The Transfer

1^st Sermon in Matthew series for Sunday, June 16^th, 2013

This morning we're taking a bit of a turn in our studies. Beginning in September and heading through the year, we took a close look at God's activity with Israel. We recall that God chose Abraham and his descendents for a purpose: to bring blessing to all nations. Then, after Advent, we paid close attention to the life of Jesus and how, in him, a new age had begun. In Jesus' life & ministry, God's Kingdom was breaking into history in a powerful way. Then, since Easter, we saw how the early Church grew, expanding rapidly into Gentile territory. We studied the decision made by the early Church in Jerusalem, and how the Gentiles were welcomed into God's project "as is" without any requirements of the law. We heard the gospel - that we today have been welcomed into partnership with God because of God's goodness, his grace.

This morning we're taking a bit of a turn, and we're going to take this summer to zero-in on what this partnership means for our life today. What does the life of a disciple look like? In Jesus, we see a model of a new way of being human - being human in the full realization that we are loved by God. At his baptism, the voice from heaven declared God's love for Jesus - and his life is a model for us of what it looks like when we always keep in mind that we are loved by God. In our passage from Matthew, this morning, we see this play out in the first encounter between Jesus, Simon and Andrew.

When's the last time you felt that you didn't quite measure up? That you didn't quite meet someone else's expectations? When's the last time you felt someone's scorn because you didn't act the way they wanted you to? When's the last time you felt this way at church?

Maybe you got the sense that someone judged you for something you wore at church? Or maybe you shared something - a story, or an idea - and someone shut you down? Perhaps you asked a question, and you were belittled by another's response. Maybe someone told you that something you were doing didn't really belong in church, or that you weren't showing the reverence you ought to in the sanctuary. Or maybe you felt eyes on you for some other reason. Somehow, you felt that you didn't quite measure up, that you didn't meet someone else's expectations. I didn't make these up - these are conversations I've heard about in the past four and a half years I've been here. Sure, you all know how to love each other - but you know, sometimes... sometimes we treat each other as though there's something other than grace that's holding all this together. As though our expectations, our requirements, our standards, our judgments are what got us on the team. This morning, I trust that this misunderstanding will get cleared up by what we see in the person of Jesus.

Let's take a look at verse 10, in Matthew 4. Verse 10 & 11 are the final part of the story of Jesus' test in the wilderness: " Jesus said to him, "Away with you, Satan! for it is written, 'Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him.'" ¹¹ Then the devil left him, and suddenly angels came and waited on him." The Accuser had been hard at work trying to get Jesus off course - to base his ministry on something other than his Identity as God's beloved. "Jesus, base your minsitry on your ability to feed the crowds; base it on your miraculous power, on your popularity, or on your political power." In all of these, Jesus refused. Instead, it was enough for Jesus to know that he was loved by the Father. When enough was enough, Jesus sent the devil packing with this basic truth about what it means to be alive - "Worship the Lord your God and serve only him!" Training camp was done - and Jesus passed with flying colours; not because of some supernatural strength or power - he even had angels come to comfort him after this test was over. He was weakened by the ordeal. But he passed by simply remembering that voice at his baptism - "I love you, Son, and I'm pleased with you!"

Jesus nailed it by keeping these words in front of him all the time.  That's what it means to be "perfect as Jesus is perfect". It doesn't meant to be as morally spotless as Jesus; it means to be oriented towards this same truth, the same goal, like he always was - the truth is that we are beloved by God. The goal is to always be oriented towards the love of God, to abide in God's love, to relish it, to savour it, and then it starts to rub off on us.

Verse 12: Now when Jesus heard that John had been arrested, he withdrew to Galilee. ¹³ He left Nazareth and made his home in Capernaum by the sea, in the territory of Zebulun and Naphtali, ¹⁴ so that what had been spoken through the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled: ¹⁵ "Land of Zebulun, land of Naphtali, on the road by the sea, across the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles-- ¹⁶ the people who sat in darkness have seen a great light, and for those who sat in the region and shadow of death light has dawned." This particular prophecy speaks about a transformation - a transfer from darkness to light. The author of Matthew's making it clear for us: this Jesus is going to turn on the light switch.

One of the favorite games we play at Jr. Youth Gym Nights is a game we've come to call "Darkness". It's a very simple game, similar to Red Rover in some ways. Basically, we have one person in the middle of the Gym and everyone else at one side. Then we turn all the lights off, so that its completely black, and then everybody tries to get to the other side of the gym without getting tagged by the person in the middle. Problem is, you can't see where they are. Something that would be so easy to do - like avoid one person as you run across the gym - is made fun, but also very risky by just turning off the light switch. Now think of this in reverse, what becomes possible when you turn on the light? Perhaps some of you have had poor eyesight because of Cataracts; what happens after surgery? You can live a different kind of life, right? Here's Jesus living in the full awareness that He is a beloved child of God - and a whole new kind of life is possible. He lived life with the lights turned on - and he modeled that life for us.

