(I am on vacation this week, or rather, a stay-cation. Enjoying stepping away from pastoral and preaching responsibilities. Here is a sermon from the beginning of July 2007, when I was co-interim pastor of a (sadly) now-closed little church, St. John’s United Church of Christ in Evanston, Illinois.)

Acts 2:42        July 1, 2007

“Approaching God in Community”

            Life here in America, even here in the Chicago area, in the 21^st century can be lonely. People often live alone, drive alone, shop alone, even work alone. Many people do not talk about their lives, are never asked how their day is going, rarely experience a caring touch. Loneliness and a sense of isolation are part and parcel of many people’s daily lives. Unless people intentionally make an effort to interact with others today, whole days—even weeks can go by without meaningful encounters.

            There are lots of reasons for this. The rapid communication trend with ever increasing speed has distancing, impersonal effects on many. The nuclear family is fragmented, now more than ever. Technology will continue to develop, and businesses downsize, fragmenting society and driving people further apart. And then, of course, we need to consider the speed with which everything is going now, so much faster than fifteen or twenty years ago.

            A retired pastor friend of mine told me a while ago about some elderly people at a church he pastored, a number of years ago. Some of them lived alone, either in houses or apartments. My friend told me about the loneliness that drove several of them out to the grocery store every day, because if they did not have that interaction with the checker checking out their food, they would not have a personal encounter in the entire day. A few were so hungry for personal contact, they desperately wanted the physical touch that comes from an exchange of money at the cash register; so simple, so fleeting.

            Similarly, some people today are searching for an interaction with God. George Barna, the guru of surveys, statistics and demographics, found that 49 percent of people who do not attend church, in the 1990’s—less than ten years ago—wanted a close relationship with God. These are people who do not even darken a church door. The percentage is even larger when we consider the people who do attend church. There is a common desire among many to have an encounter with God. Saint Augustine referred to it as a God-shaped hole in our hearts.

            This longing for God, this desire for an encounter with God, I see as similar to longing for human contact. Both longings stem from a deep loneliness, a need for something internally, a kind of relationship. Many people are yearning for some kind of deep relationship in their lives, both horizontally—with other human beings, as well as vertically—with God.

However, there is a problem. This longing cannot be filled. The encounter—both vertically as well as horizontally—that many people want to have cannot happen. Something gets in humanity’s way. Something is in our lives and hearts, and acts as a block, a separation. You know it as well as I do, and this something is sin.  Sin is a separation; it comes between us and other people. Sin comes between us and God.

I won’t dwell on sin much, other than to say that it is a prideful, selfish, sometimes downright rebellious attitude. The “me, first!” attitude that comes between us and other people, and especially comes between us and God. And that deep-down attitude separates us, builds walls, and keeps humanity from developing relationships, from having meaningful, honest encounters.

But there is good news. God wants to break down that separation, and allow us to encounter Him. The Bible tells us that Jesus had willingly taken our sins on Himself to pay the “wages of sin” in our place!  And God the Father made it clear to everyone that He was completely satisfied with this payment by the fact that He raised Jesus His Son up from the dead!  And so, the way is now clear for us to have the relationship with God that we were meant to have! At last, the “hole in our souls” can be filled to our satisfaction, this deep-down longing for God can be filled.

So this is good news! This is very good news! But I haven’t even started to examine our scripture passage for this morning. I wanted to take a brief look at the second chapter of Acts.

Peter—you all remember Peter, don’t you? Peter was just finishing his sermon in Jerusalem, on the day of Pentecost. The book of Acts records one of the biggest altar calls ever. About three thousand people welcomed the gospel message of Peter into their hearts, and joined the brand new group of believers that day. Talk about a soul-winning campaign! God touched the hearts of thousands of people that day, and drew all these people to Himself. God had a close encounter with each one of these people that day.

One of the most amazing things we can learn from this passage is that God not only repaired the way for Him to have a relationship with each person, vertically-speaking, but this lifting of the sin-separation repairs the way for us as individuals to have a relationship, to have an encounter with each other. God causes the separation to disappear, both horizontally, as well as vertically.

Listen again to the passage, starting at Acts 2:41-42. “So those who welcomed his message were baptized, and that day about three thousand persons were added. They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.”

Welcoming the message of the good news is the first part I want to consider. God repaired the separation. About three thousand people came to faith in the message Peter preached. God drew these people to Himself, reached their hearts, and caused the separation of sin to disappear.

Do you hear? Do you understand? God wants to approach us just as much as we want to approach Him—more, even, since God’s love is higher than the highest heaven and deeper than the deepest sea. And God has made this possible by the death of His Son on the cross, reconciling us to Himself, breaking the separation that divides us from God.

But wait—that’s not all. Not by a long shot.

God not only wants to bring us into a close relationship with Him, God wants each of us to come into a relationship with each other. And what an awesome opportunity to do both at the same time. In worship, we have the opportunity to experience a close encounter with God and with other people worshiping with us.

We here at St. John’s Church call this congregation a church family. Well, that’s exactly what Dr. Luke had in mind as he wrote the book of Acts. He wanted to emphasize that separate, lonely, desperate individuals not only developed a relationship with God, but through their heartfelt belief, they developed a relationship with each other. And that relationship, that fellowship has the opportunity to be realized in worship, together.

In centuries past, congregations took the opportunity to worship actively together. Congregational singing, reciting creeds, celebrating communion, reading liturgy, passing the peace—all of these are expressions, activities that congregations used to do together. But, there’s more. Much, much more. God is pleased when we are creative, and what better way to be creative than in worship and praise of our God.

Now, especially in some churches, worship is becoming increasingly a passive activity. Just sit back, and watch the show up front. But this isn’t a way to have a relationship with God, or with our fellow church family! People cannot interact with God and with others if they don’t have anything to do on a Sunday morning in a worship service.

God wants a relationship with us. God wants to get in touch with us. And part of that interaction comes from our getting in touch with each other. As someone here in the congregation mentioned a couple of weeks ago, it is especially at times of deep emotion that a congregation can pull together and show love and concern for each other.

It would be silly to think that a relationship could be built simply on loving thoughts and nothing else. No, a relationship is built on regular interactions, close encounters on a regular basis. The book written to the Hebrews advises these believers not to neglect the assembling of themselves together. They were to assemble regularly for worship. I’d like to go even further, and suggest that we not neglect worship that is interactive—not only between the congregation and God, but between the members of the congregation.

God is offering you, offering me, the opportunity for a relationship with Him, as well as a relationship with our church family. The options are there in front of us—loneliness and separation, both vertically as well as horizontally, or relationship and fellowship, with God and with our church family.

What does this look like? I don’t know, exactly. It’s different for different congregations. God is a God of infinite variation, and I suspect He accepts worship of all different kinds, just as God accepts people of all different cultures and people-groups.

I invite you to start praying about worship, and talking about it with each other, too. Some here may feel rather skittish, or downright silly, entertaining different and new ideas about worship. Some may even feel like they’re “breaking the rules,” but that’s okay.  This interactive worship, both in a horizontal way as well as a vertical way, is truly biblical worship. It is truly a way for us to approach God, as well as each other. And in this day and age, that’s what humanity needs—a close encounter with God, as well as with each other.