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Why the Church Can't Stand Still (04/30/17) (Traditional)

Rev. Eric Huffman - 6/19/2019

Ascension: Why the Church Can’t Stand Still
By Rev. Eric Huffman
April 30, 2017
Acts 11:1-11

In the first book, Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus did and taught from the beginning until the day when he was taken up to heaven, after giving instructions through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen. After his suffering he presented himself alive to them by many convincing proofs, appearing to them during forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God. While staying with them, he ordered them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait there for the promise of the Father. “This,” he said, “is what you have heard from me; for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.”
So when they had come together, they asked him, “Lord, is this the time when you will restore the kingdom to Israel?” He replied, “It is not for you to know the times or periods that the Father has set by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” When he had said this, as they were watching, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight. While he was going and they were gazing up toward heaven, suddenly two men in white robes stood by them. They said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking up toward heaven? This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.” Acts 1:1-11 (NRSV)
Thank you all for being here, it’s really great to see you all and it’s a real honor to be back with you again.
If you’re relatively new to St. Luke’s traditional services you may not have any idea who I am. I’ll explain more about that in a while. I haven’t been in this service with you since November so if you’ve arrived at St. Luke’s since then, it’s possible that our paths haven’t cross yet.
But my name is Eric and it’s really, really an honor to be here. November seems like a long time ago and a lot has changed since November on this campus, and it’s changed in your lives I imagine, and in my life since November. I became a Little League baseball coach since November which has completely changed the trajectory of my life. It’s my new job now. I don’t get paid for it but it’s my new job and it’s the first priority every day in my life. And for some reason it’s eating all of me up.
They told me, “Don’t worry, we’re short on coaches and we really need you now. Maybe a practice and maybe a game a week.” Don’t believe them! Dads, if they ever tell you that – don’t believe them! Especially if you’re in West U Little League. Let me just tell you that if you just want to have fun playing baseball, that might not be the league for you. It’s serious, serious business and it’s all about the baseball. I love baseball so it’s a perfect storm, and I’ve gotten all into it. Mostly I’ve loved it and have had a few moments here and there that weren’t so great. Yesterday we got obliterated by a team called the Intimidators and they lived up to their name. They beat us 20 to 12. This is a seven-year-old league, so in the middle of this game I wanted birth certificates on them. I swear they were teenagers! My little team, the West U Oilers, are in the dugout and I overhear a conversation with the littlest one who’s six and the other boys. He says, “I wish I played on the in intidemators.”
I don’t want what happened in my soul, but something broke inside me in that moment and I just felt such hatred for this six year old. He had no appreciation for what I’d done for him. I just looked at him and said, “We’re 0 for 3 with 3 strikeouts. Do you think they want you? You can’t even say their name right!” I didn’t say it out loud, I said it with my eyes. I might say it again when I fill out the next lineup card for our next game. Mr. Intidemators. That’s 12th on the bench. See how he likes it. You can tell I’m taking this entirely too seriously.
However, we are a playoff team (I found out last night) so thank you in advance for your congratulations. We are a playoff team as are the other 11 teams in our league. But that doesn’t matter. I just like to focus on the fact that we’re in the playoffs. So, go Oilers! That’s the most exciting thing in my life right now and I can think and preach about nothing else.
The second most exciting thing in my life now is church and Jesus and all of you. Which I know is a sin, like everything that should be up here, but this is part confession time for me up here. So this is the reality that I’m living.
But it’s hard not to be excited about what’s happening around this church as well. So much has happened. I know you’re not all of you here each week and you’re in and out and that’s all right. But I hope you can see what’s happening here. I hope you can look around you and know that there is an outpouring of God’s Holy Spirit. There is a Jesus something happening in our midst under our noses. And I’m afraid we’re going to miss out since we’re so busy and we’re distracted and caught up in our own interests. I’m afraid we’re going to miss the special extraordinary miraculous nature of things that are happening here at St. Luke’s.
I’m an associate pastor here at St. Luke’s. My wife and I are both appointed here as associate pastors in the United Methodist Church and our primary job is to start and lead something called The Story. Most of you know what it is. You’ve heard me talk about it ad nauseum. For those of you who don’t know The Story is a new worship community that St. Luke’s was dreaming and praying about for years. Then they called us down here from Kansas City to start it and we’re a little over two years old now.