Now you might be thinking, "wait Marco, Jesus lived that kind of life because he was God." Sometimes we think that Jesus was perfect because he was fully divine - that's a problem. Jesus was also fully human. This is what we read about in Hebrews 4:15 - "This High Priest of ours understands our weaknesses, for he faced all of the same testings we do, yet he did not sin." Why did he not sin? Well, answering this question fully could last a while - but at the very least, it's because Jesus always knew, always remembered, that voice at his baptism. "I love you, Son, and I'm pleased with you!"

With Jesus' ministry there's a transfer from darkness to light. And Jesus lets people know that they can join in this new reality - this new way of playing the game of human existence. How does he let them know? Verse 17: From that time Jesus began to proclaim, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near." Now, what comes to mind when you think of the word "repent"? Is that a 'happy' word? No. If you hear about some preacher preaching repentance, you imagine someone who's yelling at you about how you're not meeting God's expectations. The word's got a history that is, in some respects, lamentable - a history of making people always call into question whether or not God loves them. A truly demonic meaning for a word that Jesus used for the exact opposite purpose. What did Jesus mean when he called the people to repent? Basically, he was telling the people to turn around - to change direction - to change their mind and their action. Not because they'd lose the love of God. Change direction because the love of God is breaking-into this world - the Kingdom of heaven has come near. Repent. Change direction, because you don't want to miss what's gonna happen. You don't want to miss joining this new possibility that I'm bringing about. You don't want to be looking the other way when Jesus flips the switch and turns the light on; you don't want to miss the possibility of living in the reality of God's love.

It's not that God loves you only if you repent, only if you turn around. God loves because it's who God is. Repentance is turning your life towards this reality, to face it head on, to revel in it, and to be a partner with God's love. If you've got the winning lottery ticket in your back pocket but you don't go to cash it in, how much money do you have in the bank account. Not one dollar more! You've got the love of God written on the ticket of Calvary - in ink as red as blood - but are you gonna cash it in? Are you gonna repent, and turn your life towards the reality of God? Are you gonna let Jesus transfer you from darkness into light? Paul makes it clear in his letter to the Colossians; that Jesus, "has rescued us from the power of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of his beloved Son (Col 1:13 NRS)

Have you cashed in your ticket yet? Have you turned towards Jesus? I know what some of you are thinking. "But Marco, you don't know how messed up I am." "You don't know what I've done." "Marco, you don't know the things I think about; or the things I've said to people; or the things I've said about people." I know some of you are thinking this. Come on! Who do you think I am? You don't think I'm messed up? That I haven't done terrible things? That I haven't had thoughts just as disgusting as yours? That I haven't said things as hurtful? Who do you think I am? Or maybe you're resisting this from a different angle. "Marco, God loves me? Ya... right... you don't know what I've been through." "You don't know how disgusting I feel." "You don't know how dirty I feel." "You don't know what people have done to me."  I know that some of you have that ticket in your back pocket - worth more than any kind of money - God loves people, but God's love isn't a reality for you. Your life is just too messy. Too broken. You don't quite meet the requirements. You don't quite measure up. Maybe you've even been made to feel that way here in this church. Maybe by something I've said or someone else. Well, I hope with this next passage of scripture, you will come to see something different.

Verse  18: "As Jesus walked by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea-- for they were fishermen. ¹⁹ And he said to them, "Follow me, and I will make you fish for people." ²⁰ Immediately they left their nets and followed him." I want you all to close your eyes - this is gonna be a profound meditative exercise - just kidding. No. But close your eyes. Picture what's happening here. Jesus has come to the Sea of Galilee. What are you hearing? What are you seeing? Then Jesus calls out to Simon and Andrew. Imagine that you're on this boat. What are you seeing? What do you hear?

You can open your eyes now. If you were feeling all serene and peaceful - then you've never been on a commercial fishing boat. Not that I have, but I've gone fishing enough to know that Simon and Andrew's boat was no spiritual mountaintop experience, no serene beauty. Ever hold a Jack-fish? What are you feeling? Now imagine handling a net? What's that feel like? Rough... and slimy... and full of fish guts, fish eggs,... oh yeah, and slime. Lots of slime. You're handling fishing nets. That gets on your hands right? Just your hands? Nope, it's all of your body. You've got fish guts, slime, and eggs all over your shirt - that's if you're wearing a shirt. We have evidence to suggest that Simon liked to fish with as little clothes on as possible. So, now imagine Simon and Andrew completely caked in Fish gunk. And here comes Jesus, the pure and spotless lamb.

