In some ways, it’s fitting that Pentecost Sunday falls on Memorial Day weekend this year. Memorial Day is a time to reflect on our nation’s history and the sacrifice of those who offered their lives on behalf of our country.
From the time we became a nation in 1776, our country has been a work in progress as we seek to be a nation of liberty and justice for all. As one person who lives outside of the US once said, “America is more than a country. It’s an idea, one of the greatest ideas in human history. America might be the greatest song the world has yet to hear.”
I like that thought. America might be the greatest song the world has “yet” to hear. That line reminds me that our country is always going to be a work in progress because we got our start with the Declaration of Independence that reminds us to pursue freedom for all.
And as your know, that’s not an easy task. There are times when we live up to these ideals and there are times when we fall short. America is an idea that is worthy of our toil and struggle as well as taking time this weekend to thank those who have offered their lives in the pursuit of this idea of freedom and justice. We are an unfinished country. And we will continue be an unfinished country because of these ideas.
This has always been the case with the church as well. The church is more than an institution. It’s a community of faith.
Our United Methodist Book of Discipline offers us this wonderful definition of the purpose of the local church. Listen to this description from our own denomination’s Book of Discipline:
“The church of Jesus Christ exists in and for the world. It is primarily at the level of the charge consisting of one or more local churches that the church encounters the world. The local church is a strategic base form which Christians move out to the structures of society. The function of the local church, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit is to help people accept and confess Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior and to live their daily lives in light of their relationship with God. Therefore, the local church is to minister to persons in the community where the church is located to provide appropriate training and nurture to all, to cooperate in ministry with other local churches, to defend God’s creation and live as an ecologically responsible community, and to participate in the worldwide mission of the church, as minimal expectations of an authentic church.”
That’s not a definition. That’s describing an idea of who God has called us to be; a caring, welcoming, loving, gracious, inviting, equipping visible expression of God’s redeeming and saving love for the world. Now, that’s an idea worth all of our toil and struggle.
Once in a while I’ll turn to our Book of Discipline and remind myself of the ideas of our faith because we can so easily forget. Just like our country can so easily forget the idea of freedom and equality for all people.
But I know why we are reluctant to remind ourselves of these ideas. I think it has something to do with how it will remind us that we are un unfinished country! We are an unfinished church. I am an unfinished child of God. I am an unfinished disciple of Jesus. We are all unfinished in our pursuit of who God is calling us to be.
So we have these holidays like Memorial Day this weekend and Independence Day which is just a little over a month from now. It’s why the church calendar has holidays like Pentecost where we are reminded of our bigger purpose and calling in life.
Take Pentecost for example. Our reading from the Book of Acts this morning describes in very vivid detail Pentecost and how the church got its start. It didn’t get started by some committee. According to our Book of Acts reading, it got got started because “suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where those first disciples were sitting. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages as the Spirit gave them ability.”
I wonder who was taking minutes at that first church meeting! And imagine hearing those minutes being read for the next meeting of that brand new church! This is actually what we did just a little bit ago when our worship reader read our Pentecost scripture reading. We were hearing the minutes of our very first church meeting from over 2,000 years ago!
Our first meeting was held on the 50th day after Jesus was resurrected from the dead. Listen again to the minutes of that meeting!
In attendance: The disciples. Our meeting began with a rush of a violent wind which we realized was the Holy Spirit. It filled the entire house where we were sitting.
Tongues of fire then appeared on each disciple in attendance and we were each filled with the Holy Spirit. The Spirit enabled us to speak in different languages so that the people who had come to Jerusalem could hear the good news of how God raised Jesus from the dead.
The Holy Spirit then prompted Peter to preach a sermon about this good news. After the sermon, about 3,000 people were baptized and joined our new church. Following the service, we enjoyed a big meal together and we continued to hear more about the good news of Jesus and we spent time in prayer together.
The meeting adjourned at the end of the day. Next meeting will be tomorrow as we continue to meet in each other’s homes to distribute our belongings to those who are in need, breaking bread together with glad and generous hearts, and praising God together. Respectfully submitted, Recording Secretary of First Jerusalem Church.
These first meeting minutes must have been approved at their next meeting because this is why we hear the minutes of that meeting every year around this time.
These church minutes reminds us that the church is more than a building or an organization. The church is the visible expression of God’s redeeming and saving love for the world made known to us through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. This is the big idea of the church! To be that Pentecost community of people!
And the more we remind ourselves of this bigger idea of who we are as the church, the more we are going to realize that we don’t always fully live out this vision of who God has called us to be. This reality of who we are called to be reminds me of one of our church hymns, “The Church’s One Foundation.”
This is a hymn that reminds us of what it means to be the church. There are five verses in this hymn. The 1st verse offers us the powerful reminder of who the church is called to be. “The church’s one foundation is Jesus Christ her Lord; she is his new creation by water and the Word. From heaven he came and sought her to be his holy bride; with is own blood be bought her, and for her life he died.”
