Seventh Sunday of Easter, Year A, May 21, 2023

Jesus Prays in the Garden coloring page.

Prayer

We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God for ever and ever. Amen.

From Prayers for Sunday and Seasons, Year A, Peter J. Scagnelli, LTP, 1992.

Some Thoughts on John 17:1-11

Whatever the relationship between Jesus and God entails, glorification is a substantial part of it. In 7:39 we learn that believers had not yet received the spirit because Jesus had not yet been glorified.

Commentary, John 17:1-11, Jaime Clark-Soles, Preaching This Week,WorkingPreacher.org, 2008

"John helps us avoid the commodification of the gospel and invites to an understanding of being good news by being community in which love is lived out."

"First Thoughts on Year A Gospel Passages in the Lectionary: Easter 7," William Loader, Murdoch University, Uniting Church in Australia.

Oremus Online NRSV Gospel Text



This section of John's Gospel is often referred to as Jesus' high priestly prayer. It is Jesus' prayer for his followers; it is also considered by the church to be Jesus' prayer for all those who would come to believe and follow Jesus into all the ages.

He prays the prayer between the events surrounding the last supper and his crucifixion.

Most scholars break the text up into the following parts.

1. Jesus prays first for himself
2. Jesus prays for his disciples, left in the world after his ascension
3. Jesus prays for the Church universal.
Jesus, probably standing as was the tradition in most Jewish prayer, looks up to heaven. We here the echo of passages throughout Joh's Gospel as Jesus begins by affirming that the Father has given him all authority. (3:27, 35, 5:27; 10:18; 19:10-11)

Jesus says that he has finished the work he was given to do. This is clearly stated throughout the text as the work of Glorifying God. This is work that is his own and is deeply rooted in his shared will with God the Father, a comes from the mission of God designed before the time of creation. That work is specifically to glorify God in and through the created world drawing all creation to God. This is the culminating statement of Jesus' teaching, healing, and feeding mission aimed at instructing God's people. (See Verse 7: “‘everything you have given me’”.)

Jesus begins to pray for those to whom he has ministered.  In verse 6: “I have made your name known”.
J. N. Sanders summarizes well this statement in his textual criticism:

"The Greek verb ephanerosa is used of the manifestation of Jesus, or of his glory, or of God’s works, in 1:31; 2:11; 9:3; 21:1, 14. Here it is to those given to Jesus by the Father that Jesus, by his words and deeds, makes known God’s “name”, i.e. his character and person." [Sanders, J.N. The Gospel according to John; London: Black 1968]

The witness of the apostles and those who experienced Jesus bear testimony to Jesus' next words. It is their experience of the mission of God in Jesus, his teaching, his life, and his resurrection and ascension that confirm the Gospel Good News.

From verse 8: through "the words...they ... know in truth that I came from you”.

Clearly, Jesus is praying his desire for his followers, he is praying on our behalf.

Verse 9: “‘I am not asking on behalf of the world, but on behalf of those whom you gave me'".

Others are not capable, unless they come to faith in Jesus (see v. 20), of sharing in what the Father gives.

He knows the road will be difficult. He knows the world will seek to divide and to stop the witness of The Gospel; that it will try to subvert it.

He knows that worldly fights will divide it. All we have to do is read the Epistles of Paul to see how the world quickly divides along opinions and egos. Jesus prays therefore as he and the divine community are one, so may all those who proclaim his name be one. Sanders believes that the scripture and division Jesus may have in mind could be Psalm 41:9 "Even my bosom friend in whom I trusted, who ate of my bread, has lifted the heel against me.”

At a vestry and wardens conference some years ago I did a bible study on this passage and challenged the church to live out the high priestly prayer of Jesus. Here are some missionary thoughts to be considered as you prepare to preach or study this passage in your bible groups.

Some thoughts on John 17 and Church leadership

Jesus understands that his mission was to glorify God and make known the only true God.  [17.1]
Is the primary purpose of our congregations to glorify God and to make him known, and to make Jesus Christ known [17.3]?

Jesus says that he has glorified God by finishing the work he was given to do. [17.4]
How are we finishing the work you are given to do?

Jesus understood that the people he met… the people whose lives he touched…were each given to him by God. [17.6].

Do we treat the people in your congregation like they were given to you by God? Do we treat every newcomer that walks onto your campus like they were given to you by God?

Jesus understood everything he was given in this world was given to him by God? [17.7]
Do we act as though everything we have been given is given to us by God? Do we act as though the church (the buildings, community, and money) is given to us by God? Or do we treat it as our own personal property?

Jesus’ ministry was so focused that everyone knew he was given to them by God? [17.8]
Does the world look at us and know that the Episcopal Church is given to them by God?

Jesus asks the Father to make us one. [17.11]
Are we as leaders working for unity with Jesus’ prayer or division?  Are we capturing the excitement of support or feeding the virus of anxiety?

Jesus asks the Father to protect us. [17.15]
Do we minister out of the knowledge that God will provide for us? Do we engage in ministry and the challenges of ministry with the wisdom that God is watching over us? Or do we do our work out of a sense of solitude?  Are we the ONLY ones who fix these problems?

Jesus asks the Father to fill us with his joy. [17.14]
Are we filled with Jesus’ joy? Do we laugh at our meetings? Is there joy in our communities?

Jesus asks the Father to sanctify us through the word. [17.17]
Are we as leaders bathing our ministries in scripture?

Jesus sends us into the world. [17.19]
Our congregations are in the world geographically, but are they out in the world in ministry?  What would those who live two blocks away from our church say about our ministry?

Jesus is apart of us. [17.23]
What is the view of Jesus that people see when they look at our congregations?

Jesus hopes that his love is in us and in our relationships and in our communities [17.26]
Are our congregation's places where Jesus’ love is felt throughout the leadership? …throughout the congregation?  Does Jesus’ love flow out into the world from our communities?

Jesus’ priestly prayer is a powerful prayer.  It is an amazing thing to think that Jesus was praying for his disciples and he is praying for us today.  Jesus’ prayer, captured here in John’s Gospel is a prayer for us, for our ministries of leadership, for our congregations.

John 17 holds within it the hope Jesus has for his mission, the mission that is our own.

What would it be like to finish your term on the vestry or on your bishop’s committee, in Sunday school or by helping serve at the altar, and be able to say to yourself and to your God:

We were faithful.  We were faithful as a congregation in making God and Jesus known to our members and to the community around us. 

We glorified God with our very best.  And, while the mission isn’t fulfilled, we made headway on the goals and objectives we knew would make a difference.
Today we are better at treating people in our congregation as God given and beloved people of God. 

We were good stewards of what has been given and we did not bury it in the ground but were like the sower of seeds and scattered our gifts increasing 10, 20, 40 fold what we received.
Today I hear people freely talk about our church and its ministries and people as gifts from God in their life. 

We are more unified around our mission and we have a great feeling that God is watching over us and protecting us and providing for us. Even when things were tough we ventured out in faith because we knew God was with us.

