One More Step - Acts 10-11

Sunday, May 10, 2015

            Can anyone withhold the water?  The questions hits at the climactic moment that began when Peter was praying and in a vision was told that God would open his promises to all people, even non-Jews.  God would do this through Jesus.

            Can anyone withhold the water?  Somehow, Peter and other Jews present who had put their trust in Jesus could see as Jesus’ Holy Spirit fell upon these Romans – the centurion Cornelius and his household.  They could see it!  They couldn’t believe their eyes, but they could see it. 

            Can anyone withhold the water?  The Spirit’s work began in Peter as he responded even when God led him beyond boundaries he thought he would never cross.  The Spirit’ work began when Cornelius, lacking the benefit of a Jewish heritage, nonetheless sought God.  The Spirit’s driving of these men and the people around them inexorably led to this moment when they stood before each other and seeing with Spirit-filled eyes recognized they were brothers in Christ.  The baptism confirmed it.  The baptism sealed it.  The baptism served as testimony to all that new birth had taken place.

Peter had not fully grasped that Jesus would reach to the world beyond Israel.  He knew this in his head, but it did not register in his heart until he prayed on that rooftop and God changed his view.  Jesus would shatter the barriers that stood as walls dividing people and Jesus would do this through his, Peter’s, preaching.  As Peter prayed, there was a knocking at his door.  Emissaries from the Roman Centurion Cornelius were looking for him and the Holy Spirit compels Peter to go with these men. 

These Romans brought Peter to Cornelius, a man seeking the truth.  The truth found him.  He and Peter came together and shared their visions.  Peter preached.  He said,

“I truly understand that God shows no partiality, 35but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him. 36You know the message he sent to the people of Israel, preaching peace by Jesus Christ—he is Lord of all.

            Jesus is Lord of all and faith in him rips down the structures humans erect to keep a few in positions of prestige and power while most are kept at heel in the dust, powerless in poverty.  Jesus the Lord, lifts up the downtrodden, freeing them from their disadvantage.  Jesus the Lord gives the privileged the humbling they need.  Without it, often the wealthy, privileged class – including many of us – fail to see how much they need God and need their fellow human beings.  In baptism, we testify to the truth that no matter who we are, we have died in sin and been resurrected in Christ.  What is great about us is Him alive and at work in and through each of us. 

            Peter’s speech is interrupted by the Holy Spirit dealing not with him but with Cornelius, and the other Romans there.  The Holy Spirit fell on them.  The Christian Jews with Peter couldn’t believe it.  To this point, the message of Jesus had been taken to the far reaches of the world, but to Jews who lived in the far reaches of the world.  Now, a mere 50 miles from Jerusalem, the great divide had truly been bridged.  God’s Spirit was poured out on Gentiles. 

            The movie The Fellowship of the Ring, is the first of the Lord of the Rings trilogy.  Hobbits are the main characters.  The Hobbits were small people physically and they were small in perspective.  Their entire vision of the world was limited to the simple farming villages where they lived.  And they didn’t mind keeping it that way.  They were happy. 

            But the job of delivering the ring of power fell to a hobbit, Frodo.   Frodo would have to travel many miles through the darkest, most evil parts of the world.  His best friend, Sam, was determined to go.  Even through Sam was a simple man who would just as soon stay on the farm and never leave, he was going with Frodo.  As they walked, he stopped and said, “Well, this is it Mr. Frodo.”

            “What is it, Sam?”

            “This is the farthest I have ever been away from home in my life.” Sam took the next step and it led to places he had never imagined.

            Peter stood before Cornelius who was full of the Holy Spirit and he had a decision.  In mileage he was not far from home at all.  But in understanding and in terms of perspective and in faith, he was about to go father away from home than he had ever been before.  He would never go back.  And, he took that step.

“The Peter said, ‘Can anyone withhold the water for baptizing these people who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have?’  So he ordered them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ.”

Having received the Spirit, in baptism we take that step.  We go father from home than we ever have gone.  And there is no going back.  Nothing ever looks the same.  No relationship, no person – we see with Spirit eyes.

When a paradigm shifts, everything changes.  The availability of automobiles led to the near extinction of passenger railroad travel.  People don’t cross country by train.  As TV’s entered every home, we went through a paradigm shift.  It changed radio forever. 

Peter’s step to baptize Cornelius is the greatest paradigm shift in history.  He did it because he could see that the Holy Spirit was operating outside of his established boundaries and if he wanted to be where the Spirit was at work, he had to step outside those boundaries himself.  He saw where God was at work and he joined him there. 

For us to feel the full impact of Easter and resurrection, we have to practice the Spiritual discipline of Reconciliation.  This means we accept all people – white and black, rich, poor, and middle class, from every country, with accents we find different – we welcome all people.  It goes beyond that. 

Each one of us like Peter must take that step, go beyond our frontiers, experience that great paradigm shift of history.  Each one us has to reach that point where we are farther in ideology, expectation, understanding, perspective, and faith than we’ve ever been.  Then we take the next step. That point might be in another country, but, it might be in North Carolina, or in a neighborhood in Chapel Hill.  It might be in this room.  The place is in a person. 

There is someone we cannot love.  We’ll gladly spend the rest of our lives in a filthy, disease-ridden third world prison cell for the sake of the gospel.  But we will not go and in the name of Jesus love with that person.  That person is different for each of us. But we each have that person.  It would astound us to see the Holy Spirit poured on that person.  The hatred, the bitterness, the animosity is too great.  Who is that person for you?

Years ago, I was very new in the ministry.  I looked around for mentors – people who would give me advice and opportunities.  I was lucky.  Several veteran pastors took me under their wings in my first decade of ministry.  They gave me opportunities, so when I became a senior pastor myself I had already visited hospitals.  I spoke at funerals and did baptisms.  I was indebted to these seasoned church leaders because they helped me greatly by inviting me into their churches and letting me try out pastoral tasks.

