Community of Believers

~~Acts 2:1, 5, 11-13
When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place.

Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven living in Jerusalem.

Cretans and Arabs – in our own languages we heard them speaking about God’s deeds of power.” All were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, “What does this mean?” But others sneered and said, “They are filled with new wine.”  

~~I have always liked to think that were I living in Jesus' time, I would be one of his followers. I wouldn't deny him. I would risk my life for him. I would remain at the foot of the cross weeping for him. And when he resurrected, I would have shared that good news far and wide…but it’s pretty easy to say that knowing I won't be doing any time traveling anytime soon.  Ultimately, we can read about the events of that time, but we have no idea how we would respond had we lived then. We can pose hypothetical thoughts, but putting them into play is another thing entirely. An exercise I frequently try to engage our youth in is imagining if what happened then were to happen now…  Imagine walking into our sanctuary to find a crowd so large it was standing room only. Dispersed around the room were different ministers speaking to groups in different languages:  Sue McCracken would be speaking to a group from Millersburg in their language, Sharon Fields would be speaking to folks from Lexington in their language, Peggy Hickman speaking to some northern transplants in their language, Henry Hanna is speaking to some from Eastern KY in their dialect, Jeff Bell is speaking to the Paris folks and I'm speaking Georgetownian to people who have come from Georgetown. The choir and the praise band were singing together. There was excitement and chaos everywhere. People were lining up to be baptized and Travis Cook had been in the water so long his skin was starting to wrinkle.   If any of us had walked in on such a sight, we might have had varied reactions too. While some would be amazed or perplexed, still others would think we've gone crazy…or drunk on new wine.   More than a few might wonder what exactly it is we’re serving at communion.  But, you see, that is what it is to be a part of a community of believers…we don't all get excited about everything and we don't all participate in every aspect of worship. We don't all walk out on any given Sunday knowing that the sermon was preached just for me. We may even wonder from time to time why we come, because maybe we think some of the church's leadership doesn't act how we think they should or doesn't say what we think they should say on any given subject.  A community of believers is not a community of clones. If that were the case, Paul would not have had such a prolific writing career. But we are a community of people who choose to be followers of Christ and who choose daily to love one another in spite of all the crazy ways we are different.
Reverend Tracy Parker