Scripture: Acts 2:34-47

 

In our first week, I focused on this promise being for us. On that weekend, I shared that the leaders of this church believe that this is a kairos moment in the life of our congregation. As a kairos moment, it is a special opportunity for the Holy Spirit to shape us and change our history just like the kairos moment  that we know as Pentecost, the moment when the Holy Spirit began the church. A faithful, sacrificial response to Connecting Promises will facilitate spiritual growth in each of us. The promise is for us.

 

Last weekend, I focused on the promise being for our children. Our Connecting Promises ministry initiatives will dramatically improve our ministry with children and youth. It will connect an entirely new generation to the promise of salvation in Jesus Christ and the promise of the abiding presence of the Holy Spirit. The promise is for our children.  

 

This week, our focus is on others, “for the promise is for…. all who are far away, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to him.”  The story that will help us understand this promise is the story about someone who was far away from his father, who was lost but has been found. 

 

To help you get in touch with this story about the promises being for others, I want to do something that will appeal to the auditory learners in our community.  It might also appeal to the kinesthetic among us. It is a little sermon exercise that would drive a colleague of mine crazy. He is a very fine preacher but he only appreciates traditional worship. Anything out of his narrow definition of worship bothers him a great deal including contemporary expressions of worship. He particularly dislikes clapping hands. It really irritates him.  When I want to get to him, I say, “Yeah, clapping in worship is too old fashioned for you.” The first time I said that he said, “What?” “You know,” I said, “the Psalmist says, ‘Clap your hands, all you peoples; shout to God with loud songs of joy.’” (Psalm 47:1)  In fact, clapping in worship may really bother some of you. But my friend isn’t here today and we are going to clap. I hope those of you who are clapping averse can for a moment say, “I’m doing something Biblical and old fashioned in order for Randy to make a point.” The challenge is this. You have to be coordinated enough to clap with me, just once. We are going to clap, one clap, all at the same time. Let’s practice. Watch my hands and clap with me, once. Ready. Clap.

 

Okay. Now that we have that down, let’s connect this clapping exercise with the promise for others. I want everyone who worshipped in 1985 in the Eagle Nest Clubhouse to clap with me. Ready. Clap.  “And day by day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved.” (Acts 2:47) Let’s see who God added.

 

Let’s add anybody who is here who worshipped at Coventry Village in 1986. Join the first group and clap with us. Ready. Clap.  “And day by day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved.” (Acts 2:47)  

 

Now, let’s add everyone who worshipped at Mary Castle Elementary School in 1987, add them to the first two groups.  Ready. Clap.  “And day by day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved.” (Acts 2:47) 

 

Now, I want to add everyone who worshipped in our first sanctuary, what we call the Great Hall. If you worshipped in that place before we built our education wing in 1991, join the first three groups. Ready. Clap.  “And day by day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved.” (Acts 2:47) 

 

Now I want everyone who worshipped at Geist Christian Church prior to building our sanctuary in 1997 to join in.  Ready. Clap. “And day by day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved.” (Acts 2:47) 

 

Now I want everyone who worshipped prior to adding our Saturday night service in 2003 to join in.   Ready. Clap. “And day by day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved.” (Acts 2:47) 

 

Now I want everyone that the Lord has added to this church prior to building our ALTARED worship center 15 months ago. Ready. Clap. “And day by day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved.” (Acts 2:47) 

 

Finally, I want everyone here to clap; give yourself a hand.  You deserve a hand. You followed instructions. But you also deserve a hand because for 23 years, through four different building projects, day by day the Lord has added to our church. Once this congregation had only a handful of people but now there are many. Many of you were lost, but now you have been found. Many of you were far away but God called you to Him in this place. Once you were outside but now, you are inside. We are connected to the promise.  Being connected to the promise is a really wonderful place to be except when you think the promise is just for you.

