Acts 4:5-12

The next day their rulers, elders, and scribes assembled in Jerusalem, with Annas the high priest, Caiaphas, John, and Alexander, and all who were of the high-priestly family. When they had made the prisoners stand in their midst, they inquired, “By what power or by what name did you do this?” Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, “Rulers of the people and elders, if we are being questioned today because of a good deed done to someone who was sick and are being asked how this man has been healed, 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. This Jesus is

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

    it has become the cornerstone.’

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

Sermon Text

The early Church existed at a dangerous time for small sects of any faith. There was one religion that was fully accepted in the Roman Empire, and that was the Imperial Cult itself. While local deities, and even national deities, could be worshipped freely – the one person who needed to be worshipped was the Emperor. Properly speaking, a spirit known as the “Genius,” was worshipped to the benefit of the Emperor. This spirit was the highest spiritual ideal of a person, their source and also their sustaining principle. When the Emperor died they were usually deified as gods, but in life this sustaining Spirit was what was worshipped.

All people were meant to offer sacrifices toward this personal deity of the Emperor alongside their other gods. For the polytheists throughout the empire, this was not a problem, but for anyone who was a monotheist that simply was not possible. For the Jews they were given an excuse, they were older than the Roman Empire and so their rituals and deity were given special status – monotheism was permitted where it was usually forbidden.[1] Other cults that formed around singular deities were not permitted the same allowance. The denial of worshipping local deities and especially the Genius of the Emperor was considered a form of treason – how could the gods sustain the empire if they were not honored? How could the spirit guarding the Emperor act without propitiation?

Of the dissident faiths of the Roman Empire, only one would survive into the present era. Christianity, founded on the premise of worshipping Jesus of Nazareth as God, had neither the ancient status of Judaism nor the benefit of Roman tolerance. The refusal of worshipping the Genius or worshipping local deities was unforgiveable treason and grounds for execution.

Later historians would inflate the persecution of Christians, at least in terms of numbers, but the reality of Christian persecution is clear. Pliny the Younger, a Roman Governor, seemed to regard Christians as mostly harmless despite their seditious lack of imperial faith. He would ask suspected Christians to recant their faith three times, each time offering them food and wine to offer to images of the Emperor or of a god. When they refused three times they would be executed or extradited. This was the standard form of persecution – particular to specific cases and carried out by people who disliked minority religions more so than by people who hated Christians specifically.

Paul, the writer of most of the New Testament, experienced more hardships than most. Having traveled to new regions and presenting Christianity for the first time, he was often cast out of town and abused by their inhabitants. Those who he left behind likewise would suffer social ostracization and abuse. Within a few years of Paul’s death, itself execution for religious dissidence, the emperor Nero would establish an empire wide ban on Christianity, blaming them for the destruction of Rome. Christianity was persecuted in a way it had never been before and the people of God looked to scripture to understand what to do.

Amid the many instructions of Christ and the disciples was a consistent rhythm regarding personal conduct. On top of the general teachings of the Church, the commandments given by Moses and by Christ, the Christians were meant to live a life that was so obviously good that any accusations laid at their feet would be ridiculous. 1 Peter 3 makes this clear, saying explicitly that someone who lives a blameless life will put their accusers to shame – even if they are killed the people who knew them would know the truth, erasing the power of their oppressors. The same is true of Romans 13, an admonition against violating civil power in order to respect God, but also to preserve the reputation of God’s people.

One problem of the modern Church is that we defend ourselves through obfuscation far more often than we defend ourselves through positive example. Whenever a scandal happens in the Church, we point the other way and try to say that because the majority of the Church does not engage in something harmful, then the Church is not actually responsible for that offense. When a minister in another conference of the UMC was found having inappropriate relationship with a parishioner, he was the sinner in the situation that is true, but when the decision was made to moved him to another church rather than defrocking or rehabilitating him – it seems to me that we all suddenly became complicit in that situation.

That’s a bigger example though, we can look at smaller instances. There is a meme that goes around all the time, “If you left the Church because of something someone did, the Church didn’t hurt you, people did. Come back.” A fine idea, and with some truth behind it. However, there is one problem in this idea from my perspective – what is the Church? The institution? The building? I’ve often been of the impression that the people are the Church, and if the People hurt you, then you do have a legitimate problem with “The Church.” Our defense against people who have been hurt by the Church is to pretend that they were actually hurt by something else, something over there, anything but by us.

Sometimes people I know will distance themselves from clergy and Christians they disagree with. I myself will tell you openly when I think talking heads in the Church-sphere are not good people to listen to. Yet, I do not deny they are Christians and that I am responsible for them to a certain extent. The body of Christ is one body, and even though we have a created a bunch of sects and individual buildings, and barriers betwixt us, we are all one people. Even the parts of us that are hurtful and that we wish were not part of the body, are part of the Church. If they are unwilling to change, they will continue to be both harmful and Christian.