What if you could say, “I had a great time serving on the vestry”? We laughed and I feel really close to those folks.  Church is a fun place to be.  We enjoy being together.
I know more about the bible today and how it affects leadership than I did when I first began serving.  I am hungry to know more.

I was wearing a church T-shirt the other day and someone came up to me and said, isn’t your church that church that makes a difference? It made a difference in my neighbor’s life. 

Jesus is really alive to me.  I know he loves me and that was revealed to me through my work with these leaders.  In fact people in our church today feel a lot of love and talk about Jesus’ love more today than they did.

The reality is that all of these things are possible.  You are the leaders of our church.  Together you affect the ministry more than any other group in the church, any other group in the Diocese of Texas.

Will you take an honest and fearless inventory of the work that is before you?  Will you take an honest and fearless inventory of the way you live out your ministries?  Only you know the answers to Jesus’ questions of you.  Only you know the gap that exists between where you, your leadership, and your congregation is on the path to the vision Jesus has set for you.

Only you can bring the gifts of ministry to the altar of God and to bear upon the challenges before you.

Will you choose to be better leaders tomorrow than you are today?  Will you choose to be a better congregation than you are today?  Will you choose to increase your impact on the world around you?

Will you through your leadership and your ministry and your congregation make the world a better place?

Only you the leaders of this church, the people of the Diocese of Texas, can answer these questions.

Let me tell you what I believe.

I believe that Jesus expects the people and congregations of the Diocese of Texas to change the world in which we live.

I believe that Jesus calls us to build up the kingdom of God, not tear it down.

I believe that Jesus calls us to make God known and to grow and expand our ministry in the Diocese of Texas.

I believe that Jesus calls us to partner with people, share our stories, and help in the work of transformation.

I believe that Jesus expects us to love and care for the world around us and to help with its healing.

I believe Jesus calls us to be the resource filled diocese we are and not minister out of scarcity but an understanding that God has given us all that we need to grow and make a difference.

Jesus expects nothing less than that we glorify God by our work, and God deserves the very best.

Some Thoughts on 1 Peter 4:12-5:11

"1 Peter reminds us that what is at stake in the sufferings of Christ-believers is not so much what they believed but what they did. Because they believed that Christ was Lord, and not Caesar, they strived to establish communities marked by love and solidarity rather than by hierarchy and a system of patronage and debt."

Commentary, 1 Peter 4:12-14; 5:6-11 (Easter 7A), Valerie Nicolet-Anderson, Preaching This Week, WorkingPreacher.org, 2011.

Oremus Online NRSV Epistle Text 

I was enjoying preaching and thinking about Peter but today I am having a tough time. This is a difficult text because I think it is hard for us to understand the context as western people of global power whose suffering can often times be limited to cell phone outages and coffee shortages. Yet... let's have a go at it again.

The author continues to "exhort" his readers to be hopeful in their "ordeal". And, here is perhaps the important and revelatory preaching hermeneutical key for today....Jesus is with us. Jesus is with us in our suffering, Jesus promises to be with us, Jesus is with us.  Even when we may not think Jesus is with us he is. God is present.  It is not a matter of us suffering like Jesus so we can be with Jesus but that Jesus is with us by virtue of his promise, his suffering, and his resurrection.  

Moreover, this presence is a preparation, a foretaste, of the unity which we will experience in the world that is yet to come.  

We experience God's presence in our suffering and in our joy.  Sometimes we think God is only with us when everything is good and happy - going our way.  God is here, and perhaps even more visible, through our experiences of suffering.  We are keenly aware of him in both the good and the bad times.

Then our author turns to the leaders - the elders - of the community and charges them to behave and care for the faithful.  They are to be about the nurturing and pastoring of their flock.  They are to make sure that they share the truth of the gospel with everyone in the community.  They are to help all members understand what it means to follow Jesus.  They are to be examples of disciples themselves.

In this there will be humility for the whole community of Jesus followers.  In this they will be alert.  In these things they will be with God - even in their suffering.  In these things they will participate now in the kingdom that is to come.

Some Thoughts on Acts 1:1-11

Oremus Online NRSV First Text 

This passage is used in both the feast of the Ascension (A, B, and C years) and on Easter 7A. It is the prologue to the book of Acts. In it Luke begins by writing to Theophilus and making it clear that the first books was about “all that Jesus did”. The second book though is about all that is done by God through the power of the Holy Spirit through the Apostles. This is a book about mission and how the first followers of Jesus chose to respond to the events of Jerusalem and Galilee. That the teaching, suffering, death, and resurrection of Jesus forever changed the friends of Jesus.

The resurrected Jesus appeared to the followers of Jesus in many forms. Jesus was ever more real and present after his resurrection than he was, in some ways, before his resurrection. And, that his promise was to be with them to the end of the ages, by virtue of the power of the Holy Spirit.

Luke understands this work as the great restoration of the kingdom of Israel. This was not a political kingdom or a coup of the existing reigning powers and authorities. Instead, Luke appears to grasp the great expansion of the kingdom from primarily an inheritance for the faithful family of Abraham to include all sorts and kinds of people. He has a vision, God’s vision, that his mission work is to offer the reign of God to all people in every land and of every nation. Here we see an expansion, and glorious multiplication of invitation from the cross which echoes after the resurrection throughout the whole of creation to all humanity.

Luke does this through a weaving together of the past and an expansion of the present for the sake of the future.

Jesus like Elijah is to be taken up into heaven. Luke has cast him as Elijah but with a global prophecy.

Luke also builds this first chapter to echo the first chapters of his Gospel wherein the Angel promises that the reign of God, through Jesus, will be restored. “He will reign of the house of Jacob,” and, “His kingdom will have no end,” says the Angel. So the restoration is to begin with the coming of the Holy Spirit after the ascension. What was foreshadowed in the Gospel will not be unveiled or unraveled in the Book of Acts.

Richard Hays, in Echoes of Scripture in the Gospels, writes, “…the witness-bearing of Jesus’ disciples that the nations are to receive the light of the revelation that Isaiah promised…” foreshadowed by Simeon and the whole of the Gospel narrative. (272)

We are of course always reading backward from our perspective. But Luke is careful to interpret the Old Testament prophecies, especially Isaiah, as always having meant that this light, this restored kingdom of Israel, is one that includes the gentiles.

The task here for the missional preacher is to think carefully about who we are speaking to in and what the invitation to us is. It would be normal for us to read back in that in fact we are the Gentiles and Luke’s prophecy and the work of Jesus and the Holy Spirit has been successful for here we are. Yet Luke’s missiological premise and our responsibility cannot be shirked so easily. The question for the sermon hearer and church goer is: who are our gentiles today?

It is my contention that we now hold the place of the religious in the Gospels or the disciples. We are the ones now responsible for answering the Holy Spirit’s invitation. The mission that once was to the “gentiles” is still held out to this church. It is an invitation to bear the light to all those who still live in darkness. And, to do so as disciples and bearers of that light. We were once far off, we were once the gentile, but no longer. Today we are the ones who shall be part of helping God in Christ Jesus restore the reign of God through the power of the Holy Spirit.

Whether we read this passage on the last day of Easter or on the Ascension, hear Luke’s invitation to tell the story of the risen and ascended Lord to the world.

