Category: Eastertide

A Word About Salvation – A Lectionary Reflection for Easter 4B

A Word About Salvation – A Lectionary Reflection for Easter 4B

Acts 4:5-12 New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)

5 The next day their rulers, elders, and scribes assembled in Jerusalem, 6 with Annas the high priest, Caiaphas, John, and Alexander, and all who were of the high-priestly family. 7 When they had made the prisoners stand in their midst, they inquired, “By what power or by what name did you do this?” 8 Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, “Rulers of the people and elders, 9 if we are questioned today because of a good deed done to someone who was sick and are asked how this man has been healed, 10 let it be known to all of you, and to all the people of Israel, that this man is standing before you in good health by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead. 11 This Jesus is

‘the stone that was rejected by you, the builders;

it has become the cornerstone.’

12 There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among mortals by which we must be saved.”

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A healing leads to preaching, and preaching leads to arrest, which leads to a trial, and a trial gives an opportunity for preaching. At least that’s the way things seem to work for Peter and John here in chapters three and four of the Book of Acts. Peter had been preaching to a large crowd in Solomon’s Portico, after healing the man who was disabled at the gate to the Temple. In other words, an act of power opens an opportunity to explain the source of power, which of course leads to the message of the cross and the resurrection. While you might think that it would be the cross that stirs the pot here, it is really the message of the resurrection. It appears from the opening verses of chapter four that it was the message of resurrection of the dead that got the attention of the religious leaders, who order them arrested. That is the background story for Peter’s next sermon, this time delivered in front of the religious leaders who have gathered to pronounce judgment on Peter and John.

Unfortunately for the leaders, Peter takes advantage of this appearance to speak once again about the resurrection. Peter begins his defense with an acknowledgment that it seems they had been arrested for doing something good, that is, bringing healing to a man who had suffered for years. The question was—how did they do this? The answer is simple—they acted in the power of the one whom the religious leaders had crucified, but whom God vindicated by raising him from the dead. If you want to know how this happened, well that’s the answer—Jesus! Yes, this Jesus whom God has raised is the source of healing, which means they have been arrested for doing a good deed in the power of the risen one!

This is all boiler-plate apostolic preaching. We hear this message time and again, whether on the lips of Peter or Paul. Central to the message is that of the resurrection, which divides Sadducees and Pharisees. While the two parties aren’t named in this selection, according to Luke, the arresting party included priests and Sadducees. In this scene the Pharisees are absent, so Peter can’t divide and conquer like Paul will do in a later scene. Since the opposition in this scene are Sadducees, for whom the resurrection doesn’t fit into their theology, you can understand their consternation at hearing Peter preach about the resurrection in their presence. For Peter and the early church, as was true of the Pharisees, the resurrection was the key to their theology. It was the revelation of God’s power present in Jesus. Since this is the Easter season, this passage offers the preacher and the church an opportunity to again reflect upon and celebrate the Resurrection.

Where this passage becomes controversial in modern contexts, is the wording of verse 12. This verse is often used as a proof text to defend the premise that one cannot be saved without confessing faith in Jesus, for “there is no other name under heaven given among mortals by which we must be saved.” In other words, it is a foundational text for an exclusivist vision of salvation. A question that might be asked of Peter concerns what he means by salvation and how Jesus is the name by which one is saved. Is Peter setting up a point of division? Is this a red line, at which Peter is asking his accusers (and anyone else) to dare to cross? That is, one’s eternal destiny hangs on how one responds to the message of Jesus. That is how it has often been read, but is this how Peter means it to be heard? Is it how Jesus would have us hear it? Or, could we read it in a more inclusive way?

We might want to start by remembering Peter’s audience, which is comprised of fellow Jews. It’s important that we remember that Peter was a Jew before he met Jesus, and that he remained a Jew after he met Jesus, and he remained a Jew even as he stands before the Sanhedrin, accusing them of their complicity in the death of the one by whom he has engaged in healing ministry. So, once again this is an intra-family debate, with Peter inviting the religious leaders to affirm God’s work in and through Jesus. Yes, they had participated in his death, but God overturned that deed in the resurrection. Of course, the court here is composed of a group of leaders who deny the resurrection of the dead, and so they would be reticent to accept Peter’s message of vindication. In their minds, Jesus is dead and remains dead, and therefore is unavailable to empower Peter and John. Nonetheless, this is Peter’s testimony, and apparently some 5000 people had stepped forward to follow Jesus through his ministry. In other words, Peter and his partner John were stirring the religious pot, undermining the authority of the religious leaders, who were charged with keeping order by the Roman occupiers. Nonetheless, Peter remains firm: “the stone that was rejected by you, the builders; it has become the cornerstone.” There is salvation in no other name.

When we hear the word salvation (Greek: soteria), it is good to remember that this word has a variety of nuances and meanings. Context is important if we’re going to understand its meaning. When it comes to Acts 4:12, almost all translations offer up “salvation.” However, we could translate this word as healing, which makes sense in this context. After all, they are under arrest, at least in their own minds, for healing someone in the name of Jesus. There are other ways of rendering the word, including rescue and spiritual wholeness. In other words, Peter might have something in mind other than getting to heaven. In fact, there is nothing in this passage that hints at salvation being the means of gaining heaven. So, he might be speaking in very terrestrial terms.

