Love Doesn't Count the Cost

Based on Luke 9:51-62

This morning, in the gospel of Luke, we have recounted for us the turning point in Jesus’ life. Verse 51, “When the days drew near for him to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem.” And for the next nine chapters, Jesus takes his long journey to Jerusalem toward his destiny, all along the way teaching about discipleship. Luke takes the opportunity to foreshadow what happens to Jesus immediately after he turns his face toward Jerusalem. First, he is rejected by the Samaritans. Then, three would be disciples are rejected after Jesus informs them of the cost of discipleship. The journey toward Jerusalem does not start with joy and ease, but with rejection and the counting of the cost.

The first person comes to Jesus and says, “I will follow you wherever you go!” And Jesus’ response is, “Foxes have holes and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.” Jesus is saying that to be a disciple requires leaving behind your security blanket. You have to be willing to leave behind your home and become a traveler, not bound by the homeland but free to go wherever Jesus leads. This, by the way, lends scriptural support to itinerant ministry. Before United Methodist clergy are ordained as elders, they have to make the commitment to go wherever the bishop sends them. But it’s not just clergy who have to make this commitment to go where they are sent. People who serve in the military know what it is to be sent all over the place. Some jobs require lots of travel, sometimes for extended periods of time. Sometimes people feel led to get into short-term or even long-term mission work. Kim and I have friends who were led to go do Christian ministry in Cambodia. They have been over there for a few years now. They sold their house and left their family and church to go there. So, this can be one of the costs of following Jesus. Sometimes you find yourself having to leave behind the ties of home. Of course, this doesn’t mean you have no ties. Our friends Chris and Heidi receive financial support from us and other friends, as well as their church. They come to the states to visit and share the work they are doing. As I have moved from church to church, there is always a community there to welcome me and work with me. Clergy build strong ties over the years as we live out the unique life of itinerant ministry. And there is your family that goes with you through all the moves. We do sometimes have to leave one place and go somewhere else for the sake of following Jesus. But we never travel alone. And the ties that bind us to people we have done life with are strong.

A second person comes along and Jesus invites him to follow. His response is, “I will follow, but first I must bury my father.” Then Jesus responds with those insensitive words, “Let the dead bury their own dead. You, go and proclaim the kingdom of God.” In those days, as now, Jewish custom insists that a person must be buried the day they die. Further, in the days of Jesus, the only one who is allowed to touch the dead body without becoming ritually unclean is the son for the purpose of burial. Anyone else would have to go through a lengthy process of purification. So, what this man is saying to Jesus is that he will follow, but he has a family obligation that must be taken care of first. We don’t know if his father has already died or if the man is wanting to wait until he is dead. He probably doesn’t want to risk being farther than one day’s journey so that he can bury his father in time. Jesus is challenging this as an excuse to delay discipleship. There is an urgency in Jesus’ call for discipleship, a need to set aside future family obligations for the sake of following Jesus. And that is a cost, the possibility of not being immediately available when the family needs you.

Of course, this can go too far. I heard this pastor’s kid tell of the resentment he had toward his dad and the church because his dad wasn’t there often for school activities or sports competitions because he was always caring for other church people or had meetings, always putting the church above the needs of his family. My wife and I decided early on that we would not let that happen. I would not let my commitment to the church keep me from being there for my kids and involved with their lives or keep my marriage strong. Family is more important than church work. Still, following Jesus does call for sacrifices. Sometimes family obligations have to be set aside for the sake of doing the work of ministry. When the urgency of the moment calls for a response, it doesn’t always happen when it is most convenient for the family.

A third person comes along and says, “I will follow you. But first, let me say good-bye to my parents.” And Jesus replies with, “Whoever puts their hand on the plow and looks back is not fit for the kingdom of God.” This is not a moral judgment but an aptitude judgment. It is a matter of focus. Being a disciple requires focus, keeping your eyes on Jesus. And Jesus is always one step ahead of us, leading us somewhere. Looking back to what was, to what has been left behind, causes us to lose focus on the present task before us and what that next faithful step needs to be. We can’t look back and move forward. This is another cost of discipleship, leaving the past behind and not looking back, but instead following Jesus wherever you are in life, moving forward.

