I John 3:1-3;
Acts 3:12-19
There is an old joke about a minister
preaching his first sermon to a new congregation. He worked on the sermon until he had it just
right. Then he laid out his persuasive
words to the eager ears. After the
service everyone came up and proclaimed it was the best sermon they had heard
in years. The next week the congregation
enthusiastically anticipated a repeat of the previous effort. And that is exactly what they got. The new minister delivered the same message,
word for word. This happened the next
three weeks. Finally a group of elders
marched into the minister’s study and asked for an explanation. The minister looked up from his desk and
said, “When you respond to the first sermon I will move on to another.”
Our text this morning is Peter preaching
his Pentecost sermon ….. again. On
Pentecost, Peter had stood in the middle of Solomon’s Portico and addressed the
same folks who had murdered Jesus. A day
later he preached practically an exact replica just to make sure the folks
listening really got the message. This
is an amazing transformation of faith. The same Peter that denied Jesus, the
same Peter that had failed to show up at the crucifixion, the same Peter that
had hid out hoping to find safe passage back to Galilee,
now, completely filled with the Holy Spirit, described his conversion, not once
but twice. Peter was bold in his
pronouncement. He accused the crowd of
“rejecting the Holy and Righteous One, of killing the author of Life.” I am sure when Peter finished speaking he expected the
crowd to haul him off to a field and stone him.
But they didn’t. We are told over
3,000 folks begged to be baptized. So
the next day, Peter preached the exact sermon with similar results.
Amazing!!! What was it that Peter said that captivated
this crowd not once, but twice? He began
with a not so simple question, “Who was Jesus?” Peter was speaking to people who woke up every
morning praying for the Messiah to come.
Of course they probably felt like the chances of him showing up were
less than the Cubs going to the World Series.
The desired it, they longed for it, but it was pretty much thought it
was a pipe dream. Then Peter stood
before them declared, “The Messiah was here and you not only ignored him, you
killed him. But that’s OK. He conquered death and he can conquer your
suspicious hearts if you but give him a chance.” Can you imagine the buzz that was going
through that crowd?
You folks at Rockfish are a pretty
sophisticated bunch. If I were to stop
right now and break you into small groups and ask, “Who was Jesus”, imagine how
many different answers would be articulated?
Some, perhaps the majority, would state Jesus was the Son of God,
sacrificed for the sins of the world.
Another group, a smaller but vocal contingency, would focus on the
humanness rather than the divinity of Jesus, using him as the primary example
of what we might become. Some would try
to unravel the mystery of incarnation, others would honestly say, “I’m really
not sure.” Once lines and divisions were
formed, I would ask a second question.
Regardless of your understanding of Jesus, how does that understanding
impact your life?
The writer of the first Epistle of John
wrote, “See what love God has given us, that we should be called the children
of God. The reason the world does not
know us is that it does not know him.”
Who is Jesus? Who are we? How does our understanding of Jesus define
our understanding of our own identity?
The past couple of months I have
spending some time with our young people.
We have had some interesting and revealing conversations and I have had
a great time getting to know them. In
our initial conversation, I asked them to draw a self portrait. When finished, we hung them on the wall. Then I asked them to draw a picture of
God. It was amazing how similar their
pictures of God resembled the pictures of themselves. I was not surprised by this. It is amazing how many folks see themselves as
gods. I had them open their Bibles to
the Old Testament and introduced them to a formula for God which is used over
and over again in the Psalms. God is
gracious, merciful, slow to anger and steadfast in love. They looked at me strangely but since I was
the teacher they gave me the benefit of the doubt.
The next week we talked about who they
thought Jesus was. They came up with
some great answers but when they finished I asked them, “If Jesus is a child of
God, how might God in Jesus best be understood.” After a few moments someone said, “Jesus
would be gracious, merciful, slow to anger, steadfast in love.”
The following week we begin to talk
about the concept of sin. Admittedly,
this is a tough conversation even for adults.
Once again your kids began to scratch under the surface and engaged in a
very mature conversation. At first
stealing, lying, and gossip seemed to be the three wrongdoings that concerned
them the most. Then, with a little help,
they defined sin as that which is contrary to what God desires us to do and
be. Finally one youth said, “God wants
us to be gracious, merciful, slow to anger, and steadfast in love. We need to act like God acts.”
