We are in the Easter
Season of the church, perhaps the most joyful time of all. Spring is here. The
snow is melting (even if it keeps returning). The sun is shining. “Now is the
month of maying, when merry lads are playing, fa la la la la la la la la.” Well,
that’s tomorrow, but you know what I mean.
Best of all, we know that
Jesus has defeated death. God raised Jesus to life, and today we remember the
time between his resurrection and his ascension. For forty days, Jesus lived
and walked with his disciples again. It must have seemed like a dream, but he
was preparing them to be the church after he ascended into Heaven.
John 10
Our text from John's gospel gives a picture of the church Jesus was forming. During his ministry, he
had compared himself to the Good Shepherd. In contrast with thieves and robbers
who seek only to steal, kill, and destroy, Jesus came to give his followers
life, real overflowing life. The kind of life that he showed them in his time
with them after the resurrection. Jesus compared his followers to sheep – not
in a bad sense as we might, but in the sense that they follow him. They go
where he takes them. They do what he asks. They live a full and good life under
the shepherd’s care.
We are sheep in this
sense, then. Not that we are mindless, unable to think for ourselves, but that
we are mindful of Jesus. We listen to his voice. We receive his Spirit. We
follow Jesus and are formed into the flock in his care, that is the church.
Acts 2
Acts 2 describes what the
first church looked like, called into being by Jesus’ resurrection and formed
by God’s Spirit. “42 They
devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of
bread and the prayers. 43 Awe
came upon everyone because many wonders and signs were being done through the
apostles. 44 All
who believed were together and had all things in common; 45 they would sell their
possessions and goods and distribute the proceeds to all, as any had need. 46 Day by day, as they
spent much time together in the temple, they broke bread at home and ate their
food with glad and generous hearts, 47 praising God and having the goodwill of all the
people. And day by day the Lord added to their number those who were being
saved.”
Luke wrote his history of
the first church using sources that went back to the events he describes.
Although the final form of Acts was written down 40 or so years later, they
tell us faithfully what the first disciples did as the Holy Spirit filled them
to carry on the ministry of Jesus. Note the list that Luke gives and what that
list might look like for us.
·
They
devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching: We read the Scripture, centering
the whole teaching of the Bible on the person and work of Jesus Christ.
·
They
devoted themselves to fellowship: We gather for worship and for community, in
the church building and in our homes.
·
They
devoted themselves to the breaking of bread: We remember Jesus’ death and
resurrection, especially – but not only – in the communion service.
·
They
devoted themselves to prayer: We spend regular time in prayer, personally and
corporately.
·
They performed
many “signs and wonders”: We are uncomfortable with this idea, but we do at
least care for each other in various physical and material ways.
·
They
shared their belongings so that no one was left needy: We fall short of their
radical simplicity, but we have created an agency to help the needy of our
community and we use our deacons’ fund to meet needs within our congregation.
·
They
spent time each day worshipping in the Temple and “breaking bread” in their
homes: We are not as dedicated to public and private worship as they were, but
we do believe in the value of public and private worship.
·
They
“ate their food with glad and generous hearts”: We also give thanks for God’s
good gifts and share what we have with others.
Putting all of this together,
Luke closes by noting that God added new people to the church regularly.
Sometimes, we think that this numerical growth is the point of the whole
passage. I don’t think so. Rather, Luke suggests that the point is to embody
Christ’s ministry and message by being the visible Body of Christ. Numerical
growth is a result of faithful Christian living. Faithful living is the goal –
worship and prayer and meeting needs and embodying Christ. Numerical growth is
a fruit of meeting the goal.
Who, Then, Are We
Today?
What do
you go to church for? Some may be looking for an incredible musical experience.
Put a professional music team at the front of the church and fill the sanctuary
with sound. That’s a good thing! I have felt God’s presence many times when the
music has carried my soul almost, it seems, out of my body. But pure
professionalism in music makes for a great concert, not necessarily for a
worship experience.
Some may be looking for a
spellbinding preacher. Put a charismatic preacher walking back and forth on the
stage. Again, that’s good! I have been challenged and inspired by powerful
preachers. I have enjoyed great events like the Urbana Missions Conferences and
Missionfest Manitoba for just this reason. But too many big-name preachers have
stumbled and fallen in their personal lives for us to base our church
experience on the preacher.
