"Let's keep the doors swinging."
Five days ago I was driving through a late spring snowstorm in the Green Mountains of Vermont. It was one of those exhilarating times when a lot seemed to be happening at once--all good! I had just finished a successful lecture series on Ethics in Business at a large Boston convention. I was on my way to see my twin brother Bob and his wife Penny at their "famous" apple orchard in Vermont. The marks of early spring were everywhere with tulips in the ground and green buds on the trees. The temperature outside was a nippy thirty-two degrees in a driving blizzard and I knew that the temperatures at home were just passing the century mark. And, most important, I had received a call from home the night before from Alan Williams and Willett Magruder, our Wardens, saying that our Vestry had decided to go ahead with the groundbreaking of our new sanctuary the next Sunday. It was indeed a wonderful day and I felt "filled with the spirit"--on top of the world--literally.
I'm sure this must have been how Peter felt when he spoke one day on a crowded street corner in Jerusalem, about all that had happened to him after Jesus had risen and some three thousand people decided to be baptized on the spot and enter their new Christian community--"filled with the Holy Spirit."
And, I suspect, that is what we all felt at St. Margaret's when we decided last week to step out in faith with a lot of courage to build in our community a new house of worship and prayer--"filled with the Holy Spirit."
Today, as we worship and pray together and prepare for next week's groundbreaking step of faith, I would like for us to look at the first Christian community as presented to us in the reading from Acts (2:36-47). These two paragraphs are like a telescope which zooms into the original parish church and gives us a wonderful look at what a church "filled with the Holy Spirit" is all about. What do we see there that might help us along the way? Or, to put it another way, what are the marks or features which distinguish a spirit-filled church?
It is clear to me that the first church was a community which had a soul-shaking personal experience with Jesus Christ. Like Cleopas and his friend walking to Emmaus, these early Christian people met and knew Jesus as their friend and savior, and through this experience they had a simple, unswerving faith in God.
One of our early church fathers, named Tertullian, said that God has no grandchildren. Christians are made, not born. Faith cannot be inherited like blue eyes or blond hair, for like birth and death, faith in Jesus Christ is something that each person must individually experience.
As I understand it, the primary task of the church is to be a place where we can come to personal faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. And with this initial faith, to begin a simple unswerving relationship with God. This is very basic and fundamental...and it is the truth.
The early Christians were a bit fanatical about their faith. They stood on any street corner available to tell the world about their experience with Jesus and their new life in Him.
So the primary mark of a church filled with the Holy Spirit is that it is a place where inner personal transformation can and does occur. And then people get a bit fanatical about it (in our Episcopal way); they talk up their church and tell the world about their wonderful experience.
The second mark of a spirit-filled church is that it is a place of learning and growing. Acceptance of Jesus as the Christ is the primary step in faith--yet this step must be reinforced and developed over a lifetime of living it.
One reading from the Book of Acts makes it quite clear that the early Christian community devoted much of its time in what they called the Apostles' Teaching and Fellowship. Salvation was just the beginning for them. Christianity is a way of life and we have much to learn about our faith, from Bible stories in our Holy Scriptures, from our creeds and doctrines, and from our history and traditions developed over nearly two thousand years.
Our children's Sunday School and Wednesday School and our adult Bible class and confirmation classes are only a beginning. My hope for St. Margaret's is that we will develop in the new building a true center for Christian education, a place where we can offer a variety of courses in Biblical studies, Christian history, tradition and theology. Along with these we will develop and offer experiential courses like marriage encounter, journey groups and Cursillo to help us cope in this oft-times difficult world and live as true Christian pilgrims.
One church-growth analyst says that going into an alive, spirit-filled church is like going to a smorgasbord dinner. There are lots of courses available, something for everybody, and if it's good, the parking lot is so full you can hardly get in.
A healthy church is one where we can learn about our Bible and traditions, talk about our faith and experience what it is like to really live like a Christian.
The third mark of a spirit-filled church is that it is filled with the spirit. On Easter Sunday I talked with a large group of people who came to St. Margaret's to celebrate Easter because they were away from home attending a convention at the new Marriott hotel in town. They ranged from born-again Christians through Episcopalians to a Jewish family. And to a person, they shared with me their uplifting experience while worshiping with this spirited congregation. One woman with tears running down her cheeks told me that she hadn't experienced a spirit-filled community in many years and now her faith was truly renewed in Jesus Christ and with the world.
The description of the early church in the Book of Acts is a classic example of a community filled with spirit. They were, as Luke tells us, attending worship together, breaking bread in their homes, praying, praising God with glad hearts and having favor with all the people. You get the feeling that they really enjoyed their faith. It is also clear from the end of the story that they were quite willing to die for it.
A spirit-filled community has two doors to it. Through one we enter the community to be fed--to celebrate worship, sing, pray and share fellowship with each other. To use an ancient Greek word--it has charisma inside. Within this "charismatic" community we experience true Christian love, we are renewed, we learn about our faith and we support each other. One Latin historian wrote about the new Christians: "See how they love each other, these Christians, even the slaves, women and children." A popular first-century author named Pliny wrote the Roman Emperor Trojan these words:
"Contrary to what I supposed, I find that Christians meet often in the early hours of the morning, they sing hymns to Christ, they read from their sacred writing and partake of a simple meal of bread and wine and water. This is all I can find out except that they exhort each other to be subject to the government and pray for just about everybody."
The other door of a spirit-filled community swings outward. It is a door through which we go out to feed others, to share with those outside what we have inside. Our story in Acts tells us that the disciples collected and gave alms, they ran the original church thrift shop by distributing goods to those in need and, above all, they brought thousands of people back into their community through the "in" door.
There are thousands of people around us who do not know about the good news of Jesus Christ and about this gathered community of St. Margaret's. And there are thousands who have forgotten their early faith--who have left the church and a worshipping community for God only knows what reasons. Our task as a spirit-filled church is to invite them back or into the fold; to share with them who we are and what we have, by letting some of our joy and excitement spill over into their lives.
I have said before that seventy-nine percent of the people who join a church come through the invitation of a friend or relative. In a recent church growth study, fifty percent of unchurched people interviewed said they would return to church if someone would just ask them or bring them. If each person or family here brings one person or family into our community, our new sanctuary will be filled twice a Sunday next year. We may not match Peter's record of three thousand converts a day, but we can certainly try. Let's keep the doors swinging.
Well, that's enough for now. It's time to prepare for next week, move some dirt and build this church building. Let's remember to build the inside as well as the outside.
And, to help us remember, I ask you to include in your prayers this year that wonderful prayer included in your church bulletins. Would you join me in offering this prayer each day for the year as we build the inside and outside of our new church.
Thank you, Lord, for St. Margaret's, for those who have worshipped in it over the years and for those who serve it today.
Grant that all who enter its doors may be enabled to renew their relationship with You and may find Your peace, Your strength, Your grace, and above all Your presence.
Help us as a congregation to be outward-looking, so that what we find within our fellowship we may share with those outside, for the benefit of all and for Your greater glory, in Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
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