Acts 1:1-11

In the past few weeks we’ve been reading in Acts and learning about some of the struggles faced by the early church. They encountered serious issues that could have caused deep chasms to form within their faith communities, but they worked hard to build bridges, putting Jesus at the center and working from there. It’s kind of amazing to me that they could deal with these struggles in any sort of healthy manner when at the beginning of Acts, they still seem pretty clueless. Two things stand out to me. One is that after being with Jesus while he was alive, hearing what he had to say about the kingdom of God and then seeing first-hand the miracle of the resurrection for 40 days, they still want know – so when are we getting that king of Israel? They want details and timetables. They are still having some major issues with trust and faith. Not only that, but they seem to have their own best interests at heart. They are still putting their agenda before God’s.

The second thing is that when Jesus ascends to heaven, they are awestruck or rather awe stuck. They can’t take their eyes off heaven, even though just before he left, Jesus told them to go to Jerusalem, wait for the Holy Spirit and then tell everyone about him in Jerusalem, in all Judea, in Samaria and everywhere in the world. Finally, some messengers from heaven are sent to shoo them away. Jesus clearly doesn’t want their focus to be on heaven, he wants it to be in the world. Thank God for the Holy Spirit because with this gift a spiritual light seems to turn on in the disciples and they understand and are able to articulate and live out the message of love, hope and peace through Jesus Christ to Jerusalem, in all Judea, in Samaria and everywhere in the world.

As disciples, we are also called to use this gift of the Holy Spirit to tell everyone about Jesus. Oh, but how to do that? It sounds like a pretty monumental task. I think that it is more challenging for us to share the Good News not only because we don’t have that first-hand perspective of the original disciples, but also because the rules of engagement have changed. We are living in a postmodern culture, but the vast majority of churches, denominations and ministry resources are not geared toward this cultural shift.

I’ve often been asked, what do I mean by postmodern and frankly I don’t have a good definition, but I can try to relate an experience of it. Mike Breen, a pastor at Community Church of Joy, uses an earthquake analogy to describe the level of change we are facing in this postmodern era. He goes on to say the only reason that this change has not been catastrophic for us (North Americans) is because we are affluent. Mike spoke at a church conference I attended last year. The subject of the conference was postmodernism and I think some of the attendees got it, some didn’t, and some just need help with translation.

Let’s try to visualize the scene. Imagine you are driving along a familiar path. Suddenly a major earthquake strikes and you are knocked unconscious. When you regain consciousness, you realize everything around you has changed. The landscape is no longer recognizable. The landmarks you took for granted are gone. You are wandering around in shock. You happen to walk by a church. You see that there are people inside. The church building does not look stable. You see some cracks in the wall. You go to warn the people that the earthquake has probably damaged the building and they should get out. They don’t seem to understand you. They urge you to come inside. “It’s not safe”, you say, “this building could collapse at any time.” They just don’t get it. They seem to be in denial about the earthquake. You ask them if they know where you can find temporary shelter. All they can offer you is a map of the world as it was before the earthquake. You walk away bewildered.

You see postmodern culture does not trust the maps of this world, where our words don’t match the actions in the world. Postmodern culture is leery of doctrine and beliefs. God is not unimportant, in fact, God is talked about and written about more than ever, but religious institutions are viewed as dangerous. There was a time when church was viewed as a safe sanctuary, but now it is more often viewed as surrounded by barriers.

The United Church of Christ has done a series of commercials addressing this feeling of alienation. The God is Still Speaking campaign identifies some of the prejudices and unwelcomeness a church can convey in the way it acts.

There is an ELCA-affiliated emerging church in Seattle, Church of the Apostles, that describes it this way: “doing justice and showing mercy is core to the d.n.a. of christian life. somewhere, over the course of the modern era, a slow mission creep caused the church to drift away from faith as a way of life and towards faith as a set of beliefs (the pope is infallible, the bible is inerrant, there are four spiritual laws, we are predestined for this or that, etc.)... faithful christians to this day disagree over some of the doctrinal things mentioned above. such formulations are not unimportant, but we can no longer afford to lead with formulations. people today are moved by their experiences of faith much more than by rational arguments or doctrines about faith. in our world, people will firstly take notice of how we live, before they concern themselves with learning about what we believe”