I find wisdom in the reading of the passage by Fred Craddock and Eugene Boring, who point out that “Luke is not here addressing the theoretical issue of the eternal destiny of people in distant centuries and countries who have not heard the Christian message.” In context, he is expressing his belief that the God of Israel has acted in Jesus, who was crucified, but was raised by God, and it is in Jesus that the power of God is being revealed in the healing of this man who had been disabled, but who is now running around proclaiming his healing. Craddock and Boring also remind us that Luke’s theology of salvation is not reflected either in the view that “the Christian way is only one of ‘many roads to God,’” nor are we being “encouraged to believe that only confessing Christians are finally accepted by God.” As we ponder this passage, we would be wise to heed our commentators and affirm that “on the basis of this text, Christians ought to say neither than only Christians shall ultimately be saved nor that people can be saved through a variety of saviors. Christians should confess their faith that the God revealed in Christ is the only Savior, without claiming that only those who respond in faith will be saved” [The People’s New Testament Commentary, (WJK Press, 2009), p. 378].

As we continue the Easter journey, may we ponder together the power of Jesus name, by which God brings healing and salvation. For Peter, the risen Jesus was the only means by which the God of Israel acted to bring healing, wholeness, and salvation. In him God’s power was let loose.Peter invites us to embrace the Risen One, as we walk in God’s wholeness.

10646937_10204043191333252_4540780665023444969_nRobert Cornwall is the Pastor of Central Woodward Christian Church in Troy, Michigan. He holds the Ph.D. in Historical Theology from Fuller Theological Seminary. He is the author of a number of books including Out of the Office (Energion, 2017), Marriage in Interesting Times (Energion, 2016), and Freedom in Covenant (Wipf and Stock, 2015) and blogs at Ponderings on a Faith Journey.

 

Sometimes By Step, Easter 3

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Narrative Lectionary Reflection

April 15, 2018

Read Acts 9:1-19 (CEB)

Introduction 

If you even have a passing interest in superhero stories, you know that most of our comic book heroes have what is called an “origin story” something that tells us how this superhero came to be.  For Spiderman it was the bite of a radioactive spider that gave him enhanced powers. For Batman, it was the murder of his parents by a robber. Superman was an orphan that escaped the destruction of his home planet Krypton and was given powers by Earth’s sun. In all of these characters and countless more, something happened in their lives- a turning point.  What they once knew was no more and they were opened to a brand new reality.

The man we know as the Apostle Paul started out as Saul.  He had set on his path which happened to be persecuting the new Jewish sect that would become the Church.  On the way to the city of Damascus he has an encounter that changes his life. He had one reality and slowly but surely gave way to a new way of living becoming one of the enduring leaders of the early church, the one that moved the faith from a sect of Judaism, to the worldwide religion called Christianity.

Let’s take a look at the conversion of Saul.

 

Engaging the Text

The Lord replied, “Go! This man is the agent I have chosen to carry my name before Gentiles, kings, and Israelites. I will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name.”

-Acts 9:15-16

Saul’s change is actually part of a string of conversions that take place in the book of Acts. It starts in Acts 8:4 with a group of Samaritans, then it goes to the Ethiopian Eunuch. In chapter 10 we will see the conversion of Cornelius a Roman soldier.  With the inclusion of Saul, we see each conversion moving us farther and farther away from Jerusalem, putting the words Jesus said in Acts 1:8 into action: “Rather, you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”

So who was Saul and why did he become Paul? It’s important to note that “Saul” is a Jewish name, while “Paul” was a Latin name.  The name change is a way showing what the Saul was going to be doing, preaching to the Gentiles. But it also reflected the young man’s double identity: Jewish and a Roman Citizen.

Saul grew up in Tarsus a large commercial and cosmopolitan city.  The city was known for its intellectual life, and it in many ways rivaled Athens when it came to thought and philosophy. Saul would have been raised in a Jewish home, but the Jews who live in Tarsus were influenced by the Hellenistic (Greek) culture around them. The everyday language would have been Greek, not Hebrew. Even the scriptures used for study and worship would have been a Greek translation of the original Hebrew.

You would think living as a minority in a Hellenistic culture would have made Saul more open to other ways of thinking, but that was not the case.  Instead, Saul became a zealot for his faith and he was hellbent on trying to destroy this new Jewish sect. In a way, he was at war with himself, the zealot for his faith going against the Hellenistic Jew.  The first glimpses of Saul are not the cosmopolitan man from Tarsus, but as a violent young man that breathed threats and murder as Acts 9:1 describes him.