This is one reason why pastors are discouraged from going back to churches they have served to do things like weddings and funerals. They have to move on, and congregations have to let them go. In our situation it is a little different. I’m not leaving the Hilltop. But my relationship with you is changing. I will be hopefully working with you in doing ministry in the community through the Shalom Zone. But I won’t be your pastor. Jesus is leading me in a different direction. I can’t look back. We all have to keep our eyes forward and not look back as we follow Jesus. You can’t go far in a boat if it is still tied to the dock.

Now, a lot of preachers who preach on this passage say we need to count the cost of discipleship. But I believe there is another point to be made here. These three people presented Jesus with legitimate excuses to delay discipleship, and Jesus would not have it. There is a real sense of urgency to follow Jesus when you hear the call. Counting the cost is important. But what we see in this passage is Jesus demanding obedience to his call to follow without delay. The apostles are an example for us. When Jesus called Peter, he dropped his fishing nets right away to follow. Matthew got up from behind his tax booth. There doesn’t seem to be a long period of weighing costs and benefits when it comes to responding to Jesus’ call. These apostles showed an amazing ability to heed the call, to be obedient to Jesus’ invitation without hesitation.

Sometimes when a parent tells one of their young children to do something, the child asks why, and the parent says, “because I said so.” The child doesn’t have to understand why it is necessary to do what the parent says all the time. They just need to do what they are told. I believe the same principle is at work when Jesus calls us, invites us, to respond to the call to discipleship, to follow him, to make him first in our relationships. We don’t have to know why, or what the consequences are of following Jesus. We can play the “what if” game as long as it takes to avoid acting on the opportunity in front of us to respond as Jesus is calling us. Jesus wants us to follow him because he said so. Later, we come to understand the wisdom of the decision to follow before we know the why’s and how’s and what if’s.

When Kim and I decided to adopt children, both of us considered whether we were ready to be parents. We counted the cost, the inability to take off for a little weekend getaway, having to cut back on eating out, the further demands of our time, the added responsibilities. We knew there are incredible joys associated with parenting too. But there will be costs as well. Life will change. And change causes anxiety. We wondered if we were really up to it. Marriage was the same way. I wondered if I was up to being a husband and willing to let go the freedoms of bachelorhood. Same thing when I made the commitment to go into pastoral ministry rather than pursue teaching. In all of the big decisions of life, thinking it over before making the decision can be daunting. When we make these decisions, and it seems like everything is at stake and we can’t go back, some of the hardest things we have to do in life.

But I have discovered that after these life decisions are made, and time takes its course, the challenges and costs that come along don’t seem as burdensome and uncertain as they appeared before making the decision. Not that things are easy. But it has been my experience that God prepares me for the challenges that come along, in married life, in parenting, in ministry. I have come to learn that we gain knowledge and wisdom over time. With it comes confidence and character. I am not who I was before making that decision. God continues to shape me as I journey along the road I believe God has placed before me. This is true for all of you.

Love makes all the difference. When you love something or someone, then the sacrifices don’t hold us back from doing what needs done. What I’m trying to say is, when we are asked to consider the cost of discipleship, of following Jesus, before making the decision to obey, the costs may seem almost unbearable. And there is uncertainty if you are up to it. But once you make the decision, are obedient to God’s call on your life, God makes it possible for you to meet the challenges that come along. God will put people in your life who will support you. And the love that grows takes the sting out of the sacrifices that are required.

I want to urge any of you who have felt the call of God in your life concerning whatever that big life decision to be, to make your decision to follow where you sense God is leading you even if you don’t know what might happen or how things will work out. Trust that God will make a way for you to flourish. God asks for our obedience, to do things because God says so. But God is not a tyrant. God does not set us up to fail. God provides for us. With God, there is always a way through. It is later, after we go through the storm, that we understand the wisdom and blessing of having obediently followed God’s call on our lives.

The greatest blessing that God gives us to sustain us when we have to make sacrifices to follow God, is the blessing of love. There is a great song by Billy Dean several years ago called “You Don’t Count the Cost.” The message of the song is in line with what I have experienced and I’m sure you have too. It is one of the great truths that underlies Jesus’ saying, “No greater love is this, than when one lays down their life for a friend.” It is love for God that makes discipleship possible. I hope that your love for God is stirred and strengthened as I share with you the lyrics of this song.