The scripture we read today shows the apostles being brought before the Sanhedrin, a group of leaders in Jerusalem who oversaw religious happenings in Jerusalem and some civil cases as well. Peter and crew would be brought before them several times in the early parts of Acts. Each time the disciples thwarted the accusations against them with a simple truth – they had done no harm to anyone, in fact they were helping other people. The powers that be could organize a mob to hurt them, they had done so with Christ and secured a conviction, however this was not a midnight meeting like the one that convicted Christ. The whole council was there, not just the conspirators, and they were not as zealous in their hatred of Jesus as those who met on Good Friday were.

Peter is asked how he healed these people, and his defense begins simply with the truth, “To be clear, I am here because you did not like how I healed someone! I’ll answer your question, but I want it on the record why you brought me in today!” The tactic worked, and they were released after being reprimanded by the court. A later trial would have them gaining the respect of Gamaliel, teacher of Paul of Tarsus and prominent teacher. It was not until a Greek Speaking Jew, Stephen, was brought before the council that enough animosity could be brought against a Christian to kill them. Again, not by law, but through mob violence. His sin, again, was in feeding the hungry and in proclaiming the Gospel.

If a Church and the people in it aspire to live well, then it will be hard to accuse them of anything. If they are founded on taking care of people, in feeding the hungry, in clothing the poor, then anyone who says “Well you know how those Christians are,” will be able to be told, “Well, I don’t know about all Christians, but these folk are good folk.” That’s the reputation we need to strive for, the thing that makes people question their criticism of faith, and that provides a positive association with Christ. That is what the Church is meant to do.

This is, perhaps, the completion of our message from last week. The Spirit leads us to repent to change, and in so doing we become people that no one can deny are truly seeking to do good. Will we fall short and fail? Of course. However, an earnest attempt at doing right on the part of an individual and of a church makes a huge difference. The Church has fallen out of the good graces of the public, not simply because people don’t want to be a part of us, but because when people pointed out the wrong we have done, all we had was trite and rehearsed responses. If we truly were doing the good work we are called to, no one could shame us and find support from people who know us.

The key thing here is that we do not do good to have a good reputation, but that we understand that the importance of consistently doing good is not just one dimensional. First and foremost, we seek to do good and heal this world because it is good and right to do so. Secondly, and we know it is good because of this, we do so because it benefits the people around us, and if we love people we want them to flourish. Somewhere down the list of reasons to do good is this matter of reputation, but it is important to think that beyond the singular moment of an action and its consequences, there are infinite ripples. Ripples in expectations, ripples in understanding, ripples in truth.

We have to live a life so that the perspective people have of us, of the Church, of Christ, is one of love and truth and power. When we fail, we need to be up front and apologetic, because if we cannot truly make amends for wrong, we will never grow as a people. Yet, if we do all these things, if we can be the Church as it is meant to be – a place of Healing, of Redemption, and of Communion – then we will see the glory of the Lord in this life. We will see the Body of Christ, be as it was always meant to be. – Amen.

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[1] This claim is somewhat controversial among scholars. Partly this is because of the clear antisemitism of Roman society. There was also no official status given to the Jews, except by individual emperors. This is why people like Claudius was able to expel the Jews, their status was dependent upon those in power and not secured in the writ of law.

The Epistle Lesson                                                                     1 John 3:1-7

See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God, and that is what we are. The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Beloved, we are God’s children now; what we will be has not yet been revealed. What we do know is this: when he is revealed, we will be like him, for we will see him as he is. And all who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure.

Everyone who commits sin is guilty of lawlessness; sin is lawlessness. You know that he was revealed to take away sins, and in him there is no sin. No one who abides in him sins; no one who sins has either seen him or known him. Little children, let no one deceive you. Everyone who does what is right is righteous, just as he is righteous.

Sermon Text

 The business of the Church, in all lo and places, regardless of context, is to repair the broken things of the world. This redemptive mission undergirds every part of our work. The problem with redemption, however, is that it is hard. It is hard to make the world better and it is hard to make ourselves better and because of this we settle for a hundred thousand lesser missions than this. Redemption is a work that only God can achieve and that we are privileged to partake in, but the work that we begin is much more manageable, and much easier to control.

Look at the way we address most problems in life, reactively rather than proactively. The potholes in our streets could be addressed if we funded regular upkeep of our infrastructure instead of hasty repairs when the road is already damaged. Health can be improved by taking measures as simple as taking vitamins and keeping up on vaccination, and yet most preventive medicine is not covered by most insurances. Finances are more secure when savings are put away, but oftentimes the demands of life make it hard to put much at all away, especially as prices have soured across the last decade or so. Our hope to fix things, even mundane things, is stopped by hundreds of confounding factors we face at any given moment.

