05/19/2024 ~ Day of Pentecost ~ *Acts 2:1-21 or Ezekiel 37:1-14; Psalm 104:24-34, 35b; Romans 8:22-27 or Acts 2:1-21; John 15:26-27; 16:4b-15 ~ VIDEO OF THE FULL SERVICE: https://vimeo.com/showcase/7960701/video/948792053
What Does This Mean?
“Many were amazed and perplexed, and asked one another, ‘What does this mean?’ But others mockingly said, ‘They have consumed too much new wine.’” — Acts 2:12-13.
The Pew Research Center in Washington D.C. explores a range of topics from religion to politics and everything in between. And that’s just the range of topics the Pew Center covers.
The Center tries to provide information about social issues in relation to how they interact with public opinion and demographic trends. Their operating thesis says identify trends and then you can see and assess the current shape of the world around us.
To paraphrase Sargent Friday, the Center is about just the facts ma’am, not opinion. As you may know, the facts say that all organized religion— churches right, left and in between is in decline— all organized religion is in decline. Also, the number of Americans who don’t identify with any organized religion is growing. This is seen in all regions and demographic groups in this country. [1]
Church historian Diana Butler Bass has pointed out this current shift is a social movement. It is not about faith. Equally in the 1950s, she says, the opposite social movement happened. People flocked to church.
We don’t usually refer to what happened in the ’50s as a social movement. But it was. Therefore, the basics of the social movement which happened back then was similar to the movement we see today but back then it went in the opposite direction.
In fact, there is one thing which can be said with great certainty about the numbers added to the institutions called churches during 1950s. In all of American history— all of American history— that phenomena was a total anomaly, completely abnormal.
The numbers who flocked to American churches in the ’50s had never been seen before. At the time of the American Revolution, for instance, the percentage of church membership— that’s not attendance; that’s membership— in the population was 17%. Over the years that percentage slowly rose but never was there anything like what like happened in the 1950s, not even close.
Given that, to think of those ’50s numbers as normal would be to ignore the facts. Therefore, when we see the decline in numbers today it can be safely stated this is only a return to what was and now is… normal.
Here’s another, perhaps more theological way to think about this social phenomena: institutions do not make belief. Indeed, the purpose of the institution known as the church is to help you and those around you reflect what you believe both as individuals and as a community. Individual people and people gathered in community make belief.
One more important point: the aforementioned research does not question the faith of those inside or outside the churches. What’s being recorded is the location of people of faith, both inside and outside the walls of the institution. (Slight pause.)
These words are from Luke/Acts in the section commonly called Acts: “Many were amazed and perplexed, and asked one another, ‘What does this mean?’ But others mockingly said, ‘They have consumed too much new wine.’” (Slight pause.)
Another fairly well known statistic is the average percentage of people who attend church in America on a regular basis runs in the mid-thirty percent range. On the other hand, in Europe church attendance runs less than ten percent of the population.
Given that lack of attendance across the pond, something amazing is happening in England. The number of women becoming nuns in the Catholic Church is at a 25-year high. The number of women become nuns are also mostly under the age of 30. To paraphrase Acts, ‘What does this mean?’
One reason may be the effort in England made by the Church to demystify what nuns do. Christopher Jamison, the English Catholic Church’s vocations director says this: “Increasingly, young people find Christian faith filling a meaning gap,… because it leads them to the heart of human life today:… working for the impoverished; this helps them lead a balanced life with a conviction that there is more to life.” [2] (Slight pause.)
In a recent article Rev. Erik Parker, a Lutheran cleric, cautions we are wrong about a church in decline. He insists the decline we see is simply the end of the state church. The state church is not what people who are serious about faith want. The state church drives people away.
Christendom can no longer be the church of the empire it was and has often been since Roman times. It’s not the church that’s dying, Parker says. It’s the church of empire that’s dying.
The state supports the status quo, a staid, static way of doing things. That’s not church, he insists, certainly not the church of faith. We need to remember the church did O.K. in its first 300 years before it became entangled with Rome and its descendants. [3] — Rev. Eric Parker. (Slight pause.)
So, what is going on in Acts 2 which was way before the church became a part of the state? Or as this writing poses the question: “What does it mean?” (Slight pause.)
“What does it mean?” may be the most important question asked in all Scripture, a basic question. Scripture never asks ‘what does this say’ or ‘what are the details of a story?’ Scripture always asks us to ponder the question, ‘What does this mean?’
Hence, what happens in the reading we heard— and plenty happens from tongues of fire to speaking in tongues to prophecy— for all that happens the question is never: ‘what happened?’ ‘What does this mean?’ is the question. (Slight pause.)
As I said earlier, Pentecost— the feast we celebrate today— is arguably the second most important feast on the Christian calendar, the first being Easter, and is sometimes referred to as the birthday of the church. [4] I am just enough of a defender of institutional life to say the institution is important. That leads me to ask, ‘what is the institution?’ (Slight pause.)
When you and you and you and come together as a community, belief happens, sometimes even when we’re unaware it’s happening. So as to the reading, the meaning of what happens has to do with people and belief, a belief in the presence and the reality of God. And it happens collectively, among many people.
Given that, there’s another meaning here which is both subtle and obvious. As I said, the institution helps you, you and you make belief happen. In these words what we hear is a description of the collective, the institution coalescing. (Slight pause.)
In 2018 Pope Francis presided over a ceremony to proclaim the sainthood of Salvadoran Archbishop Óscar Romero, who was assassinated for being a defender of the impoverished. In doing that, the first Pope from the Global South was making an effort to place the poor at the center of this papacy.
With this act Francis sought both to recognize those who are impoverished and to position the church closer to the masses. It was an action which said the church needs to be an institution who helps others, especially the impoverished. [5] (Slight pause.)
And no— you and I are not the Pope. We are Congregationalists. Grand gestures are not our thing. But, to repeat what I said earlier, the purpose of the institution known as the church is not to make belief. Belief is personal.
However, this is also true: I can, together with you and you and you and you and you, seek belief and we can believe together. That sounds like a theological definition of Congregationalism to me.
All that leaves us with a question: can we Congregationalists be forthright about the mission of the church? I think so. And if we do, I’ve got good news.
The church of the state may well perish. But the church of faith, the church of belief, will not go away or be in decline. I’ve got better news. If we believe together, if we have faith together, the Spirit will be alive among us for we can and we will show the fruits of the Spirit here, in this place, at this time. Amen.
05/19/2024, Pentecost Sunday
Elijah Kellogg Church, Harpswell, Maine
ENDPIECE: “I suggested Pentecost is important because it’s about the reality of Spirit of God being with and showering many gifts on each of us. But it is also about the Spirit of God being with and showering many gifts on all of us together. The Spirit Who Lives with each of us and all of us together makes this place a place of community. And so we will have our annual Roll Call meeting which celebrates and is about community. We, thereby, strive to affirm the reality of the Spirit in this community among us.”
BENEDICTION: Let us acknowledge our many gifts. Let us seek to use them for the common good. Let us commit ourselves as people of action. God, the creator, is at work in our midst. The Holy Spirit is present to us. Jesus, the Christ, lives among us. Let us go from this worship to continue our worship with work and witness. And may the peace of Christ, which surpasses our understanding keep our hearts, minds and spirits centered on God, this day and forevermore. Amen.
[1] http://www.pewforum.org/2015/05/12/americas-changing-religious-landscape/
[2] http://www.bbc.com/news/world-32777639
[3] http://millennialpastor.net/author/revcowboy/
[4] This was stated at the start of the service.
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