It happens to a mother when she is giving birth

Her heart is filled with joy, while her body's filled with hurt

She holds her baby close to her despite the pain he caused

When it comes to love you don't count the cost

It happens to a soldier fighting for his home

Fear wells up inside him and yet he still goes on

Even though he knows he may be the next to fall

When it comes to love you don't count the cost

You don't count the heartache, you don't count the sacrifice

'Cause all that counts is what you feel inside

And it doesn't really matter what is gained or what is lost

When it comes to love, oh you don't count the cost

It happens all around us each and every day

Someone's giving all they've got for someone else's sake

And if you ever doubt it just think about the cross

When it comes to love you don't count the cost

You don't count the heartache, you don't count the sacrifice

'Cause all that counts is what you feel inside

And it doesn't really matter what is gained or what is lost

When it comes to love you don't count the cost

Sent to Tell Your Story

Based on Luke 8:26-39

Have you ever been afraid of Jesus? Have you ever feared the power of God? As I thought about the Geresenes, those swine herders, what they witnessed in the healing of this man who was possessed by all those demons, I can sympathize where the fear would be a fair response. Have any of you ever witnessed an exorcism? I haven’t physically been present at one. But I remember when I was a kid we watched a video at church of what was represented as an actual exorcism. It scared me a little watching this exorcism unfold. It is disturbing to whatch what appears to be a head-to-head battle with the devil. I know there is a lot of debate about what is going on in these exorcisms. People question whether there are actual demons being cast out or if this is some kind of psychological experience. Some question if anything is going on at all, that it’s all fake. Others are convinced that there are demons, people can be possessed, and exorcisms do happen. The Roman Catholic church has liturgies in place to deal with exorcism and there are priests who believe they have been empowered by God to exorcise demons. This isn’t just something you see in the movies. It is an actual thing in the Catholic church.

I think it is appropriate to have a little fear of God’s power. Not being scared but to respect and be in awe of what God can do, that God can act in ways that are beyond our comprehension and maybe even a little unsettling. I remember reading something in the Chronicles of Narnia series where someone asks if Aslan, a lion who represents Jesus, is tame. The response was, “Tame? Not at all! But he is good.” God is not tame and mild. The power of God can be fierce and unsettling. God can act in ways we don’t understand and certainly can’t control. What we can’t control can cause us to have some anxiety about it, even a little fear. These days, heart bypass surgery is as routine as a tonsillectomy it seems. Surgeons can do amazing things to heal the sick. Still, there is a natural fear going under the knife. You are placing your life into the hands of the surgeon. You are not in control during that procedure and that can be a little scary. We fear what we do not control. It makes sense to have a little fear of God’s power because it’s a power we can’t control, although we can also take comfort that whatever God does is for the good. We can trust in how God uses God’s power. But we can sometimes feel a bit anxious about it as well.

So, I sympathize with the Geresenes. If I had witnessed this exorcism, in which a bunch of demons left that man and entered a bunch of pigs who suddenly rushed themselves over a cliff and into the sea, that would have been pretty wild. On display was a powerful example of the authority Jesus has over the power of evil. In this story, there is displayed quite a bit of fear as a response to this authority. The demons feared Jesus, afraid that he would send them to the abyss, a place where spirits were sent to be imprisoned and tortured. They beg Jesus to send them into the pigs instead. We also see fear in the Geresenes. They don’t understand this authority over evil that Jesus exercises and they aren’t sure how to make sense of it. Who is this who casts out demons? Out of fear, they ask Jesus to go away.

The only person who isn’t afraid in this story is the man who was healed. He’s not afraid of Jesus. In fact, he wants to join up and follow Jesus wherever he goes. But he doesn’t get his wish. Instead, Jesus sends him back to the city. This is one of the interesting parts of the story. The demons were afraid of Jesus, so they begged him to send them into the pigs and Jesus did what they asked. The Geresenes were afraid of Jesus and asked him to leave, and he did. The healed man, who had no fear of Jesus, asked to go with him but Jesus refused. The one person who was not afraid of Jesus is the only one who doesn’t get what he wanted. Interesting.

