All who call on the name of the Lord...

Grace and Peace to you! Good morning! Welcome to another special online gathering. I’m picturing your faces right now. I can’t wait until we are able to safely be together again in a few weeks. Today we are all looking to the same savior. All gathered around our phones, our tablets, our computers, our TV’s.

Separated for now, we are coming before God where we are in worship, so let’s really focus on him in these moments together. So turn off other sounds, gather everyone around. Get yourself truly ready to worship. And kids, maybe Azalia and Aziya and Charles III are out there today. Any other kids, we welcome you too! You are also an important part of our church family as always. We have lessons and videos for you to experience offline as well.

AT THIS TIME LETS SAY THE LORD’s PRAYER TOGETHER. THIS IS THE PRAYER JESUS TAUGHT HIS DISCIPLES PROCLAIM SLIDE NOW LET’S SAY THE APOSTLE’S CREED TOGETHER

Let’s pray: Heavenly Father we thank you today for life and health and peace. But our hearts are breaking Lord for the pain our country is experiencing today. Help us to love everyone. Help us to let go of biases that divide us. Show us how to be part of your solution. We love you. In Jesus’ name, amen.

Today maybe your heart is heavy but here is a song that helps bring it all back together...we have secured the rights to stream 10,000 Reasons so let’s sing together at this time:

PROCLAIM: WORSHIP SET

PROCLAIM SLIDE: TITHES and OFFERINGS-your giving makes a big difference now more than ever as we not only stay strong but also change lives. On facebook and zoom and by phone we are discipling people. We need you to do your part by reaching out where you are to help and support neighbors and friends with needs. We want to empower you to serve your neighborhood. Take what you receive and multiply it where you live. Calls, texts, social media messages, videos of encouragement to kids and families and isolated friends and loved ones. Trips to the store so someone else doesn’t have to go. We also want to know about the needs you see that we could help fill in the days ahead. Some of you can serve as hosts on these platforms to encourage and chat with others during the livestream events. There are many ways you can serve. Right now your financial gift can help to empower all of these ministries as well. So please do what you can today. To give you can click the GIVE button there on church online or visit our website FAIRMEADOW.FAITHLIFESITES.COM and click Give today. Honestly we’ve had a little trouble with the mail being reliable so if you can give electronically that’s the best way. Be sure to let us know to be looking for your gift if you do choose to mail it.At this time we want to pray for our ministries and our world and Joy is going to come lead us at this time...

VIDEO: JOY PRAYER

VIDEO: HELEN SCRIPTURE

Acts 2:1–21 NIV

When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them. Now there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven. When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment, because each one heard their own language being spoken. Utterly amazed, they asked: “Aren’t all these who are speaking Galileans? Then how is it that each of us hears them in our native language? Parthians, Medes and Elamites; residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya near Cyrene; visitors from Rome (both Jews and converts to Judaism); Cretans and Arabs—we hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues!” Amazed and perplexed, they asked one another, “What does this mean?” Some, however, made fun of them and said, “They have had too much wine.” Then Peter stood up with the Eleven, raised his voice and addressed the crowd: “Fellow Jews and all of you who live in Jerusalem, let me explain this to you; listen carefully to what I say. These people are not drunk, as you suppose. It’s only nine in the morning! No, this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel: “ ‘In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams. Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days, and they will prophesy. I will show wonders in the heavens above and signs on the earth below, blood and fire and billows of smoke. The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the coming of the great and glorious day of the Lord. And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.’

From every nation under heaven

At that first day of pentecost it wasn’t a bunch of white people singing some songs in a building. Out in the midst of the culture God moved on people of all different backgrounds. The city was abuzz with sounds of people who weren’t from around those parts.

One of the few things I like about being downtown Chicago is hearing all the beautiful languages being spoken. People come from around the world to see the lakefront, buckingham fountain, museums, the bean and yes, the apple store. They are mostly excited and happy to be there. There is energy and anticipation. But there is also a lot of miscommunication. Where is the bathroom? How do you say North in swedish or japanese?

This was something like the atmosphere on the street that day. They were all Jews from the diaspora, some by birth and others who believed in the God of the Bible but didn’t come from jewish heritage. There were different backgrounds but they had one purpose: to honor God and celebrate. As they came together most of them probably knew Greek or a little Latin as a second language. Some might have known Aramaic or Hebrew since they were in Jerusalem. But amidst all these usual sounds they suddenly heard a different sound.