Yet, God calls us to restore this world to something like what it was in Eden. There is to be a growth in trust where we have given ourselves to doubt. There is to be a mutual love and care where there is currently apathy and forgetfulness. There is to be a better world in the place of the one that is currently suffering under the reign of sin and death. We are to be people who want to see the world change for the better and who want to change our own lives to be better at contributing to that goal.

Faith is not meant to be an oppressive thing, Christ is clear again and again that what he offers us is a much better alternative than what the world is offering. This does not mean, however, that the life of faith does not have its own hardships. It is hard to grow, it is hard to do what is right, and it is hard to face the fact that we are all of us in need of change. The simple fact is, as we draw nearer to God we should experience a contradictory emotional swell. On one hand we should enjoy the joy that comes from knowing God and feeling the joy of salvation, the freedom it brings. On the other hand we should become more and more aware of our own failings, of the way our carelessness hurts others. There is a need to grieve even as we rejoice, because we take part in the brokenness of the world unless we live perfectly.

The idea of perfection is scary, but it is the goal we have to chase after. As John says in our Epistle reading, if we live fully in Christ than we ought not to sin. The person who does what is right is righteous, but the one who does wrong is lawless – without God’s instruction. There is no room in John’s presentation to imagine that this warning is only for perpetual sinners or especially profound wrongdoing. John wants us to see every sin that we commit for what it is, a wedge that gets between us and God. If we see sin as this, as something that keeps us from God, and we see God as the source of life and joy and happiness itself, then we should be upset that we choose sin again and again and again.

The more I grow in faith, the more I am sure that I am a deplorable person. There are things that I cannot seem to escape that I just go back to again and again, like a dog to its own vomit. The good things I do, for me, are swallowed up in the wickedness I participate in. The hateful thoughts, the judging eyes, and all manner of other corruption is not unique to those who make a habit of it. We are all guilty of sinning, all prone to erring in a way we should not. We all, if we are honest, are not living the life we should be – not even close most of the time. There is a need for us to be holy, and that need is apparent in the fact that the world is so sad so often, so bleak and violent and miserable.

1 John offers a contradictory path throughout its pages. While it is so clear again and again that we are sinful and that our participation in sin means that we cannot call ourselves righteous, the mourning of our failings is not meant to make us lock up. It is not meant to be something that we hate ourselves for. It is not even something that the scripture seems to linger on. Instead, John gives us a way out of the mess. Firstly in saying that those who do sin, all of us, can depend that Christ is faithful to forgive us. Praise God! That we can seek forgiveness from God and those we hurt and know that we can receive it from one source at least.

The second reiteration, again and again, across all of the Johennine Epistles, is so simple. “People of God, we are sinners, but thank God we are redeemed in Christ. The same Christ who gives us a new commandment, which is not new but has with us from the beginning.” That commandment, can anyone guess what it is? That we love one another. The secret out of sin is not self-loathing, it is self-love. Love enough to grow out of the things that hurt us and those around us. The secret out of sin is not hatred of others, but a love that promises to grow alongside each other. We are all in this together, and unless we all can search our hearts and accept our part in the mess around us, it will never be healed.

The Church suffers when we see Sin as something that is either wiped away with a simple prayer or that is mostly other people’s problems. On the one hand, we forget that we are called to grow closer to Christ’s perfection every day. On the other, we pretend that we are righteous in a way no one else is. In reality, we are all stuck in the mud. We all need to help to lift each other out of it.

I think one of the problems we have had in the Church is that for the past hundred years we have been caught up in culture wars, rather than wars against the Sin that we all know lives within us. We fought in the 20s against Evolution, in the thirties against socialism, in the fifties against communism, in the sixties against civil rights, in the seventies against rock and roll, in the eighties against Dungeons and Dragons, in the nineties against rap, in the oughts against gays, and now against trans people. Always a target moving from one person to the other to the other, but never a moment of introspection for ourselves.

What would have happened, if all that energy then and now that went into interrogating other people’s business and chasing after the supposed enemies that someone told us we had, we all just tried to be holier? What if we aspired to live like Christ did? To feed the hungry, to care for the sick, to push back when others try to exclude people from the table. One may say, “Ah, but I saw sin in what those people I was yelling at were doing!” Be that as it may, John’s instruction was to be better at loving each other, to repent earnestly of your own sins, and to grow in holiness that way. Sin is real, people of God, but the fact it only ever exists in “that person over there,” should probably tell us we do not care much about sin and our salvation from it, but do care a great deal about looking and sounding like we have nothing to do with it.