The Story is just one small part of what’s happening at St. Luke’s on the whole but it’s an extraordinary deal that’s going on. We meet just behind this building in that freestanding building behind us. We have three services on Sunday now at 9:40 and then at 11 a.m. and then at 5 p.m. this evening is our newest service. I just wanted to tell you all. I know it’s hard to keep up with everything going on this campus, but in the two years we’ve been going at The Story alone, which is not including everything else going on at St. Luke’s, but at The Story alone, over 150 adults who weren’t Christians have made Jesus the Lord of their lives. Over 150 adults have made a public proclamation of their faith in Jesus in two years. Many, many more have made the same proclamation but privately, and many more are on the fence, on the verge, on the way to discipleship in Jesus in just two years’ time. In 2017 alone so far we have welcomed 648 people per week just at The Story. On Easter Sunday two weeks ago … which seems like an eternity ago – it was a pretty cool day at The Story because for the first time ever we welcomed over 1000 people just to The Story services on Sunday mornings.
But listen, what happened across the campus is even more extraordinary. Let me tell you why. Everyone knows that St. Luke’s has a long history, a tradition of being a beacon church in the community. A big and influential church. St. Luke’s has always been known for that. I think sometimes the temptation is to think that maybe our heyday as a church was in the past, like there was a brighter day, a golden day before. But what I want you to see today is that we are the golden age of St. Luke’s right now. This is the heyday of St. Luke’s storied past. Right now.
Two Sundays ago on Easter Sunday we welcomed over 6000 people in our worship services here, and in Encounter and in The Story and at Gethsemane. Over 6000 people came to worship with us, the largest Easter crowd ever at St. Luke’s. It might have been the largest Sunday ever at St. Luke’s. I can’t prove that one but I know it was the largest Easter crowd ever at St. Luke’s. We are seeing baptisms, and life change, and babies being born and baptized and being ushered out crying on their first day as Christians. All these wonderful things are happening, and right here in our midst young people are rising up to serve Jesus. More people are showing up all the time. And no matter where you worship, whether it’s here in the traditional services, or at Encounter down the hall, or at Gethsemane or at The Story, we are one family in Jesus. One family serving Jesus. Together we are one church and it’s wonderful to see what he’s doing in our midst. And I hope we don’t miss it.
When I coach my Little Leaguers it’s really not a science, not an art. Coaching Little Leaguers six and seven years old comes down to saying the same two or three phrases again and again. So I find myself saying just those two or three things over and over. One of them is “Don’t talk when I talk.” It is something I’ve said about 50,000 times since February. The thing I say the most is “Keep your head down,” because you have to say it in every phase of the game. “Keep your head down.” I’ve said it 17 million times since February. “Keep your head down when you’re swinging because when you’re swinging and your head goes up you’ll miss the ball. You’ll miss it and you’ll strike out. But if you’re lucky enough to hit it you better run to first base. Stop looking at how far you’ve hit it, just standing in the batter’s box.”
I have to calm down. But they just stand there. I say “Get your head down. Get your head down and run to first base … that’s third base … run to first base!”
And when they’re in the field they want to watch everything that’s happening around them except the game we’re playing. They’ll watch the game in the field next to them, or watch airplanes or birds or watch their toes. Everything but the game. And I’m really afraid that if they don’t watch what’s happening the ball will be hit to them and they’ll get hurt. And even worse – we’ll lose the game! If they’re not watching, if their heads aren’t down they’re going to miss it. I’m worried. Sometimes when we get so busy and stressed and pulled into four different communities here at St. Luke’s and so distracted and so busy, sometimes I worry we’re going to miss it. We’re going to miss what’s right in front of us. We’re going to miss Jesus moving right in our midst under our noses if we’re not careful.
I want you to imagine for a moment that you are one of Jesus’ disciples following him around during his life on earth some 2000 years ago. So just remove yourself from the pew you’re in and imagine what it must have been like to attend every sermon that Jesus preached. To hear everything he taught. To follow him around. You were there through it all.
