Weekly Sermon

February 17, 2002 - "On Your Mark"

The Reverend Anne Benefield

Geneva Presbyterian Church

John 10: 1 - 10 and Acts 2: 42 - 47

They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. Awe came upon everyone, because many wonders and signs were being done by the apostles. All who believed were together and had all things in common; they would sell their possessions and goods and distribute the proceeds to all, as any had need. Day by day, as they spent much time together in the temple, they broke bread at home and ate their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having the goodwill of all the people. And day by day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved. Prayer: Holy God, in the words of the scripture awaken in us a renewed sense of your call to be the church of Jesus Christ. Amen. As I looked at this passage, I started thinking about the "marks of the church." Does anyone else remember that phrase? I think I learned it as a child. Of course, the marks of the church are the characteristics of the church, but something else was wandering around in my mind. One of the commentaries I read on this text talked about being on your mark for the race of faith. It seemed a good analogy to me, maybe because the Olympics are going on. No matter what our athletic abilities, we can all identify with that moment of profound expectation and tension felt when racers are told to get on their marks. The phrase means that the racer is to find his designated place on the track and stand by it. From the days of the ancient games of Greece, this "mark" has traditionally been a unique design, each identifying a particular athlete. Anyone who knew all the competitors' marks could tell the starting line-up at a glance. On a straight line start, the winners are often those first off their mark. To be quick off the mark is to waste no time. To be slow off the mark or to overstep the mark is to lose the race. The early church quickly established its distinctive "marks" and incorporated those marks into its life. In this passage we hear those "marks" detailed. The early church was a: 1. Learning church: they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching 2. Friendly church: they focused on fellowship, spending time together 3. Praying church: they knew they needed the guidance of the Holy Spirit 4. Sharing church: they had all things in common, so that everyone had what they needed 5. Worshipping church: day by day they spent time in the Temple I am always surprised at what an uphill battle it seems to be to get people to come to Bible study. We at Geneva are blessed to have three different Bible studies, each distinct, with its own flavor. There is the 10:00 Bible study in the fireside room led by Carl Perthel assisted by Warren and Kay Berning. Right now they are studying the Psalms. There is the Sunday evening Bible study at my home. We are studying Acts in preparation for each week's sermon. And there is the Monday morning Geneva Presbyterian Women Bible study that is usually led by Elaine Brasted. Bible study is one of the few things where you always learn something new each time you do it. A worn out Bible is the best kind of Bible. A worn out Bible is an intimate friend who's been with you a while. A Bible is to be treasured. One of my favorite professors at Princeton was Dr. Donald Capps. His area was pastoral care. He is a wonderful man and a fine teacher who felt that the very best pastoral care was based on approaches found in the Bible. One time he told us a story about himself. He was a gentle man, so it was hard to imagine someone not liking him, but he told us about one woman who didn't. He was working as a chaplain in a hospital and stopped in to visit the woman right after she was admitted. He went into her room and began to introduce himself, but it was clear that he had somehow offended her. He couldn't figure out what he had done, so having had no success talking to her, he asked if she could tell him what he had done. She explained that when he came into her room, he had more or less flung his Bible on a table. She said, "I consider that book the word of God and if you have no more respect for God's word, then I am not interested in hearing your words." My professor said that she was completely right. Her words had a profound effect on him. Think about it. This book contains the words of God. Can there be any more important book to study? But we nonchalantly toss the Bible aside in our rush to get wherever we think we are going. The early Christians knew that studying the Bible was an important mark of their faith. They couldn't be faithful without studying the teachings of the apostles. The next mark of the early church was that it was a friendly place, a welcoming group of people. Their arms were open. Years ago, when I worked at Marble, I was helping with new members. It was a large class, but the new members' program included dividing the class into smaller groups. My group was composed of women-women of all ages and various backgrounds. We were talking about how we got to Marble. A woman dressed in clean but threadbare clothes spoke first. She talked about how her life fell apart. She had been living with a man she loved, but who treated her badly. One day she came home from work, to find him and everything she owned gone. He had cleared out all the money in the bank. He had even taken her clothes. She never saw or heard from him again. She was devastated emotionally and financially. As