Sixth Sunday of Easter, Year A, May 14, 2023

Prayer

O God, you have prepared for those who love you such good things as surpass our understanding: Pour into our hearts such love towards you, that we, loving you in all things and above all things, may obtain your promises, which exceed all that we can desire; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns

with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Book of Common Prayer, 1979

Some Thoughts on John 14:15-21

"I will show myself to him, and be known by him, as if he saw me with his eyes: but this showing of himself is not bodily, but spiritual, yet so plain that no other showing could be more evident."

From John Calvin's the Geneva Notes.

"To preach the promise of the Spirit and the assurance of Jesus' ascension in the middle of the Easter season may very well get us out of our resurrection ruts, that the resurrection is all that God has in store for us."
Commentary, John 14:15-21 (Easter 6A), Karoline Lewis, Preaching This Week,WorkingPreacher.org, 2014.

Fifty-seven times Jesus uses love verbs (agapao, phileo). Add to that all of the occurrences of "friend" (which is the translation of philos) as well as the fact that the primary disciple in the Fourth Gospel is an unnamed character called "the beloved disciple," and we might accuse the author of touting a single issue.
Commentary, John 14:15-21, Jaime Clark-Soles, Preaching This Week,WorkingPreacher.org, 2008.

Oremus Online NRSV Gospel Text



We are coming to the end of our Easter readings, we are nearing the Ascension and Pentecost.  The text itself reflects the transition that is underway in the Gospel narrative of John and parallels our own liturgical season.  The words we receive from Jesus in this week's lesson are words of comfort.  He is leaving them, the moment is near.  Just as the disciples have witnessed Jesus and therefore have experienced the Father's love and care; so as he departs he explains to them and to all those in the coming generations that they will always be close to God.

Jesus is fulfilling the final portion of the mission of God; he is explaining that he will pour upon them the very spirit of God the Advocate who will bind disciples of the living God together and to the divine being itself.

Those who follow will continue to experience Jesus and the Father's love through the comfort and counsel of the Spirit.  In fact, the as the mission of God has always intended, those who follow and make community in Jesus' name will experience the closeness and presence of the Spirit as it is in this very community that the Spirit will dwell and make its home. (John v.23)

As I search the web for resources I think Chris Haslam does a very good job in describing the nature of the word used by Jesus to describe the Holy Spirit. For those interested in the word study his comments follow:

"Verse 16: “Advocate”: The Greek word is Parakletos, which can be translated as Champion. The Greek word is derived from a verb meaning call to one’s side. The Latin word advocatus has the same meaning, but there is a distinction to be made between the Greek and Roman judicial systems. In a Roman court, an advocatus pleaded a person’s case for him, but a Greek parakletos did not: in the Greek system, a person had to plead his own case, but he brought along his friends as parakletoi to influence the court by their moral support and testimony to his value as a citizen. One can argue that the sense in John is of giving help – as is usually the sense in the New Testament, e.g. encourage, comfort in 2 Corinthians 1:4 and exhort in Romans 12:1. A Champion is one who supports by his presence and his words."

It is clear that Jesus understands that the Holy Spirit is like Jesus himself. The Holy Spirit represents the Father, and living and dwelling in the community of the Spirit will allow others who did not experience Jesus directly to experience the fullness of the Trinitarian community of God.  The Holy Spirit is another representative, a member of the family which is called God.  The spirit is a direct representative not simply an envoy.  This Spirit will offer to all the world through the community of beloved disciples, and the continuing community of witness and the life of the disciple the truth of Jesus, his life, and the nature of unity all have in God.

From the very earliest created moment God has desired to walk in the garden with his people.  The Diocese of Connecticut has this very wonderful way of expressing this desire of God, this mission of God:

"God created all things in love – the universe, earth, humanity. It was diverse, and it was good. Human sin entered in and distorted our relationship with God, one another, and creation. God seeks continually to overcome this alienation. This is God’s mission. God chose and liberated a people, sent the law and the prophets. God came in Jesus, fully human and fully divine, to restore all people to unity with God and each other in Christ.  God sent the Holy Spirit, empowering the Body of Christ.  God commissions us in baptism to participate in God’s mission of restoration and reconciliation." -- Collaboratively written, and offered, by the Mission Discernment Initiative working group .

As Episcopalians, we cannot read our verses today without hearing the Holy Trinity.  We are a people who believe in the community of God and God's desire through mission and evangelism that we unite people into his community. We are people who proclaim the community of love divine.

As you preach this Sunday I encourage you to speak of this key and essential understanding of God, how God desires us to be in community, celebrate the beauty and goodness of the communities in which you serve, and challenge all the people of God to undertake with God, the pleasure of being a missionary people inviting all the world into relationship bound by God's Holy Spirit.

Some Thoughts on I Peter 3:13-22

"Perhaps suffering in this case means being willing to renounce certain things in the name of Christian faith."

Commentary, 1 Peter 3:13-22 (Easter 6A), Valerie Nicolet-Anderson, Preaching This Week, WorkingPreacher.org, 2011.

"The point of this rather dense passage seems to be that the hearers need not fear suffering nor fear the powers that be."

"First Thoughts on Year B Epistle Passages in the Lectionary: Lent 1," William Loader, Murdoch University, Uniting Church in Australia.

Oremus Online NRSV Epistle Text 

Our Author is reflecting in the text the fact that the Christians he is writing to are enduring persecution. Households are divided and some are suffering.  He reminds his readers that no matter what comes they are to not fear or be intimidated.  They have faith.  This faith may bring persecution.  Nevertheless, by focusing on God and continuing to live your life as a follower of Jesus they will make it through this time. He writes:

...in your hearts sanctify Christ as Lord. Always be ready to make your defense to anyone who demands from you an accounting for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and reverence. Keep your conscience clear, so that, when you are maligned, those who abuse you for your good conduct in Christ may be put to shame. For it is better to suffer for doing good, if suffering should be God’s will, than to suffer for doing evil.

The author then reminds us that God is a patient God. Our God is a god who in Christ Jesus suffered. Christ himself and many before us have suffered and died for their belief.  God has been patient as is revealed in the story of Noah and we might also remember Abraham.  God has waited patiently even until this moment.  Yet the God we believe in saves us.  Our God is patient and waits upon us and in return, we are to (as Mary responds) wait upon the Lord.

In our present sufferings, we are to remember our baptism in particular. We are to be mindful of Noah and our baptism.  He writes:

And baptism, which this prefigured, now saves you—not as a removal of dirt from the body, but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers made subject to him.

We are cleansed in baptism and marked as Christ's own forever.  This is true and powerful for those who are suffering.

I am mindful of recent comments from our Archbishop past and present who called the so-called suffering of Christians in the west dramatized compared to the very real suffering, persecution, and death of our brother and sister Christians in other parts of the world.

As Christian people in the west, we do not honor our fellow Christians who are suffering when we talk about suffering in the U.S. for instance.  Sometimes I think we cry wolf and call it persecution when we are challenged by prevailing attitudes that in turn persecute or treat others without dignity.

