Boldness of a Church on the Rise

Transcribed from the sermon preached April 19, 2009

The Reverend Max Lynn, Pastor

Scripture Readings: 1 John 1:1-25. Acts 4:23-37

Jesus was crucified and risen; now some time later Peter and John were going up to the temple to pray.  At the temple gate was a lame man begging for money.  Peter said, “Look at us… "I have no silver and gold, but I give you what I have; in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk."  Leaping up he stood and walked and entered the temple with them, walking and leaping and praising God.
[9] And all the people saw him walking and praising God.

Peter and John began to testify that what they had done was not by their own power, but by that of the risen Lord, Jesus.

The priests and the captain of the temple and the Sadducees came upon them and arrested them.  They saw the boldness of John and Peter and were surprised, because they were uneducated men. The priests ordered them not to heal in the name of Jesus nor proclaim the resurrection from the dead.  Peter and John answered, “We cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard."

They are released the next morning and this is where our story picks up.  They returned to their friends, telling them what had happened.

The Holy Spirit is on the move.  The hesitancy of the disciples after first discovering Jesus tomb break out has given away to boldness; boldness in service, boldness in testimony, boldness in prayer and trust in God, boldness in unity, boldness to encourage. 

These guys expect things to happen.  It is clear to them, Jesus is alive and on the move.  The Jesus movement is just getting started. 

So what are the signs the new Church shows that are so contagious, so healing, so confidence inducing? 

First, it is sounds like old wives tale, a story for simple, uneducated people, but the first sign of a spirit-filled, bold and growing church is faith in the resurrection.  For those who believe in the resurrection, death is not that significant, not that scary, not that big of a threat, not worth giving up truth for. Death is not worth giving up kindness and love for.  If the resurrection is real, then we can be forgiven and move forward, be bold in the face of adversity, stand strong in the face of temptation, pray big when we need healing, give generously to help our community.  Act as if the resurrection happened and it will.

Peter and John come to the temple to pray and meet the lame man.  With confidence and compassion they look him in the eye.  So much of the time as we go through our day we avoid eye contact, especially with those who beg.  One thing we can do, even when we have no silver or gold is look people in the eye with confidence and love.  Now I am speaking this even to the timid and shy among us.  You don’t have to run for president or marry every person you look at.  But lift up your head, you are a child of God, more than that, empowered by the resurrection to look out upon the world with the boldness of the love of God.  Love, heal and give joy with your eyes.

          Second, healing.  Expect all sorts of healing to happen, believe it can happen, work for it to happen, pray for healing to happen.  Now I don’t know how prayer works.  It is neither linear nor logical.  But I do believe that if we believe in the prayers we lift up, if we expect wounds to heal, worlds to open up, peace to break out, we will see and hear God’s answers to our prayers.  With consistent heartfelt prayer, we see God working in our lives and the world.

Tradition says that Peter himself is crucified upside down in Rome, so we don’t get everything we pray for.  We will all die someday, and each birthday gives us another set of aches and pain, and sometimes illness.  Expecting that prayer and faith will keep us from getting old and dying is not the kind of prayer I am talking about.  Illness takes something from us, healing gives something back.  Illness tears down, healing builds back up.  When we pray we may not get back the exact thing we lost, but we can expect to receive something to renew our strength and faith, to lift us up on wings like eagles.  A growing Church has members who expect great things from prayer.  They pray for healing and witness it.

          We have faith in the resurrection. We will greet people with confidence and grace; we pray for the good of all; we will look them in the eye; we will pray for healing; we will share the good news of Jesus Christ.  In crisis we will support and pray for one another.

          Peter and John get out of jail and gather with friends to pray.  They feel the pressure of the world, of the powers to get them to keep quiet, to conform.  They don’t pray for the elimination of their enemies, but for continued boldness to speak the truth they have witnessed.

          And now, Lord, look upon their threats, and grant to thy servants to speak thy word with all boldness.

You and I, we who are praying will be about the love of Christ that has no end.  Loss of job, broken relationship, threats, backbiting, false accusation and misunderstanding, even illness and old age, come what may, it will always be a an honor and privilege to speak the truth in love, to offer forgiveness, to do the loving thing, to work for justice and peace…you can’t stop this train so get on board!

 You are not alone.  Many times people will say, “I believe in God but I don’t go to Church.”  Or, I love Jesus, but I don’t believe in institutional religion.  Now institutions are institutions, made of humans by humans to in part, perpetuate themselves.  They naturally evolve to become top heavy and legalistic.  And we can understand the bumper sticker, “Jesus, save me from your followers.”  We value individual freedom of thought and action.  We can, I suppose, do the Clint Eastwood and John Wayne thing, to make a new age analogy, and go it alone, but Church first and foremost is about team and teamwork, mutual support and love. 

          You may be doing all right this week, pretty darn good, and you feel like you can do without your dose of God.  But someone else needs your prayer and support today. Sometimes in our society we expect everything to feed or entertain us, to meet our needs.  And Church should do that to some degree. No need for the Gospel message to be boring. But Church will also stretch what we see as our needs.  In Christ, we have a need to serve, we have a need to contribute, we have a need to extend ourselves beyond our own life, that of our family and community toward the whole world.

          There are things to celebrate and things to grieve, causes and needy to give to, guilt ridden and ashamed people who need to hear the good news of God’s forgiveness.  You go to the movies or a concert to be entertained, sit on the beach in a hammock to rest.  But if you think your job at church is to listen to the choir sing, listen to my sermon, and clap at the postlude, as if our job is to compete with American idol, you are mistaken.  You have a role to play, a job to fulfill.  You personally praise and worship God, but you are also here to evoke God for us, each of us for each other.  We are a priesthood of all believers.  John and Peter are leaders, but they come in need of prayer of others. You are a minister.  You are a pastor.  We call upon God to be in our daily lives, in our work or in whatever situation that we find difficult.  We also thank God for all the church work done by others, and ask blessing and boldness for them. 

          Even if this is your first time here and you just wandered in off the street for the heck of it, I believe God called you in, perhaps because you need the good news that God’s love will never die, but also because God has called you to pray and minister to the people you find around you, to this community.  Maybe your prayer and support is just what we need to go on and meet life with boldness!  Maybe you are Peter or John for us today, and your faith and prayer to the risen Christ will heal us and cause us to dance and sing for joy.  Church is about the resurrection of Jesus Christ.  Church is about boldness in service, bold faith in the power of love over death, bold prayer, bold unity.

          Last week I saw Phoebe in the pew and asked her to bring us up to date on her work.  She has been working on reeducation of Ugandan children, many boys who have been forced to be soldiers and kill, and many orphans of aids.  Now perhaps some would think this has nothing to do with us, nothing for the enhancement of our spiritual lives and worship.  But first, it is good for our lives that we pray for others.  And we pray that Phoebe would be able to face the terror, fear and mistrust with the boldness of the eternal love and grace of God.  But there is nothing like looking at the problems of others to make us take our own issues a bit lighter, and to help us look beyond our problems to the great blessings that exist boldly despite those problems. And we find energy here, in community, hearing of great Gospel work in Uganda, we are inspired to go out boldly ourselves, to take new risks, to volunteer or change vocation, or give in one way or another to something where people will find a rebirth of hope and life.

Boldness with life over death.

Boldness in service.

Boldness in prayer.

Boldness in unity.