Jesus does give him a task. The man is given a ministry, a way to contribute to God’s work. Jesus tells him to go back to the city and tell people what Jesus has done for him. The one who is not afraid is given an assignment even as what he wants to do is denied him. This is the other thing I want us to notice about this story. There is a lot of sending happening. Jesus sends the demons into the pigs. The people send Jesus away. Jesus sends the healed man back to the city. I want us to reflect a bit on what all this sending is about, and how Jesus sends us today.

First, Jesus sends out the demons. This is how Jesus reveals his authority in this story. He has power over evil. This healing act also reveals what Jesus is about. He sets the captive free. Jesus brings healing and wholeness in the lives of the afflicted. It can be scary to witness, as it was for those Geresenes, to see such a dramatic act of casting out demons. But it is also good news, especially for those who feel tormented by inner demons, demons like addiction, or depression, or anger, or jealousy, or anxiety. This story gives us hope that Jesus can send away those inner demons that harm our quality of life, that through Jesus we can be set free from those demons and be made whole, to be like the man in this story, in our right minds, able to live in freedom. The healing will likely not be as dramatic as an exorcism, certainly not demons being relocated to animals who suddenly run off. But with Jesus there is hope for deliverance from those inner demons.

Second, the sending away of Jesus by those who were afraid. Many of us have sent someone or something away that might bring healing and wholeness to our lives, yet we were afraid, so we sent them away or turned down the method and means for healing. I’ve been known in the past to put off going to the doctor because I was afraid of what the doctor might do, i.e. give me a shot. I hate needles! Or you were afraid to go in for tests for fear of what might be found. Maybe someone has suggested you seek counseling to help you through a personal or relationship issue and you are afraid to go because of what might come up in the counseling sessions that will be too emotional or too painful to deal with. Or maybe it was the time when you were feeling convicted to respond to a nudging from the Spirit to do some kind of ministry, something outside of your comfort zone or what feels to be too demanding or too risky, so you resist that prompting, sending Jesus away. I wonder if part of that has to do with not being in control. Sometimes we are sick, or in need of guidance or help of some kind. We have to entrust ourselves to someone else, to release our control and maybe even our independence, in hopes of getting better. It can be hard to give up control. It can be scary. So, we hold on, telling ourselves we don’t need help, or we can get better on our own, or we don’t want to be a burden, or we think we can’t be helped, that we are too far gone, and we push away people who are willing and able to help us get better. You can’t help someone who is not willing to be helped. Some of that is pride but there is likely some fear as well that causes us to push away people who could help us.

Finally, Jesus sent the healed man back to the city. I wonder what thoughts were going through the man as he processed his healing and what he would do with the rest of his life. All of a sudden, all kinds of possibilities had opened up for him. He can now live his life free from those demons. He had a brand new start. Perhaps out of gratitude for what Jesus had done for him, the man wanted to stand up and be counted as one of his disciples. He was ready to go to the ends of the earth with Jesus, the one who had set him free. Maybe he wanted to learn from Jesus about how to live. Now that he had this new lease on life, maybe Jesus could help him learn how to live now that he is in his right mind. Maybe he wanted to follow Jesus because he wanted to leave that city behind. He needed closure to this painful time and one way to get that is to leave it all behind and follow Jesus wherever he was going. Who knows, maybe if he stuck around the demons might come back. He needed a clean break.

But whatever the man wanted to do and his reasons for doing so, Jesus had something else in mind for him to do. How could he refuse? Jesus had set him free. He lets go what he wants to do and consented to what Jesus was calling him to do. That’s how it is sometimes. We can be prompted by the Spirit to do things that go against what we desire. But even more, Jesus sends this man on his mission with no training. He was given no time to build up his confidence as a public speaker. He wasn’t given an opportunity to practice telling his story and getting pointers from Jesus on how to say it. No, Jesus just sends him back with the simple instruction to tell others what Jesus did for him. Jesus says to him, “Go back to the city and tell people your story.”

