When Jesus Interrupts

Intro

Today is the final Sunday in our “Belong, Behave, Believe” series. Our starting point in the series was about mixing up or reversing the order in which things are supposed to be done by inviting and welcoming people exploring or questioning faith into relationship in our church community. For so many years, the standard process was that you professed faith, behaved in certain ways, and then joined a congregation. Only then did you belong.

We’ve seen how Jesus began and then his early followers continued to turn this pattern on its head - showing people that they have a place to belong first and foremost - and how behaving and believing tend to come so much easier after the assurance of belonging.

We’ve also talked about how, even today - or perhaps especially today - we have to keep mixing things up like Jesus did. Adapt. Keep innovating. Keep embracing change if we are to live into our mission of making disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world today, in our 21st century, digital, and often church-disillusioned world.

Blockbuster

We can see the impact of an unwillingness to adapt, innovate, and change by taking a peek at one of my favorite places when I was a kid. It was just magical. I could always find ways to escape the stress of being a teenager for just a little bit. It made for some great times of laughter and tears with my friends. And even led to a lot of time connecting with my family. Where, you ask? Blockbuster Video.

Really! I mean think about what it was like to walk into Blockbuster or a local video rental store and see the line up of new movies just released and waiting for you to experience them. Comedy, drama, action & adventure, sci fi, thriller. And the old favorites - how cool was it that you could rent your favorites over and over and over again? I didn’t even have to wait until Christmastime to watch It’s a Wonderful Life!

At its peak in the late 90s and early 2000s, Blockbuster owned over 9,000 video-rental stores in the United States, employed 84,000 people worldwide, and had 65 million registered customers. It had a market value of $5 billion and revenues of $5.9 billion dollars. But fast forward just a decade to 2010 when Blockbuster filed for bankruptcy with over a billion dollars in debt. Today

So what happened?

In a word. Netflix.

Now I’m not talking about the Netflix of today - the original streaming giant who led the way for a new form of entertainment through on-demand streaming of movies via the internet in 2007. Blockbuster’s decline began when it failed to keep up with Netflix’ disruption - Netflix’ interruption - of the brick and mortar video rental store business by sending DVDs to consumer’s homes with just a click of a mouse - and a $7.99 a month subscription fee. Less than the cost of two new releases from Blockbuster - and no late fees. And - best of all for modern consumers - you didn’t have to go to a store to get them. They came to you. The whole process and marketing strategy - that had made Blockbuster a multi-billion dollar industry giant in less than 20 years - was turned upside down and reversed.

Today, the last Blockbuster store is a small independently owned franchised shop in Bend, Oregon, that rose to fame when it claimed the title of the last Blockbuster on Earth after the second to last in Perth, Australia, closed in 2019. Somewhat ironically, the store has reached international fame and created a whole new marketing campaign as the last Blockbuster following the release of a Netflix documentary by the same name in March of this year.

Ford

We can also learn a lot from stories of those who were willing - even if sometimes slowly and reluctantly - to adapt, innovate, and change. Look at the story of the Ford Motor Company.

In 1908, Henry Ford created his remarkable route to personal profit with his revolutionary hand-cranked Model T “Tin Lizzie,” which sold for $825. By 1914, because of Ford’s production line, the car price dropped to $206. His Model T, which came in every color so long as it was black, achieved a 60 percent market share, and in 17 years 10 million cars were sold.

But Henry Ford very nearly sat at the table too long, holding losing cards.

In the 1920s the car market changed. General Motors offered new cars at competitive prices with conveniences that the Model T lacked — like an electric starter. Suddenly this novelty starter took on the characteristics of a desirable consumer product. 1920s drivers demanded conveniences.

Ford wouldn’t let go. Once when he returned from a vacation he found his engineers had updated a Tin Lizzie. Ford stomped in its roof and kicked out its windshield.

Finally, sales sputtered and Ford faced reality. He didn’t change just its color or its name — he changed tactics. In May 1927, Ford stopped the Model T’s production. He closed his factory for six months, retooled and then produced: the Model A. The Model A was a winning hand. He still produced personal motorized transportation, but by abandoning the tried and true and experimenting with something new, Ford succeeded in recapturing the market.