The context of Peter's letter is important. The letter is addressed to slaves and Christians who have no power, who are in the minority, who are dying and being persecuted. He is offering them hope in their suffering. We in the west need to be vigilant to ensure that we do not take this passage out of context and use it to protect racism, class-ism, or bigotry.  It is always good to know that when we are powerful we are to seek powerlessness. 

Some Thoughts on Acts 17:22-31

"Since they have their origin within God, Paul argues that this God who bore them must not be conceived as the work of human hands or inventive minds, but as a living being. Only after laying all of this groundwork does Paul make a specifically Christian claim. He asserts that this God has appointed a just judge who will clarify what has been unknown to the hearers. This appointed one can be trusted because God raised him from the dead."

Commentary, John 14:15-21, Philip Ruge-Jones, Preaching This Week,WorkingPreacher.org, 2020.

"The sermon ends with God as the main actor: God overlooks, commands, sets the day, judges the world and provides proof through the resurrection."

Commentary, Acts 17:22-31 (Easter 6A), Mikeal C. Parsons, Preaching This Week, WorkingPreacher.org, 2014.


"Paul's speech in Athens is the clearest place in the New Testament where Christian theodicy is explained to Epicureans and their reaction to it recorded. Whether Acts 17 record an actual address by Paul to these very people or a creation of the author, Luke sees Christian doctrine being compared and contrasted with an alternate doctrine, Epicureanism. It is the hypothesis of this study that Christian preaching about theodicy seems regularly to have come in conflict with denials of it, denials which are typically and even specifically characteristic of Epicureans."
"Acts 17, Epicureans and Theodicy: A Study in Stereotypes." Jerome H. Neyrey, n Greeks, Romans, and Christians: Essays Honor of Abraham J. Malherbe, 118-34. D. L. Balch and W. A. Meeks. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1990.

Oremus Online NRSV First Text 

This passage comes well into the book of Acts. Last week we were introduced to Saul before his conversion where he was participating in the stoning of Stephen. This week we join Paul as he is making his second trip. Paul has had his conversion and becomes a missionary helping to plant and to support emerging Christian communities. In this passage, Paul has arrived at Athens.

I have to admit this is a very important and key passage if we are to embrace a missionary hermeneutic. So, I want to examine it carefully.

First, let us name what we do with this passage normally. A quick survey of sermon resources tells me that we often read this passage through the lens of the existing church and our liturgical or worship traditions. So, we read this as being about Christian liturgy and worship vs. pagan worship. This is not quite the context because for the Athenians Paul is the pagan and maybe even an atheist. The second way we read this is might be to make this an internal argument about our internal spiritual relationship with God vs the pagan gods we worship out in the world. This moves us into a dualistic understanding of the world as bad God as good. Worse, it makes God into something inside of us and removes transcendence from the equation and perpetuates an immanent frame of humanism disguised in gospel words. Finally, preachers put their people in the place of the Athenians. They are the pagans who have come to learn. I don’t see much of this, but it is there. Somehow, the preacher believes they are to be the apologist within the organization for the people. All three of these scenarios move the work of responding to the lesson, God, or the world as an internal work that takes place within the individual or inside the church. The scholars who seem to get this closer to a missiological understanding place the hearers in the role of Paul and play with the notion of conversing about God out in the world.

Taking a look at the passage again we notice that Paul comes to Athens to meet up with and wait for Silas. This is important in that we must see that while Paul is on a mission trip, the actual frame of the story happens while he is waiting. He is out in the world. He is noticing his surroundings. He is about his work when the mission opportunity occurs.

Paul is clear that there is a lot of idol worship and he is “distressed” by it. The word here is interesting because a direct translation is that he was moved by the spirit. He was provoked by the spirit. I pause here because some of the reading gets us into an antagonistic situation. Paul though is moved by the spirit to talk about all of this idol worship so he engages with anyone who will engage with him.

We automatically put Paul into an antagonistic situation where he is arguing for something over and against something. This could be the situation but this runs a little against the grain of Luke’s narrative in Acts which seems so very interested in engagement for the sake of relationship and invitation. Princeton Scholar Clifton Black points out that for Luke, “all other philosophical or religious views do not have to be dynamited as false in order to prove the gospel truth.” In this vein then we see Paul is invited as a fellow philosopher into the Areopagus to speak with the greatest minds in the city. The invitation is not so that they might confront him as in some of the Old Testament prophetic duals between God’s prophets and Baal’s. Instead, this is a conversation.

Paul then tells the story of his time in Athens. Paul uses their own image, their own idol as a tool to discuss God in Christ Jesus. Note very carefully that he does not turn over the tables in the false shrines, or call them heretics, or tell them they are not believers. In fact, Paul speaks to their highest selves and their searching and seeking.

Moreover, Paul does not offer them religion for religion. He offers them faith in a God who seeks relationship with the creature. He is not interested in competing against the other lesser gods, he doesn’t even deny their place. He simply offers a vision of a God who reaches across creation and embraces humanity, who bridges the gap of sin by God’s work on the cross, and who raises all people through the work of resurrection. This is brought about by Jesus. Paul makes a compelling case. But it is a case not made by bashing the religion of his hearers. Instead, he uses what he has observed about his hearers and their faith to speak to them about the faith in Jesus.

Scholar William Loader writes,

“Both episodes today [Peter and Acts] are about removing barriers, barriers constructed by religion itself. Both are saying that the whole world is God’s creation, the playground of the Spirit. The whole world is the object of God’s love, the love incarnate in Jesus Christ. Every attempt by human beings to capture God in images, in a book, in a temple, in a people or culture, in a religious experience or in an institution, is a denial of the Spirit. It is a re-erection of Babel’s tower, another futile assault on God’s power in the name of human power, another desperate bid borne of fear, to define out the unknown, the unpredictable, the unmanageable future God promises us. The serpent’s vision still entices us: we want to be like God.”

Too often mission is about us having something they don’t have. It is about them coming in here to get it. It is about making a case about a God seen faithfully only through the eyes of religion and worship. This is not the missiology framed in Acts and not in this passage about Paul. We do far better to speak the truth that our greatest witness is out in the world – sometimes while we are waiting. That the invitation is not to shame people into religion by propositioning them to see how ours’s is better. It is rather about true engagement, valuing of other faiths and religions as pieces of revelation of God in Christ Jesus and seeking with them to understand and speak about the God who suffers, dies, and is resurrected.

Fifth Sunday of Easter, Year A, May 7, 2023

Rubens Painting of Philip

Prayer

God, give us eyes to see
the beauty of the Spring,
And to behold Your majesty
in every living thing -
And may we see in lacy leaves
and every budding flower
The Hand that rules the universe
with gentleness and power -
And may this Easter grandeur
that Spring lavishly imparts
Awaken faded flowers of faith
lying dormant in our hearts,
And give us ears to hear, dear God,
the Springtime song of birds
With messages more meaningful
than man's often empty words
Telling harried human beings
who are lost in dark despair -
'Be like us and do not worry
for God has you in His care.

