Why Are We Here?

Acts 2:1-21

One Sunday morning nine-year-old Joshua decided to skip church and go for a long walk. His mother frequently told him that if he skipped church, he would miss a chance to see Jesus. But Joshua had been going to church his whole life and had never seen Jesus there before, so he didn’t think he’d be missing much. Besides, his church was an old, small, run-down building—just a little too confining for his desire to run and play.

Joshua’s walk took him across the railroad tracks in town for the first time in his life. He noticed that the houses on the other side of the tracks were much bigger and much nicer than any in the poor neighborhood where he lived.

A few blocks later Joshua found himself in front of the biggest, most beautiful church he had ever seen. The steeple alone appeared as tall as a mountain. As he got closer, the big church bells stopped ringing and the last people filed in from the parking lot. They all had nice cars and wore nice clothes. He didn’t see any people from his side of the tracks going to this church.

“This must be the church where Jesus goes,” Joshua told himself. “It’s so big and nice.” As he walked closer, he could hear the music coming from inside. He remembered hearing his mother talk about how angels sing to Jesus in heaven. “Wow!” said Joshua as he listened to the choir. “I’ll bet those are angels singing to Jesus!”

He walked up the steps, through the big front doors, and into the spacious narthex. He continued through another set of doors and entered the sanctuary. It was the biggest room he had ever seen. “This must be where Jesus is!” Joshua whispered to himself.

He noticed an empty seat a few rows from the back, so he sat down to scan the crowd, so he could find Jesus. The choir stopped singing and a large man in a black suit tapped Joshua on the shoulder. The man leaned down and asked Joshua if he could speak with him outside.

In the lobby, the man asked, “Son, where do you live?”

Joshua answered, “Down the street and across the railroad tracks.”

“And where are your parents?” the man asked.

“They’re probably at church right now,” Joshua replied.

“Well, son, don’t you think it would be better for you to go to your parents’ church today?”

“But I saw this church, and I knew Jesus was here,” Joshua said. “So I came to see him!”

“Well, son, I think it would be best if you were to run along home and go see Jesus in your own church in your own neighborhood,” the man said. “You really can’t stay here.”

Realizing what the man was trying to do, Joshua got upset. “You just don’t want me to see Jesus!” he yelled as he turned and ran out the big doors leading to the street.

Sobbing as he returned home, Joshua shouted, “God, it isn’t fair! All I wanted to do was see Jesus, and they wouldn’t let me in!”

Joshua shuffled along, staring at the sidewalk through his tears. Suddenly he heard footsteps behind him and felt a hand on his shoulder. He turned around, wiped his eyes, and stared in amazement.

It was Jesus!

The Lord smiled at Joshua, gave him a big hug, and said, “Don’t be too upset, my son. They wouldn’t let me in there either.”

It has been said that 11:00 to 12:00 every Sunday morning is the most segregated hour of the week. In John 17, Jesus prayed that his church would be “one,” but we all know that it’s anything but. Few things have hurt the spread of the gospel more than Christians’ lack of unity.

It’s time for Christians to think in terms of "We" rather than "I." The Holy Spirit is not just for a few individuals or certain groups, but for everyone. The Spirit shows no partiality. The most astounding miracle found in the New Testament is the emergence of the solid foundations of the Christian church out of a scattered, disheartened, confused, and weak collection of a few hesitant believers. How did this happen? What enabled this tattered remnant to weave itself into the "seamless robe of Christ"? Their secret was no secret. Beginning with the event of Pentecost the early Christian believers devoted themselves wholeheartedly to building a distinctive community of faith, unique to the world through the power of the Holy Spirit.

Pentecost is the miraculous explosion of new life. It is a foundational story written to explain the present day in light of the past. It’s a story about us and how it became possible for us to hear of and embrace the new life given by the Holy Spirit. It enables us to create a new community; to start a new family, where everyone is included and nobody is excluded; one that is based on love, not hate; peacefulness, not violence; forgiveness, not scapegoating.

In Acts the post-resurrection, post-ascension band of believers is shown trying to build this new community; to discern the glue that will establish, hold and maintain their identity. Yet until the event of Pentecost the disciples were incapable of carrying this out. They were the cast-out ones, the community's scapegoats, and the violence of Jesus' crucifixion had effectively served to rally their persecutors against them.

At Pentecost the inclusive, rather than exclusive nature of Christian community was revealed and we are called to do the same today. Reversing the Tower of Babel narrative, the gift of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost makes communication between people of all languages once again possible giving us the means to practice what it means to be a part of the new inclusive community Jesus calls us to create with the Holy Spirit. And judging from Peter's new posture of poise and power before the crowd, the gift of the Spirit also gave the disciples the ability to stand together in peace in spite of their violent ostracism from the rest of the old community.

And while we create and build a new community and demonstrate to the world what this new community is like, we must go and extend the community to all peoples and all places. “The single twig,” the proverb says, “breaks more easily than the bundle.” To do so is to invite others we know to join us and become a part of our community. We are better off, both stronger and healthier when we stand together, rather than stand apart. We are better off when we worship together. We are better off when we serve together. We are better off when we proclaim the good news together.

From the time of Pentecost on, the story of the Church is the story of its struggle to maintain this unique nature of "kingdom" community. In Acts 2:41-47 and 4:32 ff. Luke articulates one method the early Christian communities used to break the traditional chain of competitive rivalries whose presence disrupts and divides people. Here in Acts community is nurtured and strengthened by a commitment to pooled resources. Eliminating one of the most divisive, exclusive elements in society, these Christians illustrate the new operative rules of economic association. No scapegoats separate the haves from the have nots. The entire group is dependent upon the contributions of each individual member. The story of Ananias and Saphira in Acts 5 demonstrates how utterly Christians may "fall apart" when they fail to honor their promise to stand together.

In Acts the theme of inclusiveness is replayed again and again. The inclusive experience at Pentecost opened the ears of all diaspora Judaism, inviting them to listen to the Christian witness in their own tongues. In Acts 10 the door is opened still wider when the Gentile Cornelius is invited to join the community of faithful. In chapter 15 a rule that potentially could exclude others is abandoned and all Gentiles, even the uncircumcised, are welcomed into the bonds of community.

This new type of community endured beyond the first generation of Christians. Paul found himself reminding the church at Corinth that its very foundation was Christ. With Christ as the bedrock of the community there is no room for any violent or exclusionary tests for communal membership. When the gift of the Spirit itself threatens to become a cause for rivalry, Paul lectures the Corinthians, reasserting that the very nature of the Holy Spirit is to unify, not to divide. In 1 Corinthians 12:12 ff. Paul uses the analogy of the body to ridicule the existence of this bickering over "gifts" so that the Christian community could survive and thrive as one.

As Christian communities continue to struggle to remain faithful to the image of community as ordained by Jesus and practiced with varying degrees of success by the early church, there is one more model we may turn to for guidance. So obvious that it may be overlooked, the uniquely Christian notion of a triune God, the doctrine of the Trinity itself, serves as an illustration of how we must remain united in community. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit stand together in a unified relationship, untainted by any struggles for superiority. The power and comfort we find in a Godhead which is "three in one" must be reflected in our church communities where we are many united as one in Christ Jesus.