Sermon for the Preaching Excellence Conference, June 2010, Villanova University
Acts 2:1-21
When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability.
Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven living in Jerusalem. And at this sound the crowd gathered and was bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in the native language of each. Amazed and astonished, they asked, ‘Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? And how is it that we hear, each of us, in our own native language? Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabs—in our own languages we hear 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.’ But Peter, standing with the eleven, raised his voice and addressed them: ‘Men of Judea and all who live in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and listen to what I say. Indeed, these are not drunk, as you suppose, for it is only nine o’clock in the morning. No, this is what was spoken through the prophet Joel:
“In the last days it will be, God declares,
that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh,
and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,
and your young men shall see visions,
and your old men shall dream dreams.
Even upon my slaves, both men and women,
in those days I will pour out my Spirit;
and they shall prophesy.
And I will show portents in the heaven above
and signs on the earth below,
blood, and fire, and smoky mist.
The sun shall be turned to darkness
and the moon to blood,
before the coming of the Lord’s great and glorious day.
Then everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.”
Preaching Jesus. That's our assignment for this week, and it sounds simple enough, right? Pick a gospel lesson and go. Actually, as I thought about this topic over the past couple weeks, I found it more challenging than I originally expected. So last Sunday when we read this lesson from Acts for Pentecost, I was glad to be reminded that I'm not alone. The book of Acts is all about those early disciples wrestling with this same question: how to preach Jesus. When Jesus was alive, he did most of the preaching; he told his own story, and the disciples were mostly apprentices. But suddenly Jesus is gone, and the entire burden of spreading the gospel rests upon them. It's really no small assignment, then or now.
So instead of tackling this topic with full force when school let out, I pretty much ignored it. Instead, I parked myself on my couch to watch the entire first season of the hit TV series "Glee." Now I see what everyone was talking about – and enjoying, while I was buried under theology, homiletics, & field ed this year. Before I even got through the first DVD, I was a full-fledged Gleek.
For those of you who have also been living in a cave this year, a synopsis: "Glee" is the story of a passionate, hard-working, very good-looking high school teacher who takes over the school's dying Glee Club and attempts to transform it into an award-winning show choir, with costumes, choreography, and even a little Lady Gaga. Lucky for him, William McKinley High School has a few supremely talented teenagers running around – and lucky for me, it's a really good metaphor for the early church. So I will venture to present five things "Glee" teaches us about preaching Jesus.
1. Strength in numbers
In Glee, the official "Show Choir Rule Book" specifies that in order to be eligible for competition, a group must have at least 12 members. During the first half of the season, nearly every episode deals with the ever-elusive quest to reach and maintain this magical number. At least one person is always walking out or threatening to quit, thereby endangering the entire existence of the Glee Club. But they always come back, restoring the original number, and the show goes on.
With two years of seminary under our belts, we all know how important the number 12 is, Biblically speaking. After Jesus ascends in Acts, the first thing the disciples do is hold auditions for a twelfth member. Before they can even begin to preach the gospel, they have to make sure they're within regulation. In this case, the rule book is that of divine necessity, of fulfilling the scriptures, a major theme for the writer of Luke and Acts. Without a full 12 members, the group will remain divided and thus Israel will remain divided, and God's plan to restore Israel will be ruined. So yes, in reality 11 disciples could have picked up the slack in getting the early church going and spreading the good news, but their insistence on having a total of 12 represents their knowledge of how important scripture and tradition are in providing stability for the message they will proclaim.
Second point: Preaching Jesus requires a common language
Like the original 12 disciples, the Glee Club at William McKinley High School is a rag-tag bunch. They have been called from all corners of high school society – some are football players and cheerleaders at the top of the heap, while the others are regularly thrown in the dumpster or have slushies thrown in their faces by those same popular kids. But they can all sing. And while some of the members originally join the group under duress or with ulterior motives, they soon discover this common language. They discover connections they never would have known if they hadn't joined Glee Club. In one of my favorite episodes, Mr. Schuester, the director, makes everyone spend a week navigating life in a wheelchair, so they can relate to Artie, their fellow singer who has spent most of his life in a wheelchair. To sing and perform effectively as a group, they have to be aware of their differences, but also of the things that connect them.