 

This is the heart of the story that I read to you earlier, what most people call the Prodigal Son. It is interesting that people have named it that because the story begins, ‘There was a man who had two sons.” (Luke 15: 11) I don’t know about you but it seems to me that the man is the focus of the story, we should name it for him. We could call it the Parable of the Man with Two Sons. Or, I like to call it the Parable of the Loving Father. When we change the name of this parable, it begins to give us a little different perspective of the parable.            

 

For instance, when we name it the parable of the Prodigal, the spotlight of the story focuses on the youngest son. Our initial impression is that he is a bad, greedy boy who wants his dad’s money. That’s what we’d think about a kid asking for his or her inheritance today. We hear stories all the time about a kid blowing through their parents’ money and finally, we hear that tough love takes over. They cut him off.  We can’t imagine a kid being so brash as to ask for his share of the inheritance. To understand this story, we have to move past this 21st century bias.

 

In first century Palestine it wasn’t unusual for early distribution to the younger sons. The eldest son had to wait. He had to stay around and help dad with the family business. Younger sons often received funds in advance. Typically, it might be about one-third of the estate. The younger son wasn’t being insolent. He was doing what kids did in those days.

 

Then, the Prodigal started doing what kids do all of the time. He leaves home and forgets his faith. This happens all the time. Kids leave home and they begin testing the waters. I hear it all the time. “My son is having too much fun at college.” “Our daughter needs to move back into our home. She isn’t doing very well and she’s stopped going to church.” When kids leave home, it is a time to test everything they’ve learned at home and that always includes testing faith. This happened to most of you. I know it happened to you because you tell me.  I think this is why we like to shine the spotlight on the youngest boy and name it the parable of the Prodigal Son. It is a universal story about testing what you believe. In fact, it’s our story.

 

Let me tell you something about the first ten years of Geist Christian Church. Fully two-thirds of the adults who joined the church were coming to church after having been gone. For the majority, it was the first adult church after leaving home, forgetting faith for a while, exploring the world far away just like the prodigal and then, returning home to the church. A small part of that group of people, two-thirds of the first decade of people…they dropped out of church. They’d tried it as adults but something happened and they got lost.  Sometimes it was because of a move. Other times because of a life change. Still other times, it was because they just got lost in the busyness of their lives and just stopped going. Whatever reason, they left church and got lost, ended up in a far away country and then, came to their senses. That’s what the text says happens to the prodigal. Most texts translate it that way. "When he finally came to his senses….” NLT (Luke 15:17a)

 

That’s what happened to two-thirds of the people who joined Geist Christian Church in the first decade. They came to their senses and found their way home. They were far away but God called them home and the home was Geist Christian Church. They connected…wait a minute…they is you. You connected with the promise. “For the promise is …for all who are far away, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to him." (Acts 2: 39)

 

The statistic isn’t as high today but it is still more than 50%. One of the differences today is that more and more of our new members are people with little or no church background as kids.  We talked about that last week. There are fewer people who leave home and leave faith. They leave home but they don’t leave faith because the promise was never connected to them as children. They weren’t given faith at home so they have nothing to leave. 

 

I want you to consider something. There are very few of us here, me included, who haven’t spent time in a far away country, who haven’t been lost. Fortunately, when we come to our senses, there is a home to go to. Someone was waiting for us. Someone was waiting for you. This is what that clapping exercise was all about. We were here, waiting for you to come home and when you did, we greeted you like a brokenhearted father would greet a lost boy.  We connected the promise to you because you were far away and God sent you to us. 

 

There is an interesting thing that happens when we shift the spotlight to the eldest son. We can do just that by renaming the parable. We can call it the Parable of the Dutiful Son. The eldest son stays home. He’s the good boy. If we continue with our interpretation of the story being about church, he is the good church members who are here, keeping the home fires burning, running the programs, paying the bills, doing everything that Dad has asked him to do. And of course, everyone knows that in the story, the dutiful son is resentful. After all, his younger brother got to be irresponsible in a far away country and have his fun. But now that he comes home, he should have to earn his way back in, pay the price, pick up his part or even more than his share.