Like the blowing of a violent Wind…

Blood, Fire, Billows of Smoke...

What we have seen this week is so depressing I may start weeping while I’m talking about it. I can’t believe that we actually live in a world where my african american friends have to fear a traffic stop or a bike ride because it might end in their death. Where the parents of african american children have to fear them growing up and going from cute children to being assumed to be a threat by those nearby.

The police video was extremely disturbing because of the lack of common sense or common decency brought about a failure. A failure to know when the flight risk of a man becomes less important than the risk of that man dying. Being suspected of forgery is not punishable by death on the street. Police officers do us a great service. We count on them and often take them for granted. We may get upset if they pull us over, but they are doing us a favor in keeping us safe on the road. The vast majority of them are hard working sacrificial public servants. This kind of scene makes all police look bad and that’s not fair. But this keeps happening in bizarre situations so we have to figure it out. It’s either poor training that has deadly consequences for african americans or it’s somehting evil that isn’t being rooted out as police get worn down by their day-to-day duties. It’s right that they were fired but justice must be done.

But worse is many ways was the woman in central park in New York who threatened and called the police because a man asked her to have her dog on a leash as required. She literally threatened that she would call the police and claim she was being assaulted by a black man. She knew that would put him in a vulnerable position. And it’s so disgusting because all she had to do was put her dog on its leash and comply with the law herself. She put herself above the law and then felt she could use the law to punish the man who embarrassed her. That kind of garbage makes God want to vomit, my friends. We must speak out against it or be complicit with it. Well i hope she thought it was worth it because she lost her job and is now an international disgrace.

This is racism. It may not be that the officer was what we think of as an individual who actively hates people of a different race. But there is system where a white man can shoot nine black people in a church and then be arrested calmly, but a black man was accused of fraud and therefore gets suffocated as he cries out I can’t breathe. This is subtle but the blame is shared by all of us. Somehow we tolerate a world where we pretend some people have more value than others. That’s just disgusting.

But when we act like the woman who says I’ll use my status to crush you because I’m embarrassed, we are weak and small as small can get.

On this day of pentecost our church family is made up of people from several different racial backgrounds. So we of all people must speak up for our brothers and sisters of color. They don’t need white people to speak for them or talk down to them. We all have a voice. It’s on everyone to listen to each other, to value each other and when necessary to defend. It’s so sad that friends of color have to be concerned about treatment like this. May mistreatment never ever happen among our fellowship.

I for one lament that this world is the way it is. We are without excuse for our society enjoys every advantage of resources and education. It’s a failure to care enough to do something, to act. To express compassion and to show love.

The Church of the Nazarene finally updated our statement in the Manual a few years ago. I think this says it well, so follow along as I read.

Discrimination. The Church of the Nazarene reiterates its historic position of Christian compassion for people of all races. We believe that God is the Creator of all people, and that of one blood are all people created.

We believe that each individual, regardless of race, color, gender, or creed, should have equality before law, including the right to vote, equal access to educational opportunities, to all public facilities, and to the equal opportunity, according to one’s ability, to earn a living free from any job or economic discrimination.

We urge our churches everywhere to continue and strengthen programs of education to promote racial understanding and harmony. We also feel that the scriptural admonition of Hebrews 12:14 should guide the actions of our people. We urge that each member of the Church of the Nazarene humbly examine his or her personal attitudes and actions toward others, as a first step in achieving the Christian goal of full participation by all in the life of the church and the entire community.

We reemphasize our belief that holiness of heart and life is the basis for right living. We believe that Christian charity between racial groups or gender will come when the hearts of people have been changed by complete submission to Jesus Christ, and that the essence of true Christianity consists in loving God with one’s heart, soul, mind, and strength, and one’s neighbor as oneself.

Therefore, we renounce any form of racial and ethnic indifference, exclusion, subjugation, or oppression as a grave sin against God and our fellow human beings. We lament the legacy of every form of racism throughout the world, and we seek to confront that legacy through repentance, reconciliation, and biblical justice. We seek to repent of every behavior in which we have been overtly or covertly complicit with the sin of racism, both past and present; and in confession and lament we seek forgiveness and reconciliation.

Further, we acknowledge that there is no reconciliation apart from human struggle to stand against and to overcome all personal, institutional and structural prejudice responsible for racial and ethnic humiliation and oppression. We call upon Nazarenes everywhere to identify and seek to remove acts and structures of prejudice, to facilitate occasions for seeking forgiveness and reconciliation, and to take action toward empowering those who have been marginalized. (2017)

These are the guidelines adopted by our international church body. They set the standard for our beliefs and behavior because they are rooted in God’s Word.