Let me ask you this: what piece of your wardrobe would you put on if you knew you were having your first meeting with Jesus? I know there's a few of you who love to get all decked-out with the best of your clothing for Sunday morning worship. I can respect that. But you know what, God is not interested in our clothes but the intentions of our hearts. Now if that's part of your hearts intention, to show God your best in this way. I respect that. But just know this - God loves you the way you are, God loves the full deal, even the weak parts - every wrinkle, zit, stretch mark, and scar. He made your birthday suit, after all - and you are fearfully and wonderfully made.

When Jesus got to Simon and Andrew's boat - he saw them at their messiest, at their absolute dirtiest - as unclean as unclean could be. You'd think from some of what you read in the Old Testament that Jesus would have been sickened by how unclean they were. But he wasn't. He didn't tell them to go have a shower. Nope. "Follow me, and I will make you fish for people." I can imagine Jesus saying, "Simon... Andrew... if you think working with fish is dirty - just wait till I show you the people I'm gonna send you to... then things will really start to smell. People's lives are messy, dirty, broken - and Simon and Andrew were in the thick of it on that boat. Their lives were marred, messy, just like the rest of us. The guts and slime caked on their arms was symbolic of their life as a whole. All of us have got slime and guts all over us. Sometimes we think that Jesus won't come near us when we're all full of junk - in our minds, thoughts, in our hearts. That somehow we got to wait a while before we can come to Jesus. That we first have to figure out our messes before we can come to Jesus. In fact, our own messed up lives make us so anxious that we start looking at other people's messes to make us feel better. That's why we all have our favorite sins we like to accuse others of - its because, in the background we're anxious about how messed up we are... BUT AT LEAST I'M NOT AS MESSED UP AS THAT PERSON. 

I may have my problems, but at least I wear my best to church. At least my kids sit and behave. At least I don't waste my money on _________________. We've all got fish gunk all over us, but we make ourselves feel better by looking at the slime on other people. You know what? Enough of that stinking thinking! I've had enough of it in my life. I've had enough of it in the life of this church! Jesus comes to us like he did to Simon and Andrew - he comes to us exactly when we're messed up, exactly when we're at our smelliest, exactly when we're at our stinkiest, exactly when we're having the dirtiest of thoughts, exactly when we're at our lowest, exactly when we're doing the worst of things. Jesus comes to us and asks: Can I make you an offer? Can I show you a different kind of fishing? Do you want a transfer from darkness to light?

You see, Jesus is the light of God bathed upon humanity. In him, we see a perfect image of God; but instead of it being a mountain that we have to climb, Jesus is the light that has dawned upon us. The light that clears the path and shows us a new way forward. He's the one who wrote the ticket of God's love in his own blood - all we have to do is cash it in. Turn around and face a God who meets you in the messiest part of your life and says, "Can I show you something more beautiful? Can I show you a new way to be human?" Jesus came to Peter and Andrew and their stinky boat - they didn't have to come to him first, he sought them out. He called out to them and offered them a new identity, quite literally. You are fishermen... let me make you fishers of men! A new human existence is possible with Jesus - in fact, he modeled it by always keeping his eyes on the truth of God's love. He wasn't some moral superman that we can't follow - he just always remembered those words at the Jordan. "I love you, Son, and I'm pleased with you!"

Hear those words for you this morning. Memorize them. You are God's beloved. You don't have to get out of your mess first, before you meet Jesus. He comes to you on the messy, smelly, filthy boat and he invites you to follow him, to journey on a whole new light-filled life with him. This morning, let's join the disciples and allow Jesus our light to shine on us, and bring us to light, to wake us up to a new way of being human, a new journey into the Kingdom of God. Let us join them and be bathed in the light of Jesus. In that light, we might find that we begin to look more and more human - created in God's image. We begin to get some of the slime off of us. In that light, the smelly boat of life becomes an ark, where a new beginning is possible. Turn to him, and be transferred to the Kingdom of God's beloved Son Jesus. Turn to Jesus, the way, the truth and the life. Amen.

Baptized... and then

Sermon planned for baptism Sunday, June 2^nd, 2013

Texts: Matthew 3:13-4:2; Acts 9:10-20

Please join me in a word of prayer: Holy & Merciful God, we give you thanks and praise. That's what we're here to do - to offer you our gifs of gratitude and praise. We recognize that our entire life is dependent on your steadfast love; and it's only when we forget this that things get all messed up for us. And so we're also here to remember - your promise to us, to always be with us. We're holding on to that promise now. As we study your Word in scripture, we ask that Your Spirit would transform us, and that our trust in your Son Jesus would always increase. These words, and all of our life, we hold before you in the name of Jesus our Lord. Amen.