One of these beloved friends, however, floored me with something he said.  He was telling me how he had to explain to one of his church members that he could never baptize a black person, not in his church.  I was stunned.  The way he told the story, it was as if he were spewing common sense that once explained would make sense to everyone.  He told it to me in a knowing way as if it would be obvious to me.  He could never baptize a black person.

My trusted mentor had not taken that step beyond his frontiers.  Sunday after Sunday, he preached the Gospel.  Year after year, he baptized new believers.  But the heart of the Gospel called for a change he was not ready to make.  He had to keep the Gospel small enough for him to maintain control.  That never works.

I did not confront my mentor.  I did not say to him, “Hey, what you just said is totally racist and antithetical to the way of Jesus.”  I should have.  I regret that I did not have the readiness or courage to confront the evil that is racism.  I maneuvered adeptly, moved on, and became a senior pastor who within my first two years of ministry had baptized Sudanese people, whites, and Hispanics. 

I remained friends with my mentor.    We don’t dump our friends just because they say foolish things. We love them.  But I did not love him enough to name an evil that lurked in him.  I do not mean he was evil.  In many ways, he was a good pastor.  And he did a lot for me.  However, His need for control and his refusal to follow Jesus beyond his own comfort zone created space in him for an evil – in this case racism – to set up shop and corrupt the good work he did.  Late in his career, he realized his errors.

In Maya Angelou’s book I know Why the Caged Bird Sings, a dentist in Arkansas refuses to help 8-year-old Marguerite even though she is doubled over in pain with a tooth ache.  He declares he would give dental service to a dog before he put his hand in a black person’s mouth.  That dentist will never get it – the fullness of Jesus’ resurrection – until he loves someone who is black.  For him persons of a certain race represent that person.

Who is it in your life?  What boundary is God calling you to cross?  Where do we need to go to truly live the Gospel?  This is the farthest from home I have ever been.  There – that is where we see the Holy Spirit come down and baptism confirms the story. 

It might be someone who hurt you.  You’d rather see that person suffer than to be saved by grace as he comes faith in Jesus.  Loving the one who injured you is going farther than you’ve ever been.  You won’t bask in the full glow of Easter until you forgive that one and pray that Jesus would come to him.  If you are there when the Holy Spirit is poured out on that person and if you say Peter’s words, ‘Can anyone withhold the water for baptizing this one I hated but now love because of Jesus,’ then you’ve been through the paradigm shift.  You and that person will embrace at the cross and stand in the light of the empty tomb together.

            I saw Peter and Cornelius meet.  It was a worship service where we joined three congregations: a Spanish congregation, our English congregation, which was comprised of people from Asian, black, and Latino backgrounds, but was 70% Caucasian; and a primarily black church.  The preacher was a woman from the black congregation. 

            She preached the gospel as powerfully as I have heard it.  A woman from Argentina translated into Spanish.  The black woman would say a few lines, and the Argentine sister repeated them for the Spanish speakers.  It worked well – both women had done this before.  However, just as the preacher was hitting the high note, describing the unconditional love and limitless grace of Jesus, the translator stopped cold.  She couldn’t speak.  Her heart was pierced by the preacher’s words and the love of Jesus.  Her throat choked up and tears flowed.  She was overwhelmed by grace.

            The preacher stopped and came to her.  There they stood.  The larger than life African American woman preacher, embracing a small Argentine woman being showered by the grace of Jesus; I don’t know what it looked like when the Jewish Christians were astonished to see the Holy Spirit rain down on Gentiles that day in Cornelius’ house.  I bet it looked similar to that day when those two women were wrapped up in Jesus’ love.  I got to see it.  I was astonished. 

            I believe we can be astonished again as we step farther than we’ve ever been.  We step to that person.  We do, and we are there to see the Holy Spirit poured out.  We see God bring people together right here, in Resurrection reconciliation. 

AMEN

Grace

I shared this message a few years ago and I wanted to share it again here.  I acknowledge one glaring mistake I made in it.  I used the phrase "Apostle Judas."  I think actually, an apostle is an eyewitness to the resurrection.  Judas, tragically, did not live to receive forgiveness and embrace the risen Lord.  In spite of that misnomer, I think a word about grace is needed in the world.  Actually, many words about grace are needed.  I add mine the to the conversation.

Grace (Acts 1:15-20)

Communion Sunday, April 26, 2009

Philip Yancey in his book What’s so Amazing About Grace shares the following story he read in Scott Hoezee’s book The Riddle of Grace (1996):

During a British conference on comparative religions, experts from around the world debated what, if any belief was unique to the Christian faith.  They began eliminating possibilities.  Incarnation?  Other religions had different versions of gods appearing in human form.  Resurrection?  Again, other religions had accounts of return from death.  The debate went on for some time until C.S. Lewis wandered into the room.  “What’s this rumpus about?” he asked, and heard in reply that his colleagues were discussing Christianity’s unique contribution among world religions.  Lewis responded, “Oh, that’s easy.  It’s grace.”

          After some discussion, [they] had to agree.  The notion of God’s love coming to us free of charge, no strings attached, seems to go against every instinct of humanity.  The Buddhist eight-fold path, the Hindu doctrine of karma, the Jewish covenant, and Muslim code of law – each of these offers a way to earn approval.  Only Christianity dares to make God’s love unconditional (Yancey, p.45).

          I have served in vocational ministry since May of 1992.  In that time I have probably led over 500 small group Bible discussions, and have had countless one-on-one discussions with people.  In my experience, I found that Christians, people of the faith that rests on grace, have enormous trouble understanding it, giving it, and receiving it. 

          “So, group, tell me how do you know you’re going to Heaven?”  Someone, a professed Christian, will say, “Well, I am basically a good person.”  It comes up often in the context of funerals too, especially for people who did not live lives of faith.  Grieving family members say, “At least he’s in a better place?”  What does that mean? 