Saul is on the way to Damascus to persecute followers of this new sect when he is struck by light.  This bright light is blinding and he can hear a voice that ask, “Saul, Saul, why are you harassing me?”  Paul has an encounter with Jesus and it is interesting that the voice allies itself with the suffering- a reminder that God stands with those who suffer. Pastor Jay Wilson explains:

 

The risen Lord confronts Saul with the question, “Why do you persecute me?” And the query shows just how closely God associates himself with his people. From here a sermon could address how God always stands in solidarity with those afflicted and suffering (think of Jesus’ own ministry to the least of these, or Yahweh’s attention to the enslaved Hebrews back in Exodus 3:7-9). One might even suggest how, ever since Jesus’ resurrection and subsequent gifting of the Spirit to His people, the Church is now, in a mysterious way, the Body of Christ.

 

But Jesus also taught and practice loving the enemy. Stephen, consider the first martyr, prays for his enemies even as he is being stoned to death.  Saul is being confronted, but is considered by God a chosen instrument. The encounter on the road is both judgement and mercy; where God closes one door for Saul and opens a new one for Paul.

So what’s the point of this conversion experience? Theologian and pastor William Willimon explains that this story shows a few things. First, what Saul went through is something that God does.  It is not a self-improvement project. God is in the business of choosing people that most of us would never choose like Jacob who was a thief and a crook or even Moses who killed a man. By showing such extreme examples, we show that God is the one that changes us and not us.

The other thing to remember is that conversion went from independence to dependence, which is incredibly countercultural. Here was a guy that knew what he wanted and where to go. He meets God and now has to be led by the hand.  Progress in God’s kingdom is actually going backward at least in our world.

The people with Saul who are wondering what’s going on, will pick him up and carry him to a house in Damascus.

It’s then that we have this side story with Ananias.  He is a follower in Damascus and God calls on him to go and tend to Saul.  Ananias has second thoughts and probably third and fourth thoughts. “Lord, I have heard many reports about this man. People say he has done horrible things to your holy people in Jerusalem. He’s here with authority from the chief priests to arrest everyone who calls on your name,” Ananias says in verses 13-14. But God commands him to go and heal Saul because he is the agent chosen by God to preach to “kings, Gentiles and Israelites” (9:15).  Ananais obeys and heals Saul so that he can see again.

In this large story Ananias is an example of being a disciple, and sometimes that means showing mercy to those you really, don’t want to show mercy to at all.  He is faithful and trusting of God and does what he is called to do. While this is the story of Saul, there is a smaller story about a simple man in a town called to do something for an enemy and he obeys.  We never see Ananias after this event.

Conclusion

In 1993, Laramiun Byrd age 20 was shot and killed by Oshea Israel in Minneapolis. Israel was sentenced and served time in prison for the murder.  Towards the end of that sentence he received an interesting visitor, Mary Johnson, the mother of Laramium Byrd. She wanted to know if he was the same man who killed her son or if there had been any change. Back then, she wanted to hurt him, but after a long conversation with Israel, she ended up hugging the killer of her son.

 

It was then she realized that all of the anger and hatred she had carried over the prior decade was gone. She had moved from bitterness to forgiveness. As she changed, so did Israel’s life. He became her adopted son and he gained a mother.


Conversions, changes of heart, are not things that happen immediately and more often than not, they are not things we do. Instead, it is an internal process that changes people, be it a man in the Middle East or a mother in Minneapolis that make the impossible, possible. Change is not about learning to be a better person, but allowing God to make us better persons, persons on a mission.


1.Barclay, W. (2001). The Gospel of John (Vol. 2, p. 292). Louisville, KY: Edinburgh.

 

Dennis Sanders is the Pastor at First Christian Church of St. Paul in Mahtomedi, Minnesota. He’s written for various outlets including Christian Century and the Federalist.

Turn Back to God – A Lectionary Reflection for Easter 3B

comesundayfbActs 3:12-19 Common English Bible (CEB)

12 Seeing this, Peter addressed the people: “You Israelites, why are you amazed at this? Why are you staring at us as if we made him walk by our own power or piety? 13 The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob—the God of our ancestors—has glorified his servant Jesus. This is the one you handed over and denied in Pilate’s presence, even though he had already decided to release him. 14 You rejected the holy and righteous one, and asked that a murderer be released to you instead. 15 You killed the author of life, the very one whom God raised from the dead. We are witnesses of this. 16 His name itself has made this man strong. That is, because of faith in Jesus’ name, God has strengthened this man whom you see and know. The faith that comes through Jesus gave him complete health right before your eyes.

17 “Brothers and sisters, I know you acted in ignorance. So did your rulers. 18 But this is how God fulfilled what he foretold through all the prophets: that his Christ would suffer. 19 Change your hearts and lives! Turn back to God so that your sins may be wiped away.
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Note: During the season of Easter the First Reading from the Revised Common Lectionary is drawn not from the Hebrew Bible, but from the Book of Acts.

