May 3, 2020 ~ Fourth Sunday of Easter Sermon & Sermon Video Link

                                                         05/03/20—Highland

“So Close But Yet So Far”

Psalm 23; I Peter 2: 19-25; Acts 2: 42-47

Pearl: Appreciate that which really matters.

Function: To move listeners to place greater premium on fellowship (relationships) especially now that we are prevented from visitation (physical proximity to each other) due to COVID-19.

I got a chuckle when I saw today’s scripture reading from the book of Acts! In this time of social isolation and stay-at-home orders we read about the early church: “They devoted themselves to the apostle’s teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers…THEY SPENT MUCH TIME TOGETHER IN THE TEMPLE…” (Acts 2: 42, 46).

1. I often turn to this verse in Acts when meeting with new members to the church. As we think about what the church is this verse boils it down for us. Not that it covers everything that is needed. Missing is the whole thrust towards mission, justice, and reconciliation ministries of establishing God’s reign on earth.
   1. But it covers some of the most basic necessities for the community of believers in Jesus. These activities were the heartbeat and the pulse of the early church fellowship. As the church grew like wildfire they devoted themselves, they were “all in” and dedicated to:
      1. The apostle’s teaching and to fellowship;
      1. To the breaking of bread and to the prayers.
   1. One of my pastor friends is a gifted guitar player and singer. But I didn’t know what a smooth, silky, and sultry voice his wife had! They recently posted a recording of a song from one of my childhood favorite Disney films: “The Jungle Book.”
      1. “Look for the bare necessities, the simple bare necessities, forget about your worries and your strife…” It was fun to watch them sing and to enjoy the message of that great old song!
   1. The “bare necessities” for the church community can be boiled down to teaching, fellowship, the breaking of bread, and the prayers.
      1. This present moment in time for the world is forcing us to focus on the “bare necessities,” to what is most important.
      1. One of the most important things is keeping connected in relationship: fellowship.
      1. Now that we are prevented from doing this most basic and important thing physically, we realize just how important it is.
2. You do not realize how much you have or how important something is until it is taken away.
   1. Jackie Taylor, our Baltimore Presbytery General Presbyter wrote in her mid-week message that we should be sure to maintain our relational connections within our churches. She said that many things can wait until later but “relational connections” cannot be neglected.
      1. Thank you, Jackie, for reminding us of something so important!

Hang on to the bare necessities of the church: the apostle’s teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.

During this pandemic we Highlanders really have attended to most of these in what we are maintaining!

1. Through Highland Mobile Church we are attending to the Apostle’s teaching and the prayers in the Sunday worship meeting.
2. In the Mid-Week meeting we are maintaining fellowship and the prayers again.
3. Lacking is actual physical proximity and real table fellowship. And we are noticing how much we are missing!
   1. Driving along in your four-wheeled vehicle goes so well and beautifully until you get a flat tire. Then you are side-lined and stuck. You cannot run that four-wheeled vehicle on three wheels. It simply cannot be done.
      1. To run on three wheels you have to dramatically change the structure of your vehicle in order to run on three wheels.
         1. Indeed this is what the church is doing now. We are running on three wheels. We have had to dramatically change our structure in order to keep running.
         1. But we look toward a day when we can run on four wheels again.
            1. And we will apply the lessons we learned during this time of “three-wheeling.”
         1. Regarding that one phrase from Acts, “they spent much time together,” in some ways we are spending more time together in simple conversation than perhaps before the pandemic.
            1. We are talking at least twice a week about life and living and what is most important. We are checking in with each other. We are praying for each other and with one another.
            1. Granted we are not able to get together physically but we are still fellowshipping, in a “three-wheeled way.”

This “bare necessity” of fellowship reminds me of the Amish.

1. The Amish put a high premium on fellowship. I am not sure if this is true for every district of Amish but for many it is common for them to rotate Sundays: one Sunday they “visit” each other; the other Sunday they meet for worship.
   1. As different as the Amish are, they continue to thrive and stay together. Maybe it has something to do with how they are “devoted,” “all in” for fellowship.
2. How has the church of Jesus Christ survived these 2,000 years?
   1. The church survives persecution;
   1. It survives presumed irrelevance;
   1. It survives controversies within and without;
   1. It survives division and fracture;
      1. How does it yet survive?
         1. Certainly first and foremost because God is in it! Jesus said “not even the gates of Hades (the place of the dead) will prevail against his church” (Matthew 16:18).
         1. But it also has a lot to do with maintaining the bare necessities of devotion to the apostle’s teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers!
            1. Emphasis on the word DEVOTION!
            1. Devotion is the attitude of being “all in.” The Church is the collection of those who are all in for Jesus Christ.
         1. The church survives because Christ followers through the centuries have maintained the “bare necessities” of the apostle’s teaching and fellowship, the breaking of bread and the prayers.

The Table of the Lord is how we refer to the sacrament of Holy Communion. The Table of the Lord is where the Church universal, where God’s people are so close but also far apart.

1. In Acts 2 the reference to the “breaking of bread” was not referring to the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper. That was established by the church at a later time. It was simply referring to the goodness of eating together and the bonds that are forged in table fellowship.
   1. A “bare necessity” of the church is “eating together” regularly or at least from time to time.
      1. Remember, two disciples walked for miles along with the risen Jesus and did not recognize him even as he explained all that took place and how it fulfilled scriptural prophecy. The risen Lord preached to them and they didn’t recognize him!
         1. It was in the simple familiarity that is common at the table that they finally recognized him.
2. But The Table has become a sacramental reality for the Church. The Table is a symbol for how we are family and how we belong to each other.
   1. It has always bothered me that the universal church is not truly together at the Table. I long for Protestants and Catholics to share the bread and the cup together. There are talks happening at high levels toward this end.
   1. After all the Table is the one place where we are to be so close but yet we are so far apart if we cannot be together.
      1. Just like we are now experiencing. We are separated in our homes for the sake of everyone’s health and well-being. Yet we are celebrating the unity that we have in Jesus Christ.
      1. We are close…but yet we are far apart.
         1. And it hurts. We realize what we once had since it is now taken away.
3. Well, what we have in Christ is eternal. This means that we can transport ourselves beyond this present moment and look forward to close physical proximity again one day and indeed forever and ever, eternally! We believe in the resurrection of the body. It is in the Apostle’s Creed and a major doctrine of the faith. In this case we believe in the “resurrection of the body of Christ,” which is the Church!
   1. In Christ we can travel through time! In eternity, in God who is eternal, we can go back in time and we can go forward in time. We can accept the present because we have the future. Indeed, we have the future, friends!
   1. So take heart, lift up your heads and your hearts!

In Christ many things are so close and yet so far.

But they are not that far!

We are not that far apart! Praise the Lord!