          I hear eulogies assured that the deceased is heaven bound because of all the good deeds he did.  “He would do anything for you” they say.  I never ask, “What specific wonderful things did he do?”  That question would leave the bereaved stammering; funerals are not a time to put people on the spot or evaluate the worthiness of someone.  At funerals bring comfort and hope from the Gospel.

          Yet the question remains, even if unspoken.  Whether hanging before mourners at a memorial service, put to a small Bible study group, presented in a sermon on Sunday morning, or just floating in the mind of the individual believer the questions confront us.  What is good?  Who is good enough for that “better place,” a euphemism for Heaven?  The answer is Jesus.  No one else qualifies.  The person who thinks he’s headed to Heaven because he’s done some nice things or is basically good or has given a bunch of money to worthy causes is fooling himself.  Heaven is not earned.  Heaven is where God lives and we get to be with God because he invites us.  He invites us because Jesus died on a cross for us. 

          And yet we are locked into the misguided thinking that good guys go north and bad guys go south.  The righteous go up, the damned go down.  There’s Heaven for us, and Hell for Hitler, Jeffrey Dahmer, Manson … fill in your favorite famous bad guy.  But the truth is there are no good guys and bad guys.  All fall short of God’s glory.  But the good news is God so loved the world, he gave his only son that whoever believes in Him should not die, but should enter eternal life.

          I may have indirectly contributed to this misunderstanding about grace in my preaching over the last two years.  I have emphasized over and over and over again the things a disciple does.  I’ve talked about deeds and actions.  I don’t think anything I have said has been Biblically inaccurate.  But this morning, I want to make sure we all remember that we are disciples doing Godly things because Jesus called us.  We are sons and daughters of God because of God’s invitation.  All the deeds of discipleship that we strive to do come after we receive that grace that is given by God. 

          It would then seem a paradox to talk about grace a spiritual discipline.  A discipline is something we do to accomplish that which we cannot accomplish on our own power.  I cannot run 5 miles at the moment; I can run 1, maybe 2.  But if I committed to the discipline of running a mile or 2 every day, soon I might try 3 miles, and I might make it.  From there my discipline increases until I am up to 5 miles.  Spiritually, I cannot will myself to stop sinning.  But, I can fast – go without food for a period of time.  I can fill that time with the disciplines of prayer, Bible reflection, and Bible study.  After spending time in these disciplines, I will sin much less, and I will be much more like Jesus.

          Grace isn’t something we do.  It’s something we receive.  So, how is it a discipline?  First, remember, that most Americans do not like receiving something for nothing.  We’d rather make our own way.  This country was built on a pioneering spirit.  We idolize the rugged individualist.  Grace as a spiritual discipline is a constant re-ordering of our way of thinking.  We give up that independence and accept that we are completely dependent on Jesus for life and for abundant life.  It’s not something we go get.  It something we receive. 

          Once our thinking is reordered, then we are in position to give grace.  This is the second act of grace as a discipline.  But the two acts – reordering our way of thinking so we can receive grace, and giving grace – are not sequential.  We do them concurrently.  Even when it cuts against the grain of our inner nature, we look for ways of giving grace.  We develop the art, perfected by Jesus, of giving grace.  It’s not letting people off the hook.  It’s not denying the sin of the other.  For grace to be given, the sin has to be acknowledged, spoken.  And then it is forgiven and it no longer comes between two people.  It is no longer an obstacle to a loving relationship.

          Grace is needed if we are to understand the Apostle Judas. 

It sounds weird, doesn’t it?  The Apostle Judas.  Those who have been around church or read Christian literature know there are common modifiers that accompany the most prominent names in scripture: King David; The Prophet Isaiah; The Virgin Mary; The Apostle Peter; The Apostle John; the Apostle Paul; Doubting Thomas; Judas, the betrayer. 

          Actually all 12 of the disciples were in fact messengers who carried the message of Jesus and successfully used the miracle power he gave them.  All 12 were apostles.  To understand the life and painful end for the Apostle Judas, the disgraced apostle, we need to wrap our minds around unmerited favor – grace.  And to get a good picture of grace, it helps to see what happens in the life of one who could never break free from ungrace.  Jesus modeled and taught grace, but for Judas grace was impossible.  He couldn’t get it.

          In Acts 1:15, Peter stands to address the community.  He is the one who stood up and told Jesus not to go to Jerusalem, to the cross.  He tried to block the way to salvation and Jesus called him ‘satan,’ adversary.  Jesus knew Peter’s bluster hid an inner cowardice that reared its ugly head the night of his arrest.  Peter denied knowing Jesus.  Then he ran into hiding.  Coward.  Blowhard.  Peter was a picture of failure.  But here in the middle of Act chapter 1, after Jesus has ascended to Heaven, before the Holy Spirit, Peter is clearly leading the small band who would become the church.  How did this guy get here? 

          Quite simply, he received grace.  He made it through the Saturday.  On Friday, when Jesus was crucified, Peter wallowed in shame, guilt, failure, and despair.  One of my professors used to say, he was lower than a snake’s belly in a wagon rut.  But, even then, something of Jesus held his heart.  He didn’t know what to do.  On silent Saturday, he didn’t know what to do.  On Easter Sunday, he didn’t know what to do.  But he did not abandon all hope.  He stuck around long enough to be there when Jesus, the resurrected Jesus, came around looking for followers. 

          Even in Mark’s Gospel, which gives less in the way of detail than the others, we see the value of sticking around.  The witness tells the women to go the disciples and specifically go to Peter and tell Peter that he will see Jesus in Galilee.  John’s Gospel gives the most detail.  In chapter 21, Jesus and Peter have a heart to heart right there on the beach along the Sea of Galilee.  Peter, shamed, looks into the eyes of the one he denied. 

