April 11, 2021 ~ Second Sunday of Easter ~ Zoom Worship Recording, Sermon & Sermon Video Link

Zoom Recording Link:

https://us02web.zoom.us/rec/share/7W_d2rW_abhs-511XgBUJF0fKwZE7jdohY5iYWKVw8qBN1m6PfFLUNdwpvwSGm6_.yG5CateueKASvn18

Sermon Video Link:

2^nd Easter                                                                         04/11/21—Highland—Meute

“One Heart and Soul”

Acts 4: 32-35; I John 1:1—2:2; John 20: 19-31

Pearl: The power of Spirit and resurrection to do new and wonderful things.

Function: To encourage worshippers to practice resurrection and to inhale the Spirit God breathes into us so we can be the oddly beautiful church of Jesus Christ: an oasis in the world.

If you like to watch birds, and even if you are not a “birder,” you must be in awe when you see a flock of starlings flying together in massive formation almost dancing in the air as they fly en masse in perfect synchronicity up and down, in and out, sideways and back and forth. Now get this: it takes starlings 50 milliseconds to reach consensus! (Christian Century, 5/18/18, Peter Marty)

1. They don’t even have a designated leader. This beautiful phenomenon of birds in flight is called “murmuration.” Thousands of small birds creating dazzling shapes move elegantly and dynamically through the air.
   1. Not having a designated leader each little bird keeps its eyes on the six or seven surrounding birds to avoid colliding with each other in the air. By doing this any bird can initiate a change of direction at any time. Amazingly, a consensus among hundreds or even thousands of birds emerges in 50 milliseconds.
   1. And so what we see is an elegant aerial display of what looks like completely choreographed flight.
      1. The flock moves through the air with skill and grace, and flowing smoothly like the musical concept of legato.
      1. This is where the music is played or sung with a smooth and continuing sound with no noticeable stops or starts. It moves continuously along, ebbing and flowing, smoothly.
         1. The choral anthem today displays legato in the verses but then in contrast becomes short and staccato with great pep and vigor in the refrain.
   1. Observing this amazing display of birds in flight, in perfect unity and synchronicity, is breath-taking.
2. Starlings in unity and synchronicity of flight can be an inspiration to the church.
   1. What a beautiful thing when the church operates in a similar way.
      1. It does not always operate that way but it certainly can operate in such a way.
      1. Actually the church of Jesus Christ can and it must operate in that way: the way of grace and unity.
         1. I am quite impressed with the notion of the church smoothly changing direction and everyone following each different direction that the Spirit prompts.
         1. It could seem chaotic, constantly changing direction, but if prompted continually by the Spirit there is also at the same time a profound order and synchronicity within that seeming chaos.
3. Basically the early church acted like this. In The Acts of the Apostles we read that they had a unity that bound them together in both “heart and soul.”
   1. They did not have private property but shared everything.
   1. If anyone had a need it was provided by the community.
   1. This was the post-Pentecost community of followers of Jesus Christ. A mark of the Spirit-filled church of Christ was in their unity and common concern for each other and those joining the community.
      1. So this unity and grace was “God’s doing.” God provides this strong bond of kinship within his followers.
   1. There are times today when we wonder if we are even related to that early church of Jesus Christ. The church suffers many disputes and fractures.
      1. But the fact is that we have what it takes to be a “starling church.” We have the Holy Spirit and we can practice resurrection!
      1. God has ensured this and continues to provide this.

You, the church, can be amazing because you are empowered to be just that!

Jesus appeared in his resurrection body to the disciples who were huddling together with fear and dread at all that had happened. Even though most of them believed that Jesus had risen from the dead they still didn’t know what to make of it. They continued hiding out, stymied, deflated, and confused.