The first time I learned about postmodernism and the efforts of the emerging church movement to speak to it, I was intrigued. The more I learned, the more it seemed to describe the situation I felt that I was in. It was such a relief to find out why I often like felt like an outsider looking into the church, wondering what in the world was going on in there. For others, this cultural shift is not such a relief. My parents, lifelong Lutherans and very involved in church have different reactions. My dad is actually preaching on the topic of postmodernism next week. Here’s his take:

"The music at Solomon’s Porch and Peace Lutheran drives me crazy at times. And empowering the whole people of God gives me – an ordained and thereby historically privileged person in the church – some pause. Still, as I watch the energy and talent being released and the forces for good in the world being deployed more fully, I think that the Emerging Churches may be harbingers of the future for the rest of us. They are showing us ways to get beyond the Bible without leaving the Bible behind; without, so to speak, throwing the baby out with the bathwater. We don’t need another baby. Scripture is, after all and as Luther said, the cradle of Christ. But we do need fresh bathwater, fresh means for washing away the no longer helpful sediment of history, fresh ways of renewing the body of Christ for its liturgy – that is, its work of the people of God in the world today."

My mom is struggling with this shift. On the one hand, she is so thankful to see her daughter finally engaged in ministry. On the other hand, she’s not exactly sure what that ministry is:

"I like the title of your meditation very much - Building Bridges and Lost in Translation. I'm a firm believer in the former and a bit muddled by the latter because I'm not in a post-modern frame of reference. After reading your Dad's meditation earlier today and now yours, I'm starting to get it. I am steeped in tradition but do appreciate insights of others. God does work in wondrous and mysterious ways to awaken us."

We might not understand or agree with all the changes in the world, but we are called to love the people in this world and to tell them about Jesus. It turns out that sharing this Good News isn’t a daunting as you may think, especially if getting up in front of people and sharing your testimony is not your cup of tea. I think we need to get over some preconceived notions of what this telling looks like.

In the postmodern culture, experience is knowledge; actions speak louder than words. As Rob Bell, pastor of Mars Hill an emerging church in Michigan, puts it, “If Christians do not lead the way in caring for our world, then we have said to the world, we don’t care about the environment. If we only hang out with each other, we have told the world what Jesus thinks of people who aren’t like us. We are already telling them, the Gospel of Jesus is not something that needs to be spoken.”

Do atheists want to hang out with you; does part of the entrenched religious establishment find you uncomfortable? Rob Bell suggests that you are a bit like Jesus. Perhaps you are doing really well.

In Ephesians, Paul writes, “God has put all things under the power of Christ, and for the good of the church he has made him the head of everything. The church is Christ's body and is filled with Christ who completely fills everything.” Instead of trying to map this out for ourselves and others, let’s be the compass to Jesus. Let our life and the way we live reflect the way Jesus lived. Let us re-orient our life and our church to put ourselves in the path of people who have vastly different views than us.

For Peace, I think that means more than inviting someone to worship. Remember, that is not an enticing proposition to a postmodern, unchurched person, no matter how much they respect your life. Stepping inside this building and seeing beyond the church language, doctrines, creeds and expectations takes a lot of guts. It’s easy to get lost in translation. We need to go out there. That also takes a lot of guts because we don’t really know what going out there should look like. It will be stepping out in faith. There are not many role models to follow or programs to emulate. That’s not only because the resources are scarce, but also because what we do out there will be unique to the community we find ourselves a part of.

We are called to tell everyone about Jesus, in our church, in our neighborhood, in Charlottesville and everywhere in the world. With Jesus at the center, I think this might look like inviting friends and neighbors to partner with us in social justice activities like IMPACT, PACEM, Salvation Army Meal Ministry, mission trips and more. It will involve reaching out and serving our neighborhood with programs like VBS. I think we also need to figure out how to foster relationship building and service experience with no religious strings attached, while we continue to be the compass to Jesus.

Dear God, thank you for the gift of your Holy Spirit. Help us to use this gift wisely through faith and trust as we engage our community in this postmodern culture. When we forget that we are to be your presence in the world, gently shoo us back out there and remind us of our mission. God, You love us and You call us to love You, love one another, grow in Christ and go in Christ. Amen.