For the last nine months, since September, this congregation has been following the major stories of scripture. All along we've been wrestling with this question: what is God up to? What's God doing? And we haven't just been asking about what happened way back in the days of Abraham. We've been asking, "so what about us?" What is God doing in our lives? In our neighborhoods? In our relationships? What is God's Spirit doing in your life? Are you keeping watch? Can you see it? In the past month we've zeroed-in on Paul's letter to the Galatians, where Paul was naming what God had done to the Christians in that city. God had claimed those Gentiles - God had poured out the Spirit onto (and into) them.

On what basis did God choose and claim those Gentiles for his purpose? Was it because of their resumes? Was it their credentials? Was it because they were circumcised? God chose them by grace - they didn't get chosen because of anything they did or didn't do. They were chosen because that was God's plan, for them to come to the saving knowledge of faith in Jesus the Lord. In the past few weeks we've learned a foundational truth - It's God's grace from top to bottom, from left to right - God's grace and only God's grace that gets us lined up with God and his purpose. God's the coach, and God has claimed us because of what God has in mind. Grace, my friends. Amazing Grace!

That's why we're going to get water on these four this morning - we're here to celebrate God's gracious claim on them, and that they have accepted this claim, they own it, and they're gonna run with it. But what is grace? What is this claim that God has on us? This is the "so what" question. In the past few weeks we looked at how we've come to this place of grace. Jesus' obedience and faithfulness, even to the point of death on a cross, this faithfulness is what opened the door for us to stand in alignment with God's purpose. Jesus' obedience justified us. But what does it mean to be aligned with God's purpose? God claimed us, but for what reason? Why? Why did God want you on the team? That's what we're going to start exploring this morning, and actually for this summer. The "so what" question. If baptism is the celebration, the awakening to the truth of God's gracious claim on us, then this summer were going to start exploring this discipleship journey. Baptism is like a start line for a marathon. It's the crack of the starter's pistol that lets you know that the marathon has begun. (that's why I like to use cold water)

If you look at Jesus' baptism in the gospel of Matthew, you notice that it comes right at the beginning of his ministry. The minute he's out of the Jordan river, he's on his way into the wilderness. In my class on the gospel of Matthew, we looked at this passage closely, asking why exactly Jesus underwent baptism. Out of all the stories of Jesus' life, many of which were never included in any of the four gospels; why would the author of Matthew include this possibly embarrassing story about Jesus? Why do I say embarrassing? Well, some might ask why would Jesus our Savior need baptism? Wasn't he sinless? Why submit to John's baptism of repentance? The only answer that the gospels give us is that Jesus was baptized in order to fulfill all righteousness. What does that mean? Lots of people write tons of paragraphs and books about this question. One thing that came up quite a bit in our study of Matthew is that the author in that gospel wants his readers to be clear about who Jesus was. More precisely, the author of Matthew wanted his hearers to know that Jesus was the new Moses. Jesus was the authoritative voice of God for God's people. He had the authority to teach, to summarize the law, and to give clarity about God's will. And just like Moses joined the people in their journey through the Red Sea and into the wilderness, Jesus would join God's people in the waters of baptism before he faced his own wilderness.

The gospel of Matthew makes it abundantly clear that our God is the God who is with us. Immanuel. In his baptism, Jesus was with his people, fulfilling all the requirements; and from there he began his ministry of proclaiming the coming Kingdom of God. Just as the Red Sea was a starting line for Israel's journey with God into the wilderness; and just as Jesus' baptism was the starting line of his work; our baptism is the crack of the starter's pistol for the rest of life - the starting-line for the marathon of discipleship.

You see this same dynamic play out in Paul's conversion, but in a unique way. Was his baptism like a starting-line for a marathon? Was it the beginning point? Well, it's not like he was doing nothing before his baptism. God was at work in his life; and Paul was very busy doing things which he thought were part of God's plan. He was zealously persecuting people who he thought were wrong about Jesus and Judaism. He was also running a marathon. He wasn't standing still. But one thing we hear in his conversion story is that there was a switching of sides. Before his conversion, Paul was playing water polo; afterwards he was playing an entirely different game. Before his baptism he was persecuting God's activity; after his baptism, he was "all in", one of the foremost workers in God's harvest. Paul was spreading the news about Jesus more than all the others. Baptism was this cleansing water, but also like a cold splash of water that marked a new direction in life. The Spirit of Jesus had turned him around, and got him running on Jesus' track; and his baptism was like the whistle that marked the beginning of a new round. And with Jesus as his coach, a completely different level of play was now possible. The old rules of the game never got the job done; but with Jesus, an entirely new game was underway. He switched teams, and had a whole new purpose in life.

