Delivered By Rev. Ellen Brantley

Sunday, April 13, 2008

SERMON: Hopefully Devoted

TEXT: Acts 2:42-47

“A law was made a distant moon ago here, July and August cannot be too hot. And there’s a legal limit to the snow here, in Camelot. Camelot. Camelot. I know it gives a person pause. But in Camelot, Camelot, those are the legal laws. The rain may never fall ‘til after sundown. By nine p.m. the moonlight must appear. In short there’s simply not a more congenial spot for happily ever-aftering than here in Camelot.”

Remember the story of Camelot? Arthur, who is known as the greatest warrior of all time, is king of England. But he despairs that the map of England is only “a fishnet of ill-begotten kingdoms ruled by immoral lords battling with their own unlawful armies over illegal borderlines.” Instead, he dreams of a peaceful, civilized kingdom. He sees as his purpose to improve rather than destroy. While the popular belief is that “might makes right,” Arthur’s philosophy is “Might FOR right; Right for right; Justice for All.” To this end, he establishes the knights-of-the-round-table. Where there is no head of the table, he believes there would be no jealousy. Instead of fighting, Arthur envisions that his knights will talk across the table, debate, make laws, plan improvements. Queen Guenevere questions why anyone would want to do anything so “ridiculously peaceful.” Arthur answers, “We’ll make it fashionable.”

It is a beautiful, romantic ideal, that lasts but for “one brief shining moment.” Indeed, it was too good to be true.

I was reminded of Camelot when I read the passage from the Book of Acts about the early church. Those who believed that Jesus was the Son of God and that he was raised from the dead started meeting together on a regular basis. Thus began the Christian church. Hear again how Paul described it: “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.”

Much like Camelot, it is a beautiful, romantic ideal of how we envision the church. Peaceful and civilized, we stand for what is right, and our purpose is to improve rather than destroy. Indeed, our Divine purpose is to bring forth the kingdom of God, “on earth as it is in heaven.” And we experience brief, shining moments every now and then, but mostly, this description of the church is simply too good to be true.

As Jesus warned, thieves and bandits do come in to the sheepfold to steal and kill and destroy. Even with Jesus as our Good Shepherd, we the sheep are not totally safe. There are strangers who will call to us, who seek to lead us astray, and we have to be careful to listen only to the voice of the shepherd. Other voices, the voices of the world – attractive though they may be – lead only to destruction.

Having been led astray many times in our lives, most of us are well aware that Paul’s ideal description of the church is too good to be true. However, I hope that we would stop short of calling the ideal “ridiculous” as Guenevere did. Most of us would agree, I hope, that the way Paul describes it IS the way the church SHOULD be.

We as modern day disciples of Christ SHOULD BE “devoted to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship.” But, what does that mean exactly? Well, for those early believers, it meant that they would listen to those who were taught by Jesus and were continuing to share his message. The early believers were committed to spending time with Jesus’ original disciples and learning from them about who Jesus was and how he lived. Today, of course, we can’t learn from the original disciples, but we can gather together to learn from those who have studied the Bible, and we can learn from each other about how to live out our faith. That’s what the church SHOULD BE all about – a place for believers to gather, to teach one another, to learn from each other, to fellowship together, to pray together, and to break the bread of communion together. Contrary to popular belief, you can’t be a true disciple of Christ in isolation from the church. Disciples are meant to be in community with one another.

“All who believed were together,” Paul said, “and had all things in common.” There again, it is too good to be true – we know that we don’t have all things in common. Christians are a diverse group; we have many differences. Differences of background, differences of experience, differences of culture, even differences of values and differences of opinion. All these denominations and different factions of Christianity – I don’t believe that’s what God had in mind. The ideal is that those who believe in Christ SHOULD BE TOGETHER.

Nor do we share all our material “things” as common property. That would be socialism, and socialism is a dirty word to us. But Paul said, “They would sell their possessions and goods and distribute the proceeds to all, as any had need.” With every word he moves farther and farther away from reality, doesn’t he? You might say that this one even borders on the ridiculous. While many of us may try to practice charitable giving, we would laugh at any suggestion to sell our possessions to make sure that everyone has what they need. That WOULD BE too good to be true. But again, that’s what the church is about – we SHOULD do whatever we can to make sure that people have what they need.

“Day by day,” Paul continued, “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.” Well, in our modern world we don’t have time for worship “day by day.” Maybe we can make room on Sunday – if we don’t have anything better to do. And as far as eating our food with glad and generous hearts – here in the United States, we’re never satisfied with what we have; we’re always wanting more. So we’re not very glad or generous. We can’t share with the Joneses because we’re in competition with them to see who can have the most.

Finally, Paul said, “Day by day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved.” Most churches today are not adding to their numbers, but are experiencing gradual membership declines year after year.

That’s the reality. It’s not romantic; it’s not beautiful; and it’s far from ideal. The other reality is that I’ve broken one of the rules of good sermon writing: stay away from the SHOULDS. But I’m not finished yet.

Because I know that we don’t like depressing stories of the way things really are. Most of us (including those who would rather not admit it) are incurable romantics. We like King Arthur’s ideas of the round table. We enjoy basking in the bright shining moment that Camelot enjoys. And we wish it didn’t have to end on a note of such heartbreaking reality. But if you remember the very end of Camelot – the final moment when it seems that all is lost – hope is born again as a young boy speaks to King Arthur about his own dream to become a knight-of-the-round-table.

We need to hope. We need to keep the ideal in front of us as a goal to keep striving toward. As Paul wrote in his letter to the church at Philippi, “This one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus.” Day by day we need to wake up forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead. Day by day we need to wake up believing that today is going to be a better day, that we’re going to start over, that we have yet another chance to try again and to get it right. If we didn’t believe that, we might not get out of bed at all.

You know, just because we’re human doesn’t mean we should stop trying to be like Jesus. Just because reality fails to live up to the ideal, doesn’t mean we should give up, and it doesn’t mean that the ideal is wrong or impossible. We have to have ideals, because without them, we have no hope. There IS a “happily-ever-after” waiting for us, but it’s not in Camelot. It’s in the “prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus.” And we SHOULD – no, we MUST – “press on toward it.”

As King Arthur tells the young boy who wants to be a knight, “Tell the story about the knights-of-the-round-table.” For if the boy believed in the ideal, then the dream would not die. The story ends triumphantly when with renewed hope, King Arthur sings, “Don’t let it be forgot, that once there was a spot for one brief shining moment that was known as Camelot.”

To be “HOPEFULLY DEVOTED” means that we need to tell the story of the early church. We need to believe in and strive for the ideal church. We need to keep the dream alive, and day by day add to our number. We need to follow the voice of Christ, the Good Shepherd, not just to enjoy “one brief, shining moment,” but that God’s kingdom may come, and all people may “have life, and have it abundantly.”

AMEN.