Breaking Down Barriers: Sermon Acts 2:1-21 Penecost Sunday

Dear God, take our minds and think through them; take our hands and feet and work through them; take our lips and speak through them, take our hearts and set them on fire for you. Amen

The first time I traveled to Michigan to visit Angie and meet her parents it was about mid-March, I was on spring break, but spring had not yet broke in Michigan. It was my first experience with snow banks, snow plows for sale, icebergs in Lake Michigan, and frozen ponds for ice skating. I knew it was going to be cold so I packed appropriately, sweatshirt, jacket, gloves, and a knit hat that I always knew as a toboggan. So, a few days after I arrived we went to visit her mom and dad. Now I was already a little nervous, I think most guys would be in that situation. Not to mention Angie has a very large family and they were all there in that small house. I am used to a small family gathering of about 4 maybe 5 or 6 people, there were 21 one people from 2 months on up. Needless to say I was a little intimidated. So her dad and brother were making conversation with me, asking me what I thought of the weather. I said that it cold in Tennessee but we usually do not have much in that way of snow. I told them I had brought a heavy coat, gloves, and a toboggan for my head. Everyone within the sound of my voice stopped dead in their tracks and turned to me with puzzled look. Her dad chuckled and said “You brought a what to but on your head?” I said I brought a toboggan, a wool, woven cap that you can pull down over your ears. They all began to laugh, because in their minds a toboggan is not a knit cap, but a snow sled. Her brother said that he had a toboggan in his garage but he never thought of putting it on his head. So everyone had a good-hearted laugh at the expense of the southern boy and we went on to have a lovely dinner.

I think we can all look back and think of a time when words have brought confusion. We might all speak the same language in the United States, but we often times use words in different ways and they often have different meanings. This can be dangerous if one uses words carelessly and without the thought of the consequences they might cause. Sticks and stones may break my bones but words can never hurt me. We often say this when it is the words that have hurt us and they do hurt us often cutting deep and sometimes leaving lasting scars.

Language and culture have become controversial in today’s day and time. We have seen a great influx of immigrants and migrant workers in this country and especially in this area to help work the fields, do construction and landscaping. Many of these people do not speak English very well and this often causes confusion and frustration, especially if you are a cashier at a store or a police officer. I am not going to be talking about any pending legislation or political movement that may or may not be made. I use this as an example of how language and in my case culture can be a barrier in life.

As Christians we are called to spread the gospel of Christ, to make disciples. This requires us to engage in conversation with other people, sometimes it is friends and family and sometimes it might be a total stranger. We must be aware that the words that we use, especially when we talk about Jesus are powerful. We are dealing with people’s immortal souls, this is serious business. We must be aware of the barriers, including but not limited to language as we engage in the work of the Church.

Today’s story has to do with the encountering of barriers while doing God’s work. This story is familiar to us as the Day of Pentecost, the day when the Church, the Body of Christ was born and was given the gift of the Holy Spirit. Before this happened the disciples lead by Peter encounter a barrier of language. Pentecost is not unique to the Christian tradition but started out as the Jewish Festival of Weeks after Passover. So Jerusalem was filled with Jews from all over the area most of whom spoke different languages depending on where they were from. I can imagine it was confusing and frustrating to the merchants and the locals when all these out-of-towners came into Jerusalem. I can also imagine that it was a bit intimidating for the disciples. They were suppose to begin a new church, to increase their following, tell people of the miracles they had seen and the Savior they had seen die and resurrected. This Festival of Weeks, this Pentecost would be a perfect opportunity to do this, but how could they spread the Gospel to those who could not understand them? There was a barrier of language.

Language was not the only barrier there that Pentecost morning. There was also a barrier of disbelief. When the Holy Spirit had come and gave the gift of language to the disciples those who heard them were astonished. Some gazed in wild wonderment while others scoffed in disbelief. “They are drunk!” some shouted. Some I am sure thought they were crazy, out of their ever loving minds.

We encounter disbelief in our own work as the Body of Christ. In fact one could say that we live in a disbelieving world, a world that, like the good state of Missouri wants a show me. The world, like Thomas that Resurrection morning, wants proof, hard evidence that this whole God and Jesus show is real, and unfortunately it is proof that we cannot scientifically offer. We often deal with disbelief in our own spiritual journeys. When something bad happens when we lose a loved one, when we are overwhelmed by our problems we often question our faith in God. We wonder if our lives have been wasted in our belief in God. We all have faced the barrier of disbelief.

Another barrier we face is fear. We become intimated by people, we are shy, we fear the reaction that people might have in our proclamation or Christian deeds. They might react harshly like Paul and Silas found out in our story last year. I think that fear is the number one reason why Christian do not share their faith. I can remember a time right after I answered the call to ministry. I was taking my best friend’s dad to Hillside Hospital for some blood work and the lab is on the same side of the hospital as the emergency room. So while he was having blood drawn I was flipping through magazines and watching TV in the waiting room of the hospital. While I was there a couple of seats down from me there was a lady waiting to be seen by the emergency room doctor. She was visibly upset and crying. I do not know what was wrong with her, but I knew she was terrified of what she might find out. Something inside of me told me to talk to her. Not necessarily to give my testimony but simple to offer some comfort. I resisted, I was afraid of her response, I was afraid she might reject me, she might even cause a scene and make fun of me, she might react angrily and cuss me out. I had all these fears within me and I fought and fought and just when I had mustered enough courage to speak, they called her back. I missed an opportunity. I could have helped her, but fear was a barrier.