 

One of the characteristics of good, responsible elder sons is they don’t have very good memories. We see it in the story. The eldest son whines to his father. “Listen! For all these years I have been working like a slave for you, and I have never disobeyed your command; yet you have never given me even a young goat so that I might celebrate with my friends.”(Luke 15:29) Does anybody believe that? I mean, really. I’m a father. Many of you are parents. We know how a parent’s mind works. We break our necks making sure that there is equality among our children. We make sure that birthday and Christmas presents have equal value. If we do something for one child, we figure out a way to do it for another. I heard this week of a family that had a family conference to explain why a younger sibling was getting a cell phone one year earlier than her older sister.  “You never even gave me a goat for my own party.” Oh come on. Stop the whining.

 

He has forgotten just like we forget what it is like to be far away from God, lost and needing to find a way home. In California, one of my trusted families was a couple who were in their sixties named Scottie and Virginia. As I started connecting the promises to others, bringing young adults into a church with an average age of 74, Scottie got upset because they weren’t contributing as much as he thought they should and these new members wanted to be involved in decision making. He told me he was unhappy in a board meeting, pulled a dutiful son act. But his wife came to my rescue. Virginia said, “Oh Scottie, you never darkened the door of the church until your were fifty and complained about every check I wrote. At least they are ahead of you in coming back to church and at least they are giving.”  He’d forgotten what it had been like to be far away, lost and needing to get home.

 

It is why we turn the spotlight on the Father. It is the parable of the Loving Father because the father loves each child. The Father leaves his home and finds the prodigal coming home. He leaves the party and finds the elder son outside. He wants them both, inside his home, not outside, alone.  And this is what the Father God wants for all of us. God wants to connect the promise to us, to our children and to all who are far away. God wants all of God’s children on the inside, not on the outside.

 

I want you to consider something that may not have been apparent to you when I began this sermon series. Our theme scripture is a statement about faith development and it describes many of us at various points of our life. The promise is for children and for most of us, two-thirds of us at least, someone connected the promise to us as a child.  The promise is for those who are far away. Ninety percent of us wander away from our childhood faith. We leave church and wander. Some wander far. Some wander just a little. The vast majority of us have been far away.

 

And the promise is for us. The us in this case are those who clapped. Those whom God has brought home to Geist Christian Church. Your home was here, we were here, waiting for you whether it was in year one or is today in the worship service.

 

That’s what Connecting Promises is about. It is about the Father God’s love for every child and His absolute desire to bring everyone into the home. And when we don’t own that, when we don’t open our hearts to those who are lost, when we aren’t active in reaching out to those who need to come to their senses, well, we become like the elder son, whining about God’s excessive love and generosity. 

 

Connecting Promises opens Geist Christian Church up to a new day for reaching out to others. It gives us a platform for finding families in Hamilton County at the north campus. It reenergizes the south campus heart for others. It makes us the community of faith that is passionate about the Lord adding to our number day by day.

           

Once again, I’ve preached a sermon about our capital campaign and I haven’t mentioned what we will build. The reason is this isn’t about building a building.  It is about ministry, about what God is calling us to do to be faithful. The leaders of this congregation and I believe that this is a kairos moment and kairos moments aren’t about stuff or buildings. Kairos moments are about God shaping the future.

 

In each of the previous sermons, I offered you questions to consider your role in this kairos moment.  I have three more today. Here they are:

 

1.     Do you remember what it was like to be far away, to be lost and not have a spiritual home?

2.     Do you remember what it felt like to be welcomed home, to be welcomed into this place and reconnect with God?

3.     Do you want to be a part of the community that is passionate about welcoming people into a life of faith?

 

Ask these questions. Pray about them. Let the Spirit work on you. Figure out how God is using you in this kairos moment at Geist Christian Church because the promise is for others.