So, why do we come
together? I suggest that Luke’s description gives us an answer. We come
together to read the Bible, to praise God in song and prayer, to fellowship
with each other, to care for each other. We could do a series on these points.
I want to pick up just one of them and reflect on it further: I want to talk
more about prayer.
Prayer
Prayer stands at the
centre of the action in the book of Acts. One commentator has said that nothing
important happens in Luke and Acts without the presence of the Holy Spirit and
the presence of prayer. The Holy Spirit and prayer are central to Luke’s
description of the early church. We may think that certain people in the church
are real prayer warriors and that we can leave the praying to them, but I
suggest that prayer is God’s gift for all of us. We gather together to pray.
What does Luke mean when
he says, “they devoted themselves to prayer”? What did that look like? What did
it sound like? We can take a guess, but we don’t really know. It may have
involved kneeling or even prostrating yourself on your face before God. Judaism
today has three set times for prayer (morning, afternoon, and evening), while
Islam has five set times for prayers. Some more liturgical traditions in
Christianity use what they call “the divine hours”, set times of prayer (either
three or five times a day). For example, a monastery may have set prayer times
at 6 am, 9 am, noon, 3 pm, and 6 pm.
I have been in prayer
meetings where we sit together and pray in silence – a ten-minute silence. I
have been in gatherings where everyone prays together at the top of their
voices – a Niagara of sound pouring over the congregation. I have prayed with
congregations and alone, kneeling by my bed or standing in the middle of the
room. Sometimes prayer is spontaneous, just talking to God. Sometimes we use
set prayers that express our desire for constant connection with God.
At its root, prayer is
simpler than all that. We simply place ourselves before God, offer God
ourselves, and listen for God’s Spirit within us. Sometimes we use the acronym
ACTS – Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, and Supplication. Whatever forms we
use, the purpose is that we are relationship with God. God is present, and we
become fully present with God.
It’s all quite mysterious,
and perhaps we sometimes have our doubts about it all. I remember praying with
our son when he was three years old. It was part of our bedtime routine. I sat
on the edge of his bed, we closed our eyes, and I prayed. One night he would
not keep quiet while I prayed and finally I stopped and asked, “Do you know who
we’re talking to?” He replied brightly, “No one!” Sometimes it does indeed feel
like that.
George Herbert
And yet, prayer is so much
more than that. Prayer is real. Prayer is the lifeblood of the Christian.
Without prayer, without communion with God, we fall apart and die. Four hundred
or so years ago, George Herbert was a member of parliament in England who gave
up his political career to serve as a country pastor. He died of tuberculosis
at the age of 39, but before he died he wrote a remarkable poem on prayer.
Prayer
the church’s banquet, angel’s age,
God’s
breath in man returning to his birth,
The soul
in paraphrase, heart in pilgrimage,
The
Christian plummet sounding heav’n and earth
Engine
against th’ Almighty, sinner’s tow’r,
Reversèd
thunder, Christ-side-piercing spear,
The
six-days world transposing in an hour,
A kind
of tune, which all things hear and fear;
Softness,
and peace, and joy, and love, and bliss,
Exalted
manna, gladness of the best,
Heaven
in ordinary, man well drest,
The
milky way, the bird of Paradise,
Church-bells
beyond the stars heard, the soul’s blood,
The land
of spices; something understood.
Herbert gives 26 images of
prayer (I think). It would take a full hour’s lecture to cover them all, and I
want to note just a few of them. Some of them are obscure, and some are simply
delightful.
1) He starts with this image: Prayer is the church’s banquet.
Better than Fifth Sunday Faspa, better than our summer potluck lunches, better
than our Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner at the church, prayer is a reminder
of the great banquet feast that we enjoy at the end of time, the wedding feast
of the Lamb. Prayer anticipates eternity. Prayer gives us a foretaste of Heaven
in the present.
2) Here is another one:
Prayer is God’s breath in man returning to his birth. Think about it. You and I
are alive because God has breathed life into us. Remember Genesis 2: 7? “The
Lord God formed the human being from the dust of the ground and breathed into
his nostrils the breath of life, and the human creature became a living being.”