There is one thing that John describes as being “Anti-Christ,” in all of this book. Yes, it is possible to be lawless as a person, but only one thing is antithetical to the work of the Church, says the Epistle. That one thing? Denying Christ’s bodily life, death, and resurrection. This is why I believe that all Christians can come to terms, if we accept those three things. If we accept Christ came and lived among us perfectly, then we have an image to aspire to. If Christ died for our sins, then we have a reason to hope that we too can overcome sin and death. If Christ rose again, then there is a life everlasting and an advocate who will hear my prayers and hold my hand as I take the long narrow road to perfection in Paradise.

People of God, do you believe God can redeem you? Then repent today, not tomorrow. Repent for your own sins, not your neighbors, and seek to grow in love, which is the essence of all the Law and the prophets. The work of the Church is redemption, and we must take part in it and be recipients of it. – Amen.

Acts 4:32-35

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. With great power the apostles gave their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all. 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. They laid it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to each as any had need.

Sermon Text

Every year, after the Easter Season has begun, one of the first scriptures to appear in the lectionary is the one we read this morning. It tells a simple story, the disciples were doing the work of the Church and because they did what God called them to do, the Church grew by leaps and bounds. This message gives relief to us today. The secret to vitality is not something hidden away, unknowable to the average person. A Church flourishes when it follows the Spirit where it goes. If we let God teach us to speak as we have never spoken, love as we have never loved, and do as we have never done… Then we will find that life naturally flourishes within our community.

We are coming up on General Conference, the long delayed and anticipated meeting of the United Methodist Church’s legislative body to determine what the next four years of our denomination looks like. There are a lot of things on the table this year, after all we skipped 2020 due to the pandemic. This means that everything that was supposed to be renewed then is overdue now, and all the legislation that had been proposed then has been gathering dust. It will be an emotional gathering and it will be a tense one. There will be people there ready to further the work of the Church and people there who would very much like to see the whole thing burn. Yet, it will be a gathering of the Church, and we will keep it holy somehow.

As we enter into that season, we have three Sundays to address a question we should already know something about. What is Church? What does it mean that we gather together and worship? How do we serve the world? What are we doing? We will do this in part through the General Conference study we are offering across the next two weeks, but we are also exploring it through our gatherings here. Scripture has a wealth of information for us, if only we are willing to read it and understand.

The scripture we read today describes the Church immediately after Pentecost and it captures a moment where the Church functioned as it never would again. The people of God had perfected their vision of the Body of Christ. For a moment the Church gave up on anything worldly – people sold their property so that everyone had the food and clothing and shelter they needed. The word used here (ὑπάρχω, huparcho,) suggests that people were selling everything they had the ability to sell. I do not mean, everything that was left over after they took care of themselves, I mean everything they legally owned and therefore had the authority to share. The people sold everything they had, to make sure that everyone had what they needed.

The reason this was possible was not because of any specific economic reality that was present in the first century, but because the Church developed an understanding of a term I absolutely adore,  κοινός (Koinos,) which simply means “Common.” The term can be used to describe something vulgar, but it is used here in the sense of something held by everyone. It is turned into a more abstract idea elsewhere in scripture, being described as “Koinonia,” the state of being in unity, in connection, in Communion. Our celebration of the Eucharist took on the name Communion to reflect the unity it gives us together, but Communion itself is something we strive for in all we do.

Why were the disciples willing to sell everything they had and live together as one people? Because they trusted each other as they trusted themselves. The Church was willing to give all they had, because they knew if they needed something they would be able to get what they needed, because everyone was fully participating in this resurrected community. When I know that you will not take advantage of me, and I do not want to take advantage of you, then both of us are more willing to share than we ever would be before.

The purpose of the Church is to create an alternative community to the one which the world builds for itself. We do this by proclaiming the world that Christ showed us in his time among us. A world that does not bow to civil power plays or the politicking of the same. A world based upon the revelation of God to all people and the transformation of lives for the good of everyone, not just the select few. We preach a Gospel that is transformative precisely because it invites people to come together and be something different together. We cannot be a Christian on our own, we need the full people of God together to truly be our fullest selves.

As a conference we have set a discipleship goal to transform our worship spaces. Not just concerned with Sunday morning, we want to get people to live life together. I would say that we are blessed in our congregations that we already do some of this of hard work together. We are a church that likes each other and that is a blessing. The change we are striving after is to be more intentional in the way we live life together. As a parish we are working toward beginning Class Meetings again, where those who wish to grow deeper in their faith and love toward one another can do so together.

The Church does not grow by having better music or more programs. It grows by being willing to go into the world, to share all it has with one another and with those around it. The Church grows when it becomes the image of God for all the world to see. Why? Because when people see God they cannot deny they want to be a part of what God is doing. We have the ability to be that vision to the people around us, but only if we stand together. The Church must embrace its Communion fully – we are one in heart and soul, born of the same waters of baptism and worshipping the same Lord. If we wish to be all we can be, we have to be wiling to take hold of the life, the light, and the resurrection – not as individuals – but as one people living, loving, and serving together. – Amen.