New Beginnings

Acts 1:1-14

 “New Beginnings”

03 April 2106 St. Andrew’s Military Chapel Singapore

            Have you ever been there at the beginning of something? You’re in someone’s garage starting a band or even a company trying to figure out everyone’s role in this new adventure, whatever it will become. You’re experimenting with a new recipe for a meal. You know what flavors you want the dish to have, but aren’t quite sure about how to blend them to get the right flavor profile.

            But that isn’t even the scariest part of starting something new. What will people think of our new band? Will they reject our sound? What if no one buys our product? Especially after we’ve sunk our life savings into building the prototype. What if this recipe is horrible and no one, including me wants to ever eat it again?

What if it fails?

           

            We may be at a moment where, like the disciples, we get to start something new with our faith. I don’t mean we are going to change the core doctrines of Christianity, but rather how we live out our faith in a different context than previous generations. People have started to call this era the Post-Christian era. As the church loses it’s influence in the social and political arena, some questions come to mind.

            What does the phrase “Christian nation” even mean? Do we need a nation to affirm our faith? Wasn’t the whole point of Christ’s way of bringing about the Kingdom to prevent us from equating God’s Kingdom with our earthly thinking about the reign of God? What is the role of the church in our nation and world? What will evangelism look like going forward? Do people still want to be part of a faith community?

            What if it fails?

Ten years ago, I was sitting with a small group of high school youth from all over the South and asked them what church should look like. It was a enlightening and powerful discussion, such that I still have the index cards they gave me with their ideas.

“Connected and communal. Simple. Everyone accepted. People want to be there. Multi-generational. We would have a strong program with local mission and world mission by getting our hands dirty and not just pulling out our wallets. A place that can answer your questions. A church that I can tell my struggles. Focus on community outreach more than global missions. Strong in the idea of change. Have a basketball court like the Baptists.”

            Based on the fact that the individuals who offered these insights are now out of college and making a difference in the world, I’m confident the church will be just fine. It’ll just look different. Just like what we have today looks very different from what the disciples envisioned in the aftermath of Christ’s resurrection.

            For the first church in that upper room with Jesus coming in and out for 40 days until his ascension to heaven, there was a lot of waiting and praying. Sometimes new beginnings entail some prayerful waiting. Both are things that we, or at least me, aren’t all that good at. Waiting is hard because we always feel like we need to be doing something that the only way to make something happen is to Just Do It.

            But, we need to remember that while we may do some action in support of God’s Kingdom and plan here on earth it is not, nor ever will be, our plan. This isn’t our church. It is God’s church filled with the Holy Spirit and with Christ as the head of the church to guide us and lead us. So, that is why the disciples spent 40 days waiting and praying. 40 days of letting Christ lead them, teach them, and prepare them for what lay ahead.

            Will Willimon, a former Dean of Duke Chapel and United Methodist Bishop writes, “Waiting, an onerous burden for us computerized and technically impatient moderns who live in an age of instant everything, is one of the tough tasks of the church. Our waiting implies that the things which need doing are beyond our ability to accomplish solely by our own effort, our programs and crusades. Some other empowerment is needed, therefore the church waits and prays.” (Feasting on the Word, Year A Volume 2, Pastoral Perspective, p520)

            By sitting together in prayer and waiting for the Lord to lead their next steps, the disciples avoided the trap that we can all too often encounter when we are always wanting to rush into fixing people or the church: making God too small.

            The task of spreading the Gospel to the ends of the earth is bigger than all of us combined. Even to effectively minister in our own corner of the world is too large a task for us alone. When we try to determine what the kingdom should look like without prayer and reflection we get a human sized kingdom, a human sized grace, a human sized slice of forgiveness, a human sized church, and most depressingly: a human sized God.

            God’s work is typically larger and more expansive than it appears. Let’s just look back on some of the simple words our former high schoolers used to convey large ideas: accepting, local, missional, multi-generational, dirty hands, questions, struggles.

Looking again at our disciples in this passage, they are waiting in Jerusalem and even focus their efforts after this passage in Jerusalem. The overwhelming majority of the disciples stayed local, living out the Gospel right where they stood. Only Peter really travelled and even then, they eventually leave the bulk of spreading the Gospel to Paul, who at this moment is actually plotting ways to hunt the disciples down and kill them. Humans would have never thought big enough to plan that twist.

 

            For 1700 years the church has been the religion of the empire. But, that is changing. A new and fresh expression of the church is emerging. We are in a similar place as the disciples in this passage. Instead of forcing our own ideas on church 2.0 let us prayerfully wait for the Spirit’s guidance who just may speak to us through our youngest members.

            We are a resurrection people and the changing face of the church over the years is proof. Christ’s message and his people have survived many changes in the world and many spits over doctrinal issues. The entire time I was in seminary my own denomination fought over a divisive issue. Some congregations decided to leave the denomination. People predicted the death of the denomination and that we were the canary in the mine of the death of the church universal.

            Christ proves anything can be resurrected. It won’t look the same or how we would expect. So let’s not limit our expectations of God’s work in the world by making God too small. Let us prayerfully wait for God to tell us how to build his kingdom here on earth. Even if, like the disciples, it means the church becoming something we’d never expect.