she struggled to put her life back together, a friend brought her to Marble. She had been coming ever since. On the other side of the circle an attractive, poised woman sat. She raised her hand to speak. She began by saying that her story wasn't all that different. She had been married to a man she adored. He was very successful in business and they had only the finest of everything. She never worked outside the home. They lived in a beautiful New York apartment, which they owned. She had lovely things. She thought their life was perfect, then one day her husband had a heart attack. He died instantly. After the funeral, she sat down with their lawyer to get everything in order, only there was nothing to get in order. It turned out that for some years her husband had not been solvent. He had made some mistakes and then borrowed against everything they owned to try to recover his losses. He didn't succeed. She had to declare bankruptcy. At fifty she had to look for her first job. Eventually she found work as a receptionist. She now lived in a tiny efficiency apartment. Her struggles had brought her to church, just like the other woman. These two women looked so very different on the surface. One looked poor; the other still carried the sense of wealth. But in church they found equal acceptance, especially from each other. The mark of the Christian church is friendliness. Another mark of the Christian church is prayer. In a crisis, prayer is the most powerful force in the world. But in a crisis, we may find ourselves unable to pray. Often the prayers of the church pick up where ours leave off. In his lovely book about his last three years of life called The Gift of Peace, Joseph Cardinal Bernardin writes about recovering from extensive surgery: "They brought me back to my own room, where I experienced the discomforts one normally encounters after going through extensive surgery. I wanted to pray, but the physical discomfort was overwhelming. I remember saying to the friends who visited me, 'Pray while you're well, because if you wait until you're sick you might not be able to do it.' They looked at me, astonished. I said, 'I'm in so much discomfort that I can't focus on prayer. My faith is still present. There is nothing wrong with my faith, but in terms of prayer, I'm just too preoccupied with the pain. I'm going to remember that I must pray when I am well!" [Joseph Cardinal Bernardin, The Gift of Peace, (New York: Image Books, Doubleday, 1997), p. 67-68] The church prays, even when we cannot pray on our own. Prayer is a mark of the Christian church. Another mark of the Christian church is sharing. We are called to share what we have. Years ago a man in my church lost his job in a merger. Within a few days, he found a good job, but he and his family would have to move. The complication was that they had just bought a "fixer-upper" house. If they had to put the house back on the market as it was, they would surely lose money on it. I remember talking to them about it and I saying, "Hey, there are a bunch of people at the church who might be willing to give a day or so to help you get the house in better shape for the market." They weren't sure they would really get any help, but we set a date. Of course, the church showed up and did a great job. The couple put the house on the market and moved away. A few months later, the church received a generous check from the couple. With the check was a note to me: "We actually made a profit on the house. We figured we owed the profit to the church. Here it is!" I was proud that ours was a sharing church. The fifth mark of the early Christian church is worship. It is at the center of the life of the church. I'm convinced that you can't fake worship. Kierkegaard tells the story of a boy in a swimming pool trying to impress his father by pretending that he knows how to swim. He splashes and kicks the water with one foot and yells to his father, 'Look! Look! I'm swimming!' He splashes with his arms and kicks with one leg, but he isn't swimming-because all the time he is holding on to the bottom of the pool with the big toe of his other foot." [Tony Campolo, Let Me Tell You a Story: Life Lessons from Unexpected Places and Unlikely People, (Nashville: Word Publishing, 2000), p. 82] We can try to fake our worship. When we hold on to the values of the world, pretending to worship God it is a sham. Worshipping God means placing all of ourselves in God's care and worshipping God in thanksgiving for that care. There is one more thing I want you to notice about the early church. It was a place where things were happening. I have some friends who are living not too far from here. They are in trouble and through mistakes they will probably loose everything they own. They are living in the worst nightmare and it is a nightmare they created themselves. They made some huge mistakes. The amazing thing is that their church has rallied around them. The wife told me she had always been the one who prepared the food and ran the errands. Now she is receiving the kindness. Through this ordeal, they have noticed that the people who have helped are either members of their church or other churches. Until you experience tragedy, it is hard to imagine the love the church brings when your heart is broken. In the church of Jesus Christ, wonderful things are happening. You can count on it because the church of Jesus Christ is learning, friendly, praying, sharing, and worshipping…and many great things are happening here! Amen.