Bingo!
Proceed directly to GO and collect your 200 dollars. Our
kids nailed the concept of being created in the image of God. What they also revealed was the extreme
complexities that evolve from this revelation.
Ronald Cole-Turner writes, “Jesus was misunderstood by nearly everyone
around him and Christians must learn to expect the same.” In other words, if Jesus is gracious,
merciful, slow to anger and steadfast in love, and if we as a community of
faith believe we are called to be gracious, merciful, slow to anger and
steadfast in love, how will the world perceive us?
Did you check out the headlines or watch
CNN this morning? They might serve to
remind you we live in an age that seeks security through violence and greed
rather than solidarity and forgiveness. We live in a society which finds
personal identity through social networking rather than spiritual
transformation. But perhaps most challenging
is we live in a world that trusts failed experiences over the promise that
grace, mercy and love might show us a more profound truth.
I love history. What better place to live if one is a history
buff. When I was in the 4th
grade most students learned the story of Paul Revere. As a Virginian I was much more interested in
Jack Jouett’s horseback ride from Richmond to Charlottesville to warn Jefferson and other members of the
Virginia
legislature that Cornwallis had dispatched Col. Tarleton to capture the revolutionaries. Thanks to Jouett, the legislature escaped,
and thanks to stories such as this I have always been interested in examining
the ebb and flow of various civilizations.
Challenging a premise by George Santayana, I believe no matter how much
we study history we continue to repeat the same mistakes. Experience counters everything else even if
it was a bad experience. What is so
radical about Peter preaching in streets of Jerusalem was that we was offering
a new direction, a new answer, a new solution to life’s age old problems. He had the nerve to suggest despite all the accepted
evidence God’s promise trumps our experience.
You folks know this. Despite all the varying
hypothesis concerning who Jesus was and who Jesus continues to be, the very
heart throb of this congregation is founded on the Godly principal of being
gracious, merciful, slow to anger, and steadfast in love.
One of the wonderful things about my job
is I get to go out in the afternoon and visit with you folks. This week I was sitting with one of you who
said, “Louie, in your experience, are all churches like this one? What makes us so different?” Before I could speak he answered his own
question by saying. “Gracious, look at
the time. Please excuse me but I’m a
CASA volunteer and I need to pick-up my student from school.”
During another visit the same day a very
complicated conversation found closure when the person I was sitting with said,
“I think life comes down to one truth. The
ability to forgive defines the very essence of who we are.”
Recently another couple said to me, “We
go as far away as Waynesboro
to Square Dance because it allows us to meet folks different than us.” Another one of you said, “Hop in the car and
I’ll show you another side of Nelson
County.” My favorite response might be,, “We can find
plenty of pine. But we only give away
hard wood. It doesn’t clog their chimney.”
What makes this church unique is that
you truly love each other and the community that surrounds us. You understand that
each day, through your acts of mercy, graciousness and steadfast love, you are
ignoring what the world has taught and are clinging to an ancient promise that
there is a better way to live our lives.
Marilynne Robinson in her new book, When I was a Child I Read Books, writes,
“The great narrative to which we Christians are called to be faithful is a
story of a man whose purpose was to render holiness and reveal the way of God
to humankind. This is too great a
narrative to be reduced to serving any self interest or be overwritten by any
lesser human tale. Our Reverence should
forbid it being subordinated to tribalism, resentment, or fear.”
Again, you folks understand this. When I walk into this sanctuary on Sunday
morning I am reminded of that wonderful song by Doris Akers. “There’s a sweet, sweet Spirit in this place,
and I know that it’s the Spirit of the Lord.”
This is a place that understands, above all else, the Spirit has called
us to be gracious, merciful, slow to anger and steadfast in love. This is who God is. This is who we strive to be. This is who the
children of God desire to be.
Gracious, merciful, slow to anger,
steadfast in love.
Say
it with me.
Gracious, merciful, slow to anger,
steadfast in love.
One
more time.
Gracious, merciful, slow to anger,
steadfast in love.
This is a sweet, sweet,
place.
Amen.
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