God had claimed him. Now the man who was told to go and confront Paul was a Christian named Ananias. At first Ananias was apprehensive when God told him to go and meet Paul. He said - and you can hear the trembling in his voice - "Lord, I have heard from many about this man, how much evil he has done to your saints in Jerusalem; ¹⁴ and here he has authority from the chief priests to bind all who invoke your name." (Act 9:13-14 NRS) Why would Ananias be so afraid? Because he knew what Paul was up to. He knew that he and Paul had been playing against each other - they weren't on the same team. He had good reason for those emotions. As a Pharisee, Paul was a nasty opponent to play against - a real bulldog fighter. He was sniping out all the key players in the early church, even standing by as they killed Stephen. Ananias had all kinds of reasons to be apprehensive.

Our apprehension is, however, not the last word with Jesus. We are those who put faith and trust in God's activity. What was God's response to Ananias' fears? ¹⁵ But the Lord said to him, "Go, for he is an instrument whom I have chosen to bring my name before Gentiles and kings and before the people of Israel; ¹⁶ I myself will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name." (Act 9:15-16 NRS) In this one explanation God had turned things completely upside down. It explains why God claimed Paul for his team. Why? To be an instrument of the gospel for the Gentiles, for the politicians, and for the people of Israel. That's why. And then there's this line; that God would show Paul how much he'd suffer for Jesus' sake.

This is interesting. Ananias probably secretly wished that Paul would suffer for all the terror he unleashed on the early Christian community. Ananias probably wanted him to die. And we can understand can't we? How would we feel and react if there was someone legally sanctioned to come and arrest us because of our faith? How would we feel if they dragged our deacon Jack away to be stoned to death? Or one of our children? Or one of these four about to be baptized? We can see why Ananias wanted Paul to hurt and suffer. He wanted justice. He wanted vengeance. But what does God do with this notion of suffering? What about God's justice against Paul? What about the punishment he deserved?

The Lord said to Ananias, "I myself will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name. (Act 9:16 NRS)" Paul would suffer; but that suffering wouldn't be punishment, it would be a blood-stained witness to the name of Jesus, to the truth of the gospel. Paul would face God's justice for his sin - but it's the same justice you and I experience for every and all sin, big or small. It's the justice God accomplished when he took our sin up on his own shoulders on the cross. The punishment and justice Ananias and the community hoped for was turned on its head, as Paul was not only welcomed into the Church, but also made one of her key teachers. God's justice is not the mere eye for eye retaliatory justice made possible by human courts. God's justice, as displayed in Jesus, is one that makes saints out of scoundrels. Isn't that amazing grace? If we were in charge, we'd have strung Paul up by his neck. But it's precisely because God is God and we are not that people like Paul, and people like you and me, have a chance.

Without drying himself off from those baptismal waters, Paul was already on his way. Actually, it does say that he ate some food to regain his strength, and he spent some time with the disciples in Damascus. Jesus the coach had recruited him for the team - giving him the Holy Spirit. Paul had joined the team by accepting Jesus' claim, and so he submitted himself for baptism. Now, after spending time with the same people he had been persecuting only a little while earlier, Paul went on his way, proclaiming Jesus. Baptism was a starting-line experience for Paul. But this time he was running in the right direction.

This morning we're celebrating the gift of faith. The Spirit's been at work in our lives - drawing us to Jesus, to confess His name above any and all others. We used to be lost in sin. We used to be playing on the other team. But Jesus gave us His Spirit, the gift of faith. Thanks be to God!

This morning, we have four people that have come prepared to celebrate this gift, and to claim it in baptism. Maybe you've come here this morning and you've never known this Jesus? Maybe you've never heard much, or anything about him. Maybe you've never heard that Jesus defeated death on your behalf, and that you can trust him to give you everlasting life. Or, maybe you've known this all along but you haven't accepted it, you haven't given Jesus control in your life. Maybe you're wanting to know how you can start playing for Jesus, like Paul. If you want to know more about accepting Jesus as Lord in your life - I invite you to come meet me after the service and we can talk.

