God’s grace, peace
and mercy be with you. … My sermon is entitled Dances and Acts and is based
on Acts 2:22-36. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, the psalmist wrote, “I
rejoiced when they said to me, ‘Let us go to the house of the Lord.’” Now
that our feet are within your gates, we rejoice to hear your Word. As we
listen, may your Spirit enlighten our minds and move our hearts to love deeply
as Jesus loved. This we pray to you, Most Holy Trinity. Amen.
Throughout my high
school years, my family was very active in the Polish National Alliance in
Monaca. We were part of the Krakowiaki, a youth group that performed
traditional Polish songs and dances throughout Western Pennsylvania and Eastern
Ohio. If you’ve ever been part of a dance group, you know that everyone must
practice his or her parts many times before you can perform it before others.
The same principle applies to team sports, marching bands and plays. We call
this choreography.
Choreography is
the art or practice of designing sequences of movements of physical bodies in
which motion or form or both are specified. It came to the English language from
the French but originally from a Latinized form of Greek. Khoreia means dance
and or chorus and graphein means to write. The word literally means
dance-writing.
I open my sermon
with this illustration because it helps us appreciate the Mystery of the
Trinity. I say appreciate because it is rather difficult to fully understand
any true mystery, especially if I am the type of person who can figure out even
the most complex sciences or house repairs.
Some of the Church
Fathers described the inner life of the Trinity as perichoresis. Peri
means “around” and chorein I have just explained. Perichoresis
means “to make space around.” It points to the way in which someone or
something makes space around itself for others or for something else. It is a
picturesque word that suggests a kind of swirling or a dance. In the dance of
love in the Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit make room for one another. They
dance about and with one another in a way that shows a mutual indwelling while
still maintaining space for each person.
I will return to
dance later, but now a question: Have you ever wondered why we celebrate
Trinity Sunday? Think of Trinity Sunday in terms of Mother’s Day or Father’s
Day. Most people love and appreciate their mothers and fathers and understand
the importance of motherhood and fatherhood. Why set aside Sundays in May and
June to celebrate mothers and fathers? It’s not that we remember them only one
day a year. If they are alive, we show our love and appreciation on a regular
basis. Regarding the Trinity, we have come to know and understand how God the
Father, Son and Holy Spirit are important to our true Christian Faith, and set
aside one Sunday a year to specifically celebrate the Trinity.
To us, it may be
assumed that all who follow Christ agree with our teachings about the Divine
Personhood and the two natures of Jesus Christ. Yet, there is a long history of
individuals and church bodies whose teachings do not agree with ours.
Arianism, a sect
named after its founder, Arius, a 3rd-century priest from
Alexandria, Egypt, is such the case. Arius opposed the theological doctrines
held by Christians regarding the nature of the Trinity and the nature of
Christ. He and his followers believed that that Jesus Christ is the Son of God,
who was begotten by God the Father with the difference that the Son of God did
not always exist, but was begotten within time by God the Father, meaning that
Jesus was not co-eternal with God the Father. The Son is distinct from the
Father and subordinate to him, and not a co-equal Person of the Trinity. In short,
they did not believe in the Trinity as we do.
Principally, the
dispute between Trinitarianism and Arianism can be boiled down to two
questions. First, has the Son always existed eternally with the Father or was
the Son begotten at a certain time in the past? Second, is the Son equal to the
Father or subordinated to Him?
This controversy
continued until Emperor Constantine called the First Council of Nicaea, which
defined the dogmatic fundamentals of the Christian religion. From this Council,
we have the Nicene Creed. The Council and Creed served to rebut the questions
posed by Arians. Still, the controversy did not go away. It lingered for centuries
because many Christians in the 3rd and 4th centuries did
not understand or appreciate a clear teaching of the Christian faith, and went
along with what was being taught in their local churches. Constantine himself
was not as interested in correct teaching as he was in peace and stability in
the Roman Empire. In fact, this controversy continued until the 7th
century because emperors did not understand or appreciate their Church’s
teaching. I mean, think of how the world would be if Christian and Orthodox
world leaders accepted their Churches’ teachings!
Unfortunately for
the Arians, Bishop Athanasius, who attended the Nicene Council and refused to
accept Arianism, pushed back on the sect’s false teaching. He opposed it so strongly
that he was exiled from his office and city. The Athanasian Creed is attributed
to him, and accepting it leaves little wiggle room for questioners of our
Faith, which is why it is one of the three creeds found in the Lutheran Book of
Concord, and why we recite this creed on Trinity Sunday.
The focus of this
Creed should deepen our understanding that some religious bodies today do not
believe in the Trinity as we do. Many of the core beliefs of Unitarians and
Jehovah's Witnesses are very similar to Arianism. Mormons or Latter-day Saints
do not accept the Nicene definition of Trinity. So, from our perspective, the
beliefs of these and a number of splinter Pentecostal Churches that are not
Trinitarian are not Christian as the Book of Concord defines a Christian. This
is not to say that the people who belong to these religious bodies are bad,
but, like Athanasius, we need to be clear on what we believe and hold true.
That said, we turn
to Acts. The first thing Peter did was get his audience’s attention. In v. 14,
Peter shouted, “Men of Judea and all who dwell in Jerusalem, let this be
known to you, and give ear to my words.” In today’s opening verse,
Peter addressed his audience in these words, “Men of Israel, hear these
words: Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with mighty works and
wonders and signs that God did through him in your midst, as you yourselves
know.”