This is all that witnessing is, by the way. It is about telling your story, telling others how you have experienced Jesus in your life. We don’t really need training to talk about our own experiences. We can tell our story with confidence because we are the experts of our own experience. It is our story to tell. It’s hard to deny the sincerity of someone when they speak of their own experience from the heart. Of course, this man’s witness is even more powerful because people in the city knew what he was like before Jesus cast out those demons. He is bearing witness to his healing by simply walking around. The impact Jesus has made on our lives may not be as obvious. But this does not diminish the authority that comes with telling your story.

Perhaps this is the invitation for us from this story in the gospel. In different ways we are like this man whom Jesus made whole. We are the ones whom Jesus has sent with the task to tell our story, to bear witness to what Jesus has done for us. Do not be afraid to tell your story. There’s no need to send Jesus away out of fear. Jesus taught us not to worry about what we should say if someone asks or even demands an explanation for why we are followers of Jesus. The Spirit will give us the words to say at that time. The Spirit helps us speak from our experience, from our hearts. So, be open and willing to share about how you have experienced God in your life. Do not be afraid to tell your story.

"The Connector"

Based on John 16:12-15

    Today on the Christian calendar is Trinity Sunday. It has been a long-standing practice in the church to dedicate the first Sunday after Pentecost to the doctrine of the Trinity. This says something about how important this doctrine is, as it is the only doctrine that has a Sunday dedicated to it. A lot can be said about the Trinity. Indeed, thousands and thousands of books have been written about the Trinity. It is a doctrine that pushes logic to the extreme. How does 1+1+1=1? How can we say we worship one God instead of three gods? Trying to explain this conundrum has been attempted in several ways. St. Patrick famously pointed to a three-leaf clover. Another old image is that of fire: the fire itself is the Father, the light of the fire is the Son and the heat that emits from the fire is the Holy Spirit. The sun has also been used in the same way: the sun itself is the Father, the light is the Son and the warmth of the sun we feel on our skin is the Spirit. There was a Christian comedian I used to listen to as a kid named Mike Warnke who illustrated the Trinity as like a cherry pie. You can cut a cherry pie into three slices, but the cherry filling still flows together. In the same way, the Trinity is three Persons but one Substance.

We can talk about the Trinity in a lot of different ways. Today, I want to focus our attention on how our understanding of God as Three in One captures a key aspect of who God is, which is that God is relational. Whatever it means to say that the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit are three separate Persons, these Persons are so totally interrelated that all three work together. None of them work independently of the other. They are totally interdependent, a harmonious community of three. This total interdependence reflects the relational nature of God. God is a relational God. That’s our focus.

First, let’s look at what Jesus says about the Spirit. Jesus identifies this as the Spirit of truth. Jesus says that the Spirit declares what he hears from the Father. He does not speak on his own. In the same way, Jesus told his disciples that he does not speak on his own but only what he hears from the Father. What Jesus is saying is that the Spirit who will come after he returns to the Father will continue doing what Jesus has been doing with them, which is teaching them what the Father wants taught. Jesus also says that the Spirit will lead the disciples into all truth. What does this mean? Does this mean that there is more revelation from God than what Jesus was able to tell the disciples? Perhaps it does mean that. But it could also mean that what the Spirit will do is to help the disciples more fully understand who Jesus is and what Jesus taught. When the disciples faced new situations, the Spirit would reveal to them new insights into Jesus’ teachings. The stories he taught would take on deeper meanings. The Spirit would help the disciples answer the clichéd question that was very popular several years ago: “What would Jesus do?” This is one of the roles of the Holy Spirit, to continue the teaching ministry of Jesus after he left the disciples and returned to the Father. It is the Spirit that keeps the disciples connected with the Father and the Son. The Spirit makes relationship with God possible.

Let me try to bring all this back down to earth, past the theological musings, and ground all this in our life together as a community. What can the Trinity reveal to us about God and our relationship with God?

If the Trinity means anything, it means that God is inherently relational. God is not a single entity in a far distant heaven. No, God is three Persons working together in a perfect, interdependent relationship. The essence of God is an interdependent relationship. None of them go rogue. All three work together in every situation. They are a team to the maximum level.

