Sermon: June 12, 2011

Listen and You Will Hear God Speak

Psalm 104:24-35 read responsively and Acts 2:1-21

Preached by Linda Jo Peters ~ June 12, 2011 ~ Pentecost Sunday

With reading “God is good, all the time!” in a variety of languages.

INTRODUCTION TO SCRIPTURE
Psalm 104:24-35 read responsively
In the typical terminology of the Psalms the praise of God envisioned and practiced by the Psalmist includes the desire that wickedness will be decisively and permanently dealt with.
Seeing the wonders of creation and providence doesn't just encourage us to say, "Wow! God is good, all the time." Instead, they demand that the blight of sin be removed, so that the creation may be entirely what God intends it to be. But in Jesus Christ, God has found a better way to answer the Psalmist's not by slaughtering sinners, but by redeeming them. Praise the Lord, indeed.

24O Lord, how manifold are your works! In wisdom you have made them all; the earth is full of your creatures.
25Yonder is the sea, great and wide, creeping things innumerable are there, living things both small and great.
26There go the ships, and Leviathan that you formed to sport in it.
27These all look to you to give them their food in due season;
28when you give to them, they gather it up; when you open your hand, they are filled with good things.
29When you hide your face, they are dismayed; when you take away their breath, they die and return to their dust.
30When you send forth your spirit, they are created; and you renew the face of the ground.
31May the glory of the Lord endure forever; may the Lord rejoice in his works—
32who looks on the earth and it trembles, who touches the mountains and they smoke.
33I will sing to the Lord as long as I live; I will sing praise to my God while I have being.
34May my meditation be pleasing to him, for I rejoice in the Lord.
35Let sinners be consumed from the earth, and let the wicked be no more. Bless the Lord, O my soul. Praise the Lord!

Acts 2:1-21
In the early 1960’s there was a television show that began with the statement that "There is nothing wrong with your television set. Do not attempt to adjust the picture. We are controlling transmission…You are about to participate in a great adventure. You are about to experience the awe and mystery which reaches from the inner mind to... The Outer Limits." The story of the birth of the church on Pentecost, depicts an “outer limits” experience where God's Spirit in its fullness is unbridled and unrestricted and yet desires to sit on and to speak through individuals. We cannot use the Spirit for our own agendas. God determines the time, the place, the channel, and the program content.

When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. 2And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. 3Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. 4All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability.

5Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven living in Jerusalem. 6And at this sound the crowd gathered and was bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in the native language of each. 7Amazed and astonished, they asked, “Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? 8And how is it that we hear, each of us, in our own native language? 9Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, 10Phrygia (frü-gē'-ä) and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, 11Cretans and Arabs—in our own languages we hear them speaking about God’s deeds of power.” 12All were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, “What does this mean?” 13But others sneered and said, “They are filled with new wine.”
14But Peter, standing with the eleven, raised his voice and addressed them, “People of Judea and all who live in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and listen to what I say. 15Indeed, these are not drunk, as you suppose, for it is only nine o”clock in the morning. 16No, this is what was spoken through the prophet Joel: 17‘In the last days it will be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams. 18Even upon my slaves, both men and women, in those days I will pour out my Spirit; and they shall prophesy. 19And I will show portents in the heaven above and signs on the earth below, blood, and fire, and smoky mist. 20The sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon to blood, before the coming of the Lord’s great and glorious day. 21Then everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.’

SERMON
I begin my sermon preparation about a month ahead of time. I chose the scriptures often from the lectionary, unless I am doing a series and then the topic helps me pick the scriptures. The week before the service I work on the text of the sermon and that takes several hours of further study and writing and rewriting. Through the whole process I am in conversation with God – prayer – dialogue – grumbling – whatever it takes to understand. Then on the day I am to give the message, I ask God to help me let go of my own needs and wants and be an instrument for the Holy Spirit. I want to speak God’s message to and for all of you. It is a Pentecost moment for me. But it is also a Pentecost moment for all of you. What you hear depends on the movement of the Holy Spirit. I have had people tell me about something I said that touch them deeply, but I honestly do not remember saying that. I believe God knows what we need to hear and when we worship we just need to be open to God’s Spirit and we may hear a message spoken just for us in whatever language we need.

Pentecost is about listening for God. Ways that we can hear God speak to us are:
• Human conscience – that gut reaction
• Awe of God’s created world
• Our spirit can respond to the Holy Spirit
• God plants thoughts into our mind
• In dwelling of the Holy Spirit – a sense of inner peace
• God speaks through other people
• Spiritual gifts, such as prophecy, tongues, interpretation of tongues, wisdom, knowledge, discernment of spirits
• Dreams and visions
• His written word, the Bible
• And the primary revelation of God - his Son Jesus Christ

Is the message from God?
• Have you asked for help?
• Take time to discern the truth – be patient.
• Read a variety of Bible passages on the subject.
• Ask others to pray for your discernment/understanding.
• Journal about what you are hearing.
• Pray
• Confront your fears
• Overlay Jesus’ life with what you have heard.