Helen Steiner Rice
Read more at: http://www.faithandworship.com/prayers_Easter.htm#ixzz1MvRo6SBN
Under Creative Commons License: Attribution

Some Thoughts on John 14:1-14

"By believing against all odds and loving against all odds, that is how we are to let Jesus show in the world and to transform the world."

"Let Jesus Show," sermon discussion from Frederick Buechner, Frederick Buechner Blog.

"This is a terribly difficult word to preach for surely there are always those among us whose heartfelt prayers have gone unanswered and whose hearts have been broken, whose trust shattered by Jesus' failure to keep this promise."

Commentary, John 14:1-14 (Easter5A), Sarah Henrich, Preaching This Week,WorkingPreacher.org, 2011.

Oremus Online NRSV Gospel Text


This week we continue with Jesus' teaching of the interrelated life of the Apostolic community and the Holy Trinity. In my opinion, this passage gives an understanding of the interrelated nature of God as Trinity and how that interrelated life is to be a part of the interrelated life of the community.
The very first verses are key to the creedal arguments of the second century and the statement that the Spirit proceeds from the Father became a chorus for the Greek or more Western argument.

Jesus says that the Spirit will bear witness to him. What is meant theologically is that the Holy Spirit will, in its very person, bear witness to the unity and love between the Father and the Son, and bear witness to their love. The Spirit is the very perfect image of God's love.
It is also clear that the Spirit will provide the undergirding of the community and that those followers, the ones whom Jesus called to be with him, will be witnesses because of God's presence with them in and through the Spirit.

It is clear that the passage holds within itself and Jesus' words a sense of dread for the apostolic community that remains. Whether a forecast of things to come or reflecting the reality of the time in which the text was written, the message is clear throughout chapter 14 - as the Jesus movement continues to take shape and bear witness to a new community life they'll be segregated and separated from the religious roots from which their faith was birthed.

Religious zealots have always sought to purify religion (it is human nature it seems). I cannot help reflect on the major stories of religious upheaval, from Babel to Babylon to Pentecost to the Reformation, we see God building and rebuilding his faithful followers challenging them in ever new ways. Phyllis Tickle speaks of these moments as great shifts. The nature of the church as a family of God is deeply rooted in these emerging shifts over thousands of years. N. T. Wright's work also gives a clear understanding of the emerging deuteronomistic family of God and how it has shaped us.
The disciples are right in the midst of a great shift and Jesus tells them they will not be alone, and that the Spirit will help them to understand their witness of the Truth which is clearly meant to be the Living Word Jesus Christ. From Stephen to Polycarp the names of the earliest martyrs are eternal with us. Perpetua and her friends have been joined by a holy family of saints who have paid the cost of faith - a family of God martyred by Christians and non-Christians alike. Even Thomas and Philip who ask Jesus these questions will be faithful healers and preachers and will die as a martyr for their faith.

There is martyrdom of the physical body and there is martyrdom of the conscience, too. Our zealotry has little room today for a difference of opinion and conscience falls away as we wrestle with the cult of belonging. The heresies of the ancient world catch up with us once again, Donatism and its friend on the opposite sides of the spectrum Gnosticism; Nazarene to its partner Manichaeism. Each requires perfection of its followers, rather than mutual and communal discernment of the Holy Spirit's revelation, which begins not with our knowledge, but of unknowing our common search for truth and our common brokenness and sinfulness. Always beyond us and always our aim, the collect for Richard Hooker is therefore prayed in hope: help us seek unity not for the sake of compromise but for the sake of comprehension.
I guess all of this is to say that it is easier for humans to walk apart because of their zealotry than it is for us to walk together for the sake of truth. No wonder Jesus prayed for the comforter to come and for the unity of those who follow him!

The verses which come towards the end of the passage, and yet are not included in our reading, confirm the reality of Jesus' own perfect revelation in that the Spirit's work will confirm what has been taught. There will not be a new or differing revelation as time wears on. Now some will say, but don't we believe that the Holy Spirit continues to work and reveal God in the world through the mission and ministry of those who follow Jesus?

I think sometimes we get confused about what is changing. As a person who loves to think systematically and theologically, how I understand this may, in fact, be different than most, but what I am about to say also fits with my understanding of the Episcopate as keeper of the church's faith, handing down a living tradition of apostolic belief. The revelation of God in the unique person of Jesus Christ and the community of the Godhead as Trinity is an unchanging reality and faith. However, I remember at this point, and always at this point (humbly I must admit), the prayer for the church from our prayer book, page 816: where [the Church] is corrupt, purify it; where it is in error, direct it; where in anything it is amiss, reform it. Where it is right, strengthen it... All this is to say that here are the areas where I believe the church is challenged, not with new revelation but with the challenge of seeing God and God's mission more clearly.
Raymond Brown confirms this reading in today's text when he writes:

"Verse 14 reinforces the impression that the Paraclete brings no new revelation because he receives from Jesus what he is to declare to the disciples..." The author records Jesus' concept that he, like the Paraclete, is an "emissary of the Father. In declaring or interpreting What belongs to Jesus, the Paraclete is really interpreting the Father to men; for the Father and Jesus possess all things in common...In Johannine thought it would have been unintelligible that the Paraclete have anything from Jesus that is not from the Father, but all that he has is from Jesus." (R.B., Anchor Bible, John, vol ii)

Perhaps in our time the Gospel -- the Good News-- is the promise that seeking the truth, come whence it may and cost what it will, intends to be nothing less than a pilgrimage into the heart and community of God. So I pray at the end of my life's journey, may I find I am closer to God and that such a closeness reveals and births in me a love for my real and ever-expanding family of God.

Some Thoughts on I Peter 2:2-10

"While it has become commonplace these days to describe the coming Kingdom as a reality far removed from the plane of this world, there is really nothing in Peter's eschatologically-oriented letter to suggest such a notion. For him, the revelation of Christ was destined to happen in the midst of creation itself, and it was here that Christians were called to be a priestly community in anticipation of the event."

Commentary, 1 Peter 2:2-10 (Easter5A), Daniel G. Deffenbaugh, Preaching This Week, WorkingPreacher.org, 2011.

"These expressions converge in a vision of Christian life that 1 Peter shares with many apostolic writings. Everyone who receives adoption into God's people enters that new life by grace alone (sounding a note that the Old Testament makes frequently and forcefully)."

Commentary, 1 Peter 2:2-10, A.K.M. Adam, Preaching This Week,WorkingPreacher.org, 2008.

Oremus Online NRSV Epistle Text 

We might well remember that Peter is writing to a household of new believers. They had all gotten a new God. Everything in this faith is new to them and some may not have even chosen to become Christian. As part of the household, they would have simply been baptized with the rest of the family.  So the text is a text of instruction.

The author uses that wonderful image of living stones. They are all part of this new household, this new family, of which Christ is the chief living stone.

Then the author goes through the Old Testament and reveals to the new members that this was and is the way it is to be. They are part of a long and ancient heritage - this is a value of their ancient society.  We see clearly then that Psalms, Isaiah, and Hosea are prophecies telling of the coming Christ, the followers, and the church that is even now being raised up.