We, who have been made in the image of God, are made to be in relationship. We are relational creatures. We all need to belong somewhere. We need a family, whether blood relation or not. We need a group to run around with. We need friends. This is why solitary confinement is so punishing and, in fact, can cause deep mental and emotional trauma. Studies have shown how babies who are isolated from human touch have profound effects on their emotional development. To thrive as human beings, we need community.

When it comes to understanding the things of God and the way of Jesus, the Spirit teaches us these things in community. It is true that you can read the Bible for yourself and interpret it on your own. But let’s face it. There is a lot of the Bible that is really hard to understand. Most of us need some help from others who have dedicated their lives to interpreting the Bible to share their insights. Trust me, I don’t come up with these sermons all by myself. I read a number of Bible interpreters, letting their insights guide my own thinking as I craft these sermons. I have found it much more fruitful to study the Bible with others. The Wednesday Bible study is one of the highlights of my week. We read together the scripture and then discuss it. We have great conversations and gain new insights that we probably would not have gotten if we studied alone. The Bible has always been meant to be read and studied in community.

Also, understanding where God is working in our lives is discovered in conversation. My family when I was growing up lived about twelve miles away from the church. When it was time for youth group on Sunday evening, the youth pastor would drive a van out to Edmond where I and a few other kids in the youth group lived. When we got in the van, Howard would ask each of us, “Where have you seen Jesus this week?” That was our conversation for the 15-20 minute drive to church. Sure, I could have sat there in silence of my own space and contemplated where I had recently seen Jesus. But in the conversation, as people told their stories, it prompted my own observations. Or maybe I had something to share first which got others talking. It was easier to name where we saw God working in our lives when we had a conversation about it. And certainly when it comes to discerning what your purpose in life is, what your vocation is, that takes a lot of conversation with a lot of people. I know some people have a dream or have some powerful spiritual experience that makes them believe they have been called into the ministry. I had one of those powerful experiences myself. But just claiming that experience isn’t going to get you a preacher’s license. There is a long discernment process done in community to confirm that call. And that’s true for any vocation, not just being a preacher. Whatever God has called you to do with your life, you discover it and are affirmed in that call by others. It is in community that we get clear how God is working in our lives.

The last thing I want to say about the Trinity is to express gratitude for the Spirit. As you know, last week we celebrated Pentecost, when the Spirit fell down on the disciples, propelling them outside the four walls of their safe house and on to the streets to proclaim the mighty acts of God. That same Spirit continues to be poured on us day by day. It is the Holy Spirit that connects us with God, so that God is not remote and distant but as near as our breath. Being the temples of the Holy Spirit we are, in some mysterious way God is present within each of us, which is one reason why every single one of us is precious. It is the Spirit that makes that connection real. But the Spirit doesn’t only connect us with God. The Spirit connects us with each other. Each of us share in the same Spirit. If the Spirit was the internet, we would all be online, linked to each other. The Spirit is like Wi-Fi that connects us all together. And just as you can Facetime with someone right now who is in Japan, geography does not matter in our Spirit connection with each other. No matter where you and I are at any given moment we are connected as many parts of one body, the body of Christ. And not only is geography not a limit to our connection but neither is time. When our loved ones die, we are still connected to them. And we have the promise that one day we will be with them again. It is the Spirit that connects us with our ancestors. And it is the Spirit that will connect us with those who will come after us, even to the thousandth generation, if you can even imagine that. The Spirit of God connects us beyond space and time. The community that you and I belong to, made possible by the Spirit, truly is incomprehensibly huge. We all belong in a way that none of us fully comprehend or appreciate. The web of relationships made possible by the Spirit is unfathomable. At the bare minimum I can tell you that although in a few weeks I will no longer be your pastor we will remain connected in a spiritual sense, even as you will still see me around the Hilltop. This cord will not be broken. So, I give gratitude to the Spirit who makes possible our relationship with God our with each other as the body of Christ, relationships that by God’s grace will never be broken.