So how do we break down these barriers? We can follow the same path as the disciples did on the Day of Pentecost. The primary way to break through these and other barriers is with the help of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit gave the disciples the gift of language, the ability to speak to the people in their own language. The Holy Spirit is God working through us and with us. God gives us the strength to break down the barriers that prevent us from doing God’s work. However, we have to utilize it, we can block the call, we can ignore the guidance of the Spirit, but if we embrace God’s Spirit, like the disciples did then we too can achieve great things.

Like with the disciples, we are given gifts by the Holy Spirit. Paul lists these gifts in his letter to the Galatians, Gal 5:22. One of the most important gifts or fruits of the Spirit is love. Now you have heard me talk about love a lot, and it is because I believe that love is the central focus of God’s relationship with us. God loves us unconditionally and requires us to love God and each other in the same way. Love for all people despite what language they speak and what culture they are from. It was love that gave Peter the strength to face the crowd. It was love that gave Peter the strength to explain to the crowd that they were not drunk. When we encounter barriers it is love, the love from God and the love we have for God and for one another which is also a gift and grace from God, that pushes us through any barrier we might face.

There is also patience. In the midst of that disbelieving crowd Peter did not grow angry, but instead calmly explained that this was not a drunken display or a group of loonies but it was an act of God that had given them the ability to speak in different languages and it was a fulfillment of the Scriptures. We all need patience in our lives; I am speaking to myself right now more than anyone. As I have said over and over again we are examples to the world and although God forgives our shortcomings sometimes all it takes is one mistake to turn someone off to the Church. Patience can help us break through the barriers and allow us to wait upon the right moment that God has prepared for us. Remember in last week’s story that Paul and Silas had the patience to allow God to make an opportunity out of a bad situation.

This leads to another fruit of the Spirit which is confidence or faithfulness in God. We can become disheartened when people react harshly to our words or our acts as Christians. When people slam the door in our face when our work to make disciples in the world seems to be for naught, when the world is crashing down upon us we need to feel like God is with us and God is still working in us despite the state of the world around us. We increase that confidence through personal Scripture reflection, prayer, Church traditions, and even hymns tell the stories over again that can help us to be strengthened in our faith. These acts and others deepen our relationship with God and as that relationship deepens so does our confidence. We are strengthened to shake the dust from our feet when people reject us and to move on to other places and other people.

We cannot escape barriers in our work as Christians. Language/culture, disbelief, and fear are just three examples of the barriers we face. However, if we like the disciples before us rely on God and God’s Holy Spirit then we can break down these barriers and work toward making disciples for Christ. We have to allow the Spirit to do its work; we have to surrender our wants and our desires for those of God. We have to stop making excuses and start breaking down barriers.

Let us pray…

Grant, O Lord,

that what has been said with our lips we may believe in our hearts,

and that what we believe in our hearts we may practice in our lives;

through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

It Ain't Always Easy: Sermon Acts 16:16-14

Dear God, take our minds and think through them; take our hands and feet and work through them; take our lips and speak through them, take our hearts and set them on fire for you. Amen

Over the last few weeks since Easter we have talked about the responsibilities of being a Christian. We have talked about going out and proclaiming the good news of Christ. We have talked about how we can make the beautiful vision of John the Revelator a reality; we have also talked about our role the God’s redemption of the world. We have talked about how we must not only proclaim the gospel but live out the gospel in our lives. These are all positive things, but let us not forget that being a Christian isn’t always easy.

There are hardships in the Christian life. We face a world that does not always want to hear our words. The world is wrapped up in its own status quo and does not want anyone to rock the boat. But that is part of being a follower of Christ. We must rock the boat just as Jesus rocked the boat and overturned tables, and spoke truth even when it wasn’t nice or welcomed. We are called to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable. It sounds good, it sounds like the right thing to do and it would seem that those who hear our words would see the error of their ways and change. But this is not always the case.

The world does not always react positively and sometimes it reacts quite harshly and even violently to the words of the gospel. We see such a reaction to the Christian life in today’s reading. However, the story also demonstrates how we should face the reaction of the world to our words and deeds as Christians. We also will see how God sometimes places us in a bad situation in order to have an opportunity to talk about Christ to someone else.

Today’s story begins with Paul, Silas, and a group of people walking to a prayer room. While walking they encounter a young girl who is a slave. They might not have noticed her at all but she runs up to them and beings to say “These men are slaves of the Most High God, who proclaim to you a way of salvation.” (v.17) She is possessed by a spirit which gives her the power to predict the future. We are not told much about her except that she is a slave and that people are exploiting her for money. We do not know how old this girl was nor do we know how she became a slave. It is a sad situation; she has no choice but to work for those who have taken ownership of her. Where are her parents, is she being exploited by her parents? We do not know. We do know that 2,000 years later there are still children all over the world who are stolen and even sold into slavery by their parents. Slavery is not a painful part of the past, but remains a horrid institution of the present.