Chris Haslaam writes:

In v. 7, Christ is the “stone”; he is rejected by the community’s pagan persecutors but to us he is of great value (“precious”). Their rejection was ordained by God before time (“as they were destined ...”, v. 8). In v. 9, the terms used of Christians are all from the Old Testament – where they refer to Israel. The Church, the new Israel, is “chosen” by God to proclaim Christ’s death and resurrection (“mighty acts [of God]”); it is God who chose the new Christians for conversion from paganism, “out of darkness into ... light”. In baptism, they have come from having no relationship to God (“not a people”, v. 10) to being “God’s people”, to receiving God’s gift of “mercy”.

 Just as the readers had no part in receiving their old Gods they have no part in receiving their new God. This God has chosen them though from before time. It was meant to be.  Chiefly among their items of inheritance is the gift of mercy and forgiveness.

While their old Gods desired of them many sacrifices and many liturgies (even in the household amidst their daily routine), this God is a God of freedom and relationship.  They are marked in this new relationship by the waters of baptism.

This is a truly foreign idea for someone living today. I think as a preacher you have to relate through the notion of what enslaves and requires attention of you today...what are the gods that are controlling your current life?  Do you know that this ancient creator God has chosen you?  Are you aware of what this God requires? This God has in fact chosen you as he has chosen Israel and he is a God of mercy and forgiveness and love.  This God does not require constant maintenance but rather acts of sharing, of kindness, of mercy.

Some Thoughts on Acts 7:55-60

"The life and death of Jesus has given shape to Stephen’s life. He extends the forgiveness, trust, and mercy that Jesus has inaugurated. Having preached judgment with his words on those who have opted for disobedience and violence, with his forgiving dying breath, he announces the transformation the gospel creates. His ending becomes an opportunity for a new beginning in those who watch his witness attentively. The gift of this event interrupts our failings; it did the same for the apostle Paul when he remembered his involvement in this hostility as he announced the hospitality of God that moved his own gracious vocation toward the Gentiles (Acts 22:20)."Commentary, Acts 7:55-60 (Easter5A), Philip Ruge-Jones, Preaching This Week, WorkingPreacher.org, 2020.

"A young man named Saul. This is Luke’s first reference to Saul of Tarsus in all of Acts. He bears witness to the stoning of Stephen. Although it is unclear whether or not he participates in the stoning, he certainly approves of it (Acts 8:1). Only later, in Acts 9, does he become the famous convert and not until Acts 13 does he begin to go by his more familiar name, Paul."Commentary, Acts 7:55-60 (Easter5A), Margaret Aymer, Preaching This Week, WorkingPreacher.org, 2017.

“The world…does not take…God’s [work] readily;” Walter Brueggemann, Texts for Preaching: A Lectionary Commentary Based on the NRSV—Year B (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 1993), 421.

Oremus Online NRSV First Lesson 

As we mentioned in last week's lesson what we know is that the community(s) Luke was familiar with had an understanding that they were to make sure that the lost and least were cared for. They were even willing to sell their things to do this ministry. Collections were taken, held in common, and redistributed for the purposes of ministry to the people in the wider community.

We know this was true elsewhere as there is testimony in both the Gospels and the letters that early stewardship was to share what you had with others. It was not a complex model or program. The work of the church in explaining stewardship revolved around a theology that understood that:

1. That if you wished to experience a relationship with Jesus, you had to know and serve those whom Jesus loved and that is the least, lost, hungry, and imprisoned. (When did we see you?, Matthew 25:31-46)
2. That religious systems are not to take from the poor and weak but give to them. (The widow’s mite, Mark 12:41-44)
3. Jesus invites those who follow to be neighbors with those unlike themselves. Their community was beyond family, clan, and religious belief and included people outside their faith circles. (Good Samaritan, Luke 10:25-37)
4. Those who follow Jesus are to sacrifice their own safety and comfort for the lost as Jesus did. (Good Shepherd, John 10:11-12)

Service and mission to the lost and least was an outward understanding of the theology that understood God himself united heaven and earth in order to serve and die for God’s friends.

This gospel work of service required communities to oversee the work and so we are told in Luke’s experience this is revealed in the work of Stephen. Stephen and others were chosen early in our narrative (6:1 of Acts of the Apostles) to do the work of caring and feeding the orphans and widows. Gathering resources primarily was the work of Stephen. The believing community would take up offerings or sell what they had and then purchase food for the feeding of the hungry.

What has happened in the religious community prior to our reading today is the following. The religious leaders are getting concerned about this new sect within their body. I do not believe that everyone is called to be an evangelist. The scripture is clear that some are pastors, teachers, prophets, evangelists, etcetera etcetera. But what is also clear is that when you serve for instance, as Stephen is doing, people may, in fact, come to believe. All of this was causing the numbers of the followers of Jesus to grow within the religious gatherings and the religious leaders were getting nervous. So, they call Stephen to come before the judges to determine what to do.

In response to questioning then Stephen gives his testimony. Stephen tells them that essentially religion is the enemy of God and that forever while God has been sending prophets to tell them so, they have in turn (in the name of religion) prosecuted them. So it is that religion does to all prophets what it has been doing from the very beginning… if religion is to survive the prophetic call it must kill the prophets. So, Stephen says,

”You stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears, you are forever opposing the Holy Spirit, just as your ancestors used to do. Which of the prophets did your ancestors not persecute? They killed those who foretold the coming of the Righteous One, and now you have become his betrayers and murderers. You are the ones that received the law as ordained by angels, and yet you have not kept it.”

Needless to say, the hearers do not take this very well and the religious judges decide that Stephen must die. In a twisted turn, they actually fulfill the prophecy of Stephen that religion kills the prophets and they are going to keep doing it as long as it furthers their purposes. A fact and tradition not lost on Christian religious tradition and well-implemented after the religious institutionalization of the Jesus movement.

The judgment is made. The mob seizes Stephen, covers their ears so they can’t hear Stephen’s preaching. It was the tradition for an execution to take place outside the city so they take Stephen out to through him into the pit and cast stones on him. Stephen, like Jesus, forgives his executioners revealing a key understanding that Christians are a people of peace even in the face of violence, murder, and executions. We are left with the image of Saul as part of the crowd and an understanding that he too will play a greater role in our narrative as he wrestles with and comes to terms with the message of a gospel meant for all people. So in this one foreshadowing moment, we see too the beginning of the mission to the whole world – including the non-religious.

Fourth Sunday of Easter, Year A, April 30, 2020

Prayer

O God, whose goodness and mercy shall follow us all the days of our life, you have made Jesus, whom you raised from the dead, the gate through which we, the sheep of your flock, may enter the sheepfold of abundant life.  Pour forth upon us the gift of the Holy Spirit, so that a midst the corruption of this age and over the voices of those intent on leading us astray, we may learn to recognize the voice of Christ, the Good Shepherd, who came that we may have life, life in all its fullness.  We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God for ever and ever. Amen.

From Prayers for Sunday and Seasons, Year A, Peter J. Scagnelli, LTP, 1992.

