Readings:
Acts 3:12-19, Luke 24:36b-48
Let
us pray: May the words spoken and heard be to your glory O God. May
we listen in hope and may we respond in faith to all that you invite
us into – in Jesus name. Amen.
We
are drawn in by the act and convicted by the Word.
When
it comes to the part of the service where we listen to the readings,
the word of scripture – I wonder how convicting it is for you. I
have had several people say that they find it hard to listen to the
readings closely, or they connect to one part and find no room to for
the rest – and it was somewhere in the rest that the preacher was
going to be concentrating on. Sometimes the readings are too well
known and they just slide over us, other times the wording seems
clumsy or pedantic, the translation meaningless or simply ever so
boring. You can get hung up on a word or phrase that inspires or
irritates or puzzles and you can most certainly forget what the first
one was about when you listen to the second. Just as well we don’t
read all four set down for us in the lectionary.
‘
At
synod this week, Assembly Moderator Andrew Norton challenged us to
find ways to listen to scripture, to avoid it being a process or a
function only, and to find a way to enter into it body and soul. If
we simply read it or hear it as prose (defined as ordinary or matter
of fact or unimaginative - prosaic) – a linear journey from a – b
– then it’s very easy to slip off to other imaginings that are
nothing to do with the purpose of the writings. But, says Andrew, if
we can find the poetry in the writings instead– and there is much
of it to find – then we have much more chance of scripture speaking
to us in multiple levels and ways of meaning. In poetry you see we
engage our heart rather more than our head, and we can listen, deeply
listen to what God’s Word might be saying to us. Stop reading the
bible as a textbook, says Andrew, and start reading it as poetry that
God invites you into and to experience first with your heart and then
with your mind. Become part of the poem, the poem that God has
created us to be.
However
much that makes sense to you or not, the commonality of Andrew’
passion for us to know the Word of God and that of Simon Peter’s
all those years ago is on the same page as they say. They are both
determined that we would understand the importance of the teachings
of Jesus, that we would be directly and individually convicted by the
Word of God in a way that would speak directly to our hearts – and
sometimes poetry does that more effectively than prose. Why is this
so important, to be convicted by scripture – to answer this we need
to hear what has happened before Peters sermon.
Today’s
reading from Acts is set chronologically after the events of
Pentecost – which is still weeks away in our church calendar. Luke
tells us that this is the second sermon that Peter delivered – the
first followed on from the spectacular events of the coming of the
Holy Spirit among them – the flames, the wind, the multitudinous
voices. Before this sermon, there is also a spectacular incident –
the healing of the crippled man at the door of the temple: Peter and
John were heading up to the temple for prayer – a man lame from
birth was being carried in to collect alms, Peter and John, having no
silver or gold, offered him healing instead – ‘stand up and
walk’. And he leapt up and began to walk and leap and praise God.
And the people were filled with wonder and amazement.
1
So we have
two mighty sermons, each preceded by mighty acts of God. After the
sermons, Peter preaching the teachings of Jesus, 3000 were baptized
at Pentecost and 5000 in the temple. In both cases the crowds were
drawn in by the act and convicted by the word
In the
sermon, Peter talks powerfully of the mistakes people made in not
recognising Jesus as the Messiah - and he then speaks of the healing
grace of God for those who repent, who recognise their error and seek
forgiveness.
Peter
generously suggests it is mostly through ignorance rather than wilful
disobedience that people got it so wrong but still he doesn’t hold
back on his incredulity that it should be so: You who put him to
death, you who failed to recognise the Messiah, you who are supposed
to know the scriptures, recognise the signs, remember the prophesies!
You have put to death the author of life! And you should have known
better.
We have to
remember that Peter was speaking almost exclusively here to the
Hebrew peoples. Peter was a Jew in a Jewish city speaking to Jews
about a Jew. There was a whole bunch of common
ground/learning/understanding – the difference was that, for most,
they had not been convicted by the teachings and so hadn’t
recognised the moment of revelation.
Hence the
need for the spectacular presence of God in the world – to get
their attention, so that they could again have a chance to hear the
word and repent.
You see,
curiosity is one of the most effective means of drawing a crowd.
I was driving back from Waikouaiti on Tuesday afternoon, just minutes
behind the truck whose brakes failed, the one that slid down on its
side into the gardens fence. Diverted away from the scene, I was
still craning my head to see what was going on, drawn as a moth to a
flame, curious and horrified at what might be. And when there are
rumours of something out of the ordinary – oh yes, our curiosity
encourages us to gather! Some years ago I well remember a warning
issued of a tsunami for the eastern coast line and some school
parties being taken down to Kaka Point beach to watch. We are not
all that silly but it’s tempting to want to be part of the unusual,
the unexpected, the inexplicable.
The man
who had been crippled for years was suddenly healed – the news
spread rapidly. These two men seemed to be responsible –
astonishing news, puzzling even and the crowds gathered – curious,
abuzz.
What might
they have expected when they arrived – another miracle or show of
spiritual power - but they didn’t get what they expected – they
got a sermon instead.
As Thomas
Long says: “They came drawn as moths to the ultra violet glow of
miracle, and what they got was the clear, steady light of a homily.”2
For Peter
realised that if we stay only with the miracle and not hear the word
of explanation, they would be susceptible to several serious
misconceptions.
First of
all that we might think that any form of human disability is a place
of incompleteness, of lack of wholeness and that you needed faith for
marvels sake – for the reward of physical healing. This
understanding demeans the wholeness value of many whom God loves as
they are but society deems less than whole.
Another
misconception was that the crowd thought the healing came from Peter
and John. We want to believe that people have somehow tapped into
some new way of bringing wholeness and healing and we want a part of
it. Self help gurus, fads for healing our inner souls and outward
bodies, where if you spend enough or believe enough or keep looking
long enough there will be an answer. You’ve got it wrong says
Peter. It was never our power, our spirituality, our piety, our
clever wisdom that healed this man. It was God – the power and
grace of the risen Christ healed this man and heals us in ways we
can’t imagine or control.
A third
misconception needing the teaching of Jesus to explain – the nature
of life with God is not about thinking that brokenness is the rule
and wholeness the astounding exception. Out of this thinking comes
the belief that the love of God is selective and only shown in the
odd astonishing interruption to the dreary business of life as usual.
It is an easy step from there to the belief that God does not care.
But, says Peter, we know a God who offers wholeness and forgiveness
and healing every day of our lives, who delights in every moment of
love and compassion, who lives with us in an Easter world, where new
life banishes darkness and hope is anchored in the presence of Christ
in this world.
We hear
from Luke: Jesus opened their minds to understand the scriptures.
How do we engage with, step into scripture in a meaningful,
experiential way so that we actually ‘get’ the teachings of
Jesus? For we need the word to understand and interpret the
spectacular, the teachings of Jesus to guide our faith journeys in a
loving and merciful way, the community engaging together with the
word to avoid the pitfalls of individual arrogance and misconception.
Otherwise we run the risk of getting caught up in the spectacular
only and forgetting the risen Christ who is with us in the day to
day, the ordinary. We are a people who have heard the miraculous
story of Easter, let us know hear how we are to be witnesses to the
teachings of Jesus here in this place by allowing scripture to speak
into our very hearts and where the poetry of the living God shapes
and forms us to live a full and abundant life of faith, every day and
in every way. Thanks be to God. Amen.
Margaret
Garland
2
Feasting on the Word Year B Volume 2 p.408
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