Does anyone know what this is?
{take answers}
It’s a Belemnite - lets call him Bob. Bob the Belemnite. We are going to come back to Bob in a little while.
Our Acts reading that [insert name] read for us is great reading, but for those of you who haven't read the whole book of Acts, it might not make much sense. So lets go back to the beginning. It’s a few years after Pentecost. The church is spreading like wildfire amongst Jews and converts to Judaism but has remained so far a Jewish Sect. One day Peter is fast asleep on a friend’s roof garden when God speaks to him in a dream. Three times a sheet is lowered full of food that Peter would have found disgusting - like snakes and insects and bacon sandwiches. And three times God says “take and eat” and Peter says “I can’t eat that - it’s unclean” And God says “Don’t call unclean what I have called clean”
And just then Peter is woken by the doorbell - It’s messengers from a Roman Centurion called Cornelius, and unclean gentile called Cornelius - saying he too has had a dream and asking Peter to come preach to him and his family.
And so we get to our reading - where before Peter can even finish his sermon the Holy Spirit comes on Cornelius and his family. They are speaking in tongues- possibly dropping to the floor under the power of the Spirit, possibly overcome by tears or peace or laughter - we don’t know exactly what happened - but we know it was dramatic. We know it was visible.
So without waiting to circumcise anyone, or even giving them a lecture on the intricacies of kosher, there and then, from the oldest adult to the youngest baby, Peter baptises every one of them.
Now we are dirty unclean gentiles. Without this event that happened to Cornelius and his family, none of us would be Christians today.
I want you to think back to the person without whom you wouldn’t be a Christian today. It might be a friend who invited you to church. It might be a grandparent or parent who prayed with you or took you to Sunday school. It might be the Sunday School teacher or the person who led the confirmation class. It might be someone who put a leaflet through your door inviting you to church.
Think back to that person. How do you feel about that person?
[take answers]
Those are all positive things you are saying about the person who led you to Christ. If I asked you what you felt about doing evangelism, you might well say that you felt scared or anxious about how your friend would react if you told them about Jesus. Yet listen to those beautiful positive phrases you are saying about the people who introduced you to Jesus.
Evangelism is often easier than we expect.
When a group of carols at tube station - each year we have ended up with passers by being prayed for and I have had people on the streats ask me when we are going to be doing it again.
When we did a carol service in the Black Horse Pub, some of the locals were a bit suspicious but by the end of it they were all joining in and we had several really profound conversations with locals afterwards.
When Peter goes and preaches to Cornelius. What’s the last verse we read? Is it “how dare you push your views down our throat?” - no, it’s “they invited him to stay for several days”. No it’s “They invited him to stay for several days” They are overjoyed to have heard about Jesus.
So Evangelism’s easy, yes? Yes! But there’s a “but”
There’s a “but” -
Before we get to the “but” - I interrupt this sermon with an important public service announcement.
That’s not me. That’s the Holy Spirit.
Peter - fab preacher Peter - is preaching a fab sermon - and the Holy Spirit interrupts. And Cornelius and his friend begin speaking in tongues- possibly dropping to the floor under the power of the Spirit, possibly overcome by tears or peace or laughter - we don’t know exactly what happened - but we know it was dramatic. We know it was visible - we know the Holy Spirit interrupted big time.
The Holy Spirit interrupts. The Holy Spirit Disrupts
On the day of Pentecost the disciples were having a quiet early morning prayer meeting, when the Holy Spirit interrupted, the Holy Spirit disrupted. They began praising God in other tongues - so ecstatic in the Spirit that some passers by thought they were drunk - But the result of that disruption. 3000 people became Christians on that day.
30 years earlier a young girl was sitting around, probably excitedly planning the details of her forthcoming wedding. And the Holy Spirit interrupts. The Holy Spirit disrupts. The Holy Spirit comes upon her. And Our Lady discovers she has she has God’s Son in her womb. Not what she was expecting. But without that interruption, none of us would be saved.
Or take Father Dennis Bennett. He was highly successful young Anglican priest in America. He was vicar of a church in a posh part of California with 2600 members. Every vicar’s dream job. Then the Holy Spirit came into his life in a new way. He began to pray in tongues. He received words of knowledge and other unusual experiences of God. As a result of this interruption, on April 3rd 1960 he stood up in his pulpit and preached about itt. And his highly respectable congregation drove him out. He was forced to resign. He was not expecting the Holy SPirit to disrupt his life in this way. But his book “Nine O clock in the morning” was what started the charismatic movement in the Anglican church. Without Fr Dennis Benett, churches like ours here at St Barnabas, would never have had that experience of the Holy Spirit that has revolutionised us at St Barnabas over the last 30 years.
