Last week we focused on worship and knowing God; next week we will focus on worship and doing justice. Today our focus is on worship and building relationships.

The church of Jesus Christ is not an individual enterprise, it is about helping us to build and maintain, and nurture, and grow into a community dedicated to the ministries of hope and wholeness to which Christ has called us.

The church is a community, a place where the table is set, and as many chairs as are needed are added to it so that everyone has a place of welcome and love as we join Christ himself in the great banquet of faith. The church is the place where we worship and build relationships. I believe that it is the spirit of the living God in this place and that with every kind word, every welcoming smile, every hug and every handshake, every Amen!, and with every word of support and affirmation, we build relationships, especially when we worship.

Of course, we have relationships at work and at school. Some are from way back and some are newly forming. We have relationships at church as we enjoyed at the monthly spaghetti dinner Friday night, and with neighbors and neighborhoods, as we will hear about later today at our second Sunday potluck. We have casual and intimate relationships and formal and informal ones. Relationships matter.

The second chapter of Acts tells the story of Pentecost; and it tells the story of building a relationship with God that helped change the world. Like that first Pentecost, when in the middle of all of that wind and all of that fire and all of that confusion, there was a miracle of hearing, an accusation that the ecstasy of the Holy Spirit was drunken babble, and a sermon to explain it all. And after the sermon came a question wanting to know, how else can I respond to the Spirit, not only in this place, but in my life?

What shall we do now (Acts 2.41)? The two-fold answer then speaks to us today. First, repent, turn around, and head in a new direction; change that negative, low self-esteem, self-loathing I’ll just do it all by myself because no one cares what I do anyway attitude.

Repent, change your way of thinking to what is positive; understand that you are a child of God, called to love yourself because God loves you. We don’t have to do it all by ourselves, it may be easier for us when we do, but its not necessarily better for us. Form trusting relationships with self, with others, with Jesus Christ. Repent.

The second part of the response is to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. Come to the water and wash away all that negativity that prevented right relationships, claim new life in Jesus Christ. When you do – understand that sins will be forgiven – that separation between us and God is erased; the debt we owe to God for breaking faith and relationship is cancelled, and the gift of the Holy Spirit is ours. We will be able to do great things with that gift, we can teach and preach, help and serve, spread the good news in song and deed, discover all over again that we have something to share here.

When we worship, we want to feel that Spirit like those worshipers did on that first Pentecost after the resurrection of Jesus Christ. That is the day that 3000 people, probably not counting women and children, said yes to the invitation to become a follower of Jesus and the church was born. What shall we do? We want to ask God to open the hearts and minds of worshipers, of me and of you, so that we might one more time, feel the fire, and the wind, hear familiar words in new ways and see one another with new eyes. We worship and praise God and continue to be in relationship with one another, and the early church gives us some clues on how to do it.

What shall we do? The early church built their primary relationship with God through Jesus Christ and we are invited to do the same. What if our family life, work life, school life, life with friends, life in church, was modeled on our relationship with God? Would we listen better, serve with joy, be filled with awe, filled with joy, filled with hope, filled with love? Would we seek the best for the community because by the spirit and love of God we could do no less?

Can we do no less that those first followers did? They focused on worship and community, building up their relationships with God and with each other. They learned, they formed community, they ate, and they prayed together. They remind us that teaching and learning, fellowship, communal meals, that is what a potluck is, and it is what communion is, and prayer help us worship God, and build relationships.

Teaching and learning help us focus on why we do what we do here and on who we are as we act. They remind us that learning is a life long process. It is not enough to declare that we did Bible study and Sunday school when we were children, or we have to study at school and at work, so we do not want to do it here. Most of us learned to read when we were four or five or six, but we didn’t dare declare that we had no more need to keep reading and studying. We have found through daily devotions, through organized study, through personal study, ways to keep at it, to keep expanding our knowledge. Learn and teach and grow your spirit so that all of us can worship God with all that we have, heart, mind, body, and soul. They listened to the apostles teachings and they enjoyed the fellowship of one another.