Today we celebrate this starting-line of discipleship. Don't think that you, after baptism, have finally arrived; not at all, you've just begun. There's at least two kinds of celebrations in sports - there's the celebration when you make the team; and then there's the party when you win the game or season. Baptism is the first kind. Baptism is when we celebrate that the coach has spoken - Whitney, Dave, Mike, Jason - "I want you on my team," God says. Baptism is showing up and getting on the bus. But what then? That Bus isn't heading to a relaxing stay at a spa or golf club. It's on the way to training camp and to the game of your life. In baptism, you're on journey of discipleship. It sure is a party, but it's also serious business. There's cheering and clapping, but it's also focus-time. After his baptism, Jesus went straight into the wilderness; his own kind of training camp. After Paul's baptism, it was time for strengthening, training, and ministry until he reached the complete measure of suffering for Jesus' name. Whitney, Dave, Mike, Jason - welcome to the team! Now suit up! Join us for this marathon of trusting in Jesus and always giving thanks, praying without ceasing - the skills needed for the game.

Together, let's keep an eye on our position - our unique gifts and passions. After all, God has claimed you for a purpose. What's this purpose? Well, you can talk about it in very specific terms but also in very general terms. In general terms, we can read what Paul tells the Corinthians: ¹⁷ So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new! ¹⁸ All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation; ¹⁹ that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting the message of reconciliation to us. ²⁰ So we are ambassadors for Christ, since God is making his appeal through us; we entreat you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. (2Co 5:17-20 NRS)

What purpose does God have for you in the mission? To be a proclaimer of reconciliation with God. That's the big picture. The general description. But there's also specific ways in which you uniquely have been chosen to partner with God. I can't tell you that from this pulpit. That is something we discover together in the day-to-day journeying in the Spirit. But let us as a family, let us as a congregation, keep getting to know each other. Let us keep encouraging each other. Let us continue to see the gifts in one another and call them out. To fan the flame of obedience. Let us continue to sharpen each other, as the Spirit leads us into a transformed life. All of this so that Jesus' name will become famous in our world; so that all glory and praise might be given to God. Amen.

A Spirit of Adoption

Sermon planned for Pentecost Sunday, May 19^th, 2013

Texts: Acts 2:1-4; Galatians 4:1-7

Good morning. It's Pentecost! And it is a blessing to be here with you to celebrate the Holy Spirit's coming and the Spirit's presence with us today. I want to begin this morning by doing something a little different than we usually do. I want each of you to pretend that you're at a family gathering and you have to introduce a new friend to your family. Let's say this new friend is none other than the Holy Spirit. How would you introduce the Holy Spirit to your friends and family? What I want each of you to do now is to turn to one or two people beside you in the chairs, or in front or behind you. And I want you to share with this person, or with two others. I want you to share, in a sentence or two, how you would introduce the Holy Spirit to your family. What is the Holy Spirit? What is the Spirit like? What does the Spirit do? I want you to share one or two sentences with your neighbour.

What were some of the words you shared? Some descriptors for the Holy Spirit? Anyone care to share with the larger group? It seems like you all had quite a lot to say. That's great. We've come a long way, as Christians, in being able to name the work of the Holy Spirit among us. I want you to grab the blue hymnal in front of you and open up to HWB #712. This is the Apostle's Creed. Let's read it aloud together, please join me.

What does this confession of faith - the summary of Christian doctrine - what does it say about the Holy Spirit? Nothing, right! About God the Father we confess that God is Creator. Then the largest part of the creed is what we confess about Jesus - mind you, it skips completely over the teachings of Jesus in that section. And then there's the line about the Holy Spirit. We believe in the Holy Spirit. One line. That's it. And instead of elaborating on the Holy Spirit, the creed goes into some other important matters.

As a side note - one of my favorite legends of the early church is the story of how this creed came into being. The legend has it that after Pentecost, the disciples wanted a simple summary of the faith to teach to people far and wide; an easy way for people to recognize the basic elements of Christian doctrine. Each of the apostles added a line. It began with Peter, who confidently confessed: I believe in God the Father Almighty, creator of heaven and earth; and John added, “and in Jesus Christ His only Son, our Lord”; James the Elder continued, “who was conceived by the Holy Ghost,” and so it went throughout. Finally, when it came time for Matthias to speak up - the late-comer who replaced Judas - he did a face-palm and said, "I can't believe you guys almost forgot the most important thing: and I believe in life everlasting."

You know, that's actually quite typical of early Christian confessions about the Holy Spirit; that they are brief in their description. This living presence of God among them was hard to pin down, hard to theologize, hard to understand. In the early church records, we find no written prayers to the Holy Spirit until much later in church history. This is a sign that the Christian community was slow in making very solid statements about what the Holy Spirit was up to. There was a lot of mystery to it. But the church has never been silent about the Spirit's role in the life of the Christian or the Church. Thankfully!

