One Source
Acts 4:5-12
It has been quite a week around here. Did you see the channel 5 news coverage on Tuesday night about our trip today? When I first saw it, my response was, “Ah, Mark. Why did you do that?” The question from his story was whether our trip to Iowa would backfire and cause voters in Minnesota to pass a constitutional amendment. Mark Albert has covered several stories for us, including the hateful graffiti problem we had a couple of years ago. I’ve always found him to be a fair reporter. So when I saw the footage of Kim and Angela talking about their excitement of having legal recognition of their relationship and then the footage of Rev. Robyn and me talking about our joy in participating in this historic moment, I thought it was a wonderful example of the grace and joy that we are experiencing. Then he showed his interview with the Minnesota Family Council, who called our trip a “media stunt.” First of all, I’m really tired of this idea that for reporting to be “balanced” our joy must be held up along side a conservative wing-nut. Just for the record, the media called us. We are delighted to share this historic moment through the news media to the rest of the community.
But then later, I had one of those inspirational moments that hit me. This religious antagonism was exactly the kind of thing that was happening in our scripture passage for today. All of a sudden, my sermon for today had just written itself. So thank you, Tom Prichard. I am always grateful for the inspiration your anachronistic bias can provide.
So let’s look at our text for today. Notice that the one question nobody asked of the apostles in the story (which is the first question that would have come to my mind if I had witnessed a miraculous healing) was, “How’d you do that?” The crowd was said to be amazed at such things but the religious leaders were suspicious. I get it that we sometimes need to be suspicious of people who come claiming to do things in the name of God although I like to think of myself as curious enough to ask when something doesn’t make sense.
Peter presents the truth of God’s healing grace while at the same time challenging religious people’s assumptions. I have found that to be a deadly enterprise. Religious people don’t like having our assumptions challenged. I’m a religious person and I admit it. We believe passionately and deeply the things we hold dear. The power of this story is that there is a source of healing and hope that is available to us all that helps us move toward wholeness. In this case, the devil was in the details for the religious leaders – or at least, that was their suspicion.
So Peter has a great deal of chutzpah to push back on religious bias and ask those penetrating questions like, “Is that the real reason you don’t like what we’re doing?” Peter asks them, “Are we on trial because we helped a sick person?” “Are you questioning us because we helped someone become whole?” And then he quotes Psalm 118. Don’t you hate it when someone uses your own texts against you? He quotes their own scripture as evidence that the work Peter is called to is holy work and not diabolical.
Was the concern really theological? Or was there another reason for the interrogation? Later in Acts the fact that the apostles are ordinary and uneducated people is noted. Was this a class issue? Probably. Was it a threat to their religious institution that could undermine the authority of those who enjoyed the privilege of religious leadership? Most certainly.
This past Wednesday I finished a series on the Subversive Parables. I find it fascinating to discover how the teachings of Jesus undermined so many common assumptions and power systems that held people in powerless situations often with their own consent. So often, it seems, the ministry of Jesus was about subverting those abusive situations – reinterpreting the way people understand faith (like Peter had to do in our reading), re-imagining what it means to be a person of faith, re-equipping people to use the tools of their faith to make their world a better place.
Last week we gathered with other faith communities from across Minnesota to stand on the steps of our state capitol in St. Paul and speak the truth of our lives. There was a very subversive sense to the whole experience. Today, a bus load of us will head to Iowa to celebrate the privileges and responsibilities that come with legal recognition of our families and relationships. Much to the consternation of some religious leaders who find their ability stymied to pit diverse communities against each other, the truth of our love and the strength of our commitments to our families subverts their ability to gain traction.
There is a second thing that I want to make sure we take away from our text today. It is a warning that is so important for us as a faith community to hear: There is an unyielding tendency in religious movements to morph from being grace-filled to being rule-filled. We have seen how when religious institutions are threatened, they use shame, intimidation, name-calling and marginalizing to maintain the order of their prominence. As we develop our faith community here, we don’t want to fall into those same traps. It is easy to follow those patterns because they are well-worn and have been repeated time and again. Those who gain prominence and privilege can easily use that position to label others as deviant, sinner, less. We know better because we have seen the destruction that kind of mindset can have. So let us create a faith community that holds its values passionately, that offers grace instead of threats, that stands with the powerless when they are being bulldozed by the powerful and that remembers from where it came and to whom it belongs.
When you know who you are, threats have no power. We are all created from one source, Pharisee or saint, bigot or freedom fighter, thoughtless or provocative. At one time or another, all of us have probably been all of those. So let us create a new path following “that stupendous truth believed, and now the matchless deed’s achieved, determined, dared and done.”
Sources:
www.homileticsonline.com The Kirk of Jesus Christ, May 2009.
Smart, Christopher, “We Sing of God, the Mighty Source” The MCC Hymnal Project.