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The Day of Pentecost, 30 May 2004
Sermon on Acts 2:41-47 by Samuel Zumwalt
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Acts 2:41-47 (NRSV Text from Oremus Bible Browser @ www.oremus.org)

41 So those who welcomed his message were baptized, and that day about three thousand persons were added. 42 They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.

43 Awe came upon everyone, because many wonders and signs were being done by the apostles. 44 All who believed were together and had all things in common; 45 they would sell their possessions and goods and distribute the proceeds to all, as any had need. 46 Day by day, as they spent much time together in the temple, they broke bread at home and ate their food with glad and generous hearts, 47 praising God and having the goodwill of all the people. And day by day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved.

Living in the Power of the Holy Spirit

Many years ago I read historian Martin Marty’s helpful little book Baptism. He began by describing the awe, mystery, and wonder of an early church baptism when to be baptized was a highly countercultural act. The newly baptized was leaving the old life behind to enter into the new community of God’s people.

Having set a scene altogether unfamiliar to the present-day Christian reader, Marty contrasted that baptism with the kind of baptism one might regularly experience in a Lutheran congregation. There the parents’ greatest fear was that the pastor would get too much water on the baby, thus spoiling the child’s hair or clothing right before the pictures were to be taken. It was an effective introduction to a tract on the meaning of Holy Baptism.

Today marks the 23 rd anniversary of my ordination to the holy ministry and the conclusion of about 28 years of church work. As I reflect on my experience with churches, I cannot help but note the vast difference that exists between Luke’s Spirit-filled vision of the Church’s birth and the state of most Christian churches today.

Luke notes that 3,000 were baptized on the Day of Pentecost. Today church leaders worry about pastors that want to grow the congregation. As the paid professional Christians, pastors are supposed to maintain the roster of those that are already members.

Luke says they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship. Today the many never attend a Bible study and never blink an eye at countless deviations from the apostles’ teaching. Paul’s warning to young Timothy has come true; many have developed itchy ears that long to be hear some word other than God’s Word.

Luke notes that they were devoted to the breaking of the bread and the prayers – his terms for faithfully receiving Holy Communion and gathering for worship. Today there are so many church members that find it challenging to give an hour for worship even on a once or twice monthly basis.

Luke says that the Spirit of God did awesome signs and wonders in the fledgling days of the Church. Today’s Christians expect so very little of the Holy Spirit, and we get exactly what we expect.

Luke says that they shared their possessions even selling what they owned to provide for those Christians that were in need. Today the mortgage or rent, the cars, the vacations, season tickets, and countless other priorities take most of the income. Often God and His poor get the equivalent of a cheap dinner and a movie – if that much!

Finally Luke says daily life was so filled with corporate praise and thanksgiving, that the Christian life was attractive to non-Christians. Day after day, they were added to the number of those being saved. Today many cultural Christians view their faith as a private thing and see no reason why it would be a good thing for their non-Christian friends to be saved. Many of today’s Christians think that God’s agape is so sloppy that people don’t even need to be baptized!

What a contrast between Luke’s Spirit-filled vision of the birth of the Church and the state of the average Christian congregation today – even St. Martin’s! Is it any wonder that Lutheran churches are aging and dying throughout North America and northern Europe? As Jesus warned in Luke 20, those that don’t care for God’s vineyard will have the vineyard taken away from them. God will plant His Church elsewhere! As Jesus demonstrated in Mark 11, a fig tree that bears no fruit will wither and die. So it is with any congregation that has forgotten whose it is and to whom it must answer!

And so we mark the birthday of the Christian Church on this Pentecost Sunday, May 30, 2004. Today at St. Martin’s we are confirming 12 adolescents that have completed three years of study, service, fellowship, and relationship-building. As they affirm their Baptism, my deepest hope and prayer for them is that today they will be seized by the Holy Spirit as never before and powerfully summoned to live in God’s Kingdom under the gentle and glorious rule of Christ Jesus.

My hope and my prayer for these confirmands is that they will wake up to Luke’s Spirit-filled vision and never again settle for playing church. My hope and prayer is that these confirmands will become leaven for all the future congregations that they will join. My hope and prayer is that many will fall deeply in love with the Lord of the Church, that they will find the study of God’s Word sweet, and that they will discover who God has created them to be. My hope and prayer is that some of these young people will wrestle with God like Jacob wrestled with God at the river (in Genesis 32), and that they will answer the call to become pastors. And not just pastors in name but pastors that stand courageously, proudly, and confidently in the Great Tradition of Christianity!

My hope and prayer for our confirmands is not mere wishful thinking. In every congregation of which I have been a member, there have always been a few of the kind of Christians that Luke describes in Acts 2. They have rarely been among the best educated or the most affluent. They have rarely sought the spotlight or worried about getting credit for the things they did. They have rarely made their presence known at congregational meetings, yet they have also rarely been absent from the services of God’s house. They have never been publicly controversial, and yet how they have lived has stood out as a reflection of the Light that the darkness can never overcome! Oh, that the Lord would raise up countless more of their number from among our youth!

What is standing in the way of God’s Holy Spirit? Why you know! It’s we, the fractured congregations and the fractured Christians! We’re the obstacle!

The late Will Spong, professor at the local Episcopal seminary, once said that the Episcopal Church was so well-ordered that it would continue to function for a full month after the 2 nd Coming of Christ. In his book The Great Divorce, former atheist C.S. Lewis wrote about a bishop who was continuing to lead interesting theological discussions while not knowing that he was spending eternity in hell. We laugh at such remarks. And yet it is our unbelief that hinders the rebirth of the Church. Capernaum knew Jesus too well for mighty works to be done there. So many of us are present day citizens of Capernaum, and our unbelief holds back a mighty outpouring of God’s Holy Spirit today!

Today is Pentecost 2004, and we are singing and praying that the Holy Spirit would descend upon our children mightily. What if we asked that the Holy Spirit would seize us all like a potter seizes clay – molding and making us according to the Potter’s design and not our own? Even now the Spirit of God is praying that we would confess our sins and pray with the Lord Jesus, “Nevertheless, not my will, but yours be done!”

Today is Pentecost, and by God’s grace and mercy you can become the child of God you are created to be in the washing of Holy Baptism. Today is Pentecost, and the holy cross of Christ can still take away the sins of the whole world – even yours! Today is Pentecost, and the dried brush that has accumulated in your heart and mind can be set ablaze even as the body and blood of the Lord Jesus Christ touch your lips. Come, Holy Spirit, seize your moribund Church throughout the world and set it on fire!

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

The Rev. Dr. Samuel Zumwalt
St. Martin’s Lutheran Church
Austin , Texas USA
szumwalt@saintmartins.org

 


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