EDITOR'S NOTE: In October 2017 I began a new venture as a synodically authorized minister at Faith Lutheran Church in Wolverton, Minn. The ride over the past 2.5 years has been an amazing journey of learning, growing and a deepening of my theological mind. This sermon took place on Jan. 13, 2019.
If you would indulge me, I’d like to start today with a little wordplay. … I’m going to read a part of a scripture and ask you to fill in the blank. … Does that make sense?
So, I really need your participation here, or this won’t work. Are we ready?
16 “For God so loved the world ... that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. John 3:16
18 Then the Lord God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone ... I will make him a helper as his partner.” Genesis 2:18
20 For where two or three are gathered in my name .. I am there among them.” Matthew 18:20
24 And let us consider how to provoke one another to love and good deeds ... 25 not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day approaching. Hebrews 10:24-25
Did you detect the common theme among those verses?
If you said they each are about relationships, you are correct. You win the grand prize!
So, relationship is the key theme, and we know from experience that we have a relational God … a good that wants us to be in relationship with him, and to be in relationship with each other. … Simply put: We were created to be in relationship. … Adam and Eve. Christ and us. Us with each other. … Relationships and being in community with each other is very important.
This week I got thinking a lot about community. As I had the opportunity to back yet one more time and be in community with all of those who are on this seminary track as I am, it made me think of our community there, which also made me think of our community here.
I’ve shared some of my experience at Luther before: the sense of family, the sense of shared purpose, the Spirit that moves among us there. … In class, in chapel, in the lunchroom, in the dorm lounge at night as we gather to sing songs and decompress. All around you, you can feel the Spirit active and on heightened alert thanks to all of the spiritual activity taking place.
But there was one moment this week that was downright chilling. Maybe one of the most God-filled moments that I’ve experienced in my three years at Luther.
It was Thursday. Day 4 of powering through the Bible. We were in the Gospel of Luke, and we had come to Jesus’ crucifixion. As the professor had been doing all week, he would talk some, and then he would read directly from the text, and do some more explanation.
So, he began to read from the text, and proceeded from Jesus’ arrest to his trial in front of Pilate to the people’s cry to release Barnabas instead of Jesus … and on and on. All the way through the spiking of Jesus’ hands and feet. The spear to the side. Jesus’ last words. … All of it. Word by word, the professor dramatized the entire scene for us.
Chilling. … I have no other word for it, but chilling. Normally in a classroom with 30 people in it, there would be some kind of noise … the rustling of papers, a clicking of a pen, the turning page of a book, a cough, people shifting in chairs. Something. … But not at this moment. Not for the entire reading of the story of Jesus’ crucifixion.
I noticed it about half way through the text and began to look around the room at all of the people transfixed. And that’s when I started to think about community, and what it meant for us to be together in that moment. Together in that moment when the Spirit rushed into the room and flooded it. … The hairs on my neck stood up. My arms filled with goose bumps. And I was struck by the Spirit’s presence in that room, as we worked through our holy book.
Wherever two or more are gathered in my name … And without disappointment, he was was there on Thursday.
So as I reviewed that experience over the last couple of days, it got me to thinking about our community here. … I often get senses of that same feeling here. That undeniable feeling that the Spirit is present and filling this space.
Most recently I experienced that feeling on Christmas Eve. In that moment when shut off the lights and we sang Silent Night in unison with the choir’s “Peace Peace.” … That moment absolutely chilled me to the bone as you could palpably feel the Spirit moving about this room.
And there are plenty of other times as well. The children’s Christmas program and the LYO’s brunch afterward. The spirit that was present here that day was overflowing.
Our baptisms, our music, our after-service fellowship. … I am certain that the Spirit is here. … In spades.
But, as I pondered this on my long drive home last night, I realized that I also know that this isn’t the case in every church or in every faith community. … Not every faith setting is this fortunate. Not every faith community has worked as hard as we have to cultivate and promote the community that produces that kind of Spirit.
Maintaining the community necessary to keep the Spirit present doesn’t just happen. It takes work on our behalf. From our council leaders, to our committee members to our teachers to our musicians … and to me of course. We’re all in this together, and I like to think that this is a phenomena that we all want to cultivate and maintain.
And so what I want to propose is that we make this our year of community. … What would it look like if we were to keep that at the forefront of our minds when we think about our worship here … when we think about our programming, be it adult forums, our men’s and women’s groups, or our LYO gatherings … or even our Sunday school offerings.
What would it look like if we allowed ourselves to put community at the forefront of all our efforts. All throughout our church … and maybe even beyond? … What might that look like for our church and for the community at large? What if when folks looked at Faith Lutheran we demonstrated through everything we did, a core commitment to creating community … a community that was Christ-centered and Spirit filled?
How many more goosebump worthy moments would see? Could we send that Spirit sailing forth from these walls? Could we become known as that church where everyone encounters the Spirit?
And so I am proposing that this is our year to focus on and emphasize community. Let’s let that singular focus be what separates us from just another faith community, what differentiates us from other civic-minded institutions out there.
Let’s be that place that actively works to bring the Spirit. The envy of all other faith communities. … And I suspect that we’ll all be experiencing more and more goosebumps this year.
And that is the Good News for this Sunday. … Amen.
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