Holy Spirit Week 3 Sermon

Pastoral Welcome

Welcome to the folks that are online first

Communion Cups

May you experience the outpouring of the Holy Spirit as a part of our worship service today.

I invite you to rise and sing of God’s praises this morning

Pastoral Prayer

God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, we come before you today in gratitude for the ways that your creating power lives in us. We are in awe of your resurrecting power that we experience a new each day, and we celebrate the ways that you are with us here and now.

Lord in your Mercy, Hear our Prayer

We pray for all areas in the world where deep divisions run between ethnic groups because of race, religion or past history. Lord, help your people to be your friends and to make friends – your family in Christ.

Lord in your Mercy, Hear our Prayer

We praise you today, O God, for the visions you grant to us - for the prophecies you put upon our lips - for the mercies you perform through our hands - for the guidance you provide us through the gospels and the apostles and the church founded upon the rock that is Peter - and through the still small voice that is within. And we pray, O God, that we, seeing and hearing as you want us to see and hear, may be ones who are also up and doing as you call us to be up and doing

Lord in your Mercy, Hear our Prayer

We join our prayers to the prayers of Christ for those we know who are ill or troubled, and for all your suffering children who are beyond our reach of mind: we know that all are brought home to your heart in the prayers of Christ and in the silent intercessions of your Spirit, who comes from your deep heart to ours, and returns again to you with all our deepest longings.

Lord in your Mercy, Hear our Prayer

We ask for the peace and joy of your Spirit

for those living in the shadow of war and violence;

for those eaten up by guilt and anxiety

and whose Christian life has become hard and dry.

Lord in your Mercy, Hear our Prayer

We ask for the guidance and strength of your Spirit

to help us to discern how to use our time, talents and Treasure;

That we might use the to do no harm, to do all the good we can, and to stay in love with you our God.

Lord in your Mercy, Hear our Prayer

We ask for the love and courage of your Spirit

for those reaching out to comfort the distressed;

for those reaching out to others with the Good News of Christ.

Lord in your Mercy, Hear our Prayer

God we pray for your grace that is already in us and that is in the communion elements that we will partake in later this morning. I pray that the elements would be nourishing for our souls. That they might serve as an outward and visible sign of your inward and spiritual grace offered to us every second.

Lord in your Mercy, Hear our Prayer

Loving God,

We ask for the assurance of your Spirit

to know your presence with us in our daily lives:

in our relationships;

in our work and service;

in our worship;

in our times of joy and pain.

and in this moment of silence we lift those things up to you our rock our redeemer.

Lord in your Mercy, Hear our Prayer

you call us out of our dark places,

offering us the grace of new life. When we see nothing but hopelessness,

you surprise us with the breath of your spirit. Call us out of our complacency and routines, set us free from our self-imposed bonds, and fill us with your spirit of life, compassion, and peace, In the name of Jesus, your anointed one, we pray. as we pray the prayer that you taught us saying:

Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us, and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom and the power, and the glory, forever and ever.

Amen.

Announcements

Changing Service Times

Offering

Intro

Holy Spirit Introduction

Some religious traditions have different understandings and traditions surrounding the Holy Spirit and if I am honest I grew up Methodist and I don’t think I was exposed to many of the understandings of the Holy Spirit until later in life

But there is one story that rings particularly clear in my mind

The lady on Call of Service

My sophomore May Term course was called Call to Service

and it was a service trip to Denver Colorado where we were volunteering at a variety of different non-profits, food shelters, clothing drives, homeless shelters, that sort of thing.

One day we were serving at a cafeteria style soup kitchen, serving meals and it was clear that we had too many volunteers, so once I realized there really wasn’t anything to do rather than waiting around in the back. I walked out into the area where the guests were eating. And was basically bussing tables, and starting conversations with the guests.

I still remember there being one older woman who was living on the streets of Denver. She was sitting alone, and to this day I really believe that there was some nudge by the Holy Spirit to talk to her and see how her day way going. So I did and I got to hear her story a little bit and I felt transformed by it. And I tell you I am not one to spontaneously pray with people. I know this might be shattering some stereotypes for many who know me as your pastor.....

