like “the rush of the wind”) Luke shows us what happens and what the Spirit does. And so if you will, before the “Creed of the Apostles”, we have the “Acts of the Apostles”, or rather the Acts of the Spirit through the Apostles.
Now the question for us is: what is it that the Spirit does? Well, Luke does not keep us in suspense for long because you can open the book of Acts at any random page and you will immediately find out what the Spirit is up to: the Spirit builds the church. And this is why, every year, fifty days after Easter, we celebrate Pentecost which is both the feast of the Holy Spirit and the birthday of the church. We cannot separate one from another. And if you’re like me, maybe on a birthday you like to celebrate, this is certainly the occasion, but it’s also a good time for reflection. Looking back on our past helps us to understand who we are in the present and where we are headed, so let’s do just that today: Looking closer at the way the Spirit birthed the church so we can be reminded of who we are and where we are supposed to go. There is of course a lot to unpack based of the richness of the readings we have heard, so we will focus on a few highlights (5 things we need to notice).
1 – The Spirit builds the church by leading the Apostles out of the house
Now this first point is already quite interesting, because if we think about building the church, I guess we instinctively will think about brick and mortar, building a place of worship. If we look at the story, in the last chapter of his Gospel, indeed Luke tells us that the Apostles are “(…) continually in the Temple blessing God” and then, in the first chapter of Acts, Luke picks up where he left off, he says: they were “constantly devoting themselves to prayer“, and in our lesson today: “They were all together in one place“. Notice though that is is BEFORE the Spirit arrives. Once the Spirit arrives, a the rush of a violent wind, suddenly the Apostles aren’t locked in a room with one another anymore, they are on the streets talking with everybody.The Spirit does not empower the Apostles to build buildings, would they be houses of worship, rather the Spirit sends the Apostles out, they build the church by meeting people and sharing their testimonies.
It’s a good reminder for us each time we become a little too wrapped on ourselves, seeking church for the comfort of being with our own people, or seeking God only to be comforted. The Spirit gives us the strength to share Jesus with the world, to bring Jesus to the world.
2– The Spirit builds the church by leading the Apostles to proclaim Jesus
Now if we turn to the First Letter to the Corinthians, Paul tells us that something very important that the Spirit does is to lead someone to proclaim that “Jesus is Lord“. It means two things that we need to understand. In the Roman Empire, Cesar was Lord. Proclaiming that Jesus is Lord is announcing a new order of the world, the kingdom of God where all the Empire’s values are turned upside down: Attention is given to the poor, the Apostles share their possessions, they live in peace and so on. They practice all that Jesus taught them. Now there is a second meaning to the proclamation, in the Jewish world this time: “Lord” is what the believers would say instead of pronouncing the name of God “YHWH” which is sacred. The Jews would say instead “Adonai”, which means “Lord” in Hebrew. So when they proclaim that “Jesus is Lord”, what the Spirit does is to make the Christians realize that Jesus is God, that the fullness of God is present in the person of Jesus. This was quite revolutionary. And yet, Luke tells us that everybody could understand: The Apostles, when they proclaimed Jesus, spoke everybody’s native language. It wasn’t a secret, or something very educated people could understand or members only.
For us, it reminds us that we have to proclaim Jesus’s sovereignty in what we say and do, in the choices we make everyday, and to do that in a way that is not to separate us from others but rather to include them, to invite them to participate, testifying in ways they can understand, speaking their language, meeting them where they are. Again, we don’t keep Jesus for ourselves inside the walls, we bring Jesus to the world.
3– The Spirit builds the church by leading the Apostles to have a vision
Using the former prophecy of the Prophet Joel, Luke shows us that the Spirit will inspire the church to change the world, to imagine the future. Joel said that men and women will prophesy, that young people will have visions and old people will have dreams. He is not referring to some kind of magical activity. Rather, he is talking about people who will be made able to envision the future differently, to reinvent the world in some ways. Presiding Bishop Curry likes to quote Robert Kennedy quoting George Bernard Show: “Some men see things as they are and ask why, I dream things that never were and ask why not“. In his mind, this is really what the church is supposed to be, to share God’s dream for the world, to oppose God’s dream to the nightmare of human history.
I think this is important for us to hear that anew because it can be tempting, again, to experience church as a refuge from the world, a place where we can go that helps us cope with everything. And yes, sometimes this is what the church does. But the movement of the Spirit is first about changing reality, daring to imagine something different. For example, as Christians we are invited to oppose the culture of violence and competition that is all around us. Christian culture is a culture of peace and cooperation.
4– The Spirit builds the church by leading the Apostles to serve according to their gifts
Now we don’t only ask the Spirit to make that dream happen, we let the Spirit use us as Paul explains in his Letter to the Corinthians. This also eradicate the Spirit of violence and competition: we all work together, for one another, doing what we know how to do. We don’t have to become a wholly different person, to acquire new talents or new tastes. It’s more about a reorientation: instead of using our skills to serve / enjoy ourselves, we use them to help others and for the glory of God. Think about it, Jesus asked fishermen to fish for people!
It is important to be reminded of that when we have a tendency to isolate ourselves. Being a Christian is not just about being nice to others, it’s about needing each other and collaborating. Sometimes it’s difficult to realize we need (not just need to tolerate) everybody in the church: the liberal, the conservative, the young and the old, the immigrant…Each one has something unique to contribute.
5 – The Spirit builds the church by leading the Apostles to share Jesus’s peace and forgiveness
To finish, a few words on the Gospel which is to me the most important: the Spirit Jesus gave to the Apostles brings peace and forgiveness. In the end, it could be endless and exhausting to try anything if we had in mind that we need to change the whole world. The Spirit does not call us to do the impossible, the mission is always, in the end, reconciliation, and it implies both forgiveness and honesty about sin, acknowledging sin’s reality, our injustices, our violence: “If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them, if you retain the sins of any, they are retained“. The mission of the church is the reconciliation of the people with God and with each another and with the rest of creation. It’s not exaggerated to say that each time we practice reconciliation, we build up the church.