Six Choices for Renewal: Choose Community over Isolation - Acts 2: 37-47 - January 13, 2008 - Cicero United Methodist Church - Everett J. Bassett

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At Fort Knox, Virginia, a sergeant put a group of grunts on leaf-raking duty, with the specific instructions that he expected perfection. They were to rake all leaves into neat piles. In a little while, he was inspecting their work, and he found a stray leaf trickling across the yard. As only a sergeant can yell, he turned to one of the workers and said, "What's this!?" The quick-thinking soldier replied, "That, sir.. . .is a one-leaf pile!"

This morning's sermon is in two parts - the first is my part, and the second is the Facilities Team's part - and I want to start my part by talking about 'one-leaf piles.' I was reading a while back about a man who changed his name to DotComGuy - and then spent an entire year without leaving his house; he basically lived online. And that raises an image that is not so far from truth - more and more people living as one-leaf piles - people living in isolation from one another. Some, like DotComGuy, choose isolation.

Others simply find that it is a fact of their lives. In one study 1,467 interviews with adults surfaced the following: 25% report that they have no one to talk to about important matters. That number has doubled in the last twenty years. Over the same timeframe, the average number of close confidants reported by the subjects decreased from three to two. We are becoming more isolated from each other.ⁱ

Where you might imagine people talking on a sidewalk before, now you picture people on their cell phones doing business; where you might picture a gathering in a coffee shop, now most are on their laptops or MP3s. Consider sunglasses; you'll see people in sunglasses rain or shine nowadays, because the purpose of sunglasses is no longer simply to protect the eyes from glare - it is also to protect us from unwanted eye contact. It is an image of people withdrawing from each other - of one-leaf piles.

It is important to affirm that solitude can be a good and necessary thing - there are times we need to be alone, to draw back and regroup. But it is even more important to recognize that we were not made for endless solitude.

In the second chapter of the Book of Acts, the church has its beginnings - and it's all about life together. Verse 1 says that they were ‘all gathered together in one place' when the Holy Spirit filled the house. Verse 6 says that there was no language barrier ­everyone understood in his or her native tongue. Verse 41 tells us that after Peter's amazing sermon, 3000 people asked to join up. They immediately began to break bread and pray together. Verse 44 tells us that they shared all things together. Verse 46 tells us that they went to the Temple together, and then they gathered together in their homes. And verse 47 tells us that this life of sharing was so significant, that ‘day by day the Lord added to their number.' It was a movement of community, and it was unstoppable. The whole message of the New Testament is that once we come together in the name of Jesus, the Holy Spirit can blow through and create something beautiful, something powerful, something miraculous. As someone has pointed out, that's what all the 'one anothers' are about. In the Bible, there are at least 35 different 'one anothers': love one another, serve one another, rejoice with one another, confess to one another, comfort one another,

submit to one another, and on and on. The whole idea of Christian life is about drawing people together - not about you, not about me, but about one another.

What is not mentioned in that scripture from the Book of Acts is the messiness. What we quickly learn from experience is that being in relationship to other people is messy, it tests our patience often, it requires hard work. One person wrote, "One of the advantages of...congregational singing is that you can join in whether you have a voice or not. The disadvantage is that your neighbor can do the same."ⁱⁱ When God draws us together, the music isn't always beautiful. And some of those words about togetherness in the Bible make it sound like everything happened so simply and easily. But some of the earliest writings, like Paul's letters to various churches, show that it was not simple and easy at all for these people to live together. They couldn't agree on anything, it seems. Some of them didn't even like each other. But God put them together. And because they were together, they found power they didn't know was possible.

As we have begun to live in this new year. Jack and I have decided that our first few sermons will focus on renewal- renewal of ourselves and renewal of God's church. This renewal would focus around six choices we make. Last Sunday, in an amazing sermon about the six dream-killers and God-stoppers, Jack invited us to make the first choice ­choosing life over death. Choosing to be part of something that is alive and growing, rather than saying that the best days are in the past and long gone as we die off.

This morning, I invite each of us to make the second choice for renewal: choosing community over isolation. All of God's work from creation on is upholding the fact that it is not good for one to be alone. Maybe it wasn't even good for God to be alone - so God created; then God said that it was not good for a man to be alone, so God gave humans companionship; then God called people to join in a covenant relationship with Himself and each other; then God sent Jesus to teach us to love, and Jesus called disciples together, and then multitudes, and then the Holy Spirit made the church. And the church is where you and I join together to renew hope and life, for ourselves, for each person in this worshiping family this morning, and for the whole world.

I have to pay attention to that, because, whenever I take one of those personality tests, I always am told what I've known since I was twelve - that I am an introvert. I get my energy by having time to myself. So, when I think about being renewed, I could be very tempted to want to be a one-leaf pile.

But God has spent most of my adult life showing me that that is just not the way to go. I can read the Bible by myself, and sometimes figure something out in it; but if I really want to learn and understand what God is saying to me in scripture, I get together with other people, because that's where the truth can really be heard. There is certainly some benefit in personal Bible study, but the fact is, there is not one single word of scripture that was meant to be read alone - every word of it was meant to be read and interpreted by the community. I can sit and pray by myself, and I think God hears and answers; but if I really want to see the power of prayer touching lives and changing the world, I pray with all of you, because together our prayers are a mighty force. I can write an email or a letter that expresses my voice, and that is important. But when I get together and work beside people in this room, and when I become part of a worldwide connection like The United Methodist Church, then I have impact across the community, and in every corner of the globe. If you are looking for personal renewal, for prayer-power, for insight from scripture, for impact and challenge and the joy of being part of something that is vital and world-changing, then praise be to God, you are in a place where it can happen. You are in the church, and ~ here is where the Holy Spirit makes disciples that can change the world.

As we're about to see from the Facilities Team video, world-changing ministry has been happening here for many generations. And if you've been here more than a few Sundays, you know that the Holy Spirit is at work. We are blessed by renewing power, and we are growing together faithfully. All of this is against the odds. Mainline churches across the country, and especially in the Northeast, are experiencing overall decline. Many of you have been in churches that reflect that. But by the grace of God - and that's truly all it is -- we see something different here. All the more important that we thank God for great blessings, and then humbly rise to the challenge - push those dream-killers and God-stoppers out of the way, and dedicate ourselves to what God has made possible.

A young boy rang a neighbor's doorbell and asked if they would buy greeting cards. "What are you raising money for?" they asked. "I'm going to feed all the hungry people in the world," he said. "Isn't that too much for one boy to do all alone?" they asked. "Oh, I'm not all alone," he said, and he pointed to another boy knocking on a door across the street. "My friend Jeffy is helping me."

Jesus said it only takes two for powerful things to happen. There are a lot more than two here; and God has great plans. Praise the Lord, and join up for a great ride.

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ⁱ Social Isolation in America, Lynn Smith-Lovin

ⁱⁱ Charles Dudley Warner