John the Baptist and Jesus had a common message: Repent. Turn back to God. Stop your rebellion. In the post-resurrection age, Peter picked right up with their message. He proclaimed to any who would listen: turn from your sins and embrace the realm of God. For Peter this messaging included reminding his audience that the religious and political leaders conspired to kill Jesus, the author of life. So, “turn back to God so that your sins may be wiped away.” Preaching a message of repentance so soon after Easter Sunday is probably a bit radio-active. After all, shouldn’t we be celebrating the coming of spring. For those of us who live in colder winter climates, spring is something is to be celebrated. So, why talk about sin and repentance? Perhaps, in Peter’s mind (and Luke’s), repentance and resurrection are related. After all, it was the conspiracy to have Jesus executed, because of his message of repentance, that led to his death and then resurrection.

The lectionary reading begins with Peter’s message to the people, but who are these people Peter is addressing, and why is he speaking? Acts 3 begins with a beggar sitting at the gate to the Temple. Luke tells us that he is crippled, and that he depends on alms shared by those who go to the Temple to worship. It’s a good plan. Surely worshipers will be generous. Among those worshipers are Peter and John, who apparently go up to the Temple in Jerusalem to worship three times a day. If they have been through this gate with any frequency, and I’m assuming they had, they would have run into this man. They know his message. Maybe they have thrown a few coins his way. In any case, as they walk by on their way to worship, the man calls out to them, asking for alms. The two apostles stop and face the man. He wants money, but they decide to give something else. There is a song, that I sang years ago in Bible study and at camps. It tells the story of this encounter:

Silver and gold have I none, but such as I have give I thee,
In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk.
He went walking and leaping and praising God,
Walking and leaping and praising God,
In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk.
In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk.

When the people see the man walking and leaping, they want to know what happened. How can this man, who sat begging alms, perhaps for years, now be jumping around and praising God?

This eruption of praise and the attending questions, gave Peter his opening. It is now sermon time. A crowd gathers, eager to hear from these workers of miracles, who once walked with Jesus. Now, remember, Luke only gives summaries of sermons, not the full text. But the text as given starts with a rebuke. He’s asking them why they needed to ask the question. Didn’t they realize that the power of healing was with Jesus, whom, according to the apostles, they conspired to kill by delivering Jesus to Pilate. Peter gives a witness to Jesus. You conspired with Pilate, but God raised him instead.

Once again, we must be careful how we read a passage like this. It can and has been used as fuel for anti-Jewish and anti-Semitic exclusion and violence. Even today, there are those who accuse Jews of being Christ-killers. Let us remember that Peter and John and Jesus and John the Baptist, were all Jews. The religious leadership, who derived power from Rome, as was so of the case, turned Jesus over (at least that’s how Luke tells the story). Most likely they did this, because Rome didn’t like people challenging its authority. You could believe whatever you wished, but just don’t challenge Rome’s authority. So, let us be careful how we read this passage. In this particular case, we have before us an in-house conversation. Peter is addressing his own community and reminding them of what has happened in the past. Jesus, like earlier prophets of God was struck down by the powers that be, but God turned the tables and his raised him from the dead. So, turn back. Choose a different path.

When we read a passage like this from the lectionary, we’re not only asking what it meant back then. We’re asking, what does it mean for us today? So, the message is this: “Turn back to God.” Repent of your sins, and God will forgive, wiping away your sins. Perhaps the way to read this today is ask the question of our own complicity in deeds of destruction. How have we rejected God’s messengers?

The healing of the man that brought Peter and John to the attention of the people is a sign that life reigns victorious. Willie James Jennings writes:

The man healed is now a sign of the man resurrected from the dead, the author of life itself. Now the actions of the One confront the wayward propensities of the many. If peoples are often seduced by the power of violence and take up the weapons of death, here is Jesus the Messiah who has overcome the effects of violence and the pull of death. If peoples are prone to choose against their own well-being and life, here is the Messiah who heals, restores, and gives life. [Jennings, Acts, Belief: A Theological Commentary on the Bible, (WJK Press, 2017), p. 43].

Peter and John stand before their neighbors, who like them have come to worship the God of Israel. The apostles proclaim the message that the Messiah of God, the one who was rejected, has been accepted by God, and brings life, even in the midst of death. So, will you join with God, and turn away from the path of destruction? Will you join the movement for the common good of all?

Robert Cornwall is the Pastor of Central Woodward Christian Church in Troy, Michigan. He holds the Ph.D. in Historical Theology from Fuller Theological Seminary. He is the author of a number of books including Out of the Office (Energion, 2017), Marriage in Interesting Times (Energion, 2016), and Freedom in Covenant (Wipf and Stock, 2015) and blogs at Ponderings on a Faith Journey.

Just Believe, Easter 2

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Narrative Lectionary Reflection

April 8, 2018

Read John 20:19-31 (CEB)

Introduction 

A number of us have scars. Some are scars from an accident, some are surgical scars. I have a scar on one of my eyebrows from the time I banged my head against a marble coffee table when I was about a year old. I have another scar from the time the placed a catheter into my side to drain the fluid that had built up around my lungs when I was battling a major infection two decades ago. My mother and aunt have reminders of their battle with breast cancer in that there are scars from having a breast removed or a lump removed.
All scars involved pain at some point. Even long after we get better, those scars remind us that things were not always well, that there was sickness. Scars remind us that the world can be a very unfair and cruel place.