But notice that when you get to the 3rd verse, it acknowledges where we fall short in living out that idea. In referring to the church, verse 3 says, “Though with a scornful wonder we see her sore oppressed, by schisms rent asunder, by heresies distressed, yet saints their watch are keeping; their cry goes up, ‘How long?’ And soon the night of weeping shall be the morn of song.”
Verse 3 of that hymn expresses both the idea of what it means to be the church as well as the struggle the church has in living out that idea. We always live within this tension. And this is why we celebrate Pentecost on the church calendar each year, because it could be so easy for us to settle for being another social agency in the community that depends on our own strength and wisdom to carry out our mission.
No, we are so much more. We are the church called by God to share the good news of Jesus through the power of the Holy Spirit indwelling each and every one of us. What a powerful thought! You, me, each person here today empowered by the Holy Spirit to do great things in the name of the Risen Christ!
I am so excited for the future of Athens First United Methodist Church because I know that the Holy Spirit is rushing through this place like a mighty wind through our ministries, through our fellowship, through our worship, and through the life of our church. And the more we are aware of the presence of the Holy Spirit, the more that we are able to live out who God has called us to be.
Pentecost won’t let us forget! Even though we will always be a work in progress, Pentecost will never let us forget who we are and who we are called to be.
When I think of Pentecost Sunday and who God is calling the church to be, I think of the chair that Benjamin Franklin would see during his Constitutional Convention meetings in Philadelphia in 1787 as our nation was being formed.
Noted Methodist theologian, Albert Outler offers this responsive reading called, “The Unfinished Church.” May these words always remind us that the sun is always rising thanks to the presence and power of the Holy Spirit at work in and through each and every one of us and upon the life of the church. Let’s share in this responsive reading together. The words are on the screen:
PASTOR: We gather in this time and place, all of us from different times and places, here to worship God.
ALL: Many years ago, the people gathered and were ignited by passion for God, lit up by Pentecost fire, shouting out in Pentecost voices, carried away on Pentecost winds.
PASTOR: So many years later, we gather. We have learned new words, and written books of rules. We have heard the stories of our past. We come to create stories for the future.
ALL: We are an unfinished church.
PASTOR: Like those disciples so many years ago, we are not sure we know the way. We are afraid to make mistakes. We are afraid to fail.
ALL: We are an unfinished church.
PASTOR: But, Christ calls us to carry on the blessing of discipleship, to move forward in love and faithfulness, so that all might find a place in our holy space, our church.
ALL: We are an unfinished church.
PASTOR: So long as even one of us is left outside the door because of our coldheartedness, we are an unfinished church.
ALL: We are an unfinished church.
PASTOR: So long as any one is lonely, hungry, sick, in prison, naked, we are an unfinished church.
ALL: We are an unfinished church.
PASTOR: So long as any one of us is destitute of the great Hope that is our future in Christ Jesus, raised up to set us free from death into holy and everlasting life.
ALL: We are an unfinished church.
PASTOR: Every day is a new Pentecost, full of the promise and possibility that God offers.
ALL: Today is a day of dreaming. A Pentecost day filled with refining fire, and holy smoke, and winds of change, and voices full of passion for God and for each other.
PASTOR: We are an unfinished church, but we are God’s church.
ALL: We are God’s church, full of grace and love and hope. Today is a new Pentecost Day, may we be birthed again into a new beginning.
The Unfinished Church
PASTOR: We gather in this time and place, all of us from different times and places, here to worship God.
ALL: Many years ago, the people gathered and were ignited by passion for God, lit up by Pentecost fire, shouting out in Pentecost voices, carried away on Pentecost winds.
PASTOR: So many years later, we gather. We have learned new words, and written books of rules. We have heard the stories of our past. We come to create stories for the future.
ALL: We are an unfinished church.
PASTOR: Like those disciples so many years ago, we are not sure we know the way. We are afraid to make mistakes. We are afraid to fail.
ALL: We are an unfinished church.
PASTOR: But, Christ calls us to carry on the blessing of discipleship, to move forward in love and faithfulness, so that all might find a place in our holy space, our church.
ALL: We are an unfinished church.
PASTOR: So long as even one of us is left outside the door because of our coldheartedness, we are an unfinished church.
ALL: We are an unfinished church.
PASTOR: So long as any one is lonely, hungry, sick, in prison, naked, we are an unfinished church.
ALL: We are an unfinished church.
PASTOR: So long as any one of us is destitute of the great Hope that is our future in Christ Jesus, raised up to set us free from death into holy and everlasting life.
ALL: We are an unfinished church.
PASTOR: Every day is a new Pentecost, full of the promise and possibility that God offers.
ALL: Today is a day of dreaming. A Pentecost day filled with refining fire, and holy smoke, and winds of change, and voices full of passion for God and for each other.
PASTOR: We are an unfinished church, but we are God’s church.
ALL: We are God’s church, full of grace and love and hope. Today is a new Pentecost Day, may we be birthed again into a new beginning.
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