The Greek word for fellowship, for Christian community is koinonia. From every corner of the world, God brought people to Jerusalem. They may have come to celebrate one more Pentecost – one more fifty days after the Passover harvest festival. But they found a Pentecost like no other and witnessed the birth of a new community. We are feeling the birth pangs of a new community here. Some faces may be the same, some are new and we thank God for you; some are no longer here – we praise God for the season sometimes long, sometimes short that they were with us. And now God is doing something new here, and if we will open our hearts to it, if we pray for grace to trust God and Jesus and the Holy Spirit more, we will be the community God is calling us to be.

The early church shared fellowship and they broke bread together. Luke, who wrote both the gospel of Luke and the book of Acts, thinks about food a lot. Here is how William Willimon describes Luke’s connection of faith and food. For him, "the gathering of the fellowship at the table is another tangible, visible expression of the work of the Spirit among the new community."

Jesus invited everyone to the table and accepted every invitation extended to him. He practiced radical hospitality and calls us to do the same. "Each dinner-time episode in Luke is a time of fellowship, revelation, and controversy. Jesus was criticized for the company he kept at the table: ‘this man receives sinners and eats with them’ (Luke 15.2), they charged. He failed to make proper distinction between person at his table. We know, from our own experience, that social boundaries between persons are often most rigidly enforced at the table. Eating together is a mark of unity, solidarity, and deep friendship, a visible sign that social barriers which once plagued these people have broken down.

"In good Jewish fashion, when the blessing is said at the table, the table becomes a holy place and eating together a sacred activity…Perhaps every meal for the church was experienced as an anticipation of the Messianic banquet, a foretaste of Jesus’ promise that his followers would ‘eat and drink at my table in my kingdom" (Luke 22.30).

The early church ate together and they prayed together. They talked to God about their needs, they prayed for the world and for God’s light and life to shine through them. They prayed to be the faithful people of God (Interpretation series. Acts. William Willimon. Atlanta, John Knox Press, 1988, pgs. 40-42). And when they did, things happened. They can happen for us too.

Because they were in relationship with each other, they were able to see the apostles heal the sick, care for the poor, and show mercy. In other words, they saw God at work through the leadership of the young church and they were moved to act too.

They believed together, and they held their possessions in common. They sold what they owned and gave the proceeds to the church. Be not afraid. We do not want the deed to your house, the title to your car, or access to your bank and investment accounts. We will take 10% or whatever you have to contribute, but most of all the church needs you. Those early church members acted for the good of the community and in a few weeks we will ask every member of this church to do what many you do already, we will ask you to volunteer some time here doing what you can (we will have some lists) to build up this church, to represent us in the community, to make a pledge as a visible sign of the commitment you made at baptism and are already fulfilling. We will ask you to say yes, this is the community of faith where you want to share your gifts and hear again that you are a beloved son or daughter of God. We hold in common the belief that God is good (all the time), and all the time, (God is good). Let that goodness show and shine in us.

It was their love of God and their sense of purpose that led them to worship in the temple and to worship in their homes. They gathered at tables in worship and they gathered to break bread and to pray and to sing with family and friends. Once they knew the love of Jesus Christ, they also knew what we know, that we are not just Christians here, but wherever we are, whatever we are doing, everyday.

What was the result of their worship and their relationships? Because they were in right relationship with God, and because the Holy Spirit breathed life into their spirits, their hearts were filled with joy and their hearts were filled with generosity. The joy of the Lord was in them and they spread that joy to others. They praised God. They practiced good will, they lived shalom, they shared their well-being God had given to them.

They were God’s good news people who worshiped God in the glow of the Spirit. They served God with gratitude and eagerness. They gave their gifts to God’s people and as they built those relationships the church grew.

May it be so for us too. Amen.