Practicing what HE preached!
Third Sunday of Easter
Scripture: Acts 3:12-20 & Luke 24:36b-48
Christ is Risen! Christ is Risen indeed!
I thought we’d practice it again this morning as we are still in the season of Easter! Perhaps the first disciples also need to practice it because, according to our reading this morning, they still are having a really hard time wrapping their heads and hearts around Jesus’ resurrection and all that has happened since his death! And we can’t blame them, can we?
Luke shares a great post resurrection story of Jesus and the disciples this Sunday. The disciples are still unsure of the state of ---everything! What we do know is that they are huddled together behind locked doors—afraid. The world has been turned upside down and it nothing seems to make any sense. What happened? Who can be believed? What testimony is credible? What is next?
A little context for our reading today from the Gospel of Luke-- Two disciples had just returned from an encounter with the Risen Christ on the Road to Emmaus—where Jesus was revealed to them as they broke bread together…and this comes after the women told the disciples about the empty tomb. And now, here they are locked in a room sharing these stores---and Jesus shows up and they still don’t recognize him---they think they are seeing a ghost! Which, by the way, is not the first time they thought Jesus was a ghost---remember back (early in Lent) when Peter walked on water?
Such a range of emotions they all must be experiencing! They are really struggling to take in all these reports and they are definitely not quite ready when Jesus shows up in mid-conversation. And yet…he meets them exactly where they are, in the midst of their doubt, guilt, frustration, being frightened, grief, overwhelmed, and confusion. What do you think you might be feeling if you were one of the disciples?
Jesus appears those providing words of comfort, assurance and encouragement. He offers them peace, asks them why they are freaking out and then invites them to touch and see. Finally he encourages them to move beyond where they are. To move beyond the fear, doubt, guilt (etc.)
Jesus opens their minds to being to see that death is not the final word. He helps them to see that they are set free and commissioned to become witnesses. He could have launched into explanation about the how to-s of resurrection---or he could have given them an itinerary of his whereabouts since Friday but he didn’t. (Although, I admit, that would have been pretty cool.) Instead, Jesus taught: That his whole life death and rising were about what God was doing in the world—reconciling the world to God. From the law of Moses to the prophets to the Psalms---it has always been about God and God’s purposes for all of creation to be reconciled and made whole. The risen Christ appeared to groups and couples to give them assurance that HE LIVES and teaches them to put their fears and doubts aside as they contemplate the bigger picture! Scripture has been fulfilled. Jesus is saying to them, that they have seen in him the fulfillment of God’s plan for the world’s salvation and they are called to share that witness.
Fast forward just a little. And we now find ourselves in the book of Acts and we are back with Peter! Again! Our old friend! Peter who denied Jesus 3 times at the crucifixion and then proclaimed to love Jesus 3 times—as if that was Jesus’ way of redeeming Peter and forgiving him without so many words.
Between the encounters with the Risen Christ and with the gift of the Holy Spirit that has been poured out by the time we get to this part in Acts—the disciples (and Peter) were now ready to be witness in Jerusalem and to all nations!
Perhaps they just needed a little more Jesus-a little more patience-a little more teaching-a little more time- to wrap their heads and hearts around what God was doing! And what we finally see in when we get to Acts is all of this coming to fruition! Of course they have the power of the Holy Spirit which is no small thing! It is everything.
See, Pentecost (the outpouring of the Holy Spirit) had already come by the time we get to Act 3 and what has just happened and what Peter is talking about is that a lame beggar in Jerusalem has healed outside the temple. And people misunderstood the source of the healing---that it was by Peter and John when, in fact, it was God doing the healing—through Peter and John. Peter needed to set them right. Bold Peter—getting things right! Note: we must remember, Peter, is speaking to fellow Jews about Jesus, who was also a Jew. Peter is not a Christian missionary, telling Jews things that they do not already know. He is one of them arguing with them from their own Scripture and tradition about one of their own, whom he accuses them of abandoning to the Romans. His sermon is an insider’s sermon. And we need to remember not to let this text turn in anything anti-Jewish. That is not the point. The point is the resistance.
He was finally practicing what HE (Jesus) preached and taught so many times! Peter is pointing out to the community all the ways they rejected and resisted Jesus-the Messiah.
Friends, what are the ways in which we resist? What are the ways that we resist resurrection? What are the things we hang onto—guilt, unrealistic expectations, and the familiar? What do we need to let go or surrender to in order to embrace the hope of new life—new beginnings—of God doing a new thing in our midst?
Peter’s sermon here was calling his community-challenging them with exactly what Jesus taught and preached-pre and post resurrection—to turn around and to repent—to change their minds. How do we as a church and as individuals need to repent? How do our minds need to be changed?
Two thousand years ago Peter—practicing what Jesus preached—in his own preaching changed the world. His preaching was legendary. As Barbara Brown Taylor states: “Christ’s church may have born in a graveyard, that that baby grew quickly, beyond anyone’s imagination.”(Feasting on the Word, Year B, Vol. 2)
Here again, Jesus’ words: “This it is written, that the Messiah is to suffer and to rise form the dead on the third day, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things.”
Peter took Jesus’ words and ran. Practiced what He (Jesus) preached. May we be bold to do the same. Amen