You were there when they came in the middle of the night and arrested him with torches and they came with soldiers. They arrested him and took him to trial in the middle of the night. The same night, there was no due process. They took him and they interrogated him, unfairly accusing him of heresy and sedition against Rome.
You heard the questioning, you heard them find him guilty, you watched through a window as they beat him, as they spit on him and insulted him. Then they dragged him away to Pontius Pilate’s palace. You were there when the crowd cried, “Crucify him!” You stood by as he dragged his cross through the city. You stood at a distance but within earshot so you could hear the mallet hammering the nails into his wrists and his ankles. You looked in horror when they raised him up. You’ll never forget how you felt when you watched your friend, your teacher, and your Master struggling to breathe on the cross. Never forget how you felt when he stopped struggling and was gone. Jesus was gone. And you had put all your hopes in him. And now he was gone. Now what? What do we do now?
We all know the story. Three days later he rose from the dead, so everything’s cool, right? But that’s not exactly how it was for the disciples, because he kept showing up and then disappearing again. He kept showing up and showing off like, “Look at my scars.” He just kept showing up and just hanging out for a while before he disappeared again. It was weird season for the disciples when they didn’t know what was next or what was going on. “We thought we were part of this movement with Jesus and he was going to restore Israel. We were going to have a new government.”
Even in today’s passage from Acts, after all of that they’re still asking Jesus, “Okay, can you be the king now? Can we just go restore the kingdom of Israel? Isn’t that what we’re to do?” And Jesus just reframes the conversation again.
In all of this confusion what do you do when you’re a disciple of Jesus when you don’t know what’s next or what’s expected of you? You do what guys do and those guys went fishing. All night they fished together and didn’t catch a thing. They’re pouting because when Jesus was there they caught things. In fact, when Jesus was here one time our boat almost sank. But not anymore. They didn’t know what to do.
At 5 in the morning before dawn they decided to bring it in. Bringing in the boat toward the shore and the fog begins to break and you see someone standing on the shoreline and they’re looking out toward you like they were expecting you.
They built a fire and you can smell they’re cooking something. Then he shouts to you and you know that voice – it’s Jesus. What do you do? Jesus is on the shore and he’s cooking breakfast for you.
Your friend Peter can’t control himself because that’s who he is. Peter is impulsive and every guy here has a friend like Peter. Some of you are that friend. Some of you are Peter and if you aren’t Peter, then you have a friend like Peter. Someone who speaks before he thinks, and who starts a sentence before he’s really sure about how it’s going to end. He’s always acting impulsively and this time is no different.
He realizes it’s Jesus on the shoreline and it says, in Matthew 21:7 – one of my favorite verses in Scripture – “Peter, realizing it was Jesus, set his fishing nets aside, got dressed, put his clothes on…” He was fishing in his underwear; that’s what Peter does. And he jumped into the water to swim to Jesus. He got dressed and then he jumped in the water. And you laughed for the first time in days and so did the disciples. Maybe you heard Jesus laugh from a hundred yards out.
Finally, life started to get back to normal. You’re following him around, and he’s telling you where he went after he was killed. Where his spirit went, what he experienced and what his resurrection means, that you’ll be resurrected, too, and so will everyone. You can be given a new body just as Christ has been and so even now, you’re wondering what’s next with Jesus.
And then just out of the blue Jesus says, “Guys, I gotta go. You guys are going to be fine. I’ll tell you what to do but know that you’re going to be my witnesses. You’re going to be making disciples to the ends of the earth. But for now I gotta go.” Then he flies off to heaven, leaving you there again and you cannot believe it. Jesus has done this again. He’s left us here again! And the disciples stand there looking up into the sky, wondering what they were to do now.
Then in Acts 1 in the passage that Jennifer read earlier, it says that two men dressed in white – that’s symbolic of their angelic nature because they’re angels, messengers of God. They come and stand beside the disciples. As they’re standing there looking up, the angels say, “What are you doing here? Why do you just stand here looking up? Jesus just told you what’s next. Jesus just told you why he went to heaven. He went to heaven to lead the march toward glory but we remain to be his witnesses.
So the angels tell the disciples essentially, “Keep your heads down here, guys. There’s plenty to do. You’re going to be equipped. You’re going to be sent to Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, to the ends of the earth, just like Jesus said, to be his disciples. To make disciples of others.”
