Psalm 107: 1-3, 33-43
NPMC
Acts 5: 12-16
3 Pentecost
6: 1-7
June 21, 2009
Anita Retzlaff
Partners in the “Resurrected” Community
Grace and peace to you from God the Father of our Lord and Savior Jesus the
Christ. In our moment of silent prayer this morning we pray for each other as
brothers and sisters in community. You have seen the many names listed in the
bulletin today that make up the whole spectrum of life together. Those whom we
love have experienced the depths of tragedy and loss and infirmity. At the same
time there is joy and anticipation in birth and betrothal and significant
birthday milestones. We gather these events and the events, joys and sorrows of
our own lives – we remember fathers today - and we offer all of these prayers to
God in this quiet moment. Let us pray. Author of life and comforter in death you
cover our lives from beginning to end. Help us feel your presence in all things.
We pray this from the midst of the faithful assembly. AMEN
It may seem that God’s grace has deserted us when we look around and feel the
depth of struggle that some of our friends encounter today. So it is indeed
appropriate to remember that we have just experienced the coming of the Spirit
in Pentecost: that we live in this time after Easter, the eternal time of
resurrection joy. God is faithful and God is with us. When we read in Acts that
“many signs and wonders were done among the people through the apostles” we must
imagine these gifts of signs and wonders as our reality too. I suspect your
first thought and mine is simply to say, “Well, we don’t experience the signs
and wonders that they did back in Jesus’ day,” but I want to suggest to you that
indeed we do. What are the signs and wonders that you can testify to? What are
the signs of Christ in your life and the wonders that are unfolding around us
because God is active and attentive to his people?
It is possible that we have come to understand signs and wonders too narrowly;
as miracle cure or as some magical type of happening that is wildly different
from what we might call normal. We set a limit on God’s power when we imagine
that signs and wonders are only these paranormal occurrences. I want to suggest
a couple of examples of the wonder of God’s doing that happen right where we
live today. Signs and wonders, the moments when God breaks through our defenses
and heals our brokenness! Signs and wonders are the touch of the Spirit that
spread the word of resurrection hope - through the apostles in the stories of
Acts and now today through us.
I attended a Catholic Family Services luncheon, a manifestation of the work of
Trish St. Onge, at which the guest speaker, a young woman no more than 40, Katy
Hutchison, spoke about the murder of her husband in B.C. On New Year’s Eve
eleven years ago Katy’s husband Bob went down the street to check in on a
neighbourhood party that was in full swing. He knew that the parents were not
home and that the teenagers were cutting loose. When Bob attempted to break up
the party of some 200 youth he was punched and knocked unconscious by one young
man and then kicked in the head 4 times by another. Bob died there as a result
of the brutal assault. Katy tells of how she and her 5 year old twins tried to
cope with the loss of their husband and father.
The wonder of this story is that Katy, instead of living a life of bitterness,
made contact with the young man who was eventually convicted of her husband’s
murder and got to know him while he was in jail. She chose to share her pain
with this young offender and educate him as to the devastating results of his
actions. Katy wanted this young man to turn his life around and away from the
deathly cycle he was caught up in. Instead of nursing bitterness she chose the
way of peace and reconciliation. Upon his release from jail the young man joined
Katy in making presentations to high school students about the risks of drug and
alcohol abuse. The wonder of God at work in this woman is to me a sign of God’s
miracle of reconciliation in a troubled world and a powerful witness to the
working of the Holy Spirit.
This is a dramatic story. Our experiences may not be that dramatic but we too
have stories to tell of signs and wonders that have happened to us too. I
believe that whenever we experience freedom from our fears, whenever we
experience hope in the middle of something very troublesome in our families or
when we are finally released from something that binds us, released from anger
or a long-standing grudge, we have experienced the wonder of God’s mercy. When
God shows us a way to live again after a devastating experience we find out
first hand what the power of the resurrected Lord is all about and we know the
joy of living as a part a and partner in the resurrected community. You all have
had experiences of signs and wonders and that is why we gather every Sunday; to
give thanks and praise to our God who loves us by giving us hope.
Signs and wonders are indeed present at Nutana Park Mennonite Church. On
Thursday at 5:00 p.m. Kelli Rempel died at Royal University Hospital at the age
of 28. Her heart gave out. She lived her short life with a serious heart
condition. Kelli and her husband Jamie have touched us in ways that many of us
have not yet come to recognize. Kelli came to Nutana Park, a friend of Wendy’s.
Kelli was a youth pastor at Zion Mennonite in Swift Current and in a
congregation in Carman, Manitoba. She had a very, very strong faith and when she
and Jamie met in Saskatoon she passed on that strength to him. Kelli and Jamie
were married in this church last August and had not yet been married a year.
Jamie is a mentor of a young man in the youth group. They were participating in
catechism discussions and contemplating joining the church – Kelli’s would have
been a membership transfer. And now she is gone.
