You see, I was so excited when Terry and John told me some months ago that they hoped little Lucille could be baptized on May 23. I was excited because I knew that was going to be Pentecost, the birthday of the church, one of the three big holidays on the Christian calendar, right behind Christmas and Easter. For me, baptisms are all about celebration, a time when we joyously welcome into the church a new person, a day on which we can remember the blessing of our own baptisms, an occasion for reflecting on the outpouring of love God showers on all of us. And so how appropriate it is to celebrate a baptism on Pentecost, a special day of celebration in its own right, a day on which we can remember how the outpouring of God’s Spirit on those followers of Jesus launched a movement, later called the church, which went on to sweep the world, a movement which thank God has even swept many of us up in as well.

And I became even more excited when, in planning ahead, as I do, I hit upon a theme for this service and this sermon: “Gathered and Scattered.” A resource which I use in preparing worship which I often find quite helpful suggested that title, and I just knew it captured both the heart of the Pentecost story and what I knew would be happened today. This is how the resource puts it, in summary: “God’s Spirit gathers and then scatters the community of the church to bring life to it and to the world.” It fits well with what is happening today: you have been gathered here by God to witness and participate in the baptism of Lucille, and at the end of the service you will be scattered into the world, hopefully to share the joy and wisdom you have experienced here. And since this passage is about the birthday of the church, we might take this experience of gathering and then scattering as a model for how we do church, how we seek to be a faithful and growing church of Jesus Christ.

But you know what they say about the best laid plans of mice and men! You see, to paraphrase an old movie title, something funny happened on the way to the sermon, and, in a funny way, that “something” had everything to do with those alligators down on the bayou.

Over the ages, and certainly in recent memory, one very viable model of the church was captured in that phrase, “Gathered and Scattered.” At the heart of this model is the idea that what we want to do, as we go about the task that Jesus gave his disciples, and to us as well, that of making disciples of all nations – what we want to do is to first gather people in. We baptize children, bring them up in the church with church school and youth group, we teach them what they need to know about the faith, confirm them, and then send them out into the world. We do this with adults as well – we gather together for worship, they learn about us and how we “do church” together, they hopefully take a new member class or two and engage in a Bible Study or other form of Christian Education, and then they join the church. In short, they are “gathered.” And then they enlist in the work of the congregation both here and in the world out there – then they are “scattered.” Just like those followers of Jesus on that first Pentecost, who were gifted for ministry, and then scattered out into the world.

So there I am, at the end of a week long mission trip with 20 other church folk, watching these alligators swim by, and thinking about how wonderful these prehistoric creatures are to have adapted as the world has changed and so many species have died out, and next thing you know I am thinking about the church, and then (and yes I am a bit weird this way, maybe it is an occupational hazard!) I am thinking about Lucille and Pentecost and that same old way we have been doing church and – WHAM – it hits me – what if we have it backwards, if not for all times and places, at least for this time, in this culture?

I think this thought came from two separate but related things.

First off, I think it came from another look at that Pentecost reading we just had. Because if we take a careful look at the passage, we see that the followers of Jesus had come together BEFORE the Spirit came. Luke is quite explicit about it – first they are gathered together in that upper room, “and suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind”, and the tongues as if of flame dance over their heads, and they find themselves driven out into the streets where strangers from around the world hear them speaking in their own languages, telling of God’s wonderful deeds of power. And then, in response to that preaching, the crowd gathers together. First they are scattered, and THEN they are gathered and Peter delivers that first sermon.

Second, I think this thought about “Scattered and Gathered” stemmed directly from the experience we shared on that mission trip each evening. Each evening, after a long day spent demolishing ceilings, toting scrap metal, installing baseboard, hanging doors, painting trim, and more, we would rendezvous back at the church where we were staying, returning from the three separate jobsites. We would take showers, make dinner, eat together, and clean up. And then we would go upstairs to a living room area, sit in a circle, and have an hour of debriefing and worship. We would share the days highs and lows; talk about how our experience was affecting us; listen to a Bible reading, and discuss how it spoke to us and to why we were there in New Orleans; and we would sing and pray together.

Friends, I know, I know, this is such a churchy thing to do! It is something I worried would be uncomfortable for some on the trip, perhaps viewed as an imposition, an unnecessary add-on for those who had come to work and do-good for others.

But this is what everyone said afterwards. That in that hour together, in that time to share and reflect, to laugh and yes to cry, they felt that they grew in faith in ways they had never experienced before. Being together, listening to one another, taking the time and space to ponder how what we were doing during the day related to Biblical teachings, speaking about how in this experience we came to see Christ in others in new ways, was a true gift to all. One member of the group talked about how uncomfortable he was in formalized worship, so much so that he is usually elsewhere on Sunday mornings – and yet in these evening small-group sessions, something cracked open inside him and his faith deepened in stunning ways. And everyone wants to go back and do it again next year.

It seems to me that what happened for us is that we were scattered, then gathered. That the Spirit zoomed us out of our beloved 1717 Meetinghouse and away from our comfortable homes and to a place very much beyond the routine and the usual, scattering us out onto the mission field, and then gathering us together for reflection and study and worship – and in so doing, the Spirit was making better and more faithful and brighter disciples of us all, so much so that we came back here radiating the joy and the impact of that experience, and in so doing “turned on” not only those gathered here in this Meetinghouse, but those we know at our jobs and places of recreation and leisure.

But I don’t think that this experience was unique for us. I believe that in these times there is a spirit abroad in the land which values service to others, which encourages folk to reach out into the world to help others. You see this when the Sr. High Youth Group we run with two other churches draws about seven youth for our average, fun events – but when we spent the afternoon putting together 111 health kits to ship off to Haiti for earthquake relief, we had over double that number in attendance. You see this when the opportunity arises to help our partner church in Sri Lanka adopt an orphan refugee, and people jump forward to cover the $35 a month cost. You see this when folk here flock to a Habitat for Humanity build, or to serve a meal at the homeless shelter in Hyannis. I believe that in our time, works often precede faith, and provide the ground from which deeper and more vibrant faith might spring forth.

So this is my hope for you, Lucille, and for your parents, and for this church. That we will all be open to the Spirit which scatters us for service to each other and to the world beyond. That when that Spirit calls us together to share those experiences, to reflect on what we learn, and to lift our hearts in worship and praise and thanksgiving, we will respond as readily. That as we do so, we will grow in faith, in wisdom, in discipleship, and in the joy which surpasses all human understanding.

Amen.