By Rev. Gusti Linnea
Newquist
Sermon March 11, 2012
Third Sunday in Lent
Acts 4:32-35; 5:12-16
It is amazing to me what
happens to the community after the crucifixion. And no I am not talking about
the resurrection just yet. (Although to be fair the resurrection is truly
amazing.)
I am talking about the fact
that a group of people who left everything to follow a leader who captured
their imagination, only to have that leader tortured before their very eyes in
an effort to crush their movement, by all rights should be licking their wounds
and going back to Galilee and cloistering themselves in protective shelter from
the forces of crucifixion that may very well come after them next.
They are not.
Instead they keep on going.
They pool their resources together to make sure everyone has what they need. They
preach and they teach and they heal all who would cross their path. Right there
in Solomon’s Portico in the heart of the same Jerusalem temple where Jesus
overthrew the tables of the money changers just a few weeks before our
Scripture lesson from Acts.
As much as we look to Jesus
as the author and founder of our faith—and by all means we must look to Jesus as the author and founder of our faith—the truth
is that none of us would be sitting here today in this sanctuary of hope if
those first century followers of Christ had given up when it got hard. But they
keep on going, ministering to the spiritual, emotional, and physical needs of their
community, and any others in need of such ministry. Which is, of course our
Lenten Meditation on the Madison Square mission on this third Sunday halfway
through the season of reflection and renewal. Which is, of course, the part of
our mission that mostly happens every day without much fanfare but with dignity
and courage and strength and forbearance as we see Christ in one another and
bear one another’s burdens and share one another’s joys.
We are, in this mission—as
the author of Acts described the first century disciples of Christ, of Acts
puts it—to be “of one mind.” Sharing everything in radical community that we
trust with our vulnerable spirits, emotions, minds, and bodies. Which may sound
incredibly idealistic, of course. And profoundly untrue if you consider that while I do ask you to tithe, the
Apostle Peter required his community to sell all their property and give it to
the church! And of course we are most emphatically not always in agreement
about what we should do and how we should do it. But if you read further in the
Book of Acts, neither were they, even though they say they are “of one mind.”
Their Christian community—and
ours, I would argue—is something like the life of the four-year-old twin girls
named Krista and Tatiana Hogan profiled in The
New York Magazine last May. They are joined at the head. Literally “one
mind.” Their skulls fused together, sharing what their neurosurgeon calls a “thalamic
bridge” that links the sensory input of each one’s brain to the other’s.
In a very real sense Krista
and Tatiana “share everything” with one another. As infants, one of the girls
would receive a pacifier for her crying, and the other girl would be soothed
along with her, not needing her own pacifier. When one of the girls is pricked
for a blood test, the other starts to cry, as if she can feel the pain. When
the more actively energetic Krista decides to power-slurp her juice, Tatiana
puts her hand below her sternum and cries out, “Whoa!” as if she feels the
sensation of her sister’s drinking. And Tatiana, who does not like ketchup,
will try to scrape the condiment off her tongue when Krista is the one who is
actually eating it. They are literally weeping when the other weeps, rejoicing
when the other rejoices, anxious when the other is anxious, and calm when the
other is calm. Which is what life in the community of Christ is all about.
And they look out for each
other. In the middle of the night if Krista is thirsty, Tatiana will walk them
both over to a sippy-cup, pick it up, and hand it to Krista, who then drinks
from it before they crawl back into bed together. As if Tatiana feels Krista’s
thirst as her own and responds. As if Krista’s drink is able to soothe
Tatiana’s thirst, as well as her own. Which is what our table of sustenance is
all about, is it not?
Okay, so that’s them. What
about us?
As miraculous as it is, the
union of thought and feeling between Tatiana and Krista is but the most extreme
iteration of ordinary human connection. For the past twenty years scientists
who study brain activity have noted some pretty extreme examples of human
empathy that come close to the experience of Krista and Tatiana. Scientists
knew that a brain scan of a person experiencing a physically recognizable pain
or joy will fire certain neurons in that person’s brain. But what they did not
know until recently is that a brain scan of a person who is simply observing the person experiencing pain
or joy will often fire similar neurons!
So, for example, is someone
is sticking Mark Marty with a pin while he is playing a particularly difficult
piece of organ music certain neurons will fire in his brain to register the
pain. And every one of us watching will have the same neurons firing in our brains. Meaning that the phrase, “I
feel your pain,” is literally true in ways we are only just beginning to
understand biologically. We really are of
one mind and body and spirit. In ministering to the needs of one person we
really are ministering to the needs
of the world. Which is why Jesus goes after the one lost sheep as a way of
saving the entire flock. Which is why the simple act of walking with someone
through their pain—and not even, as far as you can tell, actually doing anything about it—can be the
greatest ministry you can possibly offer.
This is, I believe, what is
going on with the first century disciples in the Book of Acts as they figure
out a way to make a way out of no way when Jesus is gone and they keep on going,
ministering in his name to the spiritual, emotional, intellectual, and physical
needs of their community, and any others in need of such ministry. Because they
are “one” with one another and with God they have become so fully present in
one another’s minds that they literally feel each other’s joys and concerns,
that they literally think one another’s thoughts and perceive one another’s
visions, that they literally calm one another down and heal one another just by
their physical presence with one another. Even if that physical presence is no
more than “Peter’s shadow.” They share a “thalamic bridge” of grace and insight
into one another’s lives that borders on the miraculous, allowing them to
minister to the spiritual, emotional, intellectual, and physical needs of their
community, and any others in need of such ministry.
And we do, too.
We who are literally joined
in one mind to our sisters and brothers in this community of faith cannot help
but get up in the middle of the night to grab the sippy cup for our thirsty
sister. We cannot help but soothe our crying brother simply by offering a
calming companioning presence. We cannot help but lift one another out of
despair with the hope and the love we feel for one another can literally. Even
when we don’t like the taste of the ketchup our sister decided to indulge!
And we who are literally
joined in one mind to our sisters and brothers in this community of faith
cannot help but cast a wide and comforting and healing shadow across the entire
city of San Antonio in our mission to minister to the spiritual, emotional,
intellectual, and physical needs of anyone in need of such ministry. Because
“the least of these” Christ calls us to serve are not just Christ himself. They
are also our “self.” And by God’s
grace we really are “Christ to our neighbor of every nation and race.” Just by
being an open and welcoming community of faith bearing witness to the universal
and unconditional love of God.
But you already know that.
You already alleviate hunger by participating in the CROP walk. You already
donate time and money and supplies to Haven for Hope and Christian Assistance
Ministries and Habitat for Humanity. You already advocate for peace and pray
for peace and practice peace with God and one another.
So let me just remind you of
what you already know. And encourage you when it is hard and you’d rather go
back to Galilee in a protective cloister that we really are already truly “one”
with one another. And we already really truly are already “one” with the resurrected
Christ. And there really is truly nothing that can separate any one of us from
the love of God. Which is why we joyfully minister to the spiritual, emotional,
intellectual, and physical needs of this community, and any others in need of
such ministry.
It is already so. May it
continue to be.
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