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In 1974, Muhammad Yunnis, an economics
professor in Bangladesh, took $27 out of his own pocket and
lent it to 44 women to purchase the bamboo to make simple
stools, a loan that subsequently helped these women move
towards self-sufficiency. Thirty years later, Yunnis was
awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for creating the Grameen Bank,
which now gives out over $4 billion in loans to poor
families in the developing world. Amazing things happen
when one gets caught up in something larger than
themselves.
An Indianapolis man walked in to see his
pastor and said, “You preached on Sunday that God could use
my passion for ministry. Well, my passion is fishing. What’s
God going to do with that?” The pastor said, “I know we have
some single moms in the congregation. If you announce a day
when you and your buddies would take some kids fishing, I
bet you would get a few takers.” The announcement was made,
and about eighty children and their moms showed up to go
fishing. Now, each year about 200 fishermen take 500 kids
from single-parent homes fishing. Amazing things happen when
one gets caught up in something larger than themselves.
This past January, a small group met in
this church on one of the coldest nights of the year. They
were reading a book about God’s call to the poor when one of
them said, “Why are we sitting here reading about this when
somebody right now needs a jacket and some gloves?” The next
week, they filled up a church van with the extra coats and
gloves they found in their closets and went to the Cass
Corridor, opened up the doors of the van, and people came.
Over the next month, on the coldest of days, this group
would take several trips to the city to do just that.
Amazing things happen when one gets caught up in something
larger than themselves.
Getting caught up in something larger
than ourselves. Giving ourselves over to a great cause, an
important mission, a movement that stirs deep within.
Investing our lives to change the lives of others. Losing
ourselves in our projects or passions. Amazing things can
happen—we give like we’ve never given, go to places we never
thought we’d go, and love people we thought we couldn’t
love. There is a part of each of us that longs to be swept
up in something bigger, larger than ourselves. We want our
lives to make a difference.
And why is there this inclination within
us to serve some larger cause or give ourselves to some
greater good? Because the alternative—a life of no
significance, lived only for ourselves—is a bleak, if not a
downright depressing prospect. If there is no larger
purpose, then life really is just about us. Nobody, and
nothing else, matters.
And the same is true for churches. If
churches live only for themselves, only for their members,
they might have great worship and nice programs and visit
the sick and call on the shut-ins, but never touch the
communities that surround them. That is why we have
Pentecost Sunday. Pentecost Sunday reminds the church that
it has been called to something larger than itself.
The scene is set in Jerusalem. The
followers of Jesus are doing what we churches do quite well:
they’re having a committee meeting. They are hanging around
debating how much to spend on the new carpet and what color
the new toilet seat should be. Their best days are behind
them, the days when they had a real leader. Now it’s enough
just to hold the line and keep the lights on. The doors are
locked, and that’s just fine. No need to let in anyone new
who might have new ideas or new ways of doing things.
Pentecost begins with your ordinary, uneventful, boring
church meeting where people leave the place looking as dead
and bored as they did when they entered.
And that’s when God showed up. The floor
began to shake. The drapes blew open. A gush of fresh air,
and fresh perspectives, streamed into the place. Little
flames burst over people’s heads as they became ignited with
a passion that was not of this world. All of a sudden,
people started speaking different languages. But here is the
thing. They were still able to understand each other, able
to listen to each other, able to appreciate each other in
their differences. On that first Pentecost Sunday, that
little meeting room was suddenly filled with enough
unharnessed power to light the world ten times over. All the
bickering and boredom faded away. Some began to laugh. Some
started to cry. Others knelt down and prayed. It felt like
the old days when Jesus was with them. He wasn’t there, but
it sure felt like he was. So they started talking to one
another again. They started praying with one another again.
They started telling stories, making plans, talking about
the future. They were getting caught up in something bigger
than themselves.
Pentecost Sunday reminds us of some very
important things. First, God gave the gift of Jesus’ spirit
to the church. After Jesus died, rose, and then ascended
into heaven—there is no doubt about it, Jesus has left the
building—it would have been very easy to believe that Jesus’
spirit was gone as well. But Pentecost is a reminder that
the Spirit of God found in Jesus Christ is still with us,
and it lives and resides right here in the gathered body of
believers called “the church.”