Three times he denied Jesus.  Once; OK, I messed up; twice; I need to find my courage; three times, Jesus?  I don’t know him.  So, three times, Jesus asks if Peter loves him.  Three times, Jesus re-commissions Peter as a disciple, an Apostle, a leader of God’s people.  Peter didn’t earn this.  He wasn’t worthy the first time Jesus called him to be an apostle.  He says as much.  Upon first following Jesus, he sees an unbelievable site – the miraculous catch of fish, and he says what Isaiah said in God’s presence.  “Go away from me Lord, for I am a sinful man” (Luke 5:8).  Jesus looked past Peter’s inadequacies and said you will be a fisher of men.  Then, after the resurrection, Jesus looked past Peter’s denial and said, feed my sheep.  And here we are in Act 1.  Peter is leading the disciples and he speaks about grace – grace that had been bestowed upon Judas.

“Concerning Judas, who became a guide for those who arrested Jesus …, he was numbered among us” (1:16b-17a).  No one could appreciate being called by Jesus more than Peter.  A simple fisherman from an unimportant village in a backwater region – Peter knew how far he had come.  He knew that to be called was a gift of God, given freely by Jesus.  He acknowledged it was as much given to Judas as to him.  The title apostle belonged to Judas as much as it did to him. 

Peter continues.  “He [Judas] was allotted his share in this ministry” (1:17b).  Jesus gave his closest followers the message of kingdom of God.  He gave them the power to cast out demons and cures diseases (Mt 10:8; Lk 10:17).  He taught them separately and more extensively than the crowds.  They did what Jesus and learned what Jesus knew.  The Apostle Judas was allotted his share in the ministry of Jesus.  He had it all. 

From Peter, we know that that kind of access and that kind of power was not enough for transformation.  Seeing the amazing will not change person.  Crowds saw Jesus feed 4000 with one boy’s lunch.  An entire town saw Jesus drive 1000 demons out of man.  Even the resurrection did not turn hearts.  When the high council found out Jesus’ body was no longer in the tomb – the tomb where they had guards posted – they did not seek out the disciples and ask what happened.  They did not become believers.  Theirs was a deep evil, a committed rebellion.  They bribed the hardened Roman soldiers to say that Galilean fisherman had managed to sneak past and steal the still-dead body.  Even in the blinding light of resurrection, those in positions of power were determined not to believe.  Belief comes when we receive the grace God holds out to all people.

Closeness with Jesus did not save Judas; witnessing the supernatural did not save him; invitation to the new covenant, taking the bread and cup could not save Judas; and he never had the chance to respond to resurrection grace.  He was so despondent on Saturday, while Peter and John and the rest pathetically laid low, Judas surrendered to his despair. 

Matthew’s offers a sterile depiction of his death.  A repentant Judas tries to atone by returning the money he was paid for turning Jesus in.  The elders will have none of it.  They lay the blame at Judas’ feet.  He’s at a loss for what he has done, and the priests offer no help.  He can’t wrap his mind around grace, so he has nowhere left to turn.  The weight of the wrath of God sets on him.  It doesn’t have to.  God would transfer it to the cross immediately.  But Judas won’t let it go.  It’s his responsibility and he can’t meet it.  So, Matthew writes, “he went and hanged himself” (27:5).

The picture in Acts is more vivid.  Apparently, the rope he used didn’t hold for long.  “Falling headlong, he burst open in the middle of the field, and all his bowels gushed out” (1:18).  Some scholars think Luke, the writer of Acts, included this macabre parenthetical detail for the sake of his gentile readers.  He wanted them to see the connection between the evil Judas performed and the awfulness of his fate.  Neither Matthew nor Peter mentioned bowels gushing out.  Luke threw that in there.  If his purpose was to accentuate Judas’ sin, it was probably a help in the story telling for some early readers. 

For me, the bigger issue is examining Peter (a sinner redeemed by God’s love), who is the speaker in Acts 1, alongside Judas, the tragic figure who died before he could see the story’s resurrection ending.  I am convinced that had Judas accepted the fact that he was a sinner who needed Jesus, then he could have been redeemed just as Peter was.  He could have made it through that awful Saturday.  He would be history’s picture of redemption instead one synonymous with treachery.

Just before the ride into Jerusalem on Palm the Sunday when the action began to move quickly, Jesus and the 12 were in the outlying village of Bethany.  Mary, the sister of Martha and Lazarus, used expensive ointment.  She lavishly rubbed the nard on his feet and rubbed her hair on his feet.  She was worshipping him, and unknowingly I think prepping him for the grave. 

Judas took exception.  “Why was this perfume not sold for 300 denarii and the money given to the poor” (John 12:5)?  His inquiry was a rebuke of Mary, and that drew a sharp response from Jesus.  “Leave her alone.  She bought it so that she might keep it for the day of my burial.”  Acting out of the intuition God had given her, Mary heaped extravagant grace upon Jesus.  The fullness of what she had done would never come to Judas.  He didn’t make it through Saturday.

John the gospel writer reports that Judas’ question about giving to the poor was a ruse to hide his thieving tendencies.  He stole from the disciples’ common purse.  Instead of gratefully receiving what God would give, Judas felt he had to use cunning to get as much as he could.  Instead of trusting that Jesus knew what he was doing, Judas tried to force his hand.  I honestly feel that Judas believed when he turned Jesus in that Jesus was rally his followers to restore Israel to the Jews and throw the Romans out.  At worst, Jesus might spend sometime in prison.  Judas never thought he’d be flogged, mocked, and executed. 

We have mentioned the extravagant grace of Mary – this is the grace of worship we give God.  We have mentioned redeeming grace, or forgiving grace – the grace Peter received that as a prelude to being commissioned to lead the church.  These angles on grace fall under the resurrection and lead to a commissioning grace: the gift God gives in calling us to give our all to be disciples. 

Dietrich Bonhoeffer describes this as costly grace and he contrasts it with cheap grace in his book of devotionals The Martyred Christian.  Bonhoeffer writes …

Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without repentance, baptism without church discipline, [and] communion without confession.  Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ living and incarnate.