The Holy Spirit disrupts
……….
What happened to Fr Dennis may make the link to what I am going to say next, as I return to the subject of evangelism.
Evangelism is often much easier than we expect.
For Peter evangelising that fearsome foreigner Cornelius was much easier than he expected. But there is a “but”
The moment Peter gets home, he faces a backlash from the rest of the church.
“Of course we support evangelising gentiles but you have got to follow the proper procedures. First they have got to be circumcised and start following the Torah… and then and only then can they be baptised”
Think Windrush - “of course these people who have been in this country 60 years are proper citizens but they’ve got to be able to prove it!” How welcoming does that sound when the government says that?
How welcoming do you think it sounded to the foreigner Cornelius to be told “of course we want you to become a Christian - but your baptism is probably not valid because first you have to fit in with our way of doing things and get circumcised!
Evangelism is difficult. Not because people don’t want to hear about Jesus, but because of the opposition that can come from the Christian Community.
There was a ”but” - about the carol singing at the tube station. For many years one of the most successful outreach events we did as a church. But last year it had to be cancelled because not enough existing members of the church would sign down to come.
There was a “but” about the leaflets we put every Christmas and Easter - which know that there are people here who arrived because of those leaflets. Yet a voice or two would say “can we really afford to pay for so many leaflets”. My friends it is worth the cost to save the lost.
And there is a “but” about the people who walk in off the streets.
Shortly after I started here, a new family turned up who had never been to church before. There were at least four of them here every Sunday for over 6 months. One of them was a toddler. Like many a toddler, she would sometimes wander and if she came up to the front I’d say hello to her and she walk off back to her grandma. But one Sunday she was {hush voice} so quiet. And I was preaching and I had come a bit forward. And she was {hush voice} so quiet that I didn’t notice she was even behind me. But someone else did. I don’t know who. But they went up and had a “word” with that family afterwards. “Of course we want children in church… but they have got to follow proper procedures….”
I tried to reassure the family. But this family who had been coming every Sunday for 6 months- who would now be four or five and well established in Sunday School… has never been to church since. And of the rest of them. One of them has been to church twice since, and the rest, who were coming every Sunday for six months, have not been back since.
I interrupt this sermon with an important public service announcement.
I don’t know if you have seen the film darkest hour? There’s a wonderful line when newly elected Prime Minister Churchill is trying to talk over someone who is doing their verbal best to get their point across. Winston, full of bluster shouts out - "Will You Stop Interrupting Me While I Am Interrupting You."
You see the Holy Spirit interrupts things. The disrupts Peter while he is in the middle of preaching - Cornelius and his family begin speaking in tongues or falling to the ground under the power of the Spirit or whatever it might be - But he doesn’t just disrupt Peter.
The Holy Spirit disrupts the whole comfortable church - No longer will the church be able to force new people to become “just like us”. Of course you can become a Christian if you get circumcised first. No longer - the spirit throws the church open to the foreigner, the outsider, to newcomers who do things differently. And it’s change. And it’s uncomfortable
Which brings us back to Bob. Bob the belemnite.. Bob here is something like 100 million years old. And for the last 100 million years Bob has not changed. There’s a reason for that. Bob is dead.
It is not about age. Moses was over 80 when he led the children of Israel out of Egypt. Abraham was 75 when he left home to head for Canaan, 99 when God promised him Isaac. You can be any age and be filled with the disrupting interrupting Holy Spirit.
Bob on the other hand was probably only about a year old when he died. And he has been unchanged and dead for the last 100 million years.
We can be a church of fossils or we can be a church fuelled with the Holy Spirit.
And trust me - it’s scary going with the Holy Spirit.
We have a problem with our worship. If you are a newcomer how are you meant to know what you say next? Is it from this book or this book or this book or this book (hold up mass book, hymn book, song sheet, bulletin sheet)? How are you meant not to get lost? And what about if you are holding a baby and can’t hold any book?
That’s why - when we get the money- we are going to get screens in this church so that all the words in one place and newcomers can follow what’s going on, and so that people with young babies aren’t excluded from worship either?
Will it change the way the building looks? Yes, and that’s scary.
Will it change the way worship feels? Yes, and that’s scary.
Might it have other impacts we don’t yet know? Yes, and that’s scary.
But remember. We are not Jewish, as far as I am aware, none of us are Jewish. Which means if in the days of Cornelius nothing had changed, if it was you can’t become a Christian unless you become like us Jews, none of us would be here.
We are not the descendants of those who resisted change. We are the descendants of the people who are only there because the Holy Spirit turned things upside, interrupted things, disrupted things, and welcomed the outsider, welcomed the newcomer
In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, Amen