God didn’t give the Holy Spirit to people
on an individual basis. God did not just bestow the Spirit
on pastors or religious leaders. And it wasn’t reserved for
those with special knowledge or gifts. Pentecost reminds us
that the Spirit of Jesus Christ was given to the church. And
friends, let me be clear that when I say the Holy Spirit
resides in the church, I am not talking about a building
with a steeple, stained glass and a nice organ. I am talking
about the truth of that old Sunday School song we learned:
The
church is not a building,
the
church is not a steeple,
the
church is not a resting place,
the
church is a people.
I am
the Church, you are the Church,
we
are the Church together.
All
who follow Jesus all around the world,
yes,
we’re the Church together.
God has given the Holy Spirit to the
church, to the people who gather in the name of, and who
live in the way of, Jesus Christ.
So if Jesus’ spirit is alive in the
church, then the church is called to do, and is capable of
doing, all of the things that Jesus did. Everything Jesus
did, the church is called to do. And everything Jesus did,
the church is capable of doing. On Pentecost, we are
reminded that we are to:
Heal
the sick.
Feed
the crowds.
Touch
the untouchable.
Eat
with the outcasts.
Bring
Good News to the poor.
Give
those who are paralyzed by fear a reason to move.
Release those who are bound by addictions from their
prisons.
Love
our enemies.
Teach
the ways of peace and justice.
Offer
forgiveness to the sinners,
and
mercy to the brokenhearted,
and
love to the lonely,
and
bring resurrection
to
all the dead places
in
people’s lives and their communities.
If Jesus did it, we are to do it. And we
can do it because God has given us the Holy Spirit so that
we, in the immortal words of Larry the Cable Guy, can “Git
‘er done!”
One thing the scriptures make abundantly
clear is that whenever Jesus came to town, things got
noticeably better. And so if we are to take seriously the
story of Pentecost and believe that the Holy Spirit has
indeed been given to the church, then we should expect that
things around us, and connected to us, should get noticeably
better. Think about this: if tomorrow morning this church,
FUMC Birmingham, were to lock up its doors and go out of
business, who would protest? I know we would. There would be
an uproar from our members. But would anyone else protest?
Would kids in Pontiac or homeless folks in Detroit notice?
Would the people still recovering from Hurricane Katrina cry
out? How about those suffering with AIDS in Ghana? Are we
the kind of church where people who don’t want anything to
do with church would say, “You need to keep doing what you
do, because you make things better”? If the Spirit of Jesus
has been given to us, then we are called to do the things
Jesus did.
And if the Pentecost Spirit of Jesus is
alive in the church, then not only are we to do what Jesus
did, we are called to continue the mission he began. And
what is that mission? Nothing short of the healing and
transformation of the world. Pentecost reminds us that
mission isn’t something we do, it is who we are. We are
missional people imbued with the Holy Spirit, called to get
caught up in the healing and transformation of the world.
As you may know, my job is going to be
changing here at First Church. One of my new
responsibilities will be to help us get caught up in the
work of God to heal and transform the world. We will be
expanding our current programs, as well as launching some
new and exciting opportunities to live out the Pentecost
promise of life in the Spirit. These are some of my hopes:
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To have a
record-breaking CROP Walk in order to raise more money
and awareness to combat hunger.
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To find more direct,
hands-on ways to be involved in Pontiac and Detroit
through our partnerships with Bound Together and Cass.
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To send two or three
delegations to the Gulf Coast to continue the repair
work left in the wake of Katrina.
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And to find new and
creative ways to work with our sister churches in Africa
to help stem the AIDS epidemic, deal with the aftermath
of the genocide in Darfur, and create economic
opportunities in some of the poorest economies on the
planet.
In addition, we will be launching the
“Here I Am, Lord” Initiative, a place and process where
anyone can walk in and say, “Here I am, Lord, send me,” and
we would be able to help them match their gifts and passions
with the needs of our church, community and world. We are
going to get caught up in what God is doing in the world.
