Easter 3A
Acts 2:14a, 36-41; Psalm 116:1-4, 12-19; 1 Peter 1:17-23; Luke 24:13-35
The weather this past April makes a fitting context for today’s readings. Howling wind, downed trees, power outages and so many tornadoes that ravaged so many parts of our country. All of us were calling friends or acquaintances to make sure they were okay. Some people in those states went down into their basements and came up to find their houses and all their belongings flattened and strewn over what used to be their neighborhood.
“Only one thing is permanent,” my wife reminded me, “and that’s God.” In a second, all of our goods can look like a department sale after Black Friday—all of those brand new, stylish clothes now looking like so much trash strewn about everywhere.
1 Peter has the same sentiment as my wife’s: “23You have been born anew, not of perishable but of imperishable seed, through the living and enduring word of God.”
In a way, it’s encouraging that these readings speak to how difficult it was then—and is now—to believe in the Resurrection of Jesus (see Acts 14:2). People didn’t recognize him—neither Mary at the tomb nor those two walking disconsolately toward Emmaus. The disciples thought he was a ghost.
The Scripture writers go to great lengths to “prove” Jesus arose (he appeared to his disciples—to people who would recognize him immediately--and then to “500 brothers at once” according to Paul (1 Cor. 15:6). He had people touch him, notably Thomas. He dispelled doubts. He even ate some broiled fish. He broke bread just as he did at his last supper.
The writers also take great pains to tie Jesus’s life to the Old Testament prophecies concerning the Messiah, the Anointed, the One Who Was to Come, even (in John) to the “I AM.” They remember the Exodus and tout Jesus as the new Lamb, whose blood enables God to Pass Over their sins. They claim that He lives on in this world—even after His ascension—through His Spirit. This Spirit is a creative force similar to the Spirit that hovered over the waters in Genesis. What the Spirit brings is new life.
Apparently, the new life means turning AWAY from selfish pursuits and turning TOWARDS the needs of your fellow human beings, as Peter says, in “genuine mutual love.” With this new life comes great hope. Like the Psalmist, we could sing: “8For you have delivered my soul from death, my eyes from tears, my feet from stumbling. 9I walk before the Lord in the land of the living” (Ps. 116). Not only could Jesus’s followers find new ways of structuring communities that prevented an unequal and unjust distribution of wealth (see Acts 2:42-47), but also they began to understand that their physical deaths were not synonymous with the end of life!
These understandings did not descend upon their heads full blown at Pentecost. They developed slowly, with difficulty, amid persecution, and…they are STILL developing. For example, they began to understand that they could reach out to and take Gentiles into their communities. And today we are beginning to understand that people who have never known Jesus can still be saved! Consider this sentiment from the 14th century non-Christian Persian Sufi Master, Hafiz:
If one
Is afraid of losing anything
They [sic]have not looked into the Friend’s eyes;
They have forgotten God’s
Promise (The Gift, p. 146).
What we followers of Jesus have and cherish is the Good News that Jesus came to share with us; that we might never have known without him; and that we are willing to share with anyone, anywhere, anytime. And this Good News is news about who God is and how much he loves us, forgives us, and is STILL WITH US, present and accessible. We do not have to make a career out of condemning those who do not know Jesus, or who reject one or other of our images of him. We can cherish his words: “I have sheep that are not of this fold (John 10:16).” We can see his Spirit everywhere, working, creating, saving, renewing.
--Permanently working, in all kinds of weather.
No comments:
Post a Comment