Some Thoughts on John 10:1-10

"Seeing that by Christ alone we have access to the Father, there are no true shepherds other than those who come to Christ themselves and bring others there also, neither is any to be thought to be in the true sheepfold but those who are gathered to Christ." 

From John Calvin's work, the Geneva Notes. 

"One lesson here is that sheep fare best together, not picked off one by one. Another is that there is promise of great pasturage, abundant life for all who follow Jesus' way. A third is that there is something public, open, honest, and even simple about how we live as God's people through Jesus."

Commentary, John 10:1-10, (Easter 4A), Sarah Henrich, Preaching This Week,WorkingPreacher.org, 2011. 

Oremus Online NRSV Gospel Text


The context within the Gospel text is the healing of the blind man. Jesus has healed the blind man, who was blind from birth. The authorities have not understood and have smarted a little (in the last verses of 9) regarding Jesus' words to them regarding their leadership. Jesus then begins the teaching in chapter 10.

The double amen leads off today's text, a repetition we are familiar with throughout the Johannine text. Thieves and bandits (literally street fighters or revolutionaries) climb in and steal sheep. They have to make their way over some kind of stone wall, most likely and scramble through a next of thorny dried bushes. It takes some work and is a painful enterprise, most likely, even for the most determined thief. Nevertheless, this is how bandits do it.

A shepherd enters the gate and gets the sheep. Calls them by name (pet names) and leads them out, and they follow. Sometimes a helper brings up the rear...but the chief shepherd leads. The gatekeepers help by getting the door (don't spend a lot of time on this image and the difference between gatekeeper and shepherd as many scholars think this was a later scribal adjustment to help people understand how the shepherd got out) and all march out by the sound of the shepherd's voice. (Raymond E. Brown, John, Anchor Bible, textual notes, 386)

Sheep don't follow strangers. This seems logical, and I have heard and read a number of texts describing how shepherds and sheep know one another well. Sheep follow their shepherd's voice. Verse 5 gives us an intertextual understanding here: "They will not follow a stranger, but they will run from him because they do not know the voice of strangers.”

The disciples are the audience (while it is conceivable that the audience is the same audience from before - the blind man who was worshipping Jesus and the leaders). So, they want to know what Jesus is saying and how these images have meaning in their current context. Jesus offers clearly his take: he is the gate:

7So again Jesus said to them, “Very truly, I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep. 8All who came before me are thieves and bandits; but the sheep did not listen to them. 9I am the gate. Whoever enters by me will be saved, and will come in and go out and find pasture. 10The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.

I think the text should continue. There is an important part of the text which speaks directly to Jesus as the one who will lay down his life for the sheep and offers him as the much better alternative to the thieving and killing bandits.

We essentially have here the parable of the shepherd and sheep (1-5); the misunderstanding by the listeners (6), and the explanation (7-10).

Raymond Brown offers two interpretations of the meaning of Jesus as the gate. First, we cannot separate the comment of Jesus from the context and climate existing prior to Jesus' own time and stretching back through the intertestamental time period which embodies much of the Jesus movement understanding, and that is the displeasure with the occupying authorities and some dissatisfaction with the religious rulers. In this interpretation, we have something far from the idyllic pastoral scene and rather inherit here a frontal attack on all those who would use authority in an unjust manner. While Jesus is given all authority he is not that way. (393)

The second idea that Brown floats for us is the idea that the gate is the gate of salvation. (394) In the very earliest patristic sources, we see Jesus as the gate by which people enter salvation. Here is just one of the many:

Christ. “For I am,” He says, “the door,” John x. 9. which we who desire to understand God must discover, that He may throw heaven’s gates wide open to us. For the gates of the Word being intellectual, are opened by the key of faith. No one knows God but the Son, and he to whom the Son shall reveal Him. (Clement of Alexandria)

While Jesus is the giver of water, bread, and wine, here we see him as the provider of pasture over and against the death promised by others. These two images (the gate of salvation and salvation's pasture) are important. This pasture is the fullness of life, a fullness of life today and tomorrow.

This week I am thinking about a conversation that I had recently with a group of clergy about preaching and teaching. The idea we explored was about the nature of community as defined over and against other communities; and as a community engaged in the world.

The context of Jesus' ministry, as described in this Gospel message is very much one in which the movement itself is distinguishing the nature of its mission from those around it (government, religious sects, and power). John's community was developing and growing. Perhaps a network of house churches connected to a larger community in which diversity and growth are pressing on the fundamental quality of who the community is; who does the community reflect.

There are seven "I am" statements in John. These I am statements help define both Jesus, Jesus' community, and John's community. In Richard Burridge's John commentary, he has a great line: "So Jesus has to spell it out, 'I am the door of the sheep'; he is the way to safety and salvation. Unlike the thieves and robbers, and the false leaders, he will not cast out, but save and protect all those who hear his voice and respond." (133)

As we listen and respond to the image Jesus gives us, I would ask how are we doing? Jesus is the door, the gate, the way to safety and salvation. How are our communities self-differentiating themselves within their neighbourhood and city in which we live as a community of safety and salvation? Are we the ones who are perceived as thieves and robbers? Are we the ones who are thought of as false leaders? If so, how do we correct that vision of us? When people come to us or encounter us at work in the world, do they feel cast out or brought in, saved and protected, condemned and put in jeopardy?

This is quite the challenge if we are today to continue in the apostles' understanding and teaching, if in fact, we are to be the continuing community of Jesus in the world around us today.

Some Thoughts on I Peter 2:19-25

"We must also see Jesus' death in the light of his life; otherwise we will have no idea what this life is for which he died and think it some kind of promise of escape to bliss." 
"First Thoughts on Year A Epistle Passages in the Lectionary," Easter 4, William Loader, Murdoch University, Uniting Church in Australia. 

"Though Peter is intent on teaching his readers about what is good and right to believe about the love of God the Father, the suffering of the Son, and the sustaining work of the Spirit, he balances all of this with an emphasis on anastrophe, the adoption of a way of life distinctive to the Christian faith." 

Commentary, 1 Peter 2:19-25, (Easter 4A), Daniel G. Deffenbaugh , Preaching This Week, WorkingPreacher.org, 2011.

Oremus Online NRSV Epistle Text 

We continue with another reading from the first letter attributed to Peter.  It goes well with the image of sheep and shepherds found in John's Gospel.

For you were going astray like sheep, but now you have returned to the shepherd and guardian of your souls.

What becomes clear as we make our way through this pastoral letter is that the author is intent on offering clarity around what is expected of a person who chooses to follow the risen Lord Jesus.  A number of scholars point out that this is part of the traditional and cultural household code. Here is the problem we must face...this passage begins with an address to slaves. The passage we read is meant for slaves. It is not meant for women, householders, or children. So, the passage presents several problems.

So how will you preach it? Will you own that it is meant for the household slaves and then interpret it anyway? Will you simply adapt it? The passage has a different meaning in a context where perhaps there is the persecution of Christians and a completely different thing in a context where the Christian is the persecutor.  Also, one must be careful not to suggest that people should simply have their place and go along to get along - as the saying goes.  With these troubling thoughts at the forefront of our mind, let us wade into the actual text a bit and see what we might come up with.