In today’s passage, we see the disciples locked up in a room fearful of the religious and political authorities. Peter had just seen the tomb was empty and might have wondered who took the body and who was coming for them next. Would they suffer the same death Jesus did? Would their bodies be taken away by the authorities, not giving their loved ones a body to mourn.

Then, Jesus appears. Jesus, who they thought was dead, was alive. The disciples were joyous, except one: Thomas. He couldn’t be joyous since he wasn’t there. Why he wasn’t there, we don’t know. But when he does show up, he is not convinced by the disciple’s joy. He wanted to see Jesus for himself, in fact he wanted to see the wounds himself.

Today we talk about the resurrected Jesus and the disciples as they come to terms learning that their friend that was dead is now alive.

 

Engaging the Text

It was still the first day of the week. That evening, while the disciples were behind closed doors because they were afraid of the Jewish authorities, Jesus came and stood among them. He said, “Peace be with you.”

-John 20:19

We didn’t read the earlier parts of John 20, but here is a recap:  Mary Magdalene went to the tomb on that first Easter morning and found the stone rolled away.  She tells Peter and the disciple who Jesus loved, that Jesus was gone.  Peter and John go to investigate and it’s true; the body is gone.  Mary stands outside the tomb, devastated and weeping. In time sees the Risen Christ.  Seeing your friend, alive and well isn’t something you keep to yourself, so she goes to tell the disciples saying , “I have seen the Lord!”

Locked Up

If someone tells you a friend that was dead was now alive, hiding in a room wouldn’t be the first impulse.  But even after they had heard the good news, the disciples locked themselves in a room in fear. These disciples should not be confused with the Eleven (formerly Twelve), but an unspecified number of Jesus’ disciples. (Remember, that there were more than just 12 disciples.) They hear the “fear of the Jews” (meaning, fear of the Jewish religious leaders) more than they hear the joyous report of Mary. A question to ask is why the disciples were more willing to let their fear speak to them more than Mary’s report.

We will get to Thomas, who has forever been given the name “Doubting Thomas” for refusing to believe the disciples when they saw Jesus was alive and well.  But Thomas wasn’t the only one who doubted.  Mary Magdalene had told the disciples that Jesus was alive and well. She told them that she not only saw Jesus but touched him and he spoke to her. Despite all of this the disciples were still locked in a room.

Why were the disciples fearful of the Jewish leaders? They were very much like the parents of the man born bling in chapter 9. The parents were afraid of how the leaders would treat them and they knew their son would be kicked out of the synogogue.  They disciples feared a similar fate or even worse and fear can sometimes cloud the truth.

When Jesus appears, he says “Peace Be With You,” which was a common greeting of the time.  But uttering those words also spoke to the disciples fear, with Jesus offering peace to those who felt no peace at this point in their lives.

Jesus repeats the offering of peace to the disciples who are filled with joy. When Jesus breathes on his disciples to receive the Holy Spirit, he commissioning them to continue the work he started.  The gift of the Spirit is part of this commissioning, which means their new mission is one that will be sustained by the Holy Spirit.

Jesus breathing into disciples remind us of God breathing new life in the valley of the dry bones in Ezekiel 37. It was taking something that seemed to have no hope of being anything and breathing the Spirit to make the impossible, possible.

In verse 23, Jesus tells his disciples, “If you forgive anyone’s sins, they are forgiven; if you don’t forgive them, they aren’t forgiven.”  When Jesus talks about sins here, it isn’t about an act of penance to individual deeds, but it is in relation to recognizing and embracing the revelation of God in Jesus.

The work of the third person of the Trinity, can be rather subversive, doing something that we would not normally do. Pastor Ben Cremer notes how the Spirit is not one that colors inside the lines:

We need to remember that the subversive reality of the Holy Spirit is one that deeply unsettles us. While we may sing songs glorifying and inviting the Holy Spirit to fill us, we often do not take into account how it may subdue our fears and send us directly to those who have a vendetta against us. Moreover, the Holy Spirit may lead us to be the very ones who upset the status quo, which we tend to admire especially if we have helped to bring the status quo about. The disciples were on the one side of two extremes. Rome was determined to maintain the status quo of “Pax Romana” (peace of Rome) at any cost, while the disciples wanted to “make Israel great again.” However, both extremes detailed a clear picture of greatness that relied upon who should be included and who should be excluded. In his ministry, Jesus did not show favoritism towards anyone, but ministered to his disciples and Roman centurions alike (Luke 7:1-10; Matt. 8:5-13). Jesus was primarily concerned about inviting others out of their own picture of life and into the true life of God. The Holy Spirit will breakdown anything that limits our faith in God and our relationships with one another. Even at the expense of our own normal. To be filled with the Holy Spirit is to understand that the moment we place ourselves in the position of deciding who is including and who is excluded, we will find ourselves on the opposite side of God. For God is not in the work of limiting and dividing, but of redemption and reconciliation. 1

So now we know what happened to the disciples save one.  One person wasn’t there to see Jesus; Thomas.  Let’s learn his story.

