85% OF LIFE
Acts 2:1-21
[Since spoken communication differs from written, some of the grammar and syntax of this transcript may seem awkward in written form. To keep integrity with the spirit of the original delivery, the transcript seeks to stay close to the exact words spoken.]
I'm always curious as to why and how people come to church on a Sunday morning. I'm curious about what goes through your head before church, what you're thinking. Is it the case that you're like this on Sunday morning: "Yes! I can hardly wait to get there; I can hardly wait to get to my pew; Iím going to get there early!" Or maybe you're like this on Sunday morning, you know? "It's Sunday. It's church. It's what we do. It's tradition." Or maybe you're among the folk who approach is kind of like this: "... (Sigh). Sunday morning--gotta go to church. Bummer." Maybe it's the case that somebody has dragged you here today. I know that there are a few of you out there in that category.
But today I want to emphasize that however it is you've come here today, the important thing is that youíre here. It's the very simple point that I want to make in my very brief sermon this morning. As we celebrate...[Who said, "Yes!" just now? Nancy Allen? OK, look at your watches. Eight minutes.] The very simple point I want to make today as we celebrate Pentecost, the birth of the church, is this: church begins when we just show up.
That's how this story itself begins. If you notice, the very first verse of Acts chapter 2 starts this way: "They were all gathered in one place." They showed up. It begins with those disciples who had hung on and kept following Jesus after his death, and resurrection, and ascension--there were about 120 of them, it says in Acts chapter 1. They were all gathered in an upper room. And I imagine that Peter and the disciples might have had something in the back of their mind that Jesus had said a long time ago, about how you will receive the Holy Spirit--or in John the word that's used is the paraclete--this presence that will teach you in my physical absence. But I doubt if they expected the psychedelic display of wind and fire--the gut-engaging, life-changing tour de force that somehow happened after they showed up that day.
And think about all the other people who were stopping by--people who had gathered for the Pentecost festival from all over the world--Jews from every various place in the Roman Empire who had gathered in Jerusalem. They showed up, because it was tradition. They expended time and money and blood and sweat and tears to cross the hills to Jerusalem, but they never expected this thing, the wind and the fire. And they would have missed it if they hadn't shown up. Because that's what church is about most of the time, I think: just showing up. Nothing that spectacular about it. It's about being here together. And you know what? Sometimes when we least expect it, then something extraordinary happens. Something that lifts us up out of ourselves, "rocks our world." But, you know, to catch that? You've got to show up.
The word in the New Testament for "church" that's most often translated "church" is the word ecclesia in Greek. Many scholars don't agree that the best word to translate that is "church" in English. It means something more like "assembly" or "gathering." Like the state assembly--people who have been elected, and then show up. So we might say that the word for "church" itself in the New Testament has to do with the idea of people just showing up. People who got the call, and show up.
I find myself often repeating this quote--this sort of famous quote from Woody Allen. I often find myself saying it in the banter that we share before worship, when I go back and talk to the early comers. It'll go something like this, you know? "How're you doing?" "Well, I'm here." And I'll say, "Well, you know Woody Allen says that thatís 85% of life." Hence today's sermon title. And that is what life is like. 85% at best is showing up--probably a lot more. Life isn't necessarily sexy or exciting or earth shattering; it's about the meat and potatoes business of just being there. And then there's that more extraordinary10 or 15% that we'd miss if we didn't.
I heard a story recently about somebody who introduced the reading of Scripture this way: they said before the reading, "Listen carefully to these words. They may change your life." And you know, probably not. But maybe. And you'll never know unless you're here to listen to them. And you know, even when we show up and it doesn't seem to change our lives to be here--it doesn't rock our world to hear these words of Scripture--sometimes we can be unaware of how these words are changing us, even when we're not aware of it.
There's a story that's often told about a guy who is about to tell his pastor that he's going to stop coming to church. He said, "You know, these sermons are wasted on me. I've been going to church for 20 years, and I can remember maybe one or two or three sermons tops, over that span of 20 years." And he told this to his friend. And his friend said to him, "You know what? I've been married for about 20 years. And my wife cooks all the meals in our family. And over those 20 years I suppose there have been about 10,000 meals that she's cooked for us, and I can remember maybe two or three of them, tops. But I tell you what--I needed every single one of them." That's what church is about. Whether we know it or not, we are being nourished by the Spirit of God. Because church begins with just showing up.
Now as I end my brief sermon this morning, a little twist to this--because you're here today, and that's the important part. But there's something about this Pentecost story that calls me to say something about those who are not here--who didn't show up today. And I don't mean the people on our church roles who are not here--well, we could mention them as well, too. But one of the distinctive features of Pentecost is the fact that the Holy Spirit enabled people from such disparate cultures, nationalities, and language to experience the oneness of Jesus Christ--oneness through the love of Jesus Christ. We might even go so far as to say that that kind of diversity is, in some sense, a necessary condition for experiencing the Spirit of God. And if we look around the congregation today, we will indeed notice that we are not terribly diverse; we are a fairly monochromatic and monocultural bunch. And I don't know that we should necessarily beat ourselves up about that. And yet perhaps we ought to say, and realize, that we as Christians are all the poorer for that lack if diversity. I'm not sure what we do about that. But maybe we should begin by just saying it: that we are all the poorer for our lack of diversity. And maybe it begins by asking the question, "How can we reach out to people who are different from us? People who may live just a quarter mile from us? Or people who may live right next door to us?" How do we become that beloved community that sat at table in the early church, Jews and Greeks, male and female, slave and free, who became one in Jesus Christ?
You're here today, for this feast. And that's what's important for today. And this feast today may not seem like it's going to change your life, but it may. It may be that in taking that little cube of bread and that little shot glass of juice that Jesus Christ hits you between the eyes with his love. It may happen today. But whether it does or it doesn't, you will be nourished and nurtured by the comforting and sustaining presence of the Holy Spirit in this bread and in this cup.
But either way, you wonít know unless you show up.
Amen.
May 11, 2008
PentecostThe Reverend Jeffrey A. Vamos
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