1. So Jesus appeared to them as they were all gathered, except for Thomas.
   1. Jesus’ appearances were strategic. He appeared in order to them to ignite them.
      1. What does it say in the gospel of John?
         1. “…he breathed on them and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit” (John 20:22).
            1. That is a funny thought during our Covid-19 pandemic where everyone wears masks in order not to breathe on each other.
         1. No one has to worry about inhaling coronavirus from the Spirit. God breathes life into human beings. He breathes the powerful Holy Spirit into you and into me so that we can be an amazing church, a starling church!
         1. It is interesting to note that even before Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit is most noted for descending on followers of Jesus, Jesus had already conferred the Holy Spirit upon them in this resurrection appearance.
         1. Once Jesus had done this amazing things were observed about the infant church.
            1. It turns out that they were living by the Spirit of God and they were practicing life within the reality of the resurrection.
2. This means that God provides for the church. God provides what the church needs to be amazing, powerful, life-giving, and joy-giving.
   1. The church inhales the power of God in the Holy Spirit.
   1. It is as simple and as natural as breathing. Everyone breathes.
      1. It is horribly agonizing when you cannot breathe.
      1. It is terrifying to not be able to breathe.
      1. But when you can easily fill your lungs with air, all is well.
   1. When you can inhale the very Spirit of God you are well to the third power!
3. The church is amazing also because it practices resurrection—that is, it exists with the awareness that there is much more than meets the eye in the church. It exists according to an altogether new reality.
   1. Kate Bargeron Grant wrote about Wendell Berry’s poem “Manifesto: The Mad Farmer Liberation Front.” Do we know any “Mad Farmers” around here in northern Harford County?
      1. Turns out the Mad Farmer is quite wise. The farmer warns against the love of “’the quick profit, the annual raise, vacation with pay’ life which makes you “afraid to know your neighbors and to die.”
         1. Instead, the Mad Farmer invites you to, “every day do something that won’t compute. Love the Lord. Love the world” and finally to “practice resurrection.”

The church has the wonderful ability to be amazing as the starlings, thanks to the gospel of Jesus Christ. The gospel brings the power and ability.

1. The church is an “other-worldly” entity.
   1. Too often we underestimate who and what is the church of Jesus Christ.
      1. We settle for far too little.
      1. We look to the world to guide us when we should look to the odd and counter-intuitive gospel of Jesus Christ which “does not compute” and which is known by grace and humility and generosity and other-centeredness.
         1. The church doesn’t look out for number one it looks out for the one in need. It looks out for and provides for the odd persons out.
         1. The church takes its time for people.
         1. The church sees people not as objects.
         1. The church seeks to get to know people who are different of faith and of habit and of outlook.
   1. The church practices peace and grace and civility.
      1. As Kate Grant writes, “The gospel creates a new world.”
         1. So why would the church ever takes its direction from anything other than the gospel of Jesus Christ?
            1. We often look to our job and career lives and ways of business to guide our practices in the church. Why would we do that?
               1. Our gospel is gloriously different.
2. It is because we do not really exercise the imagination. The imagination is the domain for the gospel of Jesus Christ.
   1. We can do a whole lot with our imaginations! Combine the power of the imagination with the power of the resurrection and you have a church which is amazing! You have a people who are amazing!
   1. As God intends. As God inspires.
      1. Take it from the Mad Farmer: “Everyday do something which doesn’t compute. Love the Lord. Love the world.”
         1. Doesn’t that sound fun?
         1. The church should be fun because the Lord breathes into us the Holy Spirit and we have the resurrection which means lives are always being transformed!

The author quoted before tells the story of an urban Christian community that ministered to the homeless for over 20 years. An attorney next door was often enraged by the homeless men. For years he waged war against his neighbors, calling police, fire inspectors, the health department, and trying every bureaucratic means to shut the ministry down or push it out.

1. But the community endured these assaults, and eventually there was a cease-fire.
   1. Relations were still tense until the day a letter arrived from this man. It contained a large check and a letter of deep regret. The neighbor asked for the community’s forgiveness and closed with “peace be with you.”
   1. It was likely the cumulative effect of so many years spent in close proximity to one of God’s outposts of peace that this man had a change of heart.
      1. God’s other-worldly, odd, and counter-intuitive, gospel-driven people won another soul.

You can be amazing Church!

Inhale deeply of the Holy Spirit. Fill your lungs daily and hourly with the breath of God.

Do this and you can be as amazing as you really are created to be: you can be as amazing as the starlings!