May 7, 2006
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Be the Church: In the Shepherd's Love This story of Peter and John before the Sanhedrin, the council of religious and civic leaders in Jerusalem gets us ahead of our calendar. It takes place after Pentecost, which we will observe in a few more weeks. But we hear it now in these days between Easter and Pentecost because it is story about the power we have in Jesus, the good shepherd, when we claim him as the risen Christ. It is an episode in the life of two of his disciples that shows us that there is power in the name of Jesus. John and Peter are before the court because they have been summoned to explain what is beyond human explanation. They have listened to Jesus, their Good Shepherd, and believed the one who had guided them, empowered them, stood with them, laid down his life for them, and who has said you will do great things in my name. Peter and John have done a great thing, and that is why they are before the town council. The story is told in Acts 3 (1-10). They met a man whose only source of income was begging. One day as Peter and John are on their way into the temple to pray, the man stops them. They have no money, but what they give to the man changes his life and has the power to change ours. They say, "We don’t have any money, but we will give you what we have, in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, stand up and walk." The man did, and as he did, he praised God.We see people like him every day, and I often imagine what it must be like to have to depend on the spare change of strangers. Perhaps we might not be so quick to assume that all they need is a job, or to get their lives together, or to stop doing whatever they are doing. That may be true, but they may also be dealing with mental and physical illness. Here was this man, brought to the temple every day, put in a strategic place, like those folks at freeway off ramps – to get whatever money people were willing to share. There is something life changing about the name of Jesus. It gave new life to weak legs, it put thanksgiving on the lips of a renewed body and restored spirit. It tells us that even when money and resources are tight, we can offer to people what we have – we have the love of God, and we can share it; we have hope in his name, we can spread it; and we have power in his name, and we can claim it. By now, the religious authorities have become increasingly annoyed with them because Peter and John the other disciples have been preaching and teaching that Jesus was the resurrected Lord. As they taught and preached, 5,000 came to know Jesus as Lord. Peter and John stand in the power of Jesus at a hearing in which everyone in the room was related in some way and they were able to claim by the power of Jesus the shepherd three things. We can claim them too. First, they claimed the power to act and stand in his name. Their accusers have a question for them: "By what power do you preach this word and who gave you permission to heal this man? Who told you to do this (v.7)? Peter responds simply. "Well, if you are asking how something as good as a man being healed of a crippling disability has happened I’ll tell you. He stands with us on two strong legs by the name of Jesus of Nazareth (v.8-10). We too stand and act in his name. Will we see healing miracles? I believe we will. We have already. There are folks in this room who have been seriously, critically ill – no one thought you would survive – but you did, and we praise God for your life even as we thank God for the lives of people whose healing was into eternal life. Do you know anyone sick of heart and spirit who was encouraged with the words – by the name of Jesus Christ know that you matter, you matter to God and you matter to me. You don’t have to be bound by people’s negativity or their too narrow view of you. Stand in the name of God, move in the name of Jesus, soar by the gifts of the Holy Spirit. By what name do we dare to claim that we have a purpose here and it is to be his representatives from our doorsteps to the ends of the earth? In whose name will we declare that when people are in need we will do our best to help them? When they are hungry and angry, lonely and tired, we will be for them a source of their soul’s food and joy, companionship and renewal? By what name? By the name of the loving shepherd Jesus. The wider religious community suffered a great loss a few weeks ago, William Sloan Coffin died. His name may not be familiar to many of you, but he was for a generation of preachers, a significant mentor and role model. If you read the comic strip Doonesbury, you may know that the Reverend Sloan character was named for him. He was a writer and lecturer, the chaplain at Yale from 1958-1975, and from 1976 to 1988, he was the pastor at Riverside Church in New York City. He was a veteran of World War II, a member of the CIA doing the Korean War, and active in movements for social justice and peace. Politically, he was a liberal; spiritually he was a faithful follower of Jesus and he knew deep in his soul that to claim the name of Jesus meant to act in his name. At an event last year honoring his lifetime of ministry, he said, "I believe Christianity is a worldview that under girds all progressive thought and action…the Christian church is called to respond to biblical mandates like truth-telling, confronting injustice, and pursuing peace. What is so heartbreaking, is that many churches are focused on management and therapy, and that parish clergy are ‘gumption-deficient’" (www.christiancentury.newsarticle, William Sloan Coffin, Prophet, 1924-2006). We don’t hear that word gumption much anymore, it is an old word that means courage, resourcefulness, initiative, and assertiveness. Bill Coffin rightly calls out lazy, timid, unimaginative church leaders. He knew that when leaders lack courage, the people they lead have no reason to follow. Scared clergy leads to scared laypeople and a scared church, and that is not what we are called to be. God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of "power and love, and self-control" (II Timothy 1.7). Let’s be courageous here as we discern our purpose as a congregation. Then let’s be courageous, and show some gumption and do all that we can to be God’s loving people in this place. We have power in his name, let’s claim it.The second thing John and Peter claimed was the power to speak in Christ’s name and to tell his story. We heard last week that the story of our redemption, of God’s love, of declaring that Jesus Christ is Lord and that his is risen in our story to tell. It is ours because we are witnesses to his resurrection through our faith in him and by all that he has raised up in us. By what name are we raised? By the name of Jesus. You know him. He was the stone the builders said wasn’t quite right, yet he is the perfect fit in the lives of we who need him. We can put our trust in him. The third thing John and Peter and you and me and whoever names the name of Jesus will find is salvation in his name. I know in this day of religious pluralism and religious tensions, it might make some of us a little uncomfortable to read these words "there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name by which we must be saved" (v.12). Remember it is Peter speaking as a passionate defender of his faith. He is speaking from the point of view of his own conversion and transformation. We too speak as passionate Christians, for us, there is no other name by which we know the salvation of God and we are called to do as Peter and John did, to stand for our faith today. We are called to be zealous for our faith – just as others are zealous of ours.And I dare say that people who have spoken those words to force people to Christian faith, to dehumanize and demonize, to strip the humanity and the faith from people who are not Christians, have dishonored the name of Jesus and misunderstood the gift of salvation. In the Old Testament, salvation has to do with God bringing deliverance and rescue from those tight spiritually unhealthy places – places of hate, doubt, fear, unhealthy relationships, and injustice. Salvation is about bringing us to a place that is wide and lush with love, faith, healthful relationships, and justice. It is the gift given to us by God that leads us to redemption, reconciliation, and oneness with God and for us it comes through our confession that Jesus Christ is Lord. I like this old fashioned summary of the one in whose name we act, I do not know who wrote it, but it’s words are true for believers: "He was born in poverty, was reared in obscurity, and lived in simplicity. He had no wealth or influence, and no college education…He laid aside his purple robe for a peasant’s gown. He was rich, yet for our sakes he became poor. As to how poor? He slept in another’s manger, cruised the lake in another’s boat, rode on a borrowed beast, was buried in another’s tomb…He put on humanity that we might put on divinity. He became the Son of Man that we might become daughters and sons of God. "He lives on although all other great men and women have come and gone. Herod could not kill him, Satan could not seduce him, death could not destroy him, the grave could not hold him" (author unknown).He taught, he healed, he loved, he lives, he saves. His name means "God help" and he does. He is the one on whom our souls depend for life now and into eternity. He is the good shepherd, who loves, protects us, sends us out to be shepherds for others. His is the name that leads us to confession and action peace and wholeness. By what name? By the name of Jesus of Nazareth in whose name we have life in abundance. Thanks be to God. Amen. Dr.
LaTaunya M. Bynum |
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Broad
Street Christian Church
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