Not Doubt, but Belief

Thomas wasn’t there for that event.  When the he finally comes to the room, the other disciples tell him that Jesus is alive.  But Thomas is unmoved.  Unless he sees the nails in the hands of Jesus, he can’t believe.

Traditionally, we have viewed Thomas as “doubting Thomas.”  We see this story as a lack of belief or a story about doubt.  However, it is important to note an underlying theme here; it is important to have a personal experience with the risen Savior. Mary believed not because someone told her, but because she had a personal experience with Jesus.  The same happened with the other disciples, they had an intimate encounter with Jesus.  Thomas wanted to the same. He didn’t want to learn about Jesus second-hand.

The story that many pastors will lift up is the one of Doubting Thomas and how we should not be like Thomas.  Indeed, some translations use the word, doubt in verse 27.  But the Greek says apistos, which means unbelief, not doubt. Again, the emphasis here is on relationship not about doubt or belief.  What should be lifted up is that Thomas wanted a personal encounter with Jesus, he didn’t want to take what the disciples said as gospel.

Why do we think Thomas needed to see the scars? The God we serve is not a God that is disconnected from life. This God came and walked among us and suffered like any human being. The wounds remind us that this was truly the Immanuel, God with us- one that shared our common lot.

Thomas didn’t want to just meet a Jesus that all was all well and better, as if he never suffered. He wanted to meet a Jesus that had really gone through hell; anything else was just an apparition, a figment of the imagination.

Jesus wants us to touch the wounds of the world outside the walls of this church. We are called to touch the wounds of the hungry, the outcast, the lonely and see Jesus in them.

Conclusion

When you read this week’s gospel in John about good ole “Doubting Thomas” you might think about how Tom wanted proof of Jesus’ existence.  There will be talk about how doubt is important in the life of faith and we will try to hold him up as a modern hero who didn’t just want to believe something because someone told him.

These are all good things to note in the text, but what if there’s something more here that we aren’t seeing.  What if this text is not just about doubt and faith, not just about the Risen Savior, but also a message for the church,  the body of Christ?

In his lectionary reflection this week, Russell Rathburn expresses his interest in the actual body of Christ:

After crashing through all that at break neck speed, John slows it down to spend the majority of this verses focusing on his Body. Thomas says he wants to see the Body, see the wounds. Jesus arrives and very graphically shows him the wounds, and in a very intimate gesture, invites him to place his finger/hand inside them. There can be no doubt that this is the Body of Jesus the Christ, very man, very God.

That Jesus literally, physically rose from the dead is the foundation of the Christian faith. This Sunday’s reading starts and ends with it, giving just a verse each to the Great Commission, Pentecost, the rest is all about the Body. After so much emphasis on the Body of Jesus through the Lent and Easter seasons, how do we preach with out one? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe? There really are not any other options are there?

The question  here is Russell’s talk about the body of Christ when there isn’t a body anymore.

But what if there is a body?  What if as some modern theologians ponder, Christ’s resurrection wasn’t only about the physical resurrection, but also about how the resurrection lives in the life of the gathered community, the Church?

Thomas wanted to experience Jesus for himself.  He did not want to rely on the experience of others.  Belief for Thomas was not about accepting creedal statements, but about a relationship and if he couldn’t experience a body, then what’s the point?

Now for a moment, think about the body of Christ as the church, because in the here and now that’s what modern Thomases are looking at when they want to see Jesus.  They aren’t looking to just accept a doctrinal statement, but they are looking to commune with the Body of Christ.  In this present age, there isn’t a physical body to talk about, but Christ is found in the Church, the folks who believe in Christ and abide with him.

Maybe, just maybe, if the church can live as a community called, gathered and sent by God to preach the good news, then our modern Thomas will see Christ.  Maybe if we live as a community of forgiven sinners, then our modern Thomas will see Christ.  Maybe if we welcome all to the doors of our churches, then our modern Thomas will see Christ.

As you prepare to preach or teach this Sunday after the Resurrection, think about what it means to be the Body of Christ in our world.  How do we witness to the Living and Risen Christ?

1.Barclay, W. (2001). The Gospel of John (Vol. 2, p. 292). Louisville, KY: Edinburgh.

 

Dennis Sanders is the Pastor at First Christian Church of St. Paul in Mahtomedi, Minnesota. He’s written for various outlets including Christian Century and the Federalist.

Christian Community in the Shadow of the Resurrection

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Acts 4:32-37 New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)
32 Now the whole group of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one claimed private ownership of any possessions, but everything they owned was held in common. 33 With great power the apostles gave their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all. 34 There was not a needy person among them, for as many as owned lands or houses sold them and brought the proceeds of what was sold. 35 They laid it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to each as any had need. 36 There was a Levite, a native of Cyprus, Joseph, to whom the apostles gave the name Barnabas (which means “son of encouragement”). 37 He sold a field that belonged to him, then brought the money, and laid it at the apostles’ feet.