Costly grace is the treasure hidden in the field; for the sake of it a man will gladly go and sell all he has.  It is the pearl of great price to buy, for which the merchant will sell all his goods.  It is the kingly rule of Christ, for whose sake a man will pluck out the eyes which calls him to stumble.  It is the call of Jesus Christ at which the disciple leaves his nets and follows him.

Costly grace is gospel which must be sought again and again, the gift which must be asked for, the door at which we must knock. 

Such grace is costly because it calls us to follow, and it is grace because it calls us to follow Jesus Christ.  It is costly because it costs a man his life, and it is grace because it gives the man or woman the only true life.  It is costly because it condemns sing; and it is grace because it justifies the sinner before God.  Above all it is costly because it cost God the life of his son and what cost God much cannot be cheap for us.  Above all it is grace because God did not reckon his son too dear a price to pay for our life.

Costly grace confronts us as a gracious call to follow Jesus.  It comes as a word of forgiveness to the broken spirit and the contrite heart.  Grace is costly because it compels a person to submit to the yoke of Christ and follow him.  It is grace because Jesus says, “My yoke is easy and my burden is light” (p.64-65).   

As we near the time when we will come and take the bread (the body of Christ), and drink the cup (his blood poured out for us), I imagine a great canyon.  We want to be with God and he is on the other side.  It’s too great to make the leap across, no matter how great the athlete.  No bridge can be built from this side, no matter how brilliant the engineer.  There’s no chance of descending into the canyon, walking through, and climbing up the far wall; it can’t be done no matter how diligent a climber one is.  One cannot live on this side of the canyon, no matter how much rationalizing we attempt.  Our lives are short.  As each year passes, we come closer and closer to the great expanse.  Our toes are creeping over the edge and we realize a couple of things. 

We are going to fall to the depths. 

God is inviting us to His side constantly. 

We can’t make it on our own, but Jesus can carry us there. 

We have to give up our own efforts and except His help.

We have to trust his way is the best way. 

Then, we have to jump into that expanse knowing he will catch us. 

I am sinner, and I say to you, my fellow sinners, the only way is Jesus.  Receive the grace he offers.  Pray and pray until you are free from the demons of self-loathing, blame, and rugged individualism.  God’s favor can’t be earned but it can be received.  So, we open our hearts, and we receive grace by asking Jesus in.  The call of discipleship soon follows.

AMEN

Pain

Pain

            I had a periodontal procedure.  #cringealert!! 

The periodontist scraped flesh off the roof of my mouth and then grafted it onto my receding gums.  I had the same procedure in 2007.  That was long enough ago and it worked well enough that I only remembered the success, not the pain.  This past fall, I had procedure, and it didn’t quite work.  So I had to have it again just a little less than two weeks ago.  Let me tell you, right now, the pain is very present.

            I had visions of using this as a season of spiritual discipline.  I knew what I was getting into and I hoped the throbbing on the roof of my mouth would push me deeper into prayer.  That has happened – a little.  I have prayed more lately.  The throbbing has also pushed me to codeine and ibuprofen and lots of it.  

            Philip Yancey and Paul Brand wrote a great book called The Gift of Pain.  Pain is a messenger.  It tells the body something is wrong.  The thing that hurts the lepers Dr. Brand worked with in India was lack of pain or feeling of any kind.  Numbness in their extremities prevented these poor people from realizing their hand was burning in a fire or being gnawed by a rodent or becoming infected from a wound.  Small injuries festered until digits fell off because of a lack of an alert system – pain!

            Our nation has been awakened by one of our “pain-induced alert systems” – the pain of our citizens of color who have been abused and murdered by the police who are supposed to protect and serve.  Ferguson and the backlash; Staten Island and Eric Garner; Cleveland and Tamir Rice; and now Baltimore and Freddie Gray; each case is an instance of societal pain.  Are we in America nearing some kind of tipping point?

            Do whites in America (people like me) feel this pain?  Middle class whites can pretend that these stories are not relevant to them.  But we are all part of the human race.  If a person’s skin color or income or zip code makes him feel immune to this pain and thus renders him indifferent to the situation, he is like that leper who cannot feel his numb fingers as rabid rats chew on them.  The screams of pain from persecuted communities will eventually bring serious hurt to us all. 

            We need to react to the alerts the pain is sending.  We need to pull our hand away from that which bites or burns it.  We need to see that when unarmed people are targeted and killed just because of their skin color, it hurts us all.  We need to link black arm in white arm.  We need to stand shoulder to shoulder, brother to brother, and sister to sister.  We need confront injustice in tangible ways: law enforcement injustice; educational inequality; lack of economic opportunity.  We need to say a resounding no to it all.

            I know how clichéd this all sounds.  I know how easy it is to sit at my keyboard and type.  I know how hard it is to transfer these true but tired bromides from wishful thinking into real action.  I don’t exactly know how to do it.

            So, I am starting with what someone else is doing.  May 9 is the Million Mom March on Washington (http://www.mothersforjusticeunited.org/p/march3.html).  I know I am not a mom, but I ache for those who have lost their children because their children happened to be African American and caught in the path of the wrong policemen.

            There are thousands of good men and women who are officers of the law.  One of my best friends in the world going back to when I was 13 is a law enforcement officer.  I trust him to be fair and honest, and I hurt for all the honest cops whose names and reputations have been tarnished by the actions of a few of their racist, bullying peers.   So many law enforcement officials are heroes who would put their lives on the line to protect the public – everyone in the public.  But, a few bad apples have inflicted enormous pain on America.

            And it is more than a few bad apples.  The bad apples are able to ruin the bunch because our system in America is set up to advantage one group and hold back another.  The strongholds that perpetuate this evil are systemic. 

Systemic racism is also aided by the lazy, cowardly silence from people like me – middle class whites not interested enough to get involved.  But to ignore the problem is to turn my back on Jesus.  When Jesus Christ died on the cross, he numbered himself with the abused and the disenfranchised of society.  Where was Jesus when death visited Freddy?  And Tamir?  And Eric?  And Michael?  And Trayvon?  With nail holes in his hands, he wrapped his arms around them and continues to wrap his arms around their families and the communities afflicted by our 21^st century manifestation of racism.

