Witnesses

April 15, 2018

Helen Jacobi

Easter 3     Acts 3:12-19    Psalm 4     1 John 3:1-7     Luke 24:36-48

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In her Easter sermon Cate said a striking thing: “At Christmas we celebrate God with us; at Easter we sacrifice that God. We didn’t intend this. We only wanted to kill the God who was not of our preferring. When we realise what we have done we find we are left with nothing, our hands are empty, our hearts torn open.” [1]

“We only wanted to kill the God who was not of our preferring – we put to death God who threatens our accustomed way of living and being.” [2]

This is what Peter is saying in his sermon recorded for us in the Book of Acts. The setting is Jerusalem, not long after Pentecost, so a couple of months after the Good Friday/ Easter events. Peter and John were heading for the Temple to pray when a man “lame from birth” asks for help and they heal him in the name of Jesus. 

Understandably the crowds gather and Peter begins to preach. Why are you astonished we have healed a man he asks – you killed Jesus but he has been raised, and we follow the risen one. Then Peter accuses the crowds saying “you rejected (or denied) the Holy and Righteous One” (3:14).

Peter who himself only two months before had denied he knew Jesus when challenged on Maundy Thursday; the same word for deny or reject is used here. [3]

Peter knows what it is to deny Jesus, and now encourages his listeners to repent of their denial of him and to become followers.

Remember that the Book Acts is written by the same person who wrote the gospel of Luke. We don’t really know his name but let’s call him Luke to keep things simple. Luke it seems wants to ask the same question Cate offered – what have we done?

In both the gospel and in Acts Luke wants to reassure people – even though we did this terrible thing crucifying Jesus it will be alright because “it is written that the Messiah is to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day.” (24:46)

Now Luke is not making a direct quote – that phrase is nowhere to be found in the Old Testament; what he is meaning is that the whole of scripture – from Moses, through the prophets, and the psalms – describes a God who is to be found in the actions and history of the world, working for love and the wholeness of creation. [4]

So the life of Jesus, and his death and resurrection, are consistent with the nature of God and God’s intentions for the world.

Rather than a specific prediction or proof text we can point to, Luke is talking about the sweep of history with God, “salvation history” if you like. And yes this God, this Jesus does threaten our accustomed way of living and being.

So Peter and Luke say – you can walk away – or you can repent and then be a witness to these things.

And so the first followers began to be witnesses and to build their communities – 3000 and 5000 were added to their numbers after each of Peter’s sermons, according to Acts.

They do not at first have any intention of building a separate Christian community; they worship and preach at the Temple much to the consternation of the Temple leaders who try to silence them. They do though begin to live in community selling their possessions and caring for those in need (Acts 4:32). The Christian community and Christian worship will emerge from there.

They do their best to not make God in their own image or to keep on putting to death the God who threatens their accustomed way of living and being. They try to change, to find a new way. They struggle of course, they debate who is in and who is out – Jew and Gentile, women and men, poor and rich.

As they break bread together and the eucharist emerges as their focal point they continue to be witnesses to God’s love for the world.

During Lent we focussed on our worship together, and how our worship creates our identity as a community – it is the same for us as it was for the first Christians 2000 years ago. Our worship forms us and gives us our identity – we used the tool of our chasuble/ garment which we made together from the fabric symbolising our gifts. It reminds us that we can create something beautiful and lasting together which we cannot do alone.

This morning we commission our Vestry members – Vestry are the leaders of our community – like a Board of directors; together with the clergy they have the responsibility of leading our community – everything from worship to the buildings to the finances to our outreach. We elected them at our AGM in March and today is the first opportunity we have to pray with them and ask them to lead us for the next year.In doing that we also need to give them the tools to do their job – hence we have given you today the Generous Spirit brochure in order to prompt you to think about your financial giving to the parish. If we are to be a community with a strong identity that works and worships together we also need to think about our financial support of thecommunity.

There is no point commissioning our Vestry today and saying – go lead us

– if we don’t give them the tools to achieve things on our behalf. We all have different incomes and situations so it is up to each of us to examine what we can offer and do. The important thing is that we do think about it and commit so we are playing our part in our community.

Today we have the grand sweep of “salvation history” writ large for us by Luke and Peter, yet in the midst of the big picture they paint we also see the life of their community, going to worship, wrestling with their questions, working out how they will care for each other.

It is the same for us – listening to scripture, singing our hymns, praying our ancient prayers, connecting to our tradition and our past; and then looking ahead to how and what we want to be as individual followers of Jesus and as a community of Christ.

In two weeks time we will be having a service of confirmation with our bishop. Confirmation is when an individual wants to make a public affirmation of their faith, confirming for themselves the promises made in baptism. Our candidates have been working hard since January, meeting as a group, meeting with their sponsors, reading, praying. We are supporting them with our prayers and in particular with the parish retreat day on Saturday 28 April. I would encourage you to think about attending.

In this way as we continue to be witnesses, continue to build our community, continue to seek to be followers of Jesus; and so open ourselves up to God who creates, redeems and loves us; God incarnate at Christmas and God rising at Easter.

Thanks be to God.

[1] Easter Day sermon 1 April 2018 

[2] ibid 

[3] arneomai Luke 22:34 and 57 

[4] Barbara Essex p427 Feasting on the Word Year B Vol 2