I felt called to pray with her and I didn’t

I knew that there was a spirit within me that was encouraging me to pray with this woman and I didn’t

We sort of ended the conversation and I was pulled in to help with another task, and then all of a sudden as we are wrapping up for the day. This woman walks up to me and says Lewis, God told me that we need to pray together before I leave.

We started praying and she spoke in tongues

And I was skeptical and a little bit uncomfortable and a little bit unsure what to do next.

I walked away changed

We had some small groups to process our days with and I remember sharing that story with my small group in the evening and just crying because I knew that the Holy Spirit was there. I had experienced God

That moment where I walked away from where God was leading me I felt like Peter on Good Friday

Prepping for Scripture

Peter at the Resurection - Lent Series on Redemption

Invite people to place themselves in the story at Good Friday

Three scenes

Peter was around the last supper

Peter was in the garden ready to take up arms and Jesus warns against him that what eventually happened on the Cross was necessary

The final scene wasn’t the crucifixion it was Peter standing around denying Jesus. He sat around the campfire and even a slave girl says didn’t you know him and he says no. Peter doesn’t even have the boldness to defend Jesus in front of the slave girl. The story goes on, Pentecost and this is the very next time that Peter comes face to face with the Sanhedrin. The group that he was so afraid of. The group that executed Jesus. This is the first time that they are face to face and here is the context

Peter and John are coming into the temple and there is a man that is begging, and Peter says you know I really don’t have anything to offer you, but inspired by the Holy Spirit he said in God’s name may you be healed and the begger got up and walked. They got arrested because of that.

Scripture

Acts 4:1–10 NRSV

1 While Peter and John were speaking to the people, the priests, the captain of the temple, and the Sadducees came to them, 2 much annoyed because they were teaching the people and proclaiming that in Jesus there is the resurrection of the dead. 3 So they arrested them and put them in custody until the next day, for it was already evening. 4 But many of those who heard the word believed; and they numbered about five thousand. 5 The next day their rulers, elders, and scribes assembled in Jerusalem, 6 with Annas the high priest, Caiaphas, John, and Alexander, and all who were of the high-priestly family. 7 When they had made the prisoners stand in their midst, they inquired, “By what power or by what name did you do this?” 8 Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, “Rulers of the people and elders, 9 if we are questioned today because of a good deed done to someone who was sick and are asked how this man has been healed, 10 let it be known to all of you, and to all the people of Israel, that this man is standing before you in good health by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead.

Making sense of the Scripture

Why they got arrested?

"unauthorized teachings"

It wasn’t just the speaking it was the doing and the power that was connected to it

Who is the Sanhedrin?

He does mean “you” crucified him

“in the name of Jesus Christ”

By what authority? or in other words who are you working for?

This thing sounds crazy until you imagine it in our context - if someone was healing people in the middle of church just outside the door, we might ask something similar. Who do you work for? What are you trying to do? What is your angle here?

I told you I would come back to the story

So there I was serving at the soup kitchen

I had disappointed myself and hadn’t followed what I believed to be the movement of the spirit

At this woman that I couldn’t bring myself to pray with came up to me

and says I am just feeling called to pray with you could we pray

And I enthusiastically said yes of course

We prayed together

I started and I prayed out loud to God in much the same way that I do often

When she prayed she spoke in tongues quite literally

It was not something that I understood, even to this day it’s not something that I have experienced again, it was some thing that I have been skeptical about and will continue to be

I share that to say that I thought it was all about me that the door was shut

I thought the opportunity was lost

The difference betwen the Peter that was at Jesus’ trial and the Peter that was here in this story was the coming of the Holy Spirit. Before he wasn’t willing to admit that he even knew Jesus to a slave girl now being led by the Holy Spirit he is able to lead 5,000 people to a deeper understanding of God

because Peter is led by the holy spirit to a second chance

And as I think about my own story the same is true that God led me to a second chance as well.

The spirit leads us to second chances

Where might you be yearning for a second chance?

Where might the Holy Spirit be providing a second chance and you didn’t even know it?

Benediction

Go fourth from this place to be the body and blood of Christ for the hungry world. Be led by the spirit to the second chances that God is offering you, and go knowing that God’s blessing rest on you, and that God’s peace is always offered to you