April 14, 2024 The Early Church 2. “Peter's Message”

 

Readings: Psalm 4, 1 John 3:1-7, Luke 24:36b-48, Acts 3:12-19
Preached at Bridgehampton Presbyterian Church, NY, April 14, 2024

We are in the time period described in the Lectionary as the 50 days of Easter. Over the next few weeks our scripture readings will be from the book of Acts, and we’ll look at how the message, that ‘Christ is Risen’, helped form the life of the earliest church. Last week we were considering how they reacted by sharing all things in common. But what’s going on this week?

Well, Peter and John have gone to the synagogue. It’s a busy place, lots of coming and going. Every week, on the steps there sits a man who can’t walk, hoping to get some financial aid from those whose consciences may be in a charitable frame of mind, as they head to and from worship. He asks Peter and John for help.

They can’t help him financially. Instead, they heal him in Jesus name and he goes on his way whooping with joy. People are astonished, because this was not something that went on every week. Peter has some explaining to do.

The first thing he explains, is that what had happened to the man, was nothing that he or John could take credit for, but it was because of Jesus. Jesus, Peter explains, was a prophet, after the manner of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, but a prophet whom they had rejected.

In fact, people, just like them, had approved of the release of a criminal and allowed Jesus to be crucified. But that wasn’t the end of the story. God had raised Jesus from the dead, and it was because of the resurrection that the man had been healed.

But there was more. God knew that when people had rejected Jesus it was because they hadn’t understood. They’d acted in ignorance of God’s scheme of things. So, God wasn’t mad with them, even though they had messed up. On the contrary, in Jesus name, they could all find forgiveness and all find wholeness.

The only requirement was that they their way of thinking about Jesus and start living in a way that recognized how God had acted through Him. And the Good News (if you carry on reading beyond our text) was that if they would believe God had acted in Jesus, then God would send the Holy Spirit to refresh their lives and enable them too truly live.

That’s what is going on in and around our scripture reading. In this account of one of the earliest recorded Christian sermons we are given an insight into what the earliest church taught and believed. It’s a message in which the resurrection of Jesus Christ is central.

The man is healed, because Jesus lives to heal. The people can find forgiveness, because after Christ had died for our sins, God raised Him from death. The Holy Spirit comes to refresh the lives of believers because the Risen Christ promises His presence to those who wait upon God.

One method of understanding the Bible is to put your self into the story. To ask, if this morning, I identified with any person in this account, who would it be? It needn’t be a single character; we maybe carry traits of a number of them. But I suggest this. We all came to church this morning in some ways that resemble the characters in this account.

Maybe some of us can identify with the lame man. I don’t mean physically, (although we may have physical needs that only Jesus can meet).  I mean in the sense that it was the lame man’s lot to be taken along to worship and just sit there every single week. Maybe we walked through the door this morning with zero expectations. The notion that here and now may be a meeting place with God is completely absent from our hearts. Maybe all we are expecting today is more of the same.

Or it could be we identify with those who were confused. Things have been happening around our life that don’t quite piece together. There’s been blessings, but there has also been pain. Sometimes it seems like God is in control, the next moment it’s like everything is out of control.  One minute we’re up, the next we’re down. Things going on in the world around us, just don’t add up. Wars. Suffering. But then, victories and stories of courage and hope. It just doesn’t hold together. What’s going on?

Then in the account there are those who feel guilty. Peter tells his listeners, “Y’know you did the wrong thing, letting a thief go while approving of the murder of Jesus.” He implies that they should have known better. I’m glad in our service, quite near the beginning, we have that time for confession of sin and assurance of pardon. Because quite frankly, as I read the scriptures or whenever I allow God’s Spirit to search my heart, it becomes pretty clear that I’ve messed up. I’ve made bad choices. There are things not done that should have been done, and things done that would have been better left undone. If that sounds confused, then maybe you know how it is that sometimes you just can’t seem to do right for doing wrong. Maybe there is no one thing that you can say, “Well that was a mistake”. Could be it’s just that awareness that, “Oops, I did it again.”