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During the Easter season, the first reading in the Revised Common Lectionary comes from the Book of Acts (as opposed to the Hebrew Bible). As we move through this season of post resurrection visitations on the part of Jesus, we hear words about life in the early church. On this Sunday we hear a word about a community that has chosen to live the common life. When I was teaching a college class on the book of Acts years ago, I liked to tell the students, who were from a conservative Christian background, that this was evidence that the early Christians were communists—long before Karl Marx came around. I’m not sure they appreciated my making note of this, after all communism is a dirty word in some circles. but it was a good conversation starter.

Throughout the history of the church, there have been attempts to approximate this model of Christian life, but it never became the dominant form of Christian community. We don’t even know how long this form of community existed in Jerusalem. But, even if it did not last more than a year or two, what might we take from the message that they were all “of one heart and soul?” At one level there appears to have been a concern for the welfare of the entire Christian community. They shared equally of their resources so that no one was in need. Gustavo Gutierrez, who is one of the founders of Latin American Liberation Theology, writes in his seminal text that this act on the part of the Jerusalem church “was not a question of erecting poverty as an ideal, but rather seeing to it that there were no poor…. The meaning of the community of goods is clear: to eliminate poverty because of love of the poor person” [A Theology of Liberation, (Orbis)1973), p. 301].

We’re told that the members of the community sold their property and brought the proceeds, laying them at the feet of the Apostles, who then distributed the goods among the people. One member in the community stood out as an exemplar, and that was Barnabas. Barnabas is an intriguing figure in the history of the church. We are told that he came from Cyprus and that he was by descent a Levite. Thus, he was of the priestly caste. He seems to have been a person of some means, as he is held out as an example of one who sold all so that the community might thrive (as opposed to Ananias and Sapphira in Acts 5). Barnabas will go on to become a leader in the church at Antioch, and a partner in ministry with Paul on Paul’s missionary journey. Luke likely mentions Barnabas and his example because he was known to the readers, at least by name and story.

One of the messages of this passage is that standing at the heart of the Gospel is compassion for the other. One of the attractions to the early Christian church was the welcome given to people on all socio-economic levels. It wasn’t always easy, as we discover when reading 1 Corinthians. Despite the challenges, the Christian community was one of the most economically diverse religious communities of its day. That commitment, which was always difficult to put into practice, helped spread the faith throughout the Roman Empire.

The reading for the second Sunday of Easter has a stewardship element to it, connecting as it does money to discipleship. Willie James Jennings, in his theological commentary on the Book of Acts, writes that “money matters are inescapable. They are at the heart of discipleship, but they are not the heart of discipleship.” Our relationship to money says a lot about us. There is no joy to be found in poverty, despite St. Francis of Assisi’s claims. At the same time, money doesn’t necessarily make a person happy (there a lot of unhappy rich people). People who give, however, tend to be happier people. So, there does seem to be a benefit of giving, even if we don’t sell everything and give it to the church (that’s not a stewardship message that will go over well). Back to the insight into this matter from Willie James Jennings:

“Money here will be used to destroy what money normally is used to create: distance and boundaries between people. Distance and boundary is not merely between the haves and have-nots, but also between the needy and the comfortable, and between those who testify to Jesus and those who, like Jesus, help those with little or nothing” [Jennings, Acts: Belief, (WJK Press, 2018), p. 50].

Ultimately, this is not only the story of giving, but as Jennings points out, it is about the joining together that comes because of these acts.

The message of community expressed here was not new, at least not to the Jewish community. The principles of sabbath and jubilee were strongly implanted within Judaism, even if these principles might not have been fully embraced or developed. The principle of Jubilee, with its plan of redistributing land back to the original owners after fifty years, was designed to prevent monopolies of land or money. Thus, this is part of an overarching theme of justice that marks the biblical story.

As we attend to this passage today, in an age of increasing gaps between rich and poor, between management and worker, what message do we hear? How is Jesus speaking to the church on matters of income inequality? We need not go as far as this community, but what is it that we hear in this reading? To put it differently, what does it mean to be a disciple of Jesus? For American Christians, who tend to grow up with an individualistic world view, what do we hear in this passage? Even if the model espoused here is not perfectly adaptable to our community, and may have been quickly abandoned, what does it mean for us to be “of one heart and soul?” How might we better exhibit God’s compassion for the poor in our own lives. It’s possible that some reading this are struggling financially, while others are blessed. How might this speak to both situations?

These are all important questions that for us are being raised in the shadow of Easter. So, the further question concerns the connection of resurrection to community, and how it is lived out in a world that often devalues human life. As Gutierrez prophetically writes:

“The ‘poor’ person today is the oppressed one, the one marginated from society, the member of the proletariat struggling for his most basic rights; he is the exploited and plundered social class, the country struggling for its liberation” [A Theology of Liberation, p. 301].

What then is the message of resurrection in this context?

10646937_10204043191333252_4540780665023444969_nRobert Cornwall is the Pastor of Central Woodward Christian Church in Troy, Michigan. He holds the Ph.D. in Historical Theology from Fuller Theological Seminary. He is the author of a number of books including Out of the Office (Energion, 2017), Marriage in Interesting Times (Energion, 2016), and Freedom in Covenant (Wipf and Stock, 2015) and blogs at Ponderings on a Faith Journey.

