Pivot!
“Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and to the other apostles, ‘Brothers, what should we do?’ Peter said to them, ‘Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ so that your sins may be forgiven; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”
Acts 2:37-38 (NRSV)
Fans of the show “Friends” will appreciate this moment. It’s a scene where Ross (shown here) and his friend Chandler are attempting to get a stairwell carrying a couch that is way too big for the confined space and many turns. Each turn requires multiple pivots, causing Chandler and Ross both a lot of frustration and very slow progress made (if any at all).
But pivoting is part of life.
In Acts, Peter would say it’s part of eternal life.
The Greek word transliterated into English as “repent” is “metanoiein.” This word literally means to “turn around” or “pivot.” After Peter gives a passionate explanation of how Jesus fulfills the Messianic prophecies in the Old Testament, is God in the flesh, and how his death and resurrection leads to eternal life, the awed crowd asks, “what should we do now?”
Clearly something has already pivoted in their life. Otherwise they wouldn’t have asked.
Peter tells them, “Turn around, Pivot.”
This couldn’t have been easy. They had their own confined space of limited religious freedom. Even though the Romans were tolerant towards other religions, any belief that challenged the supremacy of the emperor would have been considered treason and snuffed out immediately. They now also had a lot of weight to carry. Even the question of “Is there someone higher than Caesar?” had a lot of ramifications for daily life, not to mention turn away from the system of religious practice they’d known through the synagogue for so long.
Pivoting isn’t easy, but sometimes we have to be flexible from our own expectations to do God’s work and will.
Case in point? Sunday didn’t go as planned.
The pumpkins were supposed to come at 4pm. I had texts coming in and people telling me as 8:30 worship was starting, “The Pumpkins are here!” In my head I was thinking, “no worries, we’ll just tell people to come back at 1pm,” but almost immediately guys from the Nest class, the student ministry, some kids, and the young adult class got to work.
A bunch of people that came on Sunday morning expecting Sunday school and worship ended up sweating through church clothes and old student ministry t-shirts. But they got the job done in record time and now our patch is ready for the community!
It wasn’t the plan, but it turned into a beautiful act of community – possibly even more powerful than what was planned!
That’s the beauty of God’s grace. It may seem scary, off-putting, or difficult to pivot from what we are used to or prefer – or maybe even what we think is true. But it’s always more beautiful and fulfilling when we pivot to God’s ways than our own.
Thanks for being a church that pivots well.
Peace,
David Lessner