Today we celebrate the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. And nowadays we have become quite confident in naming and celebrating the many things that God's Spirit is working in and through us. Early Anabaptists couldn't keep quiet about the ministry of the Holy Spirit in all aspects of Christian living. For early Anabaptists, it was only the Holy Spirit's active life in the believer that could transform a person from a servant of Satan to a servant of Christ. It was only the Holy Spirit that could empower a disciple to love their enemy to such an extent as to be willing to die rather than to kill them - there was no such thing as humanistic pacifism among early Anabaptism... it was Pentecostal Pacifism all the way - Spirit empowered discipleship.

Today, if you look at our Confession of Faith in a Mennonite Perspective, which we as Mennonites across North America use as a kind of temporary summary of faith, the Article on the Holy Spirit is a fantastic list of attributes. Let me share with you just a brief list of some of the things we proclaim with confidence about the Holy Spirit. We believe that the Holy Spirit is eternal, dwelled in Jesus Christ. We believe that the Spirit empowers the church and that the Spirit is the source of our life in Christ. We believe that the Spirit is poured out on those who believe, and is a guarantee of our redemption and even the redemption of creation. We believe that God's Spirit hovered over the face of the waters at the beginning of creation. We believe that the prophets and writers of Scripture were inspired by the Spirit; that Mary conceived Jesus by the Holy Spirit, and that the Spirit anointed Jesus at his baptism. We believe that the Spirit dwells in believers and in the congregation as a whole, bearing fruit in the believer. The Spirit gives gifts to us, and calls us to carry out our particular ministries in building up the body of Christ. We believe that the Spirit creates and sustains unity in the community of faith, but also comforts us in our suffering, is present with us in times of persecution, interceding for us in our weakness, and assures us of our future redemption. If it feels like I was going on and on about the Spirit just now, it's because I was; and if you compare it to what the Church used to say - namely, one simple line - you can see that we've either become a lot more arrogant about our knowledge, or it's that we have come to be much more confident in loudly proclaiming that God is at work among us...

How about you? What if, instead of asking you to introduce the Spirit to your family I had asked you to share a story about how God's Spirit has been at work in your life in the past week? How would the conversations have gone then? Would you have had more to say? Less? How quick are we to name the things that we sense God is doing in our lives? Are we turned off to this kind of notion? I know sometimes it's easy to become cynical about this kind of talk - I feel it sometimes. You'll hear this or that movie star or rapper thank God. Or you'll hear someone thank God for giving them this parking spot. Or a teenage boy, at summer camp, will go up to the girl he's got a crush on and try to convince her that the Holy Spirit is telling him they should date. There's also more intense and more complex and sincere versions of this. And sometimes, if I'm honest, I can get a bit cynical about it. But what about me? Am I keeping my eyes peeled for the activity of God in my life? Will I have the courage and confidence to name it when I see it? It's one thing to paint all of your own desires with the brush of God's will - that's an unhealthy extreme. But why go to the other extreme, Marco? Why live life with the blinders on to what God is actively doing all around you?

Will I have the confidence of Peter, who stood up amidst that crowd at Jerusalem. "Hey guys, these men aren't filled of wine - they're not drunk - it's only 9am! These guys are filled with a completely different kind of Spirit!" Peter saw what was happening - the gospel of Jesus in all these different languages - absolutely miraculous and amazing - and so he just called it like he saw it.  "This is what Joel was talking about, when he said that God would claim your sons and your daughters by pouring himself into them - filling them up - they'll see new things, and be captured by a completely different imagination - a Kingdom view!" Peter could see what was happening there with all these strange foreign languages and he named it.

And then there was Paul in the city of Galatia. We've heard quite a bit about these Christians in the past three weeks - and rightly so. As Mennonites we need to hear Paul's message to them at a very deep level. Somehow we have got our wires crossed over the years. As I said earlier, the Anabaptists of the sixteenth century believed that the Holy Spirit transformed us and made us able to be followers of Christ, changing our hearts and making a new life possible - even if very dangerous. But throughout the years we've said less and less about the Spirit's power to change us, and we've said more and more about ethics and our human ability to follow Jesus, just by gritting down and doing it. In some cases we've even come to hold to a works righteousness. We really could use a dose of Paul's word to the Christians in Galatia.

Wake up! God's Spirit claimed you as a pure act of God's grace. You didn't deserve it. You didn't earn it. You don't belong to this Church because of your own efforts or merits. You belong because God's Spirit snatched you from the hands of our enemy and placed you in the fold of Jesus, the good Shepherd. You have been claimed by God's Spirit - a sheer act of grace. Don't think this is a house for the worthy. Don't think this sanctuary is a gathering for the spiritual and ethical elite. We're the roster of a coach who chose us because of who He is, not because of who we are - and who is our coach? A friend of mine was once quoted as saying that if you had to summarize the entire bible in three words it would be: "God is love!" That's Paul's message to the Galatians who had been deceived - bewitched - into thinking that this was all a matter of keeping the law. NO! NEIN! God's Spirit has claimed you. The real question is: will you open your life to that Spirit? to that Grace?

