EASTER 6A 14th May 2023
Acts
17:22-31 • Psalm 66:8-20
• 1 Peter 3:13-22 • John
14:15-21
“Now who will harm you if you are eager to
do what is good?” This an exhortation from Saint Peter, and I’m sensing a continuation
of last week’s theme where we are encouraged to go bravely into this world
doing good. Regardless of opposition.
Here, in Peter’s letter we are encouraged that no one should
be harmed if they are eager to do good.
We are encouraged to do good in our community….in the church, and in our
town and country. We are God’s people
and God has said that, through His people that the nations will be blessed. We bring God’s blessing to our town and nation,
and we don’t do this passively. It is
something that we need to be actively involved in. There shouldn’t be any fear in us to do good,
but as we know, sometimes discouragement and persecution does happen.
Peter goes on to say, “But even if you do suffer for doing
what is right, you are blessed. Do not fear what they fear, and do not be
intimidated, but in your hearts sanctify Christ as Lord.” In this, Peter is
acknowledging that the world does not always operate the way that it logically
should. No one should be harmed for
doing good. And the saviour of the world
should not have been crucified by the people He came to save… but He was.
In the time between the resurrection and Pentecost the
disciples were encouraged, but frightened.
This is the kind of message that they needed… go out and do good… no one
should harm you for that, so be confident. I’m wondering if we are also like
the pre-Pentecost timid disciples -or are we a church operating in post-Pentecost
power?
Regardless of where we are at, those to whom Peter was
writing were needing encouragement to have resilience in the face of
persecution, because persecution was a fact of those early Christian’s lives. All this is recorded and passed down to us
for a reason; We too are like those disciples, called to be a blessing to our
nation and we need to be encouraged to live with such conviction and assurance,
that when persecution comes to us, we can also continue doing good.
When we resiliently continue to do good and people take
notice of the different way that we have responded, even while under pressure, they
will want to know why. Saint Peter tells
us; “Always be ready to make your defense to anyone who demands from you an
accounting for the hope that is in you;”
Peter adds that we need to do this with gentleness and
reverence. He tells us this, because in
the face of persecution, injustice and discrimination, our natural and sinful
self may not want to tell them of the love of God, but instead tell them…. Well
probably something not HELPFUl! Instead,
we need to be always respectful, with gentleness and reverence.
An example; very seldom, but probably once every couple of
years, someone will be verbally abusive to the Street Chaplains. The last time this happened was just a couple
of weeks ago and it happened to me. This particular night the lady continued to
hurl abuse at me, regardless of assurances that we were just trying to help, so
I stopped engaging in the conversation. The police actually heard her tirade and
arrested her. Others standing by made
comments to me that we don’t deserve that kind of treatment.
These other people witnessed our innocence. We weren’t thrown by the abuse, although,
honestly it is upsetting. We need to
understand that there are some who will be reacting to our presence for all
kinds of reasons which may be unknown to us.
If we stay calm and continue to reach out in love, we show ourselves to
be different. And people witness
something different about a group of people who claim to have a relationship
with God. Whatever the outcome, our
conscience is clear. To respond, rather than react, is certainly
easier in our Chaplaincy setting than it may be in other scenarios, because we
have a partner and a team to back us up.
Other than having a team to back us, we have an assurance of
the acceptance of God. Though others
might reject us, we are loved and accepted by God who created the heavens and
the earth. God who came down to our
earth, lived among us and died for the immense love that he has for each of
us. That very fact, is something that we
all need to know most definitely and rest in.
You.. are so very loved and completely accepted by God.
The Holy Spirit came at Pentecost to the disciples and they
were changed from encouraged, though frightened, followers of Christ, to
courageous and confident proclaimers of the Good News of Jesus Christ. What did the Holy Spirit do in those people
to bring about this change? I believe
that when that third party of the trinity came to dwell with the disciples,
they understood that they were so very extremely and unconditionally loved by
God, and that love of God, reassured them, such that they were truly set
free. If God is for us, who can be
against us. What can humankind do to
us? We can’t lose, because no matter
what happens we are in the presence of God and he is constantly loving us. Like a proud parent, he pats us on the back
to encourage us to continue to fight the good fight.
Saint Paul was one who had been persecuting the church and
then he met Christ in the blinding light on the road to Damascus and he was a
completely changed man. Well, kind
of. You see, Paul was a very educated
and clever man and he was zealous for God in his persecution of the church… he
was equally zealous in his conversion, at proclaiming the truth of the Gospel.
Saint Paul lived in the reality of God’s love. He had experienced overwhelming forgiveness
and love. Saint Paul understood the love
and acceptance of God. He was accepted
and loved despite all his flaws and prior life mistakes. This gave him the confidence to proclaim the
message of salvation.
Being the intelligent person that Paul was, he didn’t go into
a new city, like a bull at a gate, proclaiming that he had the truth and they
needed to listen. Well… not quite anyway. This time we find Paul in the centre of
activity. The Areopagus was a court of
philosophers in Athens which had authority over religion and morals. I can just imagine him entering that town and
wandering around gathering ideas, praying, asking God to give him the words and
the way, to reach these people with the Good News of Jesus Christ. As he wanders, he notices the monuments to
the gods and sees the one to the unknown God.
Suddenly the penny drops and he knows just where to start.
Saint Paul compliments the people on how religious they are
and directs their attention to the monument to the unknown God. From there he declares to them to one true
living God.
Saint Paul tries to be all things to all people. He looks for common ground and uses what they
already believe, as a starting point, and he uses their own poetry that
declares we are the offspring of God. Paul
tries to get along with people, yet he doesn’t water down the truth and he
doesn’t compromise the message of salvation.
Each year we celebrate Easter, and for nearly 2000 years
Christians have been speaking of the resurrection. As Christians, it is central to our faith and
outsiders often know it is part of our faith.
However, have you ever wondered what it was like for those early
communities hearing this message?
What? People can’t be crucified
and raised from the dead?
The followers of Jesus came with a message of the Good News about
God who loved the world so much that he sent his son to die for our sin. If God is all powerful… powerful enough place
the sins of the world onto the son and then to raise him from the dead, then we
need to take seriously the message of salvation. It was a controversial and powerful message
from the start. There was no theological
musings about the metaphorical meaning in rising from the dead… it was
presented as a straight out fact, and it proved the message of salvation. People were assured of God’s forgiveness for
their sins because Jesus was raised from the dead.
Just to expand one area of the Good News, if it says that
Christ suffered for sins once for all, it means that absolutely everything
that could keep you from God, has been atoned for. There is NOTHING keeping us from the love of
God… except possibly ourselves. We
always have free will and so, we can freely choose to live our lives apart from
God. However, we need not carry any
guilt or feel that God would be disappointed in us… he is not.
Jesus tells us that if we love him, we will keep his
commandments. His command is always
love. He loves us and desires for us to
remind each other of how much they are loved by him. He also desires that we show the world that
God loves them.
Through the Holy Spirit, God is always with us. How often are we aware of God with us? Our Gospel reading reminds us that God abides
with us and is in us. He will never
leave us and because he is with us -
united to us - our eternal live has already begun.
In this time, between Resurrection Sunday and Pentecost, we
reflect on how essential is the gift of the Holy Spirit in order for us to
actually live the life that God has planned for us. We so need and pray for a fresh outpouring of
the Holy Spirit in our lives. Not
everything will be easy or without harm, but when we are filled with the Holy
Spirit, the love of God is in our hearts and we can live the adventurous life
that God destined us to live… a life of experiencing and sharing the love of
God. We can march to a different drum,
take the road less travelled and our Spirit filled, eternal life has begun.
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