We have come up with the right technical terms now to describe the kinds of things that have always happened. There were tensions between those of Greek and Jewish heritage in the early church. But there are many more examples of love that overcame those tensions within the church in those early days. Along the way since, not so much. But we can do better. The Church is meant to be a place where all feel safe and loved. Like family. God is not willing than anyone should perish.

God wants to save everyone

Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord...

So, ladies and gentlemen, our message is for everyone we’ve ever met. God was sending that message around the known world on that day. Europe, Asia, Africa, Mesopotamia, Arabia, all of them were covered with knowledge of the resurrection of Jesus Christ and the mission of sharing the messiah with everyone.

And evidently God has an all hands on deck approach. So it doesn’t matter your ethnic background: Paul wrote about it

Galatians 3:28 NIV

There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

And here in Acts, God makes it clear that it doesn’t matter if you’re a man or a woman, the task of sharing the Good News is now at the forefront:

Acts 2:17–18 NIV

“ ‘In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams. Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days, and they will prophesy.

This is why we have always ordained women in the Church of the Nazarene. It wasn’t trendy, it was biblical. From Day 1, for well over 100 years we’ve had great women preachers. The first congregation I pastored had a legacy reaching back to 1926 with a church in the Roseland neighborhood pastored by Cora Ryan who had been a fiery female evangelist. She was one tough pastor but she got the church going and it’s still going today. The point is this we are living in the last days, the days of the Spirit and the days of the good news going forward to the whole world.

The news is too Good to keep to yourself. And it has implications for how we treat our brothers and sisters.

Paul wrote about this also in Romans 10

Romans 10:14–15 NIV

How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can anyone preach unless they are sent? As it is written: “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!”

Feet have been called a lot of things but beautiful is rare. But when we go in Christ’s name whether it’s our feet walking out to the driveway to say a socially distant hello to our neighbors, our thumbs typing on our phone, our fingers dialing, or hands writing a note, our parts become absolutely gorgeous because they deliver the good good news.

Sadly these days we witness too much oppression that breeds violence and the cycle continues. So we of all people will stand up to prophesy, to speak the full truth in love. We can call out leaders, even if we voted for them when they stray. We can speak for those who need a voice whether they are the unborn victims of abortion or the violated brothers and sisters of color. The Good News is for everyone. Be on the right side of the gospel and of love because you can, because you’ve been saved by love. Because you’ve been filled with the holy spirit and delivered from hate and lust for power over others. Power is fleeting and last for only a season. Love is forever and we are indeed stronger together.

Declaring the wonders of God

In our day what we say means little if our actions don’t show love and acceptance and true friendship. We all have hangups. Let’s keep moving beyond them and getting over them. Now if you’re thinking about anyone’s faults but your own right now, you’re doing it wrong. May the Spirit convict you. But today the Spirit is being poured out on all who are open to his cleansing and all who are open to his mission. His mission is not just words, it’s a way of living and a message of deliverance. We can’t declare the wonders of God in a language that is tone deaf to the suffering of our neighbors.

We start getting divided when we are sitting around as if we don’t have a mission to fulfill. So the Spirit would like to fill you and nudge you into ministry. Let’s come together as one to reach our neighbors and loved ones of all shapes, sizes, colors, and languages. The Spirit helps us to communicate. I know for a fact that happened when I was in Russia on a mission trip. By the end of my sermon they weren’t looking at the translator anymore. They were nodding as I spoke.

It’s been a rough week. The bad news just keeps coming in. Peaceful protests were highjacked by those intent on violence. But hopefully now we are turning a corner. Hopefully now we can look up to where our help comes from. To nudge us in that direction we witnessed a rocket launch sending astronauts on a peaceful and hopeful mission. May the pentecostal power of the holy spirit launch us out on a healing and loving mission into our worlds.

Take a moment to clarify the message are we sending by our lives. On the original day of Pentecost the people said the apostles and their followers were “declaring the wonders of God” in a language they could understand. Folks let’s keep the gospel in a loving package see the difference the power of God can make. Father, help us. change us. Fill us with so much Holy Spirit that only your love remains. And only your wonders are seen in our lives.

Amen.

So many people loved the Waymaker song last week that I’m ending on it today. These are not easy days. But God knows the way through...