I love the way Paul puts it in the fourth chapter of his letter: God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying "Abba! Father!"  Way before the 70's pop band was singing about Dancing Queens, people in the middle east were shouting Abba! That's how you say "daddy" in Aramaic and in some Syrian dialects even today. Like Peter, Paul was naming an activity of the Holy Spirit - a central activity - the activity, really. The Spirit of God's Son redeems us, buys us back, brings us back into the fold, rescues us from the Enemy. The Spirit recruits us to the winning team. In Romans chapter eight, this same Paul writes:  you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received a spirit of adoption. When we cry, "Abba! Father!" ¹⁶ it is that very Spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God, ¹⁷ and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ-- if, in fact, we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him.

A Spirit of adoption. This amazing act of adoption. God's chosen people, the Israelites, had been with Yahweh for thousands of years. And now God was widening the family in this most profound act of adoption. I choose you! He says to the Gentiles. I choose you! God says to you. To you! To me! I adopt you, I welcome you into the family. You are full heirs! You belong completely!

I'm not sure how these Gentiles were convinced by the Judaizers - by the circumcision faction. Why head back into slavery when you're free. It makes no sense. Those three girls who were freed from the shackles of Ariel Castro's house - they would never willingly go back there. And yet in some cases of kidnapping, you have what's called the Stockholm Syndrome, where the victims are sympathetic to the situation of their captor. It's hard for me to understand. Why embrace your captor in this sick kind of way. It's one thing to love your enemies; it's another to have sympathy for their evil actions. Why would these Gentile believers run straight back into the shackles of a law-centered view of their identity? Why go from grace to law?

What about me, Marco? Why am I sometimes convinced by the lie that I can earn God's favor? We are duped by it, even in subtle ways at times. Maybe for you it's not ethics. Maybe you think that your doctrine's so spot on... that maybe this will get you through the door. Nope! A good life and a good theology... these are the fruit of a Spirit-filled life, not the pre-requisites. There's all kinds of slaveries that we return to, just like those crazy Galatians. Lies we believe. You know one that sneaks up on me once in a while? It goes something like this, "Marco if you do your job well, if you preach well, if you do all the things that a good pastor is supposed to do, if you make people happy in church, if you do all this well... then maybe God will look past the failures in other parts of my life." That's a tricky one for me. I know it's a lie. It's as shiny as a great lead-up to the Playoffs, but you know it's going nowhere fast. It's a lie. It's all God's grace for me, that or nothing! What about for you? Any of those nasty lies sneaking past the goalie for you?

And then there's the prisons we inhabit - the shackles we count as bracelets. Maybe someone has hurt you in the past. Maybe you're upset with someone in your life or at work. Someone's actions towards you make you angry. And like a good old pot of stew, you've put it on slow-cook and simmer. How long do you want to boil about this? 'Till all the meat falls off the bone? Until all that's left of you is the skeleton of your former beautiful self, rotted away in bitterness? You know what! Unforgiveness is a cancer - and I don't use that term lightly. I've buried two friends who've died from cancer. It eats a person alive. But so does anger and bitterness - the rotten fruit of unforgiveness. Andy Dufresne, the main character in the classic movie The Shawshank Redemption, says that you either have to get busy living or get busy dying. He says this while being wrongfully imprisoned for murder in the first degree. He chose life, to break free from that prison. That's the way it is with forgiveness. It's really a selfish act - to get busy with living, rather than being shackled by the bitterness about things gone wrong.

The Holy Spirit has been poured out on you - and this Spirit is one of adoption. God chose you! But it doesn't end there. God chose you for something. God chose you for a life in Christ; an abundant life! Nah, I'm not talking health-wealth-and-prosperity according to the ways of the world. I'm talking about an abundant life no matter where you find yourself on the financial ladder. I'm talking about an abundant life no matter what others have done to you. Find forgiveness and be set free to experience the grace of God in a whole new way. God chose you for a life of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness and self-control. The lies we believe and the prisons we inhabit want to keep us from this life. However, the Spirit of our Lord Jesus is more powerful than the ones that want us to falter. The Spirit of our Lord Jesus is the one who anointed those early believers in Jerusalem - and the world hasn't been the same since. That Holy Spirit, even today, even right now, knocks at your door and beckons you to come! Will you come? Enjoy life in the family of God! Amen.