Kelli’s life is a sign to us! Hers was a vibrant faith and she felt compelled to
join us in worship and life together. She saw something in us at Nutana Park
Mennonite Church – in you – that made her wish to share in God’s work together.
And today that should cause us to ponder. Kelli wasn’t able to complete her
dreams of life with us over the long haul. So now we must continue to live in
the strength and obedience that she saw in us and to be an inspiration to others
as she was to some of us who knew her well. Kelli’s unwavering faith is a sign
to us; the wonder is that she chose us to be her partners in the gospel. She
believed in the resurrection power of Jesus Christ and she died having long ago
entered into the eternity of God’s unending love. We are given gifts of grace
everyday in people like Kelli, in each other and in a hope that overcomes even
the fear of death.
For we are the resurrected community; the book of Acts is full of stories that
illustrate that truth. However, we quite often forget who we are. Do you believe
in resurrection? Not just, do you believe in Jesus’ resurrection but do you
believe that resurrection touches us all in many and various ways? I was reading
a commentary on the Book of Acts and the author (William Willimon) was
commenting about the way many Christians seem discontented with or at best
lackluster about life. He asks, “Why don’t you people look more resurrected?” In
other words why don’t we act as though Christ has indeed defeated death and
given us a hope and confidence that overcomes much fear? Why aren’t we more
joyfully participating in the good news of Jesus Christ if we believe that we
are loved by God no matter what? Of course, the good news of the gospel does not
spare us heartache, separation, illness, family catastrophe and all of those
things; the events of this past week have shown us that. But the good news of
resurrection is that through all of these difficulties we know that we are loved
and carried by a God who wants us to live life as fully as we can in all
circumstances. And that is contagious, isn’t it?
That is what is happening in the story of Acts – in our scripture today. There
is good news of hope in all circumstances; that story is spreading fast and
people are being transformed by it. They suddenly have something to hope for and
a Lord of peace to believe in. In fact, they get so carried away with the
healing strength and power of the disciples’ ministry that they neglect some of
their daily responsibilities. They forget to deliver the food and aid to the
widows in the community. Suddenly there is too much work to do. The gospel is
spreading so fast and is so effective that the disciples and their followers
haven’t enough time to take care of everything.
In some ways it is not unlike what happens in this congregation; we are not
growing at the pace described in the Acts story but we constantly have people
coming and going. There are always new faces; new people who come to Nutana Park
to see whether or not this is a good place to worship and a loving place that
engages the Word of God. Do you realize that means that our work is never done;
that we must be checking all the time to make sure that no one is being
overlooked? Peter and the other apostles were so busy that they didn’t keep
track of the needs around them as their community grew. We have a similar
challenge. There is no way the leaders of the early church could do everything
by themselves. And so in the light of the groundswell of resurrection hope the
disciples appointed others to help maintain a caring community.
What is evident at Nutana Park is that just as the church in the time of
Pentecost grew and changed and learned to share ministry tasks we too must find
ways of sharing our faith and support. I think one of the best ways of doing
this is to consider ourselves as partners in gospel hospitality – each one of us
here. You have been recipients of signs and wonders, of reconciliation and hope,
so you have something of God’s love to share with others. You will take that
message and live it out in the contacts you have in your day to day life.
Palmer Becker, a longtime leader in the Mennonite Church in the USA, recently
said this about our mission as Christians: “Jesus is the center of our faith;
community is the center of our lives and reconciliation is the center of our
work.” (Missio Dei) Jesus – community – reconciliation! These are the gifts, the
signs and wonders given to us. How can we use them to best advantage?
One of the most basic ways is to live every day with gratitude instead of
concentrating on the things that we don’t have. God has given us many gifts so
let us think on those things that are good and wholesome and bring us joy. There
is a blue spruce tree in my backyard. I live in an older neighbourhood filled
with big trees. One night some years ago when I was in considerable distress and
couldn’t sleep, I looked outside into the backyard. It was a moonlit night in
the middle of winter so all was bathed in a bluish white glow. A sense of peace
came over me as I looked upon the beauty of the huge, strong spruce that takes
up a good portion of my garden and I felt the presence of God surround me. I was
filled with gratitude; the anxiety left me for that moment as I knew right then
that God is huge and strong and that no matter what happened next, I need not be
afraid. With joy, actually, I slept.
Share the joy that comes to you. Make peace. Be reconciled. Remind yourself and
the ones whom you love that you are a part and a partner in the resurrected
community. You have a role, a job to do. Share the signs and wonders that you
may have come to take for granted. God is present. God is trustworthy. Give of
the love that is a gift to you from God. Do not be afraid. Live with gratitude.
For this is what our Lord meant for us to share together in community.
Prayer - Lord God of hosts, giver of life and lover of us all, you who formed
the earth from chaos, come to us now, help us to know that you never forsake us.
Spirit of reconciliation, breathe into us your gift of peace and make of us
instruments of the good news of Jesus Christ our Lord. In the name of the One
who was and who is and who is coming again we pray this. AMEN