“A Wet and
Acts 2: 41-47
My daughter in law and grand kids
have a summer routine.
They go
to the water park to escape the heat weekly.
They
love splashing in the wave pool, the water slides,
The kiddie pool and the lazy river.
Ands
then at about
They
set up a picnic with their friends and they eat.
They
don’t just eat their own food
But
they trade with each other, share with each
Other. It is a
community activity.
It was
exciting on my last visit
to hang out
with my wet and hungry grandkids.
When I started to consider today’s
scripture
I
realized that the early church was also wet and hungry.
When
you imagine 3000 people being baptized,
It
would have seemed more like a water park
Than
the small intimate baptisms
We
experience at Covenant.
When
a child or adult is baptized at Covenant
I
like to be able to focus on one family and
Celebrate
their faith commitment and
Our faith commitment in Christ to them.
I
like to make sure that the water is visible,
And
that the adult or child feels the water
Because
the water in baptism is about
Drowning
to old life, being born to a new life,
And
being refreshed, cleansed and nurtured
To live on Christ.
Whereas
our baptisms are faily well planned and controlled,
The
early church baptism would have been wet and wild!
The
whole church would have gotten wet as they moved
From
the passionate preaching of Peter at Pentecost
To the healing ministry of Peter and John at the Beautiful gate.
The people would have been dripping wet
as they waited
on the Holy Spirit to direct them in ministry.
This is not unlike Jesus own baptism.
No sooner had he emerged from
the water in his baptism
Then he was driven
by the Holy Spirit
into the
wilderness to be tempted by Satan.
Our
baptism is not the end of our faith journey but
The beginning of our journey with Christ.
And
like my grandsons whose watchful mother fed her
Wet
and hungry kids so our heavenly father
Feeds us on the journey.
When the early church was commissioned
by the Holy Spirit
When
they were soaking wet in their baptism,
The
text says: “They devoted themselves to the apostles
teaching, and
fellowship, to the breaking of bread and prayers.”
“Day by day, as they spent
time in the temple, they broke
bread at
home, ate their food with glad and generous hearts,
praising
God and having the goodwill of all people.”
Notice that the ministry of preaching,
teaching, fellowship and prayer
Is
all done around food.
When I was learning how to teach the Kerygma curriculum,
They
told me never to try to teach while people were eating,
And
yet the Bible is filled with people teaching and eating
At the same time.
Jesus
was teaching and preaching and healing
as he fed the
5000 by the
Jesus
was teaching his disciples as he broke bread with them
over a Passover meal
that became the Lord’s Supper.
And
food and the sharing of food was central
To the life of the early church.
The
breaking of bread was in the middle of
All the ministry activity.
Whether the meal was a formal communion
meal
Or
a potluck supper fellowship- we know that the early church
Was
a hungry church being fed daily by God
And
sharing everything they had.
A wet and hungry church described that
early band of Christians.
It
describes the sacramental nature of the church,
The
centrality of baptism and the Lord’s Supper in the church,
But
it also describes the frame of mind and ministry.
Those
early Christians were up against the culture of their day.
They
depended on God, their church and
Their community of faith for everything.
And
that’s the challenge of this scripture for us today.
We live in a culture that seems to be
friendly to our religion.
We
are tempted to be complacent and comfortable in our church.
And
yet the message we preach and teach is radically different
From
the culture in which we work and live,
And
the culture is often trying to tell us and our
Children what we believe.
We
are desperately trying to teach our teens the wonders of
God’s
creation as we hike in the mountains of Colorado
So
that they might be good stewards of that creation;
We
are trying to teach our children the value of reaching out to
others as we travel
to deliver Meals on Wheels in
and clean up and
repair homes in
We
are trying to expose our children to an intergenerational
community founded on
the love of Christ while the culture
tells them not to
trust the other generations;
We
are trying to live out our Savior’s words to care for the least of
our brothers and sisters by giving out food, building a
Habitat
House,
while society tells us that only the strong survive:
And
we are trying to love our brother, our neighbor and even our
enemy while our culture tells us to look our for number one.
We need to be wet with the waters of
baptism and fed by Christ as we
Hunger
and thirst for the righteousness of God.
We
need to be a wet and hungry church.
I
bet that when you first read the title of the sermon
That
your mind thought of an infant who cries
When he or she is hungry or wet.
Well
I am crying out today on behalf of a wet and hungry church.
We
are doing the very things that I talked about this summer,
We
are “devoted to the apostles teaching and
fellowship,
To the breaking of bread and prayers.”
But we aren’t
supporting the ministry of the church
this summer in the
way that the early church did:
“distributing the
proceeds to all as any had need.”
So our challenge is to respond by
offering our gifts to God today,
Just like they did in that ancient church with glad and generous hearts
as a response of
thanksgiving and praise
for all that
Christ has given us, is doing in our lives
and will
continue to do in and through our church.
Our challenge is to shift our thinking
from being a complacent church
To remembering that we are still a wet and hungry church.
Wet
with the waters of baptism which refresh us and
Call
us to the very ministries of Jesus Christ
And
hungry for the bread of life, eternal bread that we
Receive
and share only in this place. Amen