Finally in our account there are those who have acted without knowledge. Peter tells them that in the past they had acted in ignorance. He could of course have said, “You know what? At times you can be so stupid!” But he didn’t. But he could have. Because we can. Be so stupid. Be so ill informed about issues that we make decisions that are just plain wrong. Be so prejudiced in our opinions that we believe we are right and we’re not. Believe that because we know a little bit of the story, we’ve got the whole story and so act on false assumptions. Think we can determine “What would Jesus Do?” when in reality we haven’t spent a whole lot of time studying our bibles to understand what Jesus did. Blithely assume God will answer prayers that we have failed to make.

Our reading came from the “Book of ACTS.” Peter’s message is that God is a God who has acted in the resurrection of Jesus Christ. This action of God should affect how we see the world and how we live in that world.

Having spent a moment to consider who we may identify within this passage, let us consider how God acts in each situation.

God ACTS in the life of the lame man to move him out of his comfort zone. The man is asking for money so he can get through life in his current state. Instead, Peter and John offer healing. Such is a challenge to us, as we consider our prayers.

I suspect that we sometimes would prefer to remain as we are, cradling our hurts and bemoaning our sins, rather than to be set free to serve Jesus Christ wholeheartedly and with no strings attached. It is easy to become comfortable with a religion that comforts rather than confronts.

Notice that when God acts, God ACTS in the name of Jesus. Acts 4:12 tells us: “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved." The man is not healed in the name of Peter or John, but in the name of Jesus. 1 Timothy 2:5 “For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus who gave himself as a ransom for all”.

It could be the confusion that sometimes strikes at us comes because we don’t live in a way that focuses on Jesus. Rather than making His message central to our lives, we try a little bit of this and a little bit of that, and it all gets messed up. There is no shortage of voices, within the media, within the different religions and philosophies people embrace, even amongst our families and friends, who will tell us, “Well, this religion stuff is fine... up to a point… here’s what you should really do.” God does not act in the name of families, philosophies, or friends. God acts in the name of Jesus.

A major way that God ACTS in the name of Jesus is to forgive sin. The closing line of our bible reading had Peter proclaiming, “Repent therefore, and turn to God so that your sins may be wiped out.” As he had previously laid the blame upon them for their wrong choices that had led to the crucifixion of Jesus, the news that their sins could be wiped out by turning to God, was truly Good News!

Friends, we are all guilty of making wrong choices. We are all sinners who have fallen short of the glory of God. If this were a service in a church where altar calls are a part of their regular worship, I would labor on this particular point for a while longer, until you all felt thoroughly guilty, and than we’d sing ‘Just as I am’ until somebody came forward to accept the Lord.

However, that’s not how we roll! Instead, I will simply remind you that unless your sins are forgiven through Jesus Christ, unless they are confessed and dealt with, then you are stuck with them, and tainted by them, and they are holding you back in your walk with God and pulling you away from Jesus Christ. That’s not the right way to head!

Because we also see in this verse that God ACTS to turn us around. The meaning of repentance is to stop going in one way and start heading the right way. To turn from self and turn to God. To turn from inability to action for Christ’s kingdom. To turn from unbelief and fear to faith and confidence. To turn from guilt to forgiveness. To turn from living as though the resurrection hadn’t happened to living as though your life, past, present, and future depended upon it! (Which of course it does).

While our bible reading finished before the closing of Peter’s message, he goes on to say that how this happens is through the refreshing of God’s Spirit working upon our life. That repentance is not so much an emotional response initiated by guilt at actions, which were ill conceived, but an action of God’s Grace towards those willing to accommodate the gospel message, which proclaimed Christ is Risen. ‘He is risen indeed!’

One early church writer went as far as to say, ‘If Christ be not risen, nothing matters. If Christ is Risen, then nothing else matters.” To put it another way, if life is nothing more than ‘being born, getting by and then we die’, if there are absolutely no consequences to the way we live nor meaning to the actions in which we are involved, then we might as well go through life pleasing ourselves, hurting and being hurt, with God or without God, with standards or without standards, with love or without love, because at the end of the day, it all amounts to a great big zero.

But because Christ is Risen everything else about life is changed. It means death can be defeated. It makes the cross a symbol of overcoming victory as opposed to a numbing defeat. It makes the lame leap for joy, the fearful heart become empowered with confidence, offers the sinful life forgiveness and the seeker a road that leads to glory.