Because we live in a success-obsessed world, we may forget that even when we believe we have heard God’s call, we may fail miserably at our first attempts to follow God’s will. We need to remember it's neither about us nor up to us. God is the creator, sustainer, and redeemer of this cosmos, and only God can bring the kind of redemption we long for and need. Our job is to partner with God's work wherever we can discern it. If the cross teaches us nothing else, it teaches that success will not always look like success, and victory may often come disguised as defeat. The question isn't whether we're successful, but whether we're faithful. May the Holy Spirit speak to you this day. Amen
RESOURCES:
Introduction to Psalm was adapted from Matthew Stith, Pastor of Community Presbyterian Church, West Fargo, ND commentary for WorkingPreacher.org
The Opening narration of “The Control Voice” of an anthology show called “Outer Limits” in which each episode is a self-contained story, sometimes with a plot twist such as “Twilight Zone.” In its original incarnation the show ran for two seasons on ABC from 1963 to 1965 in black-and-white. It was revived in 1995 and ran for seven seasons, until 2002.
The list of ways that we can hear God speak to us is dapted from http://www.listening2god.com/

Sermon:June 5, 2011

Where Did He Go?

Preached by Linda Jo Peters ~ June 5, 2011

Celebration of our Lord’s Supper

Introduction to Scripture
Acts 1:6-14:
The Ascension account may be familiar but not always accessible to many of us in the church. The occurrences of the past weeks have been nothing less than astounding to the disciples (and to us), yet the questions they pose betray an equally astounding lack of vision on their part. They are still hemmed in by the littleness of their aspirations and expectations, longing for the restoration of the Davidic monarchy and the glory of ancient Israel, the throwing off of Roman oppression and the raising up of their own nationalistic glory. They seem to be trying to make sense of all these impossible things, by thinking in terms that seemed possible. They seem unable to think in fresh new ways. As I read this passage, ask yourself, what might be a fresh new way to follow Jesus?

6So when they had come together, they asked him, “Lord, is this the time when you will restore the kingdom to Israel?” 7He replied, “It is not for you to know the times or periods that the Father has set by his own authority. 8But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” 9When he had said this, as they were watching, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight. 10While he was going and they were gazing up toward heaven, suddenly two men in white robes stood by them. 11They said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking up toward heaven? This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.”
12Then they returned to Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is near Jerusalem, a sabbath day’s journey away. 13When they had entered the city, they went to the room upstairs where they were staying, Peter, and John, and James, and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James son of Alphaeus, and Simon the Zealot, and Judas son of James. 14All these were constantly devoting themselves to prayer, together with certain women, including Mary the mother of Jesus, as well as his brothers.

Sermon
At Presbytery on Thursday, Pastor Gary Scroggins shared that he grew up in the area of Joplin, Missouri. After a time of prayer he wondered what it would be like to be a pastor in Joplin. Then he felt driven to contact the pastor of First Presbyterian Church of Joplin –Dave Burgess. Since the tornado they have been in conversation about what Gary could do to help. Earlier last week, Dave told him, just come. So with the help of the Presbytery, he will leave for Joplin this afternoon and he goes hoping to share the elements of communion from the Presbytery meeting with the people of Joplin. Jesus’ words from his ascension are: “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” We don’t know where Gary’s journey will lead or what impact it will have, but it is a model for all followers of Jesus. When things amaze us like watching Jesus return to his heavenly father or things disturb us like watching the devastation in Joplin, devoting ourselves in prayer needs to be our first response. Then we have to be open to the movement of the Holy Spirit to redirect our lives and send us where we are needed.

The people in white robes, tell the disciples to stop wondering where he went, or when he will return, and put into action what he taught them. Like on Easter morning when similar beings ask the women, “Why are you looking for the living among the dead?” Go and tell was their mission. Yesterday there were church members helping Nancy move into her new apartment. While life got crazy for me last week, Linda Yates stepped up and kept in contact with Vivian Bath while she was in the hospital. She is now at Southwood. Today people will gather to plan for the mission garden and VBS in July. Tomorrow saints of the church will be here early preparing a meal for the Custer family. It is ok to be just plain amazed or dumbfounded as to how to help. Just don’t stop there. Immerse yourself in prayer and do that regularly not just at times of crisis.

Where did he go? Through the power and movement of the Holy Spirit he went from his Father into all of us? Where did he go? He went right here among us, doing the mundane things that proclaim a new heaven and a new earth with a new way of being: Feeding, visiting, comforting and even challenging but always acting in a spirit of love with an attitude of prayer. If you wish to serve Jesus you will to devote yourself to pray, to listening to the prodding of the Holy Spirit. You might end up in Joplin or buying candy in Mexico, or digging a shallow well in Malawi or offering a strong arm to support another, a listening ear, telling a story about Jesus to a child. Maybe the question isn’t “Where did he go?” but “Where will we go to serve the Lord?” Any where he wants us! Amen.

 Acts 1:6-14