Love Takes Time

Scripture: 1 Corinthians 13:1-13, Sixth Week of Easter

Diversity isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.

For the last 2 1/2 years, I’ve been an African American pastor leading a mostly white suburban congregation in Minnesota.  On the surface this should be a wonderful achievement, a sign of racial progress.  If we could just come together then everything will be peachy.

But while I’ve done fairly well, leading this congregation, this is not always the case.  A number of large congregations have called African American pastors, only to have the whole process end in disaster.  Sometimes it’s a clash of cultures. Sometimes congregations didn’t realize what it meant to hire someone from a different racial background and how that could change the church.  None of this should stop churches from calling pastors of a different background than the majority of its members, but it is a reminder that diversity, as much as we like to celebrate it in American culture, is a challenge and it requires a certain fortitude to make it work.

In Paul’s letter to the church in Corinth, he urges this very diverse church to learn to love each other.  This was not an easy thing to do.  The church was riven by a number of divisions; Jews and Greeks, rich and poor with differing opinions and gifts clashing with each other and pulling rank over each other.  Paul tells them in chapter 13 that focusing on themselves, on what made them different than their sisters and brothers was not the way. “If I speak in tongues of human beings and of angels but I don’t have love, I’m a clanging gong or a clashing cymbal,” Paul says.  If you have the spiritual gifts, but don’t have love it tends to not mean much.

Paul shows a better way.  Instead of focusing on the differences, he talks about a love that cares for the other.  “ Love is patient, love is kind, it isn’t jealous, it doesn’t brag, it isn’t arrogant….Love puts up with all things, trusts in all things, hopes for all things, endures all things,” Paul says.  Love in a community is one that learns to love the other…even when you don’t understand them…even when they drive you crazy.

Paul’s love is not the love of teens or a newly married couple.  Instead it is a love that cultivates community. Like the tending of a garden, or the making of bread, love is something that is handled with care and with time.

I don’t know if some of the churches that had conflict with their pastors failed to cultivate love, but I do know that if we believe in diversity, in welcoming all of God’s people to the communion table, we have to be able to take time in developing love in the community.  Love takes time, but it is worth it.

Being Church-May 11, 2014

Fourth Sunday of Easter Year A
(Good Shepherd Sunday)
John 10:1-10 and Acts 2:42-47

anjolie-ela-menon-good-shepherd-paintings-oilThe fourth Sunday of Easter is what has generally been called Good Shepherd Sunday. Several Passages talk about Jesus or God as a shepherd. In John 10 where Jesus refers to himself as the Good Shepherd. We can look at this passage as being about God being the shepherd and that we sheep are to be good followers. But it can also mean  God’s relation with God’s church. God cares for us and looks after us in ways we can’t imagine, because God is in love with us; God has a relationship with us. A community that is loved by the God of the universe is called to care for one another- not because it’s something we have to do, but because it’s who we are. And when people see a local congregation living as a Christ-led, hospitable community, they will take notice.

Acts 2:42-47 says the church is called to be a place where we learn to be a follower of Christ. The church is a place where we have fellowship with each other, where we care and love each other. The church is a place where we realize that our material possessions are not the goal in our lives, but to use what we have to help those in need, especially those in our community, but also those outside of it. The church is a place where we come together and break bread in table fellowship together, realizing that it is Christ that calls us to the table regardless of who we are. The church is a place where we are happy in Christ and are generous to friends and strangers.

Download this week’s lesson.

Marching Orders- May 4, 2014

May 4, 2014- Third Sunday of Easter, Year A

Luke 24:13-25

breaking bread emmausFood doesn’t just bring needed nourishment to us, but it’s a context that brings people together. I remember eating arroz con pollo and talking in Spanish to my abuela, or grandmother. I remember eating so much soul food that I probably needed angioplasty at a family event in Louisiana a few years back, but it was also a wonderful time to get reaquainted with my southern relatives.

Here in Luke 24 we encounter another story concerning the ressurection. It’s the road to Emmaus where Jesus appears in disguise to two of his disciples. They had thought Jesus was the one that would save them, and now their savior was dead. They told this disguised Jesus that it was already the third day since his death and in Jewish tradition, this meant that the soul had left the body, meaning there was no hope that Jesus would ever come back. These two had lost hope and were alone. They had placed their hopes on this one called Jesus and it had all ended so badly.

Jesus is kept hidden from the two disciples.  We don’t know why that is, but it is only at the breaking of the bread that they discovered Jesus was with them all along.

If you want to know who Jesus is, look at the meals Jesus ate.  These are the places where he reveals himself to the world.  The calling of Matthew the tax collector, the “sinful” woman who annointed Jesus, Zacheus and other events showed a God that cared for the lost, hurting and broken.

This is the savior we worship, one that is made known to us in meals. As followers of Jesus, do our meals, at our communion tables and at all of our tables reveal the something about the Risen Savior?