The author of Acts tells us basically the same thing. Suddenly Parthians, Medes, and Elamites understand each other. It's important to note that they don't all begin to speak the same language, but that they begin to hear one another, each in his or her own native language. The Holy Spirit makes this unity possible, and suddenly the crowd understands that they've all been saying the same thing all along. They have all been "speaking about God's deeds of power." Once they understand each other's languages, and what they have in common, they can finally hear and preach the good news.
This leads me to point #3, which is that preaching Jesus is often misunderstood
On the ladder of popularity, being a music nerd barely gets a foothold on the bottom rung. I can speak from experience on that one. In Glee, the football players and cheerleaders who take up singing have the hardest time explaining themselves to their peers. Their fellow jocks aren’t able to hear their common language of music and the connections it reveals between us, because that would upset their carefully crafted social order. So the "popular" Glee kids begin to experience the same threats and derision their nerdy counterparts are long familiar with.
Doesn't this remind you of the response of the crowd to the descent of the Holy Spirit. It's not: "Wow! This is amazing! How do I get to be part of this?" but "Ah, they're just drunk." Sometimes, even when we're doing our best, even when the Holy Spirit is speaking through us, the message can fall completely flat, by no fault of our own. The gospel doesn't always sound like good news the first time around (or the second, or the third), and no one knew that better than Jesus himself. But if it makes everyone feel comfortable and satisfies the status quo, it's probably not the true gospel. Preaching Jesus in a genuine way rarely leads to popularity.
4. We have to preach Jesus out of our own experience
Of course there are a lot of show stoppers in Glee, but it's not all song and dance. The music is set against the backdrop of each kid's individual life, and there's a lot of drama: Kurt has recently come out of the closet to his dad; Quinn was disowned by her parents and kicked off the cheerleading squad when she got pregnant; Fin's mom has just started dating for the first time since his dad died; and even Mr. Schuester has his own fair share of drama. All of this affects their performance in various ways, good and bad. At one point, Kurt (the one who just came out of the closet) tries to regain his dad's affection by ditching his usual designer wardrobe and dressing in flannel and truckers' hats. When he breaks out into a John Mellencamp tune, his friends politely point out that, while it is technically a fine performance, it's just not him.
The original disciples each had an individual relationship with Jesus. They had all witnessed the same person and the same events, but each one interpreted them through the lens of his own life and his own connection with Christ. While we don’t have the same physical connection 2,000 years later, we do all have our own relationship with Jesus. Our parishioners don't want to hear us preach someone else's gospel. They want to hear us preach about what the stories of salvation have meant in our own lives, so they can figure out the same thing for themselves. As preachers, we are not islands. We are real people living in time and space and relationships. To be authentic, we have to meet Jesus in our own lives and preach about what we find.
Finally, and perhaps most important, preaching Jesus requires passion and joy. Or, shall I say, glee. I've now used this word about a hundred times in this sermon, but it's one that's fallen out of common English usage for the most part – least of all in reference to religion. I think one of the reasons Glee has been such a popular show is that everyone wants to relate to that feeling of spontaneous song and dance, the unmatched excitement of choreography and jazz hands. We all want to think we could let go and have that much fun.
Even in our Pentecost lesson, Peter turns to Hebrew poetry from the prophet Joel to best express what is happening among the disciples – he pretty much breaks into song. “In the last days it will be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams." It's beautiful, and moving. I think we're all here because we hope our preaching can move people in the same way, and we know that it can be much more than brushing up on a few commentaries and listening to the sound of our own voice for 12 minutes. I'm not saying that preaching on sitcoms is the answer, but tapping into whatever it is that brings passion and joy into your life, because that is where Jesus dwells. So as we walk through this week together and then go our separate ways again, I hope you will find yourself surrounded by prophesy, visions, and dreams, preaching Jesus with a song in your heart.
