One commentator described today’s lesson from Acts as, “Doing life together at the edge of time.”
It is pretty intense phrase, but
I like it! It is a world ending—apocalyptic sort of description, isn’t it?
Let’s think about it, let’s unpack
what it would mean that these Earliest of Christians are “Doing life
together at the edge of time.”
-Christ is
risen, death rolled back by life.
-Jesus ascends to heaven—he is Lord of Heaven and Earth.
-The Holy Spirit comes, and allows Peter to preach to everyone!
And that message of Peter is: “This
is what the prophet Joel told us about—in the last days the Spirit will be poured
down upon every type of person.”
And his sermon, it culminates in
a mass baptism of 3,000 people…
the 3,000 we read about today
—doing life together at the edge of time,
at the end of the world as they knew it,
in a new age where God is meeting people in a whole new way!
At the Edge of Time,
at the End of the World,
Encountered by God
Let us pray
3,000 newly baptized people,
met by God at the end of the world,
at the edge of time…
God doing a new thing in Jesus Christ.
Baptized into him,
filled with his Spirit,
partaking in his Lordship and Resurrection.
That’s utterly terrifying!
Ecstatically so,
but terrifying none the less.
What do you do
—at the edge of time,
at the end of the world as you know it?
How do you enter a new age?
A new life?
Think of all those times humans
have encountered something truly new. How we respond, how we get so tangled in
it in our carelessness.
The Agricultural Revolution
—enough food for everyone
AND slash and burn and alienation from the land.
The Industrial Age
—The radical shrinking of space and time through innovation
AND urbanization, slums, smog, fire, and factories.
The Information Age—A flat world and a global conversation
AND Move Quickly and break things.
Look at how we’re reacting to the advent of the AI Revolution
—The potential to sift through unending amounts of information,
streamlined medical services and miraculous diagnosis,
efficient energy girds and access to healthcare and education that we couldn’t
have dreamed of even a decade ago
AND Deepfakes, decisions made where no one is clearly responsible,
biases tucked into algorithms, the curtailing of freedom of thought,
expression, and right to privacy
and we’re opting to put it in everything and deal with the consequences later.
Not only careless though, we
humans. We worry about what’s at the edge of the map—uncharted waters teaming
with Sea Monsters and Dragons.
Cross a bridge, meet a troll.
Ford a river, find a Dryad.
I can’t tell you how many books
and articles on ministry grab at that anxiety of ministry in unprecedented
times and don’t let go—titles as provocative… and predictable… as, "Christianity
must change or die” “The Church Must Change or Die” “Renovate or Die” “Adapt or
Drowned” “Innovate or Die”… it gets tiring after a time…
In all these instances, desperate
desires for control.
We want to enter the new age on our terms
—be it with fear and trembling
or carelessly rushing in.
We want to will
our way into end of the world,
conquer monsters,
hide from the machines until they go away,
master our destiny and shape our new life.
But look at these folks baptized
into the New Age of Christ.
They get to experience Koinonia in the Greek
—an ordinary unity, a common community
—the deep fellowship of our life in Christ.
The blessing of the Kingdom of God,
a gathering where the sermon on the mount is alive to them
and as physically present as the pews you are sitting on right now!
Look
at what they do!
—they listen to teaching and are in awe of miracles.
They belong to a community and welcome others into it.
They pray and they praise God for this goodness.
They eat together and share with one another.
They receive and they give thanks.
Maybe entering a new age
—at least the Age of Christ, which dear friends, is the age beyond all these
other ages that come and go
—perhaps it is less like going off the map in search of sea serpents,
and more like surfing…
or boogie boarding (that’s Pastor Chris’ speed)…
placing yourself on that wave and just ridding it,
letting it take you where it is headed.
Perhaps that’s the Baptismal
water we’ve been placed in.
Things click.
We don’t try to capture lightning in a bottle
—that’s an act of futility and folly,
No, we receive a joyous surprise—a lightning bug in a jar, “Oh gee, look, isn’t
that lovely.”
Baptism isn’t
adapt or drowned, but adopted and chosen.
“Doing life together at the edge of time”
is freeing.
We’ve already met God,
been encountered with the beginning and end of time,
the one upon whom all of reality rests
—now we get to be together in it all!
The edge of time might make us
timid, beholden to rolling anxieties.
The end of the world might prompt
a careless sort of need to be in control.
But encountered by God, the God
of our baptism
—it is praise and promise,
belonging and being beloved,
meal and gift and thanksgiving,
Koinonia community in and with Christ.
Amen.
