Sermon for May 17th

I don’t know if you’ve noticed recently how ridiculous you have become. Not only that, but many of you are also very unevolved. Your faith makes no sense. You’re wasting your time. You have the freedom to let it all go, change your mind and live in the real world, but you just won’t. You’ve lived your life on crutches, being held up by the church and the Bible. And some of the most popular authors, speakers and professors have done their best to open up your cage and they’ve whispered in your ear: You are free! Fly away! Fly away from this religious poppycock.

The movie, Into the Wild, is a true story about a young man who leaves his family, his identity and his life behind to find freedom in Alaska. It takes him a few years to get there walking by foot, kayaking downriver, riding trains or hitching rides with people, but eventually he finds his way. When he does find the freedom he was seeking, he discovers that he has become trapped on the other side of a raging river that had only been a stream when he had first crossed it. Eventually, he dies by accidentally poisoning himself on what he thought were wild potatoes. As he lies, dying, trapped in his freedom, he writes the words, “Happiness is Shared”. He never knew true freedom, until he found out that he wasn’t really free.

A reading from Acts, chapter 10, ”While Peter was still speaking, the Holy Spirit fell upon all who heard the word.” That might sound pretty cool to us, but at the time, it was truly horrifying. Do you know who these people were? The people who were touched by the Holy Spirit? They were Gentiles. Barbarians. Dirty and uncircumcised soldiers! Who knew nothing, absolutely nothing, about God! It was almost unbearable.

But we are hearing the end of the story. Peter meets these Gentile sinners awhile earlier. He had just gone through a crash course in Diversity Training in a dream he had had the night before where God had lowered down a bunch of unclean animals and told him to “Kill and Eat” and explained that, “What God has made clean, you must not call profane.” And so, suddenly, Peter wasn’t a religious racist anymore! He now had lots of dirty Gentile friends. He’d even talked to a few and so, he was wondering what more they might want him to do so that he might show them what a tolerant fellow he could be! He says, “You yourselves know that it is unlawful for a Jew to associate with or to visit a Gentile; but God has shown me that I should not call anyone profane or unclean. So when I was sent for, I came without objection. Now may I ask why you sent for me?” The preacher who will baptize 5000 people, can’t imagine what he’s going to do with a few Gentiles. It doesn’t even occur to him.

The leader of these dirty uncircumcised soldiers, Cornelious was his name, said he had a dream as well about meeting one of those stuck up Jewish Christians named Peter and that God had told him, to listen to all that the Lord had commanded Peter to say. So, Peter, being the dutiful follower of God that he was, starting telling these barbarians all about Jesus and the great gift of salvation that had been brought to the Jews. And then, something amazing happened!

“While Peter was still speaking, the Holy Spirit fell upon all who heard the word.” On those dirty, barbaric and uncircumcised people! Ewww. The passage tells us, “The circumcised believers, the Jews, who had come with Peter were astounded that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out even on the Gentiles, for they heard them speaking in tongues and extolling God!”

You’d a thunk that they would’ve known better! Not Peter mind you, he had just gone through diversity training so what could you expect him to do. But these Gentiles should have known better than to get sucked into such a thing such as this. They didn’t have any proof that Jesus had REALLY risen from the dead did they? Peter said that he and his people were witnesses of the risen Jesus, but maybe they were lying or hallucinating. Didn’t these Gentiles realize that they were about to become part of a church that would be criticized in two of Dan Brown’s novels and in two full-length feature films thousands of years later! How ridiculous were they, right! To fall for Jesus right then and there!

These sinners are your descendents, the Gentiles. Even today, as a Gentile, you have no right to call upon God as your Father, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. You don’t deserve this grace of God. While the Jews were God’s chosen people, the Gentiles were not. But while they didn’t have God, they had their freedom, right? The freedom to eat and drink and believe whatever they wanted. You’d think they would have tried to run as fast they could from crazy people like Peter. And you know what? I bet they did. But before they could reach the door, something spectacular happened. “While Peter was still speaking, the Holy Spirit fell upon all who heard the word.” And for Cornelious and his merry band of Gentile companions, they would be forever forward called children of God, “Peter said, ‘Can anyone withhold the water for baptizing these people who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have?’ So he ordered them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ.”