The resurrection means that nothing else matters, in the sense that all other things must be evaluated in the light of Christ’s glory. Such was part and parcel of Peter’s message the morning a lame man was healed and went away leaping with joy. Such is the gospel message, that should we likewise receive it with expectant and hopeful hearts, it can set our lives dancing.

To God’s name be Glory!
AMEN

The Reverend Adrian J. Pratt B.D.

"Woman, You Are Free!"

Readings: Psalm 71:1-6, Jeremiah 1:4-10, Hebrews 12:18-29,  Luke13:10-17
Preached at Bridgehampton Presbyterian Church, NY, August 21, 2022

To reach into today’s Bible Story, let us consider it from three perspectives. Firstly, how would the story seem from the perspective of the woman who was healed? Secondly, how did things appear from the leader of the synagogues point of view? Thirdly, how might an onlooker consider the scene?

Firstly, let us imagine that we have discovered the woman’s diary. What might she have written into her journal that day?

1. Excerpts from Diary

"Dear Diary,

What a day. Has there ever been such an unexpected, liberating, breath of fresh air day as this? You know diary how I have shared everything with you since the first day I could write. Now, I am scribbling away with an urgency never experienced before. Diary, I have a smile on my face and my head is held high!

You know it has not always been so. It has been twenty years since mother died. Being the only woman in a house full of men, life has not been easy. As Father grew older somebody had to care for him and my brothers being younger than I needed somebody looking out for them.

I never asked to be the mother they never had.  If I had been, they may have treated me with some respect. As the years have rolled by it seems as though all I've heard is ..."It is a woman's duty".

A woman’s duty? What to be treated worse than a paid servant? To be at the beck and call of a whole household, just because they are men? Do not I have a voice? Do not I have a life to live? Did not I have hopes and dreams and needs to be met? "It is God's way" they would tell me. "Remember ... It was Eve who took the fruit. Do not our Scriptures teach that woman is to obey?"

I thought after Father had died things would be different. Yet increasingly my brothers took advantage. They knew I relied on them for my food and my lodging. A woman on her own had little hope of a decent life. And marriage was out of the question. What man would look to me? Particularly after the problems started in my back.

It was just a nagging pain at first.  Maybe it was lifting Father or fetching the water. I always had something weighing down on me. Over these last eighteen years things have grown worse. I guess I've just spent too much time bending over washing clothes, bending over making meals, over the well, over the fire, making the beds, cleaning the floor.

I had never really thought until today how I had become accustomed to looking down. It meant I could avoid making eye contact with anybody. I knew what they were thinking when they looked at me. Old Maid. Poor thing. What a shame. But now they can keep their pity.

It came around to the Sabbath and, dutifully I went to synagogue. Diary, you know how much I hate that place. Of all the things that drag me down, that has got to be the worst. As soon as I walk through the door it is as though a cloud of disapproval settles upon me.

So, there I sat. Grinding my teeth. Looking at my shoes. Going through the motions like I always do. Suddenly the preacher calls me over. "Woman" he said. I almost answered, "I have a name you know!" but held my self in check.

As I drew near, he reached and took both of my hands. I tilted my head back and looked him in the eye. Those eyes of his! Looked right into me. They were so full of love and acceptance. He smiled as he held my hands, and it was as though he was drawing into himself all the hurt and the pain and the rejection I had felt for so long. I have never felt so totally known by another person in all my life.

I was aware of joints in my back clicking away. I felt as though I was having a huge weight lifted from my shoulders. Then, as though it were something I had done everyday of my life, I straightened up and stared back into those healing eyes. Tears beginning to flow in mine. "Woman" he said, "You are free."

As he let go of my hands and returned to the podium an involuntary, over loud "Praise God" slipped from my lips. By then the atmosphere in the place was electric. People were coming up out of their seats, looking me in the eye, giving hugs, and a murmur of astonished awe and wonder was flowing through the room.

Well, diary, you know what happened next. Some of those religious stuffed shirts took offense. The head man took over and started telling everybody to calm down.  They started accusing the preacher of doing bad things on the Sabbath. But - diary - that preacher tore a strip off them. "Daughter of Abraham" he called me.

Daughter of Abraham! Inheritor of God's promises. Child of God. Oh yes diary things are going to be different from now on. This lady is taking control. This lady is walking with her head held high. I am free. I am free. Praise God. "

The woman’s perspective. But what of the head of the synagogue?