She follows Paul and his entourage repeating that proclamation. Perhaps it is the little girl herself who is crying out in desperation, “I know you are men of God, save me.” The Bible says that Paul becomes annoyed with her ranting and casts the spirit out of her. If we look at the story in this way then we see Paul not acting out of compassion, but out of annoyance. He grows tired of her and remedies the irritation. However, perhaps we can look at it in a different way. Perhaps Paul took pity on her and wanted to set her free not only in her tortured spirit but free her from the bondage of slavery. Perhaps he saw the injustice of the situation, a young girl living in the hell of slavery and exploitation. Where it was out of annoyance or pity, it was a good deed, an act of mercy, an act of grace, an act of Christ. This is an example for us today. We might become annoyed at the homeless person always asking for change. We might be annoyed at the person who doesn’t have enough money in the checkout line at Wal-Mart. What if we looked beyond the annoyance to the heart of the problem? Perhaps if we looked hard enough we might see the injustice that is behind it all. We might see a problem that needs fixing; we might see a hurting person who needs healing. As we have discussed in the last few weeks we have a responsibility as Christians, a reasonability to take action, to speak out, to do what needs to be done.

And when we do good deeds we expect some kind of praise usually, don’t we? We might not expect an article in the paper or a trophy and a parade, but we all like to have our good work noticed and appreciated. This does not always happen. When we rock the boat sometimes the other people on the boat don’t take kindly to it. Paul does a good deed and frees a young slave girl from a life of captivity and exploitation, but those doing the exploiting don’t see it as a good deed. They see their money maker doing down the drain. Their easy living, their ticket to ride is gone and all that is left is anger. When we act out as Christians sometimes we make a splash and sometimes we make a big splash and sometimes the ripples of that splash upset the balance, the status quo, the way things have always been. Many times the reaction that we get is negative or even violent.

This kind of thing is not limited to fighting injustice in the world. Sometimes it happens within the Church. How many times have we gotten the old, “we’ve never done this before” line? We don’t do it that way, we don’t like change. Sometimes new ideas are good and sometimes new ideas are bad, but we might have to courage to hear them out and be willing to enact change. When someone wants to rock our boat we have ask ourselves is this person working with God behind them?

Back to the story, the people who exploited this poor girl contact the local police who arrest them and bring them before the magistrate or local judge and accuse them of disturbing the peace, in other words rocking the boat. The magistrate hands them over to be beaten and then jailed. Talk about a nasty reaction. They find themselves in a place of injustice and unfairness, all because they did a good deed. Now Paul could have been mad at God. He could have said, “Hey God, I’m down here doing your work and this is the thanks I get, beaten up and locked up.” That is not Paul’s reaction. Instead Paul trusted in God’s plan and knew that he had been placed in this bad situation for a specific purpose. Paul knew that this bad situation would turn good with God’s help and that God had not abandoned him.

So Paul and his groups sing hymns and praises to God into the night. It is similar to those civil rights leaders, many of whom where pastor, who sat in jailhouses unfairly and unjustly, but remained confident in God’s plan. Then sometimes amazing and unexpected happens. A great earthquake shakes the very foundations of the prison and springs open the doors and even loosens the chains they have been locked up with. Now I don’t know about you, but if that had happened. Phew!! I would have been gone, out the door, and half way out of town before they knew what happened. However, Paul remains in prison, sitting in that dark, dingy cell the ability to leave, but he remains. Why? This is perhaps the most puzzling part of the story. Paul and his group remain behind. Perhaps Paul knew somehow and someway that God’s purpose for him was in that prison. The opportunity that God was going to bring out of the bad situation lied in that prison.

The Roman penal system was pretty harsh. Not only for the prisoners but also for the guards whose responsibility it was to control the population. In fact if a prisoner escaped then the guard was expected to give up his own life in exchange. It was a death filled with shame and dishonor. So the guard was just about ready take his own life, because he thought there was no way that the prisoners had remained, when Paul called out to him. In that moment the guard realizes how important and how fragile life is and how quickly things can turn bad. He also realizes that a great mercy has been placed upon him. He asked what he must do to be saved. How do I become a Christian? That was the opportunity God had brought out of the bad situation, an opportunity in the midst of tragedy.

Perhaps the Holy Spirit had spoken to Paul and told him that there was an opportunity in that prison. I don’t know about that particular situation but I do know that the Spirit does move us. The Spirit guides us and sometimes we find ourselves in a bad situation, but just like Paul maybe within that bad situation there is an opportunity to further God’s kingdom. It ain’t always easy, but with God’s help we can work through it and despite the bad odds we can make progress.

Let us pray…

Grant, O Lord,

that what has been said with our lips we may believe in our hearts,

and that what we believe in our hearts we may practice in our lives;

through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.