I am glad we get to come to the Communion
table on Pentecost Sunday, because it is here that we learn
what it means to live into this mission Jesus has begun in
our midst. We remember that God so loved the world that God
came to us in the person of Jesus Christ, whose body was
broken and whose blood was poured out on the cross, so that
we could have life. This Sunday, and every Sunday, and every
other day for that matter, we want to express our
thanksgiving for this gift of life found in Jesus Christ.
The word for being thankful in the New
Testament, in the Greek language, is
Eucharisteo.
Eu means well or good, and charis means to
grant or to give. So anytime we see the phrase “be thankful”
in the New Testament, it is translated in the Greek as “be
Eucharist.” Now the light bulb should be going on.
Eucharist: that is the word often used for Holy Communion.
So to be thankful—to “be Eucharist”—is to be for the world
what Jesus is for us, to break ourselves open and to pour
ourselves out so that others can receive life. You see, we
receive communion here on Sunday, we receive Jesus’ broken
body and poured spirit, so that we might go into the world
and do the same.
Some of you
know exactly what it means to “be Eucharist” for someone.
You gave yourself to them. You served them. You listened to
them hour after hour. When they were going through an
addiction or a divorce, you walked with them every step of
the way. When someone lost their job, you made sure there
was food on the table and presents at Christmas. When
someone was dying, you delivered meals, sat by their bedside
and held their hand. You were Eucharist; you broke yourself
open and poured yourself out so that somebody else could
have life. The call of the church on Pentecost is “be
Eucharist” for the world, to break ourselves open and pour
ourselves out so that others can have life.
Let me tell you
a story. I walked out of my house the other day, and there,
lying on his back in the middle of the road with his two
legs straight in the air, was Little Bird.
I said, “Little
Bird, why are you lying on your back in the middle of the
road with your two legs in the air?”
“Well,” said
Little Bird, “the sky is falling.”
Which prompted
me to ask, “Do you think you are going to stop it by lying
on your back in the middle of the road with your two legs in
the air?”
To which Little
Bird answered, “One does what one can.”
The next I day,
I walked out of my house, and there, lying on his back in
the middle of the road with his two legs straight in the
air, was Little Bird.
I said, “Little
Bird, why are you lying on your back in the middle of the
road with your two legs in the air?”
“The sky is
falling.”
“Do think you
are going to stop it by lying on your back in the middle of
the road with your two legs in the air?”
“One does what
one can.”
On the third
day, it was my neighbors who walked out of their house. And
who did they see lying on his back in the middle of the road
with his two legs straight in the air? Me! Why? Because one
does what one can!
This movement
of getting caught up in something larger than ourselves
begins today with three things we can do right now. The
first is a bag. Take one or two or three, and fill them with
food and bring them back next week so that hungry people can
get fed.
The second is
to stop by the table and get some information about our
tutoring program in Pontiac. Prayerfully consider if you can
give one afternoon a week helping a young person learn to
read. We need thirty new tutors to start in the fall.
And third,
remember that the church is the only organization that
exists for the benefit of its non-members! Allow your heart
to be broken open and your love to be poured out so that
your neighborhood, community, nation and world can
experience the new life we experience around this table
today.
Notes:
Again I am
grateful to the preaching of Rob Bell from the Mars Hill
Bible Church outside of Grand Rapids. His February 18 sermon
entitled “The X, Y, Z’s” gave me new insight into the
meaning of Eucharist. In addition, I also found inspiration
from Mark Feldmeir’s sermon, “To Infinity and Beyond,”
printed in his book of sermons, Testimony to the Exiles.
For more
information about Muhammad Yunnis and the Grameen Bank, I
recommend the book Banker to the Poor. This book is
an easy and engaging read which tells the story of the
incredible impact micro-lending has had among the poor of
Southeast Asia.
The story of
the fisherman came from Carter McGriff and Kent Millard’s
book, The Passion Driven Congregation.
For
more information about the tutoring program sponsored by our
Church and Society Ministry, go to http://www.fumcbirmingham.org/mission/society/tutor.htm.
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