Acts’ author,
Luke, wants us to know that Peter was in Jerusalem of Judea, and first got
their ears. Peter also knew that God’s people were the People of Israel, and
were in Jerusalem for the Passover or the Feast of Shavuoth. Therefore, all
present heard Jesus’ words or saw his works. Now that Peter drew their attention
to Jesus of Nazareth, a Galilean, that meant Jesus was neither a Judean nor a
dweller of Jerusalem, but a Man of Israel.
As he spoke, Peter
indicted his listeners for having crucified Jesus. The Resurrection, however,
confirmed that Jesus’ death was part of God’s plan, as Christ Himself foretold.[1] Peter then delved into
Psalm 16, in which David expressed his trust and confidence in God, but pointed
out that it was actually Jesus speaking through the mouth of David. After his
struggle in the Garden of Gethsemane, when Jesus submitted his will to the
Father, he was no longer disturbed but serene and courageous, knowing that his
Father would deliver him.[2]
Psalm 16 expresses
Jesus’ confident hope that he would be raised from the dead. Now, keep in mind
that Jews viewed that physical decay began on the fourth day after death.
Martha commented that her brother, Lazarus, was dead for four days, and there
would be a stench in his tomb. Unlike Lazarus, Jesus was raised on the third
day – a prophetic sign that he did not nor would not see corruption.
Peter points out
that the psalm could not apply to David because his tomb was in their midst to
that day. Jesus’ tomb, however, was empty. David was buried for 1,000 years,
and so in Psalm 16 spoke of his descendent, Jesus. David foresaw and spoke of
the resurrection of the Messiah. No one could dispute Peter because he and the
others were actual eye-witnesses of the Risen Christ and His empty tomb.
What is going on
here is a conversion. When Peter said, “Give ear to my word,” and
“hear these words,” he invited careful hearing and encouraged his
listeners to shift their thinking. The people who heard Peter were now ready
for a radical makeover of their patterns of faith and thought. What follows in
the next verses is an affective response. His listeners were cut to the heart,
the center of emotion and understanding, their innermost being.[3] Next, they referred to
Peter and the others as brothers, echoing his address in verse 29.
Peter aimed to
connect with his audience in a personal, family manner and succeeded. The
result was that they were now not only ready to embrace a common understanding
of Jesus’ identity and role in God’s saving purpose, but also to respond with a
solid commitment.[4]
So, what does all
of this (my explanation of why we celebrate Trinity Sunday and an effective
teaching on Acts) have to do with us today? The answer to my question is found
in a question from Acts 2:37, when the hearers ask, “What shall we do?”
And the default answer to that is always, “Repent and be baptized every
one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and
you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”[5] Those who were baptized
also repented and received the gift of the Holy Spirit.
Friends, Baptism
is a community affair, not a simple personal and private affair between God and
me. Baptism for the forgiveness of sins admits me to the community. And if I
have excluded myself from the community through sin, repentance and forgiveness
readmits me. We should never forget that the divine forgiveness that we receive
through baptism or the words of absolution during our Divine Service was
central to the promise of Israel’s restoration.
Peter depicted
baptism as the appropriate individual response to the Gospel. “Everyone
of you” or “Each of you” means that I come to the Church
of those already baptized and ask for the Sacrament. I cannot baptize myself no
matter how strong my emotions are. When I seek baptism that means that I submit
myself to baptism by the community, the Church. As Church, we embrace those who
present themselves for baptism because baptism means belonging. Baptism is a
response and a gift.
Baptism “in
the name of Jesus Christ” provides focus for us. Looking at Peter’s Pentecost
speech, we are to call on no one else other than Jesus Christ for salvation. It
also means that we embody the discipleship as spelled out in Jesus’ ministry
and teaching. And if we do that, we cannot embrace contradictory teachings and
lifestyles.
Now, let’s return
to our dance. Before Cindy and I married, we took dance lessons at Arthur
Murray Dance Studio. We learned the Foxtrot, the Salsa, the Cha-cha and the
Tango. Don’t expect me to teach you anything other than a waltz or a polka, and
my lessons don’t come cheap. All kidding aside, I am returning to dance because
part of being a theologian, a pastor, a Christian is learning how to dance with
the Holy Spirit.
How do you dance
with the Holy Spirit? First, let the Spirit lead. Trying to lead the Holy
Spirit is like dancing with two left feet. Second, learn the steps. By that I
mean that you need to read your dance manual. Arthur Murray was successful at
teaching people how to dance because he taught one step at a time. Let the Holy
Spirit teach you how to read your manual, that is, your Bible, one page at a
time, one chapter at a time, one book at a time. Let the Holy Spirit lead you
in prayer one moment at a time, one session at a time, one day at a time. As
the master teaches dance troupes, marching bands, ballet companies and football
teams to learn their movements one at a time, so does the Holy Spirit. And the
key word is time. If I want to have fun dancing with the Holy Spirit, I need to
spend time and focus on that one step.
Friends, all of us
experience sickness and healing, love and heartbreak, success and failure, new
life and death. Through all of these experiences, our partner, the Holy Spirit,
the Third Person of Holy Trinity, is with you. The Spirit leads you, embraces
you, comforts you, celebrates you, loves you. Maybe the Holy Spirit is calling
you to improvise your steps. Maybe the Holy Spirit is prompting you to apply your
faith in a new way, in a new situation. I ask you to take some time this week
and ask the Holy Spirit to teach you how to dance like Fred Astaire or Ginger
Rogers, or whoever your favorite dancers are, and when you do, may the peace of
God that surpasses all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.
Amen.
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