My first pastoral care call here in Houston was two and a half years ago. It was a family that lives not far from here and they had expressed some interest in The Story and this was when The Story had about 40 or 45 people and we were desperate. I hustled. If you called me I came to your house. If you didn’t call me I came to your house and said, “Come to The Story.”
So they called and invited our whole family over, and the four of us – my wife Geovanna and I and our two kids, went over. At that point the kids were seven and five. Joelle, our daughter, was seven, and Koen, our son, was five. We went over to the house and when we pulled up, we were awestruck because it was one of those new mansion type of homes. New palatial estate – it was a palace. It was one of the new constructions where there’s not even a yard anymore, they just built the whole house up to the sidewalk. There’s a yard, a sidewalk, and a street. It was a huge place.
They took us on a tour and it took 90 minutes to get through the place. Their dog had his own apartment upstairs that was bigger than my living room. They had an amazing swimming pool and they were so gracious and invited us to come swim anytime we wanted. I know my kids love swimming more than anything, and they were just drooling at the thought of swimming in that pool with those fountains.
I was dreading what was going to happen two hours later from that moment because I know what it’s like to pull my kids away from a place that they don’t want to leave. It’s torture and they throw a fit. These kids aren’t going to want to leave this place, and I found myself envying. Envying what these people had, what they could give their kids that I won’t ever be able to give mine. I wanted those things for my kids.
Anyway, we ate dinner and after dinner the kids went upstairs to play and we retired to the parlor and chatted with our host couple. I noticed some pictures around the house had four kids in them and I’d only met two of the smaller children and not the two older girls. I mentioned this and asked where the older girls were and if we were going to meet them. But I immediately realized I’d stepped on some kind of emotional landmine. The mother immediately started to get emotional and to tear up. I thought, “Oh, Eric, you’ve done it again.” I do this a lot. This is one of my gifts – putting my foot in my mouth. She tried to put words together and tell me where they were but she couldn’t get the words out so the husband, the father, he intervened. He said, “Look, to be honest it’s been a hard few months. It’s been brutal. We had to take our older daughters and we’ve had to put them in rehab facilities – inpatient rehab facilities in other cities because it was that bad. We had to get them away from the people they were around. They needed a fresh start somewhere else, so for these months we’ve been going to visit them in these other cities. We’ve been trying whatever we can to get them well, because we almost lost them.
And when he said that he teared up and started crying so I thought, “Who’s going to talk now? I don’t have anything to say. I’m crying – we’re all crying, and we’re all a mess.”
But the mother tried to compose herself and she said, “The hardest part of it is the regret. Realizing the things you can’t change. The remorse. All the things I’ve been asking myself: ‘What could I have done differently? How did I miss this? What could I have done to stave this off to keep my daughters from suffering this way? All the regrets that just tear me up inside.’” Being a pastor I wanted to offer some grace and wanted to say ... and I did say, “You’re here for them. You’re loving parents. It’s clear you care for them. Don’t beat yourself up too much.”
But she had learned some things since then in her Al-Anon classes and things like that. She did not want me to let her off the hook. She wanted to own the things that she should own. So she said, “Ten years ago when they were little the most important thing to my husband and I was his career. And it was because we wanted to provide a better life for them but the most important thing was his career. So he was always working and always traveling. He’d always bring home work and even when he was home he was doing work.
“And I thought that my job as his wife was to look as good as I possibly could at every party, on his arm at every gala, at every fundraiser, at every social, to help him climb the ladder so we could provide a better life for our kids. Now we’ve provided that life and now we’ve built this house for my daughters and they can’t even be here with us. They don’t even live here with us to enjoy this house that we worked so hard to provide for them. We gave them everything except the one thing they needed most – two parents who stay home with their kids once in a while.”
Two parents who go with their kids to church instead of just dropping them off once in a while and picking them up afterward. Two parents who invest their lives in their kids and who love Jesus in front of their kids.
I want to talk to you parents now – parent to parent. How easy is it to slip into that pattern? How easy is it to slip into the pattern of trying to do what we think is right for our kids, to provide this stuff that we think they need? And we just take our eye off the ball. How easy is it to keep looking up – at the next promotion, the next home, the next neighborhood, the next good school, the next academic achievement. The next thing to be proud of and to miss what is happening now right under our noses. How easy it is to do – we do it all the time.