About once a week I hear or read or am told about how faith in Jesus Christ makes me ridiculous. Most of the time, no one comes right out and says it. But it’s pretty obvious what they think. When you talk to your friends and coworkers, you might feel like your values seem unevolved or judgmental compared to the opinions surrounding you. When you hang out with your friends on Saturday night, you might feel like a dope when you have to go home before midnight so that you can wake up to go to church the next morning. You have the freedom to let it all go, change your mind and live in the real world. Many popular authors, speakers and professors are saying that you are free! That you could fly away!

But it is already too late for you. For as many of you who were baptized in Christ Jesus were baptized into his death. You were buried therefore, by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised by the glory of the Father, you too might walk in newness of life. You are hearing the words of Jesus Christ, the promise is given and we will see what happens. We’ll let the Holy Spirit fly and fall and do its thing; working faith in your heart as it will. Just when you think you can fly away, the Holy Spirit tackles you and buries you with Jesus. Even in the face of your doubts. Even in the face of unanswered prayers. Even though you know you are unclean and don’t deserve it. The Holy Spirit falls where and when it pleases. Even on you. Your faith comes on the wings of the word and hunts you down like a hawk after a mouse.

You might have come inside the church doors this morning, expecting contemplation and conversation, sure and certain that you had everything figured out, but I pray that you leave here this morning sure of only one thing, that you have received forgiveness. For only in forgiveness is there true freedom. You might have come in here a free thinking spiritualist, but I pray that you will leave here bound to Jesus Christ alone, for only in him is there true freedom. Freedom to love. Freedom to serve. Freedom from death Freedom for life. .

When you think of freedom, you might think of a way of life that knows no boundaries. No one telling you what to do, or how to act or how to live. But the freedom that comes through the gospel is not freedom from the law, freedom from accountability or freedom from relationships. True freedom does not mean freedom from a relationship with Jesus. That kind of freedom is a trap. Religious freedom sounds great, but freedom apart from Jesus Christ is nothing less than a jail cell. Leaving you alone to die as much as it did the man in the movie who found himself imprisoned in his search to be free. “Happiness is shared” the man wrote. True freedom is a relationship with Jesus Christ. The freedom to be bound to him and to his word. To love and be loved.

Faith is love. The book of James tells us, that faith without love is dead. But faith and love both appear quite ridiculous in our world. Love is unevolved and makes you act kinda crazy. One professor I know refers to couples getting ready for a wedding as “legally insane” and he is more right than he is wrong. Love makes no sense, just like faith often does not. Sometimes you just can’t understand why you have faith at all, but then you realize that you never made the choice in the first place. You just fell into it. Just like the Holy Spirit fell on a bunch of undeserving Gentiles long ago. Just like a mother falls in love at the first sight of her child.

For those of you who have ever been in love, love is often a very ridiculous looking thing. And as silly as it may seem, Jesus has fallen for you. You’ve had a life only Jesus could love, but he only has eyes for you. And so, my advice to you, when you are challenged to prove your faith or defend yourself in the eyes of others, is just to admit the facts. Yes, I’m ridiculous. I’m in love. I tried to run away, but I couldn’t. I thought I found freedom, but it wasn’t apart from my beloved, apart from my Savior. I love Jesus, what else can I do? He has told me that I am his and he is mine and that we will be together forever.” Why do I read the Bible? Why do I believe it? Because it is full of his love letters to me.

Fly away from this love if you can. But no where else will find rest for your soul. Freedom for your mind. And peace for your heart. Only in God’s love is there true freedom; the freedom to love others and serve them unconditionally, not because it’s the smartest thing to do, but because you are truly free to do it. And when people ask you why? Tell them the love story, Jesus’ love story and, perhaps, the holy spirit just might fall on them when they hear the word. Amen.