2. Minutes of Closed Session Meeting : Regarding events on the previous Sabbath.

"A report was given on the problems that had arisen. Last Sabbath's service was plainly lacking in decency and order. We will not tolerate such laxity in the House of God. Nor will we tolerate those who excite congregations to emotionalism and dissent.

We wish to make the following statements.

i) On upholding the Sabbath.

Religion is a matter of loving God with heart, mind, and soul. That love is expressed through our obedience to God's commandments. One of those commandments is "Remember the Sabbath Day, to keep it holy." We have a great heritage to uphold.

ii) On healing

We acknowledge the work of healing as an important part of God's covenant with His people. However, guided by our traditions, we recognize there are times when works of healing are either appropriate or inappropriate. We are particularly skeptical regarding alleged healing that appears to be performed purely to garnish support for a particular speaker’s viewpoint or message.  

This appears to have been the situation the previous Sabbath. Our speaker put forward views, which were plainly in contradiction to the traditions of our Fathers. He then used a member of our faith community to make a point by alleging to have healed her. The genuine motives of this man are questionable as:-

a) This was not an instance, such as the rescuing of an animal, that required an immediate response. This act could have taken place at a time when Torah law would not have been broken. We suggest this was a deliberate and calculated act of disobedience.

b) The use of godly actions, (such as healing), to promote an ungodly view, (namely that breaking Sabbath law is permitable), proves this man to be fraudulent in his claims to be a servant of God.  We furthermore suggest that his whole presentation was an attempt to discredit the synagogue and defame the true people of our most Holy and Righteous God.

The Session therefore makes the following resolutions:

1: To be more careful whom we invite to exegete the Scriptures during Worship. We have appointed a task force to consider background checks upon those we allow to speak. Had such a check been accomplished we would have discovered this was not the first time the speaker had deliberately promoted dissent in the house of God.

2: To send a copy of this report to our central Council in Jerusalem, as well as to local religious leaders that they may be aware of this man’s blasphemous ways.

Meeting ended after much discussion later that evening."

We've had a woman's view and a Pharisees view. But had a reporter from the local newspaper been present that day, how would the headlines appear? Maybe something along these lines;

3."VISITING PREACHER CREATES DISSENT”

"He's been described as controversial and charismatic. Some say he's a charlatan, others that he could be the Christ. (For you Gentile readers that is a Jewish term meaning ‘God’s chosen One’). They call him by the name of Jesus, he hails from Nazareth, and he surely brewed up a storm during morning services down at the local synagogue.

Things went along their usual predictable way, until during sermon time he invited forward a woman. He said a few words about setting her free, then healed her of an illness that had crippled her for eighteen years.  A number of folks in attendance knew of her past suffering and there followed a period of exuberant rejoicing such as never before witnessed in any synagogue around here!

The Chief Pharisee attempted to restore calm by suggesting that healing and disorder in the sanctuary were not appropriate on the Sabbath.  That is when the sparks really started to fly! Jesus, to the approval of many in the crowd, accused the Pharisees of hypocrisy, suggested they cared more for their animals than their women, and warned them to watch out, because the Kingdom of God was near.

I have the impression, dear readers, that the sparks will continue to fly for many a year. Charlatan or Man of God... I do not believe we have heard the last of the preacher from Galilee…. that some call a fraud and others call “The Lord.”"

CONCLUSIONS

This passage of Scripture calls us to embrace the freedom that knowing Jesus Christ can bring within our own our lives. The extent to which we taste and see that freedom is dependant on the faith we have in who He said He was, what He is able to do and how He works in our world today.

This passage also calls us to examine our prejudices and traditions. Is there a balance between freedom and order in our lives? How radically has the gospel captured our hearts? Are we prepared to have our lives challenged and renewed by the Spirit of Jesus Christ?

My response is simply to affirm that the Jesus whom people eventually crucified for breaking the laws, rose from the dead, and His Holy Spirit is still about the business of straightening people up and bringing the freedom of God's love alive in their hearts.

My prayer is that God's freedom will work in our lives in as equally powerful ways as we have heard in this morning’s gospel lesson.

The Reverend Adrian J. Pratt B.D