Tell Your Story

Based on Acts 2:1-21

This morning’s scripture reading is, of course, the story of what happened the first Pentecost after Jesus’ resurrection and ascension. Pentecost marks the fiftieth day after Passover, a festival called Shavuot, which celebrates the wheat harvest and also marks the time when Moses received the Ten Commandments. Jews from all across the world would go on pilgrimage to Jerusalem for this festival. This sets the table nicely for the gospel to be communicated to people representing many places across the world. The word will travel much faster this way!

As I reflected on this passage, there were a few things that struck me. The first is that the disciples were all together in one place. They were not scattered about or in their own homes. And by disciples, it isn’t just the twelve. We read that there were 120 disciples gathered together. Must have been a big house! Before Jesus ascended to heaven, he told the disciples to go to Jerusalem and to wait for the Holy Spirit to come down upon them, so that they would have power from on high. And so, here they were, waiting for the coming of the promised Holy Spirit.

Now, just because they were all together in one place doesn’t mean that they were all of one mind. They all believed in Jesus. They are all disciples, obviously. But we shouldn’t be surprised if there were some personality conflicts. After all, with 120 people in one place, and probably pretty tight quarters, there was bound to be some people who really didn’t like each other. Some people probably got on other people’s nerves. We know in the gospels that the disciples didn’t always get along. And everyone is just kind of waiting around to see what will happen next. They are waiting for the Spirit. But when the Spirit does come, what then? Maybe there was some strategizing already taking place about what the next move would be once the Spirit arrived to give them the power they needed. Maybe some cautioned not to make any decisions about what to do next until the Spirit arrived and let them know what to do next. The bottom line, you have 120 people in one house who are waiting around, not sure what the next move will be, and probably not all on the same page. That they are all together in one place is a feat in and of itself.

The second thing that struck me is how the Holy Spirit fell on every person present. The Spirit didn’t just come down on Peter and the rest of the twelve. No, the Spirit came down on everyone gathered together in the house, all 120. It was an inclusive outpouring of the Spirit. No one was left out. Each person had what appeared to be a flame of fire appear over their heads, like a bunch of human candles. Each person was moved to proclaim the mighty works of God. Each person participated in the move of the Spirit in their midst. No one sat by or got passed over.

We also believe that no one gets passed over by the Holy Spirit. It isn’t just ordained clergy that have the Holy Spirit. We believe that when a person is baptized they receive the Holy Spirit as part of this sacramental act. After I baptize someone, I pray that the Holy Spirit come upon that person to empower them to become a faithful disciple of Jesus Christ. With holy oil, I mark that person on their forehead with the sign of the cross as an act of sealing them with the Holy Spirit. The Spirit takes up residence in their soul. For us as United Methodists, we believe that people who are baptized don’t wait until some later time when the Spirit falls on them. Some churches do believe that later in a believer’s life they receive Spirit baptism which is accompanied by signs, often speaking in tongues. But for us and many other churches the Spirit fills us at the moment of our baptism. Whether you are baptized as a baby or well along in life, when the baptism happens you receive the Holy Spirit. No one is passed over. And the Spirit doesn’t come and go. The Spirit abides with us. We are temples of the Holy Spirit. We have received what we need to be empowered to live the life of discipleship. All there is for us to do is to be open to the leading and empowerment of the Spirit, to tap into the Spirit rather than block it off.

Here’s the third thing that struck me about this story from Acts. When the disciples were filled with the Holy Spirit they rushed out of the house and into the streets to proclaim the mighty acts of God. They didn’t just stay inside and bask in the presence of the Spirit. No, they were compelled to get out of the house so they could tell others how awesome God is and what are the awesome things God has done. It seems that no one stayed behind in the house. Everyone went out together into the streets so that those outside the four walls of the house could find out what God is doing.

Have you ever experienced something in which every part of your being cried out for you to tell somebody? Maybe you learned you were pregnant. Or you got the promotion you have been waiting for. Or you are going to be a grandparent. Or some other great thing just happened in your life. Maybe you rushed to post your good news on Facebook. Or you called a friend. Or you find a way to steer the conversation toward your good news. However you do it, the news is so hot, so exciting, you just have to get it out. You have to tell someone your good news. This seems to be what it was like for those disciples when the Spirit promised by Jesus came down upon them. They had to get out there and tell others, even complete strangers, their good news.