And it’s not just parents – it’s everyone in every life stage who faces this temptation. Middle schoolers have this kind of feeling, “Well, middle school’s nice but my life’s really going to start when I’m in high school.” Middle schoolers don’t believe that lie. For you middle schoolers here today, when you’re in middle school Jesus has you in middle school for a reason. Jesus has you there to be his witnesses to the other middle schoolers, to the teachers, to your parents. So don’t look ahead to the next chapter and miss the one you’re in.
High schoolers do the same thing about college and college students do the same about graduation and life after college. They think, “My life will get started then. I’ll get serious then. I’ll pray then.”
Single people do the same. A lot of this is social pressure, but single people say, “My life will really start when I’m married. That’ll be awesome when I’m married and then I’ll get serious about life and settle down and be a good Christian.” Single people, don’t wait! Singleness is the great season in your life to be a witness for Jesus in the world. Your singleness is a wonderful season of opportunity to serve Jesus. It’s a great time in your life. Ask anyone who’s been married for a while – they’ll tell you how great it was to be single. That’s the way it works.
Some of us are in marriages that are so unhappy that we’re already looking forward to the next season. You’re ready for this season to be over and move on to the next. I want to challenge you, to keep your head down and look at the person Jesus gave you at that altar. Maybe choose to love them the way Jesus loved you in spite of your sin because you never know the extent to which God’s grace will reach. You never know the kids of brokenness that Jesus can restore. So don’t give up.
Empty nesters will sometimes be looking ahead to retirement when they say, “When retirement comes I’ll unwind and then life will start for me. Or when grandchildren come then my life will start. So I’m just going to sit around till grandchildren come and when I talk to my kids I’m going to continually ask them, ‘Are we having one yet?’” until they stop calling. Empty nesters, don’t wait to start your life. Don’t wait to make your life about Jesus and be witnesses for Jesus to the ends of the earth for Jesus. Start now.
Some of our most faithful members are those who can’t make it here anymore. They’re our shut-ins. Hundreds of people who watch on TV or online with live stream. And I just want to say to those of you in nursing homes and assisted living facilities: “Don’t go ahead and look ahead to the next chapter. Don’t go ahead and think beyond what’s happening right now, because if you don’t keep your head down you’ll miss what Jesus is doing right now. Even where you are right now. So stay focused. Look at those healthcare providers who come into your room every day. Your family members, your other tenants and neighbors in the facility where you are. Be witnesses of Jesus wherever you are.
The family that I mentioned earlier, their story has somewhat of a happy ending. They’re all back together under the same roof. They come to church here almost every Sunday at The Story. They went to hell and back, but somewhere along the way they found Jesus together and now they love him and serve him together.
Their story is an important reminder for all of us because it would have been very easy for them that night in that parlor, through their tears, to just think it was too late. But with our Jesus it is never too late. With Jesus it’s never too late, to put him at the center of your life again. It’s never too late to make amends with your parents, or to make amends with your children. It’s never too late to make amends with your spouse, or your ex or your friends, or your boss. It’s never too late to put things right. There is no brokenness that our Jesus cannot heal.
So keep your heads down, people. Don’t miss what’s going on right under your noses. Keep your head down. At home with your family right around you, the people Jesus has given you to steward and care for. Pay attention and be present. Keep your head down at work. Work with integrity and honesty. Be diligent and disciplined, keep your head down and work.
Keep your head down at church. Let’s keep our heads down together because there is much to be done. This Jesus movement that we’ve seen so far is just the beginning and I believe that one day when we are long gone people will sit in these pews and go, “What in the world did Jesus do with those people in 2017 and 2018 and 2019? Those people must have been so courageous, they really saw this thing through. What happened then?”
We have the privilege of living the lives we’re living right now. So let’s live them. Let’s be witnesses for Jesus to the ends of the earth.
Pray with me. Lord, thank you for your love and the gift of your grace that extends beyond all of our sin and all of our mistakes. Thank you for the reminder today that it is never too late to put you at the center of our lives. We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.