First, I think you should tell everyone where this passage comes from (the ancient household code) and that it was addressed in this letter to household slaves. Tell them that this is troubling, but with that in mind, it might offer us a vision of how we might follow this Jesus - for we have been lost, and God has found us in the Good Shepherd.

I want to say that the author recognizes that people are treated unjustly. It is the unjust part that Peter is focused upon.  God is present with you in your suffering. We mentioned this last week. And here in the suffering, unjustly God is with you as well - God's approval. Approval is translated here from a word that is better offered as "favour." God is with you, God is ever more present, ever more concerned, and God weeps with you in your unjust suffering - God favors you.

When you suffer silently, you mimic Christ. Okay, so here is the tough part. I don't think that I can preach that God intends for you to suffer silently - but rather that your silence - like Christ's - might have a purpose.  

When he was abused, he did not return abuse; when he suffered, he did not threaten; but he entrusted himself to the one who judges justly. He himself bore our sins in his body on the cross, so that, free from sins, we might live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed.

The purpose of Christ is redemption, reconciliation, the cross, and the coming of the Kingdom of God. He did not suffer for suffering's sake.  Christ suffered in order that we might be free.  So the question is...did Peter mean to get along and suffer quietly? If so...abandon that train of thought now. It might not be worth the sermon.  However, if the suffering was to bring about transformation in the householder, the one who unjustly acted against you, to create an opportunity for freedom, then, by all means, move forward with it.

I am reminded here of a great article written regarding the meaning of Martin Luther King Jr. for Black America. You can read it here by Hamden Rice.  Rice points out that MLK did not make white people nicer. Instead, he taught black people that they could stand up. Here is a quote from that article that I was reminded of when struggling with this text.

It was that white people, mostly white men, occasionally went berserk, and grabbed random black people, usually men, and lynched them. You all know about lynching. But you may forget or not know that white people also randomly beat black people, and the black people could not fight back, for fear of even worse punishment.

This constant low level dread of atavistic violence is what kept the system running. It made life miserable, stressful and terrifying for black people.

White people also occasionally tried black people, especially black men, for crimes for which they could not conceivably be guilty. With the willing participation of white women, they often accused black men of "assault," which could be anything from rape to not taking off one's hat, to "reckless eyeballing."

This is going to sound awful and perhaps a stain on my late father's memory, but when I was little, before the civil rights movement, my father taught me many, many humiliating practices in order to prevent the random, terroristic, berserk behavior of white people. The one I remember most is that when walking down the street in New York City side by side, hand in hand with my hero-father, if a white woman approached on the same sidewalk, I was to take off my hat and walk behind my father, because he had been taught in the south that black males for some reason were supposed to walk single file in the presence of any white lady.
...The question is, how did Dr. King do this—and of course, he didn't do it alone.

(Of all the other civil rights leaders who helped Dr. King end this reign of terror, I think the most under appreciated is James Farmer, who founded the Congress of Racial Equality and was a leader of nonviolent resistance, and taught the practices of nonviolent resistance.)

So what did they do?

They told us: Whatever you are most afraid of doing vis-a-vis white people, go do it. Go ahead down to city hall and try to register to vote, even if they say no, even if they take your name down.

Go ahead sit at that lunch counter. Sue the local school board. All things that most black people would have said back then, without exaggeration, were stark raving insane and would get you killed.

If we do it all together, we'll be okay.

 They made black people experience the worst of the worst, collectively, that white people could dish out, and discover that it wasn't that bad. They taught black people how to take a beating—from the southern cops, from police dogs, from fire department hoses. They actually coached young people how to crouch, cover their heads with their arms and take the beating. They taught people how to go to jail, which terrified most decent people.

Rice points out that what followed was largely the end of terrorism against black people that was rampant in the country. Rosa Parks didn't make a big deal - she just didn't move to the back of the bus. The people beaten in the nonviolent protests went about it peacefully, singing. We Shall Overcome. Those thrown in jail unjustly in order to try and maintain white control were visited there by God.  God knows what we did, and God strengthened his people to withstand the onslaught of such suffering.  If you can take 1 Peter and help us teach people how to use peaceful means to combat injustice, I want to encourage you to go all out.

Now...while that version of dealing with the text takes it and twists it a bit...my next thought is that as a preacher, you could tell people that when they oppress and treat people unjustly, then they should know that God is watching and taking note - according to this passage. God knows - no matter how quiet or how loud the wailing is - who is responsible. God also will not favour or be found with such acts. God also does not take kindly to people who use God to abuse others, to beat others, to imprison others falsely, or to kill others.  It is wrong, and God knows it.  It is wrong, and we know it.  

God, in the end, is on the side of those treated unjustly...so much so that he comes into the world to unbind those shackled by the law and to free them to live life anew, responding to grace and mercy and love and forgiveness.  One might even ask, in the end...how are we who follow Jesus to be the gate to justice, freedom, and peace for God's people.  And we might ask ourselves, "What are we willing to stand up and suffer in order to offer peace in this world to those who have no peace?"
 

Some Thoughts on Acts 2:42-47

Oremus Online NRSV First Lesson 

Resources for Sunday's First Lesson

We continue to read through Luke’s Acts of the Apostles as it describes the first days of Jesus’ resurrection, the coming of the Holy Spirit, and the sending out of the disciples. Every disciple who is called by Jesus is made an apostle and sent out by the Holy Spirit to undertake the work of God.

As we move from the chiastic centre of Luke’s Gospel and Acts, we find a narrative of stories of apostolic mission. This lesson chosen for this Sunday is the first of those stories.

We see that, as predicted, there are, in fact going to be many signs of the Gospel in the actual lives of those who follow Jesus. What are the themes we pick up about the early life of the church in this passage?

We are told that the early followers share what they have. This is echoed in the Letter to the Hebrews – sharing is a sacrifice pleasing to God, as is the fruit of lips that honour him. Some have read this passage to mean everything is held equally for the good of all. But the text seems merely to imply that everyone shares what they have with others. Some goods are even sold because of the importance to the community to ensure that everyone has what they need. This is an important piece of the early Christian community. They understood that all people needed a living wage, food, shelter, and the basics of life. They would do what they had to do in order to raise the livelihood of people in their community – even if it meant selling possessions in order to hold the reserves in common for the use of the community in this ministry. We see that in one way they send people to take care of the least of their community, like widows and orphans. It is very clear in the New Testament that there were people of many different classes in the first communities. What is also clear is that the first communities understood it was their responsibility to make sure all had the ability to live. Raising people out of poverty and death has always been a Christian value.

We see that they continue as part of their religious community though they clearly see that following Jesus is a departure from the sacrificial aspect and exchange systems of their religion. This will become a strain on the relationship for both the religious leaders (as we will soon see) and those who are disciples of Jesus. They are also eating together. (We know that there were many forms and rituals for the first meals these apostles and their disciples shared, so don’t get too hung up in some idea of a perfected Eucharistic rite that has been handed down from the earliest practices.) We know that the apostles are adding disciples to their number and that they are also being sent. So there is some biblical and historical evidence here for the increase in numbers.