Jesus is turning things upside down again

Disruptions. Interruptions. Breaking the rules. Reversing the norms. Upsetting the status quo. Being forced to make a change you’re just not sure you’re ready to make. How many times have you thought or said something like “just when I thought I had it all figured out...”? Which is usually followed by some lament on how what you had all figured out suddenly changed. Isn’t that the way of our world these days?

But the thing is - it’s definitely not just “these days.” Not at all! We see that in today’s Scripture from Acts. Now, we’ve seen over these past five weeks, Jesus modeled quite a backward pattern of inviting people into leadership, including people with no prior training, proclaiming belonging and homecoming to the outsider, before beliefs or behaviors were taught or tailored. With this passage this morning, we are again confronted with the Spirit of Christ, who even after his death and resurrection continues tipping over and reversing the understood sequence and muddying the waters of purity and right process.

And poor Peter. Can you even imagine? I mean, as a disciple and the leader of the Jerusalem headquarters of this new Jewish sect of Christ followers, he was challenged by change literally all the time. In the verses leading up to today’s story, he had heard the voice of God calling him to go the home of a Roman centurion in the city of Capernaum. Not only is it improper for Peter under Jewish law to enter the home of a Gentile, this particular Gentile is a commander in the occupying Roman army! Peter doesn’t know what to think, but he obeys God, enter’s the centurion Cornelius’s home, and begins to teach those gathered outsiders about Jesus.

And then, quite literally, all heaven breaks loose.

The proper order - the right way for these Gentiles to become converts - was clear to the apostles. Gentiles who are interested in joining the family of God first become what’s known as “proselytes” - declaring their belief in Jesus as the Messiah and the coming reign of God. Then they commit to a season of learning the behaviors of the faith - modifying their diets to keep kosher, learning purification rites and all the other laws of the Torah. Finally, as new Christians, they are baptized in water as a sign and seal of their new identities. And at this point, Peter and the other disciples also know that baptism in the Holy Spirit - being filled with the very presence of Christ - is part of this conversion experience. But at the end of it!

Just as Peter is starting this process that has been working, introducing these roman Gentiles to the truths of faith, the Spirit of Christ totally interrupts him and just starts baptizing all these Gentiles with the Holy Spirit. It completely turned the whole process upside down, and started at the very end - the final step. They were speaking in tongues and extolling God. Clearly, the Spirit of Christ had a different order, a different plan.

But Peter, he understood what was going on, going so far as to say “can anyone withhold the water for baptising these people who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have?” Absolutely not. So he adapted. He innovated. He embraced the change Jesus was calling for by turning things upside down once again, telling people they belong long before they behave and believe.

We see that, even in the earliest days of the Christian era, Peter knew that practical and tactical innovation is key to any church that preaches Christ. Change not for change alone, but with one eye to improvement and the other to our real purpose, our real reason, for doing what we do as church.

Henry Ford built cars. When his car didn’t sell, he changed everything — except he still built and sold cars, only better ones, but he was dangerously close to falling into Blockbuster’s trap.

We can see how this relates to the work we’re doing as Christ followers and as disciple makers today. Sometimes we seem to be loyal to tactics, rather than to Christ. We’re in love with a crank-start and forget that the whole point is to make the car go.

What applies to us as churches applies to us as persons as well. Perhaps God is calling us to a reinvention of our lives. Perhaps he is calling us to let go and retool for a greater experience of life and of himself.

Perhaps, like Peter in Acts 10, it’s time to ask God to do a new thing in our lives. Perhaps we need to:

• Embrace our core values

• Explore all of our options

• Be thankful in all things

• Dream new dreams

• Enlist support from valued friends

• Be filled with the Holy Spirit

Let’s find a way to step out of comfort zones, to innovate, and step into the Living Hope of Jesus Christ, looking for God to do new things in our congregation and in each of our personal lives.