From time to time we have good news to tell. But when was the last time you felt compelled to proclaim the mighty acts of God? When was the last time you had an experience with God that was so powerful, so exciting and uplifting, that you just had to share that experience with others? I would hope that for all of us this would be a regular occurrence. But I can honestly tell you that it has been awhile since I have felt compelled to share my experience of God with others. It’s not that I have something against it. It’s not that I don’t have anything to share. If someone were to ask me I would surely tell them about how I have experienced God in my life. But it’s not something I lead with. It’s not something I am so excited about that I am compelled to steer conversations toward talking about how I have experienced God in my life. Am I the only one for which this is true? It’s common that, over time, our relationship with God becomes so much a part of our lives that it loses its wonder and excitement. God becomes so familiar. Our experience of God is as common as breathing. It doesn’t have the same excitement as when we first experienced God in a deep way. Our experience of God has become so common and normal that it doesn’t feel like we have much of anything interesting to share. I’m not saying this is bad, it’s just the way it is. In any relationship, after a while, the excitement levels off. We are simply doing life together, in our human relationships and in our relationship with God. And let’s be honest, our lives often are not very exciting.

The disciples, of course, experienced God in an extremely powerful way. They were compelled by the awesomeness of the experience to go out into the streets to tell their story. But the miracle in this story is how every person could understand what the disciples were saying in their own native language. Any communication barrier was removed. The people in the street didn’t have to translate the Aramaic that the disciples were speaking. They didn’t hear Aramaic but instead heard what was being said in the language they were most familiar with, the one they were raised with. Amazing. The crowds may not have understood what the disciples meant to say. But they didn’t have to translate the words. What the disciples said could be understood even if what they were hearing needed further explanation, which is what Peter does when he gives his first sermon, probably speaking in Greek.

This is the last thing that struck me, that the communication barrier had been removed. I have noticed that we Christians have our own language. You could call it “Christianeze.” We talk about salvation, grace, sin, and even sometimes use words like justification and sanctification. Any word that has five syllables may not be a familiar word to everyone. Church language, Christianeze, is not a language everyone understands. People who don’t know anything about Jesus or think about salvation may not know what we are talking about when we use those church words. Here’s our challenge. How do we share our experiences of God without using Christianeze? How do we tell others about what God has done without using church words?

I heard this story once told by a woman whose addiction to alcohol left her homeless and penniless on the streets of Detroit. She had burned a lot of bridges. And in one last desperate attempt, she reached out on Facebook posting about the situation she was in, asking if anyone could help her, and that she was scared. Well, one of her friends read that post and contacted their pastor. That night, they drove from Toledo to Detroit to pick her up. As they drove back to Toledo she kept saying over and over how grateful she was, and the pastor and her friend kept saying over and over, “This is what we do.” She was welcomed into the church without judgment. She was loved on, even when she didn’t act very loving. They didn’t give up on her. As she told her story, she emphasized over and over how she was loved and included, that she had a new family. She spoke of how she had experienced the mighty work of God in her life without words like saved, sin, justification, sanctification, or any other church words. She spoke of love, acceptance, family, and hope. I can imagine that if she told this story to people who aren’t Christians, they would understand what she was saying and may even wish they could be a part of that community as well.

The Holy Spirit is with us. We carry the Spirit in our bodies. And we all have stories to share of our own experiences of God. Likely those experiences manifested through the presence and loving actions of others. Some of them may be in this room. They were there for you when you needed support. They loved on you when you weren’t always very lovable. They prayed for you. They included you when you didn’t feel like you fit in anywhere. Our stories are different. They are personal. They are uniquely ours to tell. And with the Spirit in us we have all we need to tell our stories. So, I challenge all of us to be ready to share our story with others. We don’t need to rush out of here and start shouting. But we can be ready, when the time is right, to share our experience, not with religious language but in ways that people can relate to. We can talk about how with God and with God’s people we have experienced love, belonging, and hope. I believe that when those opportunities come, as the Spirit prompts us, and we share from the heart, that those who hear our stories will be moved to ask the question, “Can I experience this love too?” And then we will have the joy to respond with a firm, “Yes, you can.”