Over a simple evening meal at a Dubuque-area monastery, a small group of seasoned pastors compared notes on the current state of Christ’s Church. Surely among the sharing were joys and blessings of Spirit-inspired ministry happening in each of our respective congregations. But so also shared were myriad concerns over the changing nature of congregational life in 21st America.
Among the changes grieving the heart of nearly every pastor ringing the wooden dinner table that evening was the dwindling nature of Christian community, and in particular, nearly every pastor bemoaned the loss of fellowship hour on Sunday mornings. Apparently sharing doughnuts and coffee after worship is a weekly ritual lost to many congregations.
“Not in my church,” I said. “The First Presbyterians of Waukon, Iowa, break bread together all the time,” I was pleased and proud to report. And my tablemates were stunned.
Indeed, among the robust ministries happening here in this place is the worshipful work of fellowship and hospitality that builds and strengthens community. Connections are made; relationships are formed. The weak and the weary find nourishment for soul and spirit; the lost and alone feel a little less forlorn and isolated. And those are good things.
OK, so yes: A lot of the recipes that create our many fellowship treats begin with a pound of butter and four cups of sugar, and those ingredients aren’t necessarily what our health-care providers want us eating. But so be it! I tend to think that each recipe also includes healthy measures of love that get mixed into every offering on the breakfast buffet – whether baked at home or purchased from the bakery aisle. And that’s a good thing. A very good thing!
That’s a very good thing, because it is among the many revelations that God’s Holy Spirit in Jesus Christ without question is here among us, moving as she often does like a gentle breeze, to bring great, beautiful, and wonderful things to fruition. Listen carefully now to the Word of the Lord, and be nourished by this glimpse of the ancient Church community that in so many ways mirrors ours. And thanks be to the Spirit of Pentecost, the similarities extend far beyond the walls of the church kitchen and fellowship hall. I’m reading to you from the New Testament’s Acts of the Apostles –
[As the apostle Peter addressed the crowd on the Feast of Pentecost,] he testified with many other arguments and exhorted them, saying, “Save yourselves from this corrupt generation.”
So those who welcomed Peter’s message were baptized, and that day about 3,000 persons were added. They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.
Awe came upon everyone, because many wonders and signs were being done by the apostles. All who believed were together and had all things in common; they would sell their possessions and goods and distribute the proceeds to all, as any had need. Day by day, as they spent much time together in the temple, they broke bread at home and ate their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having the goodwill of all the people. And day by day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved. (Acts 2:40-47)
Some pretty great things apparently do happen when God mixes with us. With God’s Spirit dwelling within our hearts, God’s Spirit points our hearts toward Jesus. And when the Spirit points your heart toward Jesus, what you see with your eyes will be awe-inspiring: “many wonders and signs,” much listening and learning, the lavish hospitality of bread and prayer.
Maybe that’s because, when the Spirit points your heart toward Jesus, your heart so also is turned toward the Cross of Jesus. And its simple shape – vertical beam intersecting the horizonal – sketches the faithful model for living together in grace-filled relationship with God and with one another. I’ve shared the image with you before, but the power of its simplicity bears a repeat.
Imagine the vertical beam expressing God’s relationship with us and our relationship with God: one end anchored in dirt, the other reaching for the sky, seeming to bridge the gap between heaven and earth. In the vertical, the God of heaven reaches out in desire for closeness with all of God’s earthly Creation, divine intimacy made possible throughout all our days by the Cross of Jesus.
Imagine, then, the horizontal beam – the old, rugged wood to which was pinned the outstretched arms of Jesus, in wide-open embrace of God’s desires. The horizontal beam – expression of the love, compassion, grace, and mercy that we receive from God and extend horizontally across communities; expressions of love, compassion, grace, and mercy spreading to blanket the very ends of the earth.
The four dimensions of the Cross: vertically, God to us, us to God; horizontally, the Spirit of God within us toward friend, neighbor, and stranger. When the Spirit points us toward Jesus and his Cross, the Spirit invites our enjoyment of the Cross’s symmetry and balance, our discovery of stabilization in vertical and horizontal, our lives individually and in community making the sign of the Cross. And never be tempted to believe that you can have one without the other and still consider yourself a faithful disciple of Christ.
If the vertical relationship between you and God is secure, then your horizontal relationship with God’s people cannot play second fiddle.The control-knobs are way out of whack: Too much vertical hold, not enough horizontal hold. Why matter about the plight of others when eternity is at stake, right? Wrong! The Cross without its horizonal arm becomes a mere pole with limited value and shunted blessing.
To be fair, so also does the picture of holy relationship scramble when the hold is too much horizontal and too little vertical – when our stewardship of time, talent, and treasure becomes all about me, us, and ourselves, at the expense of responding faithfully to the vertical beam of peace and grace that binds earth and heaven. Forgetfulness of that up-down, divine-human connection – ignorance of its expectations and obligations – is perhaps what transforms peaceful resistance into full-blown riot.
Thanks be to God, when the Spirit points your heart toward Jesus, your heart so also is turned toward the Cross of Jesus, toward that hallowed crisscrossing of vertical and horizontal, toward that sweet spot at the center of the Cross where once beat the very heart of Jesus – the same sacred heart that now paces your living, moving, and being, by the outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon and within.
The Spirit comes to point us toward Jesus and his Cross, and sacred lyrics from my childhood stir hope for reconciliation and renewal:
Great things happen when God mixes with us
Great and beautiful, wonderful things,
Great things happen when God mixes with us.
Some find life, some find peace; some people also find joy.
Some see things as they never could before
And some people find that they can now begin to trust.
Great things happen when God mixes with us.
Some find health, some find hope; some people even find joy.
Some see themselves as they never could before
And some people find that they can now begin to live.
Great things happen when God mixes with us.
Some find peace, some are disturbed; some people even find joy.
Some see their lives as they never could before
And some people find that they must now begin to change.
Great things happen when God mixes with us.
Great and beautiful, wonderful things,
Great things happen when God mixes with us.
Ancient words, ever true. Let us pray –
Surprise us, O God. Speak your word; startle us with your truth. Re-open our hearts and minds to your wondrous love. Silence within, any voice but your own. By the Holy Spirit in Jesus Christ our Lord, keep our souls focused on you — and on the Cross, on the heart of Jesus. Amen, and amen.
Friends, please continue to nourish your worship work, and let the Spirit continue to do great things through you, me, and us! Without a doubt, it’s a heavy cross to bear. But oh what a foretaste of glory divine: Preparing and sharing, with glad and generous hearts!
Pastor Grant M. VanderVelden shared this message during worship on Sunday, June 14, 2026, at First Presbyterian Church in Waukon, Iowa, USA.