            I cannot call myself his follower and then now follow.  He stands with the victim.  So too must I.  On May 9^th, I will march because I feel the pain.  I am part of the body and I feel the creeping of the infection – the infection of violent racism.  I cannot ignore the pain nor I can I turn a deaf hear to the wailing of mothers in mourning, nor can I pretend my Lord has not commanded me to step forth.  I must join in.

I pray you will join me.  If you have plans this Saturday, change them.  Come march, and add your voice to chorus singing for justice, equality, and love.  Come, be part of a new declaration.  Be part of the moment when America declared racism would lose its voice in the 21^st century.  

Gospel Expansion (Acts 8:26-40)

Sunday, May 3, 2015

            The Angel of the Lord told Philip, “Get up and go.”  And he did.  And we do.

            We are a few weeks removed from Easter Sunday, but we always Easter people.  Every day of the year, we are resurrection people. 

            This means many things.  This year, our focus has been on the words of Jesus in Acts 1:8 and how these words shape our understanding of who God is calling us to be.  “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

            The statement is loaded. First, it is an imperative.  Jesus is not making a suggestion, but rather an assertion.  You will receive power.  You will be witnesses.  If we wonder where he gets the authority to say such things, well, he’s been resurrected. He was dead, buried, and now he stands alive, never to die again.

            Second, his words contain a promise, and what a promise!  We’re going to receive power from the Holy Spirit!! What does that look like in our lives? 

            Third, Jesus is specific.  We are to be witnesses.  Witnesses testify.  As resurrection people, it is inherent.  We are people who tell about Jesus, about His kingdom, and about how each person who comes to faith in Him has life in His name.  With the power of the Holy Spirit of God, through actions, through words, and through the approach we take to people, we testify to the Gospel – salvation in Jesus Christ.

            Fourth, the statement the risen Lord makes in Acts 1:8 is expansive.  He tells the disciples, you’ll be witnesses in Jerusalem.  This occurs in that season of Passover and then Pentecost.  It’s a time of year when Jews from all over travel to Jerusalem to worship.  Even though they are all Jews, they are not all from Jerusalem.  Many don’t even speak Aramaic or read Hebrew as their everyday language.  In Acts 2 when the Holy Spirit fills this diverse crowd and then Peter preaches, it is a fulfillment of the command of Jesus in chapter 1.  It is also a first step in the spread of the Gospel.

            Then throughout the rest of Acts, the movement is seen – Jerusalem, Judea & Samaria, and the ends of the earth.  In Acts 3 – 5 the gospel is preached in the city.  In Acts chapters 6-7, a conflict occurs between Aramaic speaking Jewish Christ-followers and Greek-speaking Jewish Christ-followers.  Such a dispute might threaten a young movement, but the church is the gathering of people who worship Jesus and have their life in Him.  The Holy Spirit leads the leaders to find a solution that not only preserves the life of the community but actually grows it.

            They appoint the first deacons – Greek speakers.  And these deacons, starting with Stephen join in the work of bearing witness, telling the story of life in Christ. 

            The beginning portion of Acts chapter 9 shows another boundary crossed.  This time the gospel expands not to another people group or a new language or across an ethnic divide.  In Acts 9, the story of Jesus breaks through to a Jew – the Pharisee who had been leading the persecution of Christians, Saul.  He meets the risen Lord in a flash of light.  Saul the Pharisee and Christian-killer becomes Paul the Apostle.  He does not ever stop being Jewish.  He simply understands every bit of life in the light of Christ. We’re all called to do this.  We don’t just become new creations in Christ.  We interpret our history based on who we are in Him.  Paul went from enemy to witness.

            Acts 10-11 give the story of Peter first sharing the good news with Gentiles, specifically the Roman centurion Cornelius.  A voice from Heaven pointedly tells Peter it is a new day and in this new day even those who are not of Israel can benefit from Israel’s Messiah because he is the Lord of all creation.  Even non-Jews can come to life in Jesus.

            So we see the statement and hear the word of Jesus.  “You will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”  We follow through the chapters of Acts and we see it happening – Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, the earth.  The Kingdom of God expands as the story of Jesus is told and people come to faith in Him.  But, you notice we have skipped over Acts chapter 8.  There we see the Gospel expansion by way of a less-known witness in a direction not frequently considered.

            Acts 8 begins with one of those Hellenists ordained in Acts 6.  This is not Philip of the 12 disciples.  This is the deacon Philip.  He gives his witness in Samaria.  Samaritans and Jews did not like each other.  They were ethnically related, but as often happens with half-brothers and cousins, the closeness bred enmity.  Jesus touches on this when he makes the hero of a parable a Samaritan instead of a denizen of Jerusalem.  Part of Jesus’ point is that his way is so radically transforming that former enemies, like Jews and Samaritans, become brothers who love each other when they are his followers.

            Philip preaches Christ in Samaria and many believe including a magician named Simon.  So many barriers are broken down in a simple story.  A Greek-speaking Jews, Philip, share Jesus with Samaritan, a Samaritan practitioner of black magic, and that person becomes a believer.  The Gospel expands even beyond what the first believers would have imagined.  But the Holy Spirit does more than that.  In the latter part of Acts 8, the Gospel expands beyond what the first Christ-followers even considered.

            Then as now, Africa is often overlooked, forgotten.  But it is an enormous continent of millions of people made in the image of God.  Every African was on Jesus mind as he went to the cross.  Acts 8:26-40 is a Biblical reminder that this wonderful place and the people there are so important to the Lord, the story of the Gospel could not be told without mention of them.

            The angel of the Lord addresses Philip directly.  Philip is sent to a wilderness road, a remote, dangerous place.  There he sees an Ethiopian, a court official.  This man is in charge of the treasury of the royal house of Ethiopia.  His position gives him enormous power.  But, he is also a eunuch.  Deuteronomy 23:1 severely limits the participation of eunuchs in Israelite worship.  Provisions would have been made to allow some level of involvement.  But in the Jerusalem temple, this man of royal power would be a second class citizen.  He was gentile.  And he was a eunuch.  Why was he interested in Jewish religion in the first place? 