Every time you take a breath, God is breathing life into you, and every time
you let your breath out, you are giving your life back to God. Prayer is that
breath, drawing in and breathing out. We focus on God, receive God’s Spirit
(being “born again”), give ourselves back to God, and then do it all again.
3) Prayer is “the
Christian plummet sounding heaven and earth”. The image doesn’t mean much to
us, but Herbert’s congregation would have understood. The plummet was a line
dropped from a ship as it comes into harbour, showing how deep the water was
and helping the pilot bring the ship in. Herbert makes this an image of our
life’s journey to Heaven. We are sailing through the dark of night, and our
pilot out on the prow of the ship drops a plummet into the water so that we can
take one more step, live one more day.
“Lead kindly light amid
the encircling gloom. Lead Thou me on. The night is dark and I am far from
home. Lead Thou me on. Keep Thou my feet; I do not ask to see The distant
scene; one step enough for me.” You see Herbert’s idea. Prayer shows us the
next step to take in our lives. We can’t see the road ahead, but God shows us
the step ahead.
4) Now for a surprising
and difficult one. Prayer is our “Engine against th’ Almighty, sinner’s tower”.
An engine here is an instrument of warfare, when an army attacks a city under
siege. Prayer is the instrument with which we complain to God when life
overwhelms us and we feel as though God has abandoned us. And, in the great
paradox and power of God’s grace and mercy, prayer becomes the sinner’s tower where
we go for safety. We cry out against God, and God brings us into a place of
safety where we can heal and find new hope and life.
Concluding Thought
There are 20 more of these
images in this amazing poem, but this gives you a taste. I want to make one
more point in closing. we often think of prayer as a private venture; I am impressed how often the prayers in the New
Testament are corporate prayers. Everyone was praying together. It seems to me
that prayer – communion with God – is best when it is part of our own private
practice (like breathing in and breathing out) and when it is fundamental to
our life as a congregation. We pray in our worship service and in our committee
meetings.
Herbert says that prayer
is our soul’s blood. Without God we are nothing and have nothing. In prayer, we
give ourselves to God and receive ourselves again. I encourage you to find the
ways to pray that work for you and to receive from God the abundant life he has
promised us.
Texts:
Acts 2: 42-47
Life among the Believers
42 They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and
fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. 43 Awe came upon everyone
because many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. 44 All who believed were
together and had all things in common; 45 they would sell their possessions and goods and
distribute the proceeds to all, as any had need. 46 Day by day, as they spent much time together in the
temple, they broke bread at home and ate their food with glad and generous
hearts, 47 praising
God and having the goodwill of all the people. And day by day the Lord added to
their number those who were being saved.
John 10: 1-10
Jesus the Good Shepherd
10 “Very truly, I tell you, anyone who does not enter the sheepfold by the gate but climbs in by another way is a thief and a bandit. 2 The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. 3 The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep hear his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. 4 When he has brought out all his own, he goes ahead of them, and the sheep follow him because they know his voice. 5 They will not follow a stranger, but they will run from him because they do not know the voice of strangers.” 6 Jesus used this figure of speech with them, but they did not understand what he was saying to them.
7 So again Jesus said to them, “Very truly, I tell you,
I am the gate for the sheep. 8 All
who came before me are thieves and bandits, but the sheep did not listen to
them. 9 I am the
gate. Whoever enters by me will be saved and will come in and go out and find
pasture. 10 The
thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life
and have it abundantly.
Looking Ahead
Question: When Easter is over and
done, what do we who live as God's people do with it?
Theme: Being the people who follow the Good Shepherd (we
really are sheep!) forms us into a community who worship God and love each
other.
Going Deeper Questions:
1. The sermon focused on prayer this morning. Do you
think that prayer really is the centre of our communal life? If it isn’t,
should it be? Or should something else be the basic reason we gather together?
If so, what is that something else?
2. How do you pray? Do you prefer spontaneous or set
prayers? What way of sitting or standing or kneeling makes it easier for you to
pray?
3. How has prayer helped you to function as a
Christian? As a person in general?
4. Is public prayer or private prayer more important
in your life? Why? Which do you think should be more important?
Steinbach Mennonite
Church
30 April 2023
