Sunday Sermon 02.22.09

PRAYER OF ILLUMINATION
Please pray with me: Gracious God, Still our minds and quiet our worries; open our ears and hearts so that we might truly hear your Word. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

SCRIPTURE READING Acts 4:1-13
1 The priests and the captain of the temple guard and the Sadducees came up to Peter and John while they were speaking to the people. 2 They were greatly disturbed because the apostles were teaching the people and proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection of the dead. 3 They seized Peter and John, and because it was evening, they put them in jail until the next day. 4 But many who heard the message believed, and the number of men grew to about five thousand. 5 The next day the rulers, elders and teachers of the law met in Jerusalem. 6 Annas the high priest was there, and so were Caiaphas, John, Alexander and the other men of the high priest's family. 7 They had Peter and John brought before them and began to question them: "By what power or what name did you do this?" 8 Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them: "Rulers and elders of the people! 9 If we are being called to account today for an act of kindness shown to a cripple and are asked how he was healed, 10 then know this, you and all the people of Israel: It is by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified but whom God raised from the dead, that this man stands before you healed. 11 He is "'the stone you builders rejected, which has become the capstone.' 12 Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved." 13 When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus.

The grass withers and the flower fades, but the Word of the Lord endures forever.

INTRODUCTION
Today’s Scripture passage is another courtroom scene. I once compared Deborah—the Old Testament judge/prophet/military commander—to Judge Judy. Well, in today’s reading from Acts, it looks kinda like a scene from a Supreme Court full of Judge Judy’s.

Imagine 6 identical Judge Judy’s all lined up in a row, in their fancy black robes. I pity the fools who end up in this courtroom, don’t you think?

I think that’s one of the things we like about Judge Judy, right? She always makes the guilty parties look like the fools they really are. She doesn’t put up with their nonsense and back-talking. She always put them in their place.

But this time . . . those fools standing in the courtroom are . . . Peter and John, the two most famous disciples. Peter and John have gotten themselves arrested for disturbing the peace again, just like they did at Pentecost in Acts chapter 2.

MOVE #1
Now, Peter and John were not disturbing the peace the way WE think of disturbing the peace. It’s not like what happened in Oakland after the Steelers won the Super Bowl. The disciples are not over turning cars or lighting couches on fire.

We don’t generally think of preaching and teaching and healing as disturbing the peace. As a matter of fact, we gather together every Sunday for these very same things, and, to my knowledge, the cops have never busted into one of our church services to arrest us for disturbing the peace.

So, what could the disciples possibly have been doing to cause such a ruckus with the religious authorities of their day?

Turns out, they WERE disturbing the peace, sort of. Peter and John were preaching salvation in the name of Jesus Christ in the middle of Jerusalem, a very Jewish town. They preached salvation in the name of Jesus at Pentecost, and three thousand people were converted. Here, they are preaching salvation in the name of Jesus Christ again, and again another couple thousand people are converted again.

That definitely disturbs the peace of the Jewish religious community. In fact, the whole book of Acts tells the story of the first church. It tells the story of how it struggled to find its own identity by breaking away from the Jewish tradition—breaking away from everything that was familiar and comfortable for something unknown and uncertain. In a way, they were even disturbing their own peace as they forged their own new beliefs and traditions.

MOVE #2
So, Peter and John, find themselves in the courtroom, standing in front of the Judge Judy’s of their day. And, just like the audience in Judge Judy’s courtroom, the audience here is ready for some entertainment. Peter and John are unschooled, ordinary men; nothing special to look at.
Yet these humble disciples are gathered before a very august and esteemed gathering of priests, religious authorities, and Sadducees presiding over this trial. If ever there has been an underdog in the court proceedings, it was definitely Peter and John.

And so the trial begins when the priests, religious authorities, and Sadducees ask a simple question—the kind of question authorities always ask of those who are disturbing the peace—“By what power or what name did you do this?” They are asking the disciples what gives them the right—or rather WHO gives them the authority—to preach and to teach and to heal.

This is Peter’s big moment—an unschooled, ordinary, blue collar Peter. Peter who frequently puts his foot in his mouth, Peter who says the things everybody else is thinking but is unwilling to say. If it were just up to Peter to answer this question, Judge Judy would have a field day; the audience would get a good laugh at its stumbling and bumbling answer.

But verse 8 tells us that Peter was filled by the Holy Spirit, just like the Holy Spirit filled all the believers who gathered at Pentecost. And the Holy Spirit transforms Peter’s average, ordinary words into words of power and conviction to all those who hear them.

Peter says, “It is by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified but whom God raised from the dead . . . Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved.”

CONCLUSION
It is by the power of the name of Jesus Christ—which means “God saves”—that salvation is offered to each and every person on the planet. It is by the power of the name of Jesus Christ that we will be raised to eternal life. And, it is by the power of the name of Jesus Christ that we have received his invitation to gather at his Table and to share communion with each other.As we prepare ourselves to be a part of Communion, let us join together in singing our hymn of preparation #230 “His Name is Wonderful.”