            I don’t know, but he clearly had a very strong attraction to Jewish religious practice.  He had traveled to Jerusalem to participate in Passover and Pentecost.  Now, as he rode southward in his royal procession, headed home, he continued reading scripture.  The Holy Spirit essentially put Philip there so he could bear witness to this “other.”  The Spirit sent the disciple to a gentile and one who could not carry on the normal sexual life of a healthy male.  He was asexual. 

            To him, Philip “proclaimed the good news about Jesus.”  This is the center of this story.  Philip told the Ethiopian court official about Jesus.  This is the core idea of the books Acts.  Philip bore his witness.  It is to this that we are called; Jesus makes us his witnesses. 

            We are also called to be that Ethiopian eunuch.  We are most ready to receive the good news of Jesus when we recognize how removed from God we are.  This gentile, this mutilated man – he had no trouble seeing himself as one who desperately needed God.  When Philip helped him see that the scriptures point to Jesus, he was thrilled.  When they came to a stream, he stopped the entire procession so Philip could baptize him. 

            And then, the Holy Spirit snatched Philip away.  What did the Ethiopian think at that point?  He was so fully open to God, he was too happy to be surprised.  Acts 8:39 says he went on his way rejoicing.  It was a natural as anything he could imagine.  God’s Spirit sent him a man to help him see salvation and once he got it, then God’s spirit whooshed that man away to bear witness somewhere else.  Of course!

            Christianity in Ethiopia is ancient.  I have often imagined that the eunuch went back home and told everyone about his new life in Christ.  Upon hearing him bear witness, I imagine the royal court becoming Christian.  I have searched for documents that tie the Ethiopian church back to this story, and I have not found any connections.  The earliest documentation of Christianity in that country is from the 4^th century AD.  Ethiopian Christianity is different than any of the threads of the faith you might know: Catholicism; Eastern Orthodoxy; Protestantism.  It does not fit in any of these categories.  Nor is there an easy connection to Philip and that eunuch.

            Still, I believe that’s where faith in Jesus was born in that place, on that Wilderness Road.  Philip the deacon testified, the Ethiopian Courtier believed and received Jesus, and there was a baptism and a new birth in Christ.  It all came about because of Jesus’ words in Acts 1:8.

            Today, the expansion of the Gospel continues as the church continues to bear witness.  Have you received salvation with the innocent joy that the Ethiopian had?  If you have not, today would you open your heart and ask Jesus in?  Would you give Him all your sin and let today be the day of your rejoicing as everything else fades from view and all you can see if Him and all you can feel is the love he has for you?

            If you have received Christ, then today, would you make yourself available so the Spirit can carry you as Philip was carried and place you?  And once the Spirit has placed you, will you testify there as Philip did, whether it is Samaria or a wilderness road or the street where you live.  What is at the heart of your story or my story?

            Jesus tells us the heart of our stories is power and testimony.  To us says, “You will be my witnesses.”  We are his witnesses.  We have a story to tell – the story of the Kingdom of God.  When we leave today, may we go ready to give testimony that will point the world to Him.

AMEN  

By the Name of Jesus Christ (Acts 4:5-14)

Sunday, April 26, 2015

            Who are we?

            On the trips our church takes to Ethiopia, people from there see our group.  They hear us speak English.  They see us emerge from a guest house that is foreigners.  They watch us buy things designed to be sold to tourists.  They may not know our affiliation or that we are there to work with poor children.  But one thing is clear.  We are Americans.

            I travel back to Roanoke and spend time with old high school friends.  We reminisce about good times we spent as kids and a lot of those memories happened in the home where my parents still live.  Whatever else I am, in those moments, I am of the Tennant family.

            Who are we?

            Heather and I and other pastors gather, and it is clear, we are of HillSong Church.  Sometimes in an ecumenical gathering, I am the Baptist in the group.

            American; Tennant; HillSong; Baptist; who am I?  Who are you?  On what do we stand?  What is it that undergirds who we are, how we think and act, and all that we do? 

            It was a key moment for the apostles John and Peter.  Just before they entered the temple, a handicapped man asked for a hand-out.  He had been disabled from birth.  His entire life’s identity was built upon begging.  On what did he stand?  Nothing.  His role in society, his very identity, was that of one who could not stand and could only survive by the generosity of others. 

            Then Peter said, “In the name of Jesus Christ, stand up and walk.”  In the name of Jesus Christ; and this man who have never walked, stood and jumped and leaped and praised God.  Heather discussed this last week in her sermon from Acts 3.  Right there in the temple, Peter preached an impromptu sermon in which he accused the leaders of killing Jesus (3:15) and then invited them to come to faith (3:19, 26).

            On what do we stand?  What authority authorizes the way we live our lives? 

            The leaders in Jerusalem stood on shaky ground according to Peter.  They heard him clearly affix responsibility for the death of Jesus to them.  They saw clearly that Peter and John healed a man everyone knew – a full-grown adult who have never in his life walked.  They felt the movement of history as the crowds flocked to the disciples to hear them talk about salvation in Jesus.  The leaders in the temple needed to cut this off, before it got away from them. 

            The priests, the captain of the temple, and the Sadducees came to them “much annoyed” says Acts 4:2.  These officials of government and religion did not like the claim that in Jesus we have resurrection – his and ours when we put our trust in him.  No, they did not like any of this.  These officials stood on their own unique understanding of scripture, a perspective that assured them of power. 

            Do we dare confess a faith that upsets the conventions of our time?  Tolerance of all religions, which means saying all religions are okay and basically teach the same thing; this sentiment rules in our time.  Do we dare oppose this by saying Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life, and no one comes to the Father except through him? 

