Tedd Pullano
Acts 1:1-11

Apostles

Some of my favorite stories, real or imagined, are of a person who has an idea or a vision and they set out to accomplish it. They see the way things can be and they set out to make it happen. Yet, the leader who has this goal, this vision, cannot do it all by himself or herself. He or she needs help; others who can help bring the vision to reality. The leader knows what to do, where to go and it is the leader's job to help the members of the team or group get to the goal, the vision. In order to do this, the leader, the visionary needs to do whatever is necessary to equip, train, teach and empower those carrying out the work. It would be foolish to give people a vision and then send them out to do it without equipping them to do it. I first think of many sports teams. Now, I am not a Yankees fan -- sorry Kristi -- but in my lifetime, we are fortunate to have Joe Torre, former manager of the NY Yankees. He took a group of ballplayers, taught them some of the specifics of the game, and helped them win 4 World Series titles in 5 years. And there are leaders in other areas. We all know Bill Gates -- he had an idea for a computer company, but couldn't do it by himself, so he gathered a couple of friends -- provided some vision and leadership, taught them what he knew and empowered them to go and build on it -- and now we have Microsoft Corp. And what about our own Nancy Allinger? She had this vision for a ministry to the kids of the neighborhood where they would learn and get to play and be part of a church and be performers. She secured some money to help make this happen, but she could not do it by herself so she enlisted the help of others. And through the works of those others, they have provided teaching, training and helped equip the kids to complete the vision and the play. And on June 1st, right here in this sanctuary, you will see the fruits of that vision. In all of these situations, and in many more, we have a leader with a vision who enlists the help of others to accomplish the vision. Amazing stuff.

In a very powerful way, the New Testament book, the Acts of the Apostles, is about exactly that -- leadership that found followers who could continue the vision, and equipped them to do so. Let's remember, the Greek word used for "apostles" is apostolos which means a messenger, a delegate, one who is sent forth. So that is exactly what happens in this book. One with an incredible vision sends forth a group of people to accomplish that vision. Only in this case, the visionary, the leader is God. Let me remind you that as Reformed Christians, as Presbyterians, we firmly believe that God is involved in this world in powerful and exciting ways. We believe that God is active in this world in extra-ordinary ways. And even more specifically, we believe that God is acting in this world to bring about his vision of a Kingdom. That is, a Kingdom, a time when we all have enough, where wholeness is had by everyone, where peace reigns supreme and love is the order of the world. We believe that after the fall of Creation, God began this process of restoring Creation to wholeness and that God is in the process of bringing that Kingdom to its fulfillment. And at the center of that attempt to build the Kingdom stands the person of Jesus Christ. And it is out of that person, out of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus that we find our life and our identity. In Jesus Christ we learn that God has healing, love and wholeness in store for all people on this planet. We see that clearly through the way he lived his life, the things he taught and the fact that Jesus Christ gave his life for us.

So, in this situation, in a very real way, God is the coach, the manager, the team leader with a vision of what the world needs to be like. God has this vision of an incredible Kingdom. And yet, as we look around, clearly the Kingdom is not here yet. And as we look around, God is not sitting here. Whatever God looks like, as we look around there is no real, physical person God right here right now. And, as we read in today's Scripture readings, Jesus has ascended into heaven and is not here either. He was taken up into heaven, whatever that might mean. But whatever it means, he is not here in the same way that he was 2000 years ago. And yet the Kingdom is not fulfilled, not fully built.

So, there is still work to be done. And as a good leader, God is calling people together to accomplish that work. And God is equipping them to accomplish the task. And do you know who those people are? You guessed it. They are you and me. We are the kingdom builders. We are the next in line to all those who have gone before us -- starting with the Apostles we read about today. They were the beginning of this team that is to build the Kingdom. They started it, and we are called to continue the work.

And God, being the wonderful coach and leader that she is, is working to equip and train us to accomplish the work of building up the Kingdom. Like we mentioned earlier, a good leader always equips the people, trains and empowers them to accomplish the task at hand. God is no different. God has this vision and knows that we are primed to help do the work of the building. And God wants us to succeed, so he has given us a gift to equip us. And that gift is the Holy Spirit. Next week, we will begin the celebration of Pentecost. This year, we will explore it over two Sundays. Next week, Chuck Whitfield will explore the birth of the Church, and I will follow up the subsequent week. And as we explore Pentecost, we will begin to understand how we are sent into the world, like the apostles -- but more than that, we will begin to understand how we are equipped to do what we are called to do.

And so, over the next two weeks we will explore and understand a little better what this Holy Spirit is and what the gift of the Spirit is. And let me tell you why that is important. Because the work of building the Kingdom is quite hard. If we try to do it without the Holy Spirit in our lives, we will not have the impact we need. A book I read recently, The Jesus Connection by Jan Linn, writes that part of the problem with the church today is that it is in the world without being sent. That is, it is busy at work in the world but in such a way that it has not paid enough attention to its life of the Spirit. He believes that renewal and success of the church hinges on us recapturing our sense of the personal nature of faith -- that if we are going to be out in the world, we need to be in touch with the coach, the leader who sets the vision and sends us out. In order for us to be successful and productive in building the Kingdom, we need to be filled with the Spirit.

You see, we are given a great many tools -- the Scriptures, prayer, each other, this beautiful Creation -- to help us understand and build the Kingdom. All of these pieces will help us to be good and faithful builders in this work of God we have been called to do. And at the heart of all of them is the Holy Spirit. At the heart of understanding the Bible, of having certain gifts, of being called to specific and certain ministries, at the heart of strength giving prayer is the Holy Spirit. And as Jesus left on that day we call Ascension, he promised to send us a helper, the Advocate, the One would help us carry out the building of the Kingdom to its fulfillment.

We are the team God has chosen to do wonderful things. In this month's Herald, I listed some of the many ministries we are involved in. As I did so, I was amazed at how much we are trying to do. And I also got a little concerned. With this size group trying to do that many things, the opportunity for burnout, frustration and discouragement is great. Especially if we do not attend to our life of the Spirit. So let us continue to pursue that. Let us celebrate the gift of the Holy Spirit and its place in our lives and hearts. And let us grow and flourish and make our coach proud. This is a great team.

(And yet there are stories of people who had visions of a wonderful product or situation that were unable to get the support they needed and soon failed. There are many restaurants and retail opportunities which fall into this category. Great ideas and leaders, but no followers, no one to help carry the vision into the future. I would like to tell you who they are, but we don't know because they did not succeed. But we do know of Joe Torre or Bobby Knight or Bill Gates or Tom Golisano -- people who had a vision, taught others about it and equipped them to move the vision forward.)