An individual person’s individual rights are sacred and not to be threatened in our culture.  We believe in the autonomy of the individual.  At least, that is what we claim to live by.  Do followers of Jesus dare say, no, my rights are not as important fully submitting myself to Jesus as my Lord and my King?

The priests and Sadducees stood on their privilege as leaders.  They expected all in Jerusalem to live by this foundation, so they were furious that the disciples of an already crucified man would continue defying their authority.  But they could not deny what everyone witnessed.  The man with useless legs was now completely healed and jumping around praising God.   

How could they maintain power?  Who were they?  Those in leadership positions in the temple may not have consciously wondered that, but the actions of Peter and John created a crisis for them.  They who understood themselves to be the ones in control now had to face forces beyond their reach.  Verses 14-15 say, “When they saw the boldness of Peter and John and realized that [these] were uneducated and ordinary men, they were amazed and recognized them as companions of Jesus.  When they saw the man who had been cured standing beside them [Peter and John], they [the officials] had nothing to say in opposition.”

All they could do was pose the question.  Their last gasp, their final lurch for control was to name this thing that was happening.  “By what power or by what name did you do this” (4:7)?

On what do we stand? 

What authority authorizes the way we live our lives?

Who are we?  Americans?  Tennants or Asbills, Johnsons or Bakers, Folliards or Sits?  Baptists?  Who or what makes us, drives and defines our actions and attitude, our thoughts, deeds, and words?

All the priests and Sadducees could do was throw the question out into the crowd, into the air, out where all gathered would hear and consider.  All Peter and John could do was give one answer – the only answer they had, the only answer that is true.  “Let it be known that this man is standing in good health by the name of Jesus Christ whom you crucified, whom God raised from the Dead” (4:10).

A few years ago I watched a film produced by an independent Christian film maker.[i]  It was about a couple professors at a Christian college in the late 1800’s.  They were debating morals.  Is it enough to speak and truth and do good works or must our truth and our deed of help and benevolence be done in Jesus’ name.  One professor said as long as good is done; it does not matter if it is in Jesus’ name or simply in the cause of doing what’s right.  His colleague disagreed.  He insisted that unless deeds were done in Jesus’ name, they could not be considered really true or truly good.

The film involves a time machine and caricatures that lack verisimilitude.  I found it silly.  But the debate between these fictional Christian college professors from the 19^th century is fascinating and is timeless.  In any context, we could ask, is a deed good in and of itself?  Simply speaking, yes.  It is good to give food to hungry people.  It is good to provide education to impoverished students so they can develop their minds, reach their potential, get good jobs and climb out of poverty.  These are a few of thousands of examples in which I see non-Christians contributing.  I have seen people who say, “I am not Christian,” contributing to the good of humanity.  Sometimes non-Christians outdo Christ-followers in generosity. 

Yet at a much deeper level, I side with the view that it is not enough to simply do good things.  At some point, after people have been healed, fed, clothed, educated, and given shelter, they gain power.  When they gain power, those who had been holding all of it will feel threatened and a confrontation occurs. 

“By what power or by what name are you doing this?”  The question is inevitable.  When it comes, we need more than groundless claims that love is self-evident and charity is self-evident and compassion is self-evident.  Where do these values come from?  Who are we that we dare stand on these things, and standing on these values, what gives us the gumption to help people? 

Unless we are in Christ, we are speechless.  If we are in Christ, our lives have purpose and we do not lack for words.  His Holy Spirit provides them.  “By what power?”  We answer, “We heal and we feed and we travel and we work and we love and we help in the name of Jesus.  He was crucified by sin, yours and ours.  He was raised by God.”  And we say as Peter said, “There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under given among human beings by which we might be saved” (4:12). 

I do not say any of this to reject the good things unbelievers do to help people in the world.  We have sponsors who support children in Kombolcha, Ethiopia who are not Christian.  We gladly receive their non-Christian sponsorship dollars and I affirm that what they do is helpful and is good. 

I find here in this story, in Peter’s word when the question is put to him that the intent of the Holy Spirit of God and the driving force in Peter’s actions not only heals crippled men at the temple gate and feeds hungry Ethiopian kids.  The driving force also transforms the giver of the gift.  The temple leaders, the Sadducees, some of the most lettered intellectuals of the day were silenced by uneducated fishermen from backwater Galilee.

How could that be?  Peter and John and everyone who acts in the name of Jesus by the name of Jesus speaks and works with power that is beyond what any human possesses. 

On what do we stand?  We stand on the name of Jesus. 

Who are we?  We are a community of followers of the risen, Jesus Christ, the King.  He is our testimony.  He gives meaning to what we do – transcendent, eternal meaning.  He binds us together as a family with God as our Father.  Under His banner, our acts, both the work in our day-to-day lives and the works we do that are explicitly Christian are part of a greater story – the story of the emergence of God’s eternal kingdom.  This included the work of home, vocation (our jobs), and the work of relationships, family, friendships, acquaintances, neighbors, and unexpected encounters.  In all works in every part of life, He is Lord and we speak, act, and think by His name. 

This week, you and I won’t be dragged before officials who want to know why we performed as miracle healing on a handicapped man who has never walked.  The world is different.  We will have opportunities to help people and do good things.  Right now we as a church body are invited to pray that God would ready us, so when those opportunities come, we’ll respond by His name in His power sharing His love.  Fueled by the Holy Spirit we will not only be inclined to do good and helpful things; we will also be ready to respond to anyone who wonders about us by pointing them to Jesus.

Please join me in silent prayer as we, the church, join our hearts together in asking God to fill us, empower us, and ready us to be His witnesses.

Now please join me in this responsive prayer.

Leader: Lord Jesus.

Congregation: You are the risen one.

Leader: Fill us with the hope and the power of the resurrection

Congregation: Help us to speak and act in Your Name.

Leader: Lead us, Lord Jesus.

Congregation: We commit ourselves to